Seven people were arrested Friday night after several fights broke out on Ellsworth Drive, MoCo police reported.
The fights may have been triggered by a single incident as movie goers filed out of the Majestic Theatre on Ellsworth and Fenton Street.
“Somebody bumped into somebody,” third district Lt Stephen Auger told Silver Spring’s neighborhoods committee Monday night. The initial offense then cascaded into several fights.
Police officers arrested seven people on the scene for disorderly conduct and resisting arrest. It was unclear whether the assailants had any gang affiliations, Auger said.
Friday’s main event was a symptom of understaffing and underfunding at the third district, Auger told the committee. “We just don’t have the bodies or the overtime,” he said.
Currently, two officers work overtime along Ellsworth Drive on Friday evenings. One officer from the graveyard shift covers the beat overnight. However, Auger admits that it’s not enough.
“We’re stretched pretty thin down there,” he said.
The PD’s third district covers eastern Montgomery County, from dense urban areas along the District line, to suburban and rural tracts along the Howard County line. Fifty cops patrol the entire district.
Last week, the county council allocated enough money in the new budget to hire 30 patrol officers countywide. It’s unclear how many of those cops will be assigned to the third district.
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The area requires a constant, reassuringly sized police presence. Whatever that takes (the horses seem to provide a positive impact). Thank goodness the thin police presence there successfully arrested 7 (alleged) brawlers.
Well, something needs to be done NOW, before someone gets seriously hurt down there. Weekend nights the miscreants and others looking for trouble are out and about in what should be a friendly and relaxed atmosphere. The people in the community have a right to enjoy the downtown without the fear of something like this going on.
Joe Hit the nail on the head – Bring back the Silver Spring Horse Patrol!!!
Weak police presence will send the “new” Downtown Silver Spring down the tubes in a hurry. So many locals & long-timers said this latest attempt at revitalization wouldn’t work in the long term, and this is precisely why. The county had better hold the line here, or a lot of people will have wasted a lot of time and money.
Cee Money is right. The county needs to devote more police presence to downtown (and the surrounding residential neighbors, where robberies and burglaries are on the rise). It’s hard to believe the county put so much time and effort into revitalizing Silver Spring’s downtown, WITHOUT thinking about how to maintain law and order down there. SHAME ON THEM.
[...] Area Bloggers have posted about the Disruptions, Brawls and Gang Problems in Downtown Silver Spring. I liked Silver Spring Singular’s [...]
I certainly agree with Cee Money.
A small police presence in the downtown makes it easier for hoodlums to “take over” the Downtown on weekend nights (usually teenagers who have no IDEA what it costs a person to pay taxes and rent or mortgage in this area.) In the end, the people who pay out the wazoo to live here feel much safer indoors on a weekend night. If I expected to have to worry about nonsense like violence outside the movie theatre up the street from me, I would’ve moved to PG county.
If parents raise there children properly such as establishing curfews, then the Downtown Silver Spring area wouldn’t have the hoodlums hanging around the movie theater or on the dirty green field. There’s enough police presence down town. What do you want, a riot patrol unit???? The parents allow their children to behave this way. So don’t blame the lack of police presence when the problems stem from our liberal democratic down town area.
Huh? You’re all over the map, “Fed Up”. Put down the Red Bull, and turn off the Rush Limbaugh.
I guess you could make this into a political issue. But, how, exactly, is the downtown area a “liberal democratic” place? It’s a collection of apolitical commercial enterprises. I’m not following you.
Also: I’m all for insisting on personal responsibility, but we have a serious, immediate problem downtown, and demanding parents to change their longstanding behaviors is wishful thinking. Besides, I thought Republicans were the law and order party. What do you have against more cops patrolling downtown–and the surrounding neighborhoods? What do you have against safety. Why do you hate America? [kidding] No one wants a riot unit, but even the cops themselves say they’re understaffed.