MidCity’s Private Police Force Calls MPD to Arrest Brookland Manor Children, Seniors for Community Film Screening
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: May 23, 2021
Contacts:
Ms. Minnie Elliott, BMBVRA President, bmbvassociation@gmail.com, (202) 299-6647
Beth Wagner, Organizer, brooklandmanorcoalition@gmail.com, (301) 800-1497
The Brookland Manor/Brentwood Village Residents Association (BMBVRA), representing the largest remaining affordable housing community in NE DC, attempted to host a Ward 5 community screening of the 2018 film What Happened 2 Chocolate City on Saturday, May 22, 2021 outside of 1320 Saratoga Ave NE. The event was held in the gated front yard outside of BMBVRA President Minnie Elliott’s front door. Owner MidCity’s private police force shut down the event by calling Metropolitan Police Department’s (MPD) Fifth District and threatening everyone in the crowd – mostly elderly Black women and children – with arrest for trespassing in their own front yards.
“They said the children are going to go to jail too. It’s our community. They’re tearing down our community, and we’re just standing up for it,” said 14-year-old Mariana Richardson, a lifelong Brookland Manor resident. “I’m too young to go to jail, and I didn’t do anything wrong. This is crazy.”
In recent years, the gated yard where BMBVRA has previously hosted events was, like all other green spaces at Brookland Manor, padlocked and placed off limits to residents as part of MidCity’s well-documented hostility campaign to clear out families in advance of the planned redevelopment. Prior to this event, BMBVRA was informed by property employees that it would be no problem to open the gate for the community when needed. However, on the day of the event, not a single member of the maintenance staff could be reached to open the gate.
When residents finally gained access to the yard, six private police officers came to disperse the gathering of several dozen, which included children as young as two years old and seniors in their eighties. Police claimed that BMBVRA did not have the owner’s permission to be in the yard and threatened everyone present with arrest. Community elders refused to be moved and encouraged attendees to sit down and join together in protest songs.
“This is a community. This is not a business. We don’t need security to tell us what to do. We need security to protect us. You got to think about the people who live around here,” said Cheryl Brunson, BMBVRA Treasurer and Brookland Manor resident. “We got residents around here who are scared to come out and enjoy a program like this. They are scared to sit out front, or to take out the trash because of the rats. I know you’re just doing your job, but there is a difference between right and wrong.”
Though multiple private security and MPD officers expressed discomfort with bullying residents, the police made it clear they intended to arrest the entire crowd including children if residents did not vacate the green space, citing that it was private property and management wanted residents removed. Zillah Wesley of the DC Poor People’s Campaign de-escalated the situation, which had grown to include more than a dozen police officers and five squad cars. Residents eventually cleared the yard and were forced to sit in the 2’ planting strip of grass between the sidewalk and the curb. Children were visibly shaken by this harsh treatment. BMBVRA was unable to screen the film.
“You got children scared to watch a film because you said ‘I’m going to arrest everyone here.’ For what?” said local pastor and activist Reverend Houston Washington. “These are mothers, grandmothers, and great grandmothers here. We are trying to rear up these children in the right way. This is what inhumane looks like.”
Private police harassment is a well-documented pattern of abuse at Brookland Manor, where owner MidCity Financial intends to triple density on-site while significantly reducing the size and number of affordable units on the property. Against public objection, the DC government has agreed to fund this project, which has already displaced dozens of households, with $47M public dollars. It is not clear whether the redevelopment plan includes a single unit of permanently affordable housing. Residents continue to resist mistreatment and the destruction of their community. To date, Brookland Manor residents have received no assistance from Ward 5 Councilmember Kenyan McDuffie or any other elected official.
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