I was once behind a couple of women in line at the Safeway in DTSS (about a year ago.) One of them said to the other, “You don’t wanna get arrested in Silver Spring – I spent one night in the jail on Sligo and I never wanna do dat no mo’!” THIS is the reputation we need for Silver Spring. And unfortunately, with fewer cops and security in DTSS, we’re losing that reputation.

I’ve definitely noticed a deterioration between last summer and this summer. I’ve had lots of young black guys in DTSS call me “faggot” or “honky” as I walk by, even in the middle of large crowds on Ellsworth. In March or April, I saw a group of 10 kids engaged in a full-on team fistfight (think West Side Story) on Ellsworth at 3 in the afternoon. I saw a group of maybe 10 adolescent girls getting into a screaming catfight in front of the Chick Fil-A, and one of them was *pregnant*. And I don’t even spend all that much time in DTSS – my social life is in the District.

There is one demographic causing trouble for everybody in Silver Spring. They need to be controlled and removed.

And before everyone starts calling me a racist, I live in DTSS, and many of my neighbors are A-A. They are not the problem. The problem is the DC and PG trash that comes into SS, not the residents. The throngs of thugs on weekend nights invariably move in a straight line between the Metro, through the shortcut in the Panera block of shops to Ellsworth, and down to the Chick Fil-A and Fuddruckers. They’re entering our community by transit for the sole purpose of committing crimes and harrassing residents. Put some more police presence out there, and the problem will be greatly mitigated.

Now, if we’re talking about young people of an age where they’re expected to at least start to know better — let’s say the 15-25-ish set — this is where you start drawing a line between what’s “stupid” and what’s “out of line”. If it’s a bunch of HS sophomores and juniors calling each other names and getting into some school spirit type rivalries, that’s one thing. If it’s guys and gals who are old enough and big enough to be in the military, that’s another thing. So I am guessing that the real concern here isn’t with “kids”, it’s with “young adults”.

Left to their own devices, frequently young adults develop their own peer group “norms” which usually lie mostly within the bound of what’s acceptable even to nuclear family units out for some shopping or off to see a film. Yet commonly enough, those clique or class norms do get outside the bounds. The real problem is that a lot of young men are pretty much out to celebrate their testosterone intoxication (been there, done that) and that means that for these guys, anything female of remotely comparable age gets a come-on and/or catcalls and anything male outside of their group gets catcalls and/or a challenge.

Insofar as it’s just about impossible for the young men from different groups to be in the same space without a certain amount of challenge going on — at least at the initial encounter — probably all that’s needed is for some cooler heads to be in a position to head ‘em off at the pass before they get into danger territory.

Of course, the worst sort of challenge is when someone acts stupid; it’s the duty of his companions (with whom pecking order is already established) to get him to chill out. When they won’t, basically the whole group is placing themselves outside of the common norms accepted by everyone else. And of course someone outside of their group has to take on the role that was abnegated by the companions. That usually comes across to the person acting stupid as a challenge and his companions will usually support him. That is when “stupid” becomes “violence” and although “stupid” isn’t a crime, I defy almost anyone to think back through their life and find an instance where they know the history of some violent act, and find that it didn’t start with someone being “stupid’: that is, acting the fool in a crowd of friends who ought to know enough to shut them down.

No, I am not saying we need the IQ Police out there dismissing everyone who isn’t a rocket scientist. But there’s one thing any officer trained for crowd control ought to recognize, and that’s how to tell when people are about to launch themselves on the trajectory from “in error” to “stupid” to “startin’ something” to “in deep 5hit”. .Whether they’re 15 or 25, probably all that needs to happen to stop problems is to have someone in authority say “stand at ease” and if they won’t, convince them there are other places which are a lot more suitable for them to be.

Of course, if everyone’s mostly concerned with the 15-18 set or somesuch, sorry, whatever, never mind.

