'Baghdad-style' checkpoints in US capital

[Donnachaidh]

'Baghdad-style' checkpoints in US capital
By Tom Leonard
Last Updated: 8:14PM BST 08/06/2008

Police in Washington DC have set up vehicle checkpoints in the American capital in a controversial measure aimed at tackling a wave of gun violence.
In a move that critics have compared to the security clampdown in Baghdad, police are stopping motorists travelling through the main thoroughfare of Trinidad, a neighbourhood near the National Arboretum in the city's northeast section.

Drivers' identification are checked and those who didn't have a "legitimate purpose" in the area, such as a church visit or doctor's appointment, are turned away.

The checkpoints were set up after eight people were killed in the city last weekend.


Most of the killings occurred in the police district that includes Trinidad which has already seen 22 murders this year.

But civil liberties groups have criticised the measures and have dispatched a team of lawyers and law students to monitor the situation.

"Trinidad should not be treated like Baghdad," said Mark Thompson of the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People.

The group and various other organisations have threatened legal action if residents' constitutional rights are violated.

"It seems interesting that police are willing to easily cast aside fundamental freedoms for quick-fix, lazy law enforcement tactics," said Johnny Barnes, executive director of the local American Civil Liberties Union.

Washington's police chief and mayor have insisted that the checkpoints are a legal and necessary step to stop a spike in violence.

"It would be unconscionable, maybe even a dereliction of our duty, for the police chief and I to not do something different, to not turn up the heat," said Adrian Fenty, the District of Columbia's mayor.

The checkpoints will be enforced at random hours for at least five days, though it could be extended to 10 days, police said.

Officers will search cars only if they observe guns or drugs and pedestrians will not be affected.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worl...S-capital.html