The Common Denominator Online: Editorials July 30, 2001

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Misplaced priorities
(Published July 30, 2001)

Ahmad Vaughn, Maurice A. Taylor, Kimberly A. Norris, Eugene Cruthfield, Anthony Leonard Burno, Lisa Ricard, Myron Morgan Jr., Melvin Turner and the list goes on.

Most of our readers won’t recognize the names of these D.C. residents, but we wouldn’t be surprised if their grieving families and friends are wondering what the Metropolitan Police Department is doing to bring their killers to justice.

These eight young people — and many others — have lost their lives to violent crime on the streets of the nation’s capital in recent weeks.

At the same time, the names of Police Chief Charles Ramsey and his sidekick, Executive Assistant Chief Terry Gainer, have become household words across the country as the highly paid duo appear eager to devote substantial time responding to tabloid television requests for information about the case of a 24-year-old government intern from California who was reported missing from her D.C. apartment in April. Police continue to say they have no evidence that a crime was committed in relation to Chandra Levy’s disappearance.

On July 27 Chief Ramsey defended his department’s handling of the Levy case on WAMU’s "D.C. Politics Hour," asserting that only two police officers are assigned full time to the missing persons investigation. However, he didn’t mention the dozens of police recruits who have been scouring the city’s wooded areas on a daily basis. Nor did he tell radio listeners that MPD has temporarily assigned additional personnel to answer hundreds of calls for information about the Levy case. In recent days, obviously weary MPD spokesmen have told The Common Denominator they "don’t have time" to track down details about local non-fatal crimes.

We hope Ms. Levy, the mistress of a California congressman, eventually turns up alive and well. But her case — whether she is dead or alive — does not merit the attention MPD has chosen to give it unless they also devote the same effort to solving local crimes. D.C. taxpayers deserve MPD’s respect.