What really bothers me is the potential harm to businesses along the Ellsworth corridor. Local Silver Springers with disposable income are completely avoiding that area. This means the restauranteurs and the retailers are losing money because people can’t deal with the crowds of teens on the street. You better believe the businesses are beginning to feel the pinch. Have you been to Borders recently? Not exactly hopping with customers anymore.

I support a stronger police presence so the public can feel secure shopping and dining in DTSS again.

But look, most of the kids come from shitty neighborhoods of northeast DC and PG county. They have no where to go for entertainment and hanging out on weekends. Silver Spring is cursed and blessed to have a Metro rail station and bus terminal for easy access from other communities. Hanging out in DTSS is the closest thing for escape with these kids. Think how dangerous it is for groups of teens to hang out in the Shaw or Trinidad neighborhoods of DC. Have you seen how dark and scary Georgia Ave. is in some parts of the District? And frankly, I would rather see these kids in Silver Spring enjoying time with friends and sweethearts than joining street gangs and selling smack on the street. Yes, the demographic is overwhelmingly black and some Hispanic. But bad behavior comes from all races and ethnicities. Many of the troublemakers hanging out near the Majestic had lousy parenting and poor influences. There is nothing racial about bad parenting or peer pressure.

I love Silver Spring for its diversity and I don’t want to see this go away.

The fact is that Downtown SS has a long history of bold antisocial behavior. Those of us who lived through the ’80s and ’90s in SS have now put up with multiple decades of being cussed at, followed, threatened and harassed.

Arguably, things have gotten better. But I think a lot of people were expecting the redevelopment would bring more tangible, and rapid, improvements to both the reality and perceptions of safety in downtown. Instead, the improvements have been gradual and the increase in the volume of people coming into downtown (because there is actually something to do aside from walk around City Place) has exacerbated both the perception and the reality of problems with public safety.

But, in the end, the only difference between now and 1995 is that today if someone did attack me, there’d be a better chance of having a witness. Nothing more.

Everybody take a deep breath and count to ten. Who cares about perception and what someone thinks, or how they feel about certain people. Facts are facts. The bottom line is that kids are running wild on most nights downtown, no not during the day, but at night. This isn’t a perception, it’s a fact. The reason this is a problem? Silver Spring is an urban environment on an economic resurgence, if you let behavior get out of control, people will stop coming (except teens who don’t spend nearly as much money supporting the businesses as adults do) and downtown’s success will fail.

Solution? Up the police presence, stop letting small crimes go (i.e. jaywalking, aggressive behavior, akin to the broken windows theory that worked so well in NYC, though we of course come nowhere near the problems the city had) and the inappropriate behavior will, eventually, stop. The situation is not entirely out of control, but there is an intimidation factor that exists when and where large groups of young people (black white purple orange whatever) scream and yell without consequence. Again, this is simple fact.

Editor’s note: Alas, you finally get my point! So how does it feel to be prejudged? — JD (Jul 25, 2008)

Humans are usually apprehensive of the unknown or unfamiliar. For example, babies and toddlers are totally alien to me. (I grew up in a small family and have no kids of my own.) I don’t hate small children, but I am a nervous wreck when I’m around them. It’s a personal hang-up and admittedly my problem.

I believe it’s a similar situation with people who are unfamiliar with, well, other people — of different colors, incomes, ages, genders and sexual orientations, physical disabilities, etc. Some purple people get nervous around polka-dotted people because they perceive a difference. It’s a gut reaction and completely irrational, but there it is.

But if Purple feels threatened by Polka Dot, then that’s on Purple — it shouldn’t be Polka Dot’s problem. And if Purple just hates Polka Dots in general, then fuck Purple.

Of course, if Polka Dot is picking pockets or threatening to kick someone’s ass, then Purple, Plaid and Pinstripe need to call the cops on Polka Dot.

Ultimately, I believe people can control only what they as individuals think, feel and do. Brent can’t control what others on Ellsworth Drive say and do — and he shouldn’t have to. Likewise, I can’t control how Brent feels about others on Ellsworth. Frankly, that’s something he has to deal with.