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Update 4: As of mid-day on Monday 11/06, neither the GHS Website nor the MCPS website appear to have any notice of this activity. The current top news item is “Schools To Benefit from Points Scored by Wizards Star”. I also note that last week, the County Council published a press release headlined “Council Urges School System to Adopt Action Plan on Reporting Serious School Safety Incidents”. It is unclear, however, whether MCPS would consider a gang fight at a park adjacent to a high school a “serious school safety incident”. In any event, MCPS isn’t expected to report back until April of 2007.

Update 3: More reports are coming in of yet another attempt at a fight at Bohrer Park mid-day on Monday. Anyone know what is sparking all this activity? Does anyone know if there have been any arrests?

Update 2: I’ve received a report that another incident, related to the stabbing on Friday, occurred at Bohrer Park (which shares a driveway with Gaithersburg High School) this morning (Monday, 11/06/06) but was broken up by the Police before anything serious happened.

See MoCo’s post at the New MoCo Progressive.

Update: As far as I know MCPS still has not notified parents that there was a gang fight near the high school.

Ernesto Londoño has a blurb in the print edition of today’s [11/04/06] Washington Post, in the Regional Briefing on page B3, that does not appear to have made it to their website. [The item eventually showed up here] Transcribing,

Teen Stabbed in Gang Fight, Source Says
A 17-year-old male was stabbed yesterday during a melee between rival gangs that happened about 2:30 p.m. near Gaithersburg High School and involved members of MS-13 and the Bloods, a law enforcement source said.

A Montgomery County police spokeswoman said the fight occurred near Cedar Avenue and Harmony Hall Road and involved about 40 teenagers. She couldn’t confirm that the fight involved gang members.

However, Gaithersburg City Police do seem to be able to confirm the gang involvement. From the City’s Crime Summary page:

Aggravated Assault
On 11/03/06, at approximately 2:40 p.m., police responded to the report of a stabbing at Harmony Hall Road and Cedar Avenue. Investigation revealed that two rival gangs had met at a pre-arranged location for a fight. During the fight, one of the involved persons, a black male juvenile, was stabbed in the abdomen. He was transported to a local hospital with serious, but non-life-threatening injuries. The incident is under investigation at this time.

Suspect: Hispanic male juvenile

The City has posted a PDF of a new draft Anti-Soliciation Ordinance. I’ve extracted what I think is the bulk of what is being added to the City Code, but I did have to reformat it for use on a web page. Thus, as usual, I ask you to please download and refer to the original document to be certain of what it says, and let me know if I’ve made any errors.

Note that, at this time, this ordinance is only being considered for introduction to to the Mayor and Council. They will not be able to hold a public hearing on this topic until at least their next meeting, which is in mid-November.

Sec. 15-9 Solicitation in Roadways

• (a) Findings
  • (1) The City Council finds that increased solicitation, as defined herein, by pedestrians and vehicle drivers, has caused a significant attendant increase in safety hazards within the City.
  • (2) Pedestrians’ engaging in such soliciting from occupants of vehicles distracts drivers from their primary duty to watch traffic and be alert for potential hazards in the roadways; to observe all traffic control signs and to be prepared to move through the City safely; results in the delay and obstruction of the public’s free flow of travel; and results in congestion and blockage of the streets, parking area, driveways, and sidewalks.
  • (3) Such soliciting by occupants of vehicles to pedestrians on roadways, sidewalks, driveways, parking areas, or alleys distracts drivers from their primary duty to watch other vehicles or pedestrians and to move through the City safely, and can cause pedestrians to enter travel lanes creating additional hazards.
• 
  (b) Purpose and Intent
  It is the purpose and intent of this Ordinance to provide a mechanism to ensure the safety and well being of pedestrians, vehicle drivers and solicitors while occupying roadways, sidewalks, driveways, parking areas or alleys within the City by prohibiting the conduct which creates significant traffic and pedestrian safety hazards.
• 
  (c) Definitions.
  Words not defined in this Chapter shall have the meaning ascribed by the City code, and if not included in the City code, shall have their ordinary and customary meaning.
  
  • 1. Solicit/attempt to solicit: For purposes of this Chapter only, solicit or attempt to solicit shall be defined as and/or include the act of requesting, announcing, or offering, by any means, the availability for or the availability of employment; any action which seeks to offer, contract for, purchase, sell, or procure employment; any request for money or other property; any attempt to contribute money or other property. The following acts may indicate a solicitation as defined in this Chapter: approach between or among individuals; participation in discussions undertaken in response to the solicitation by another person; departing the place of approach together; utilization of a vehicle in the approach or departure. Conduct as defined herein may be deemed to be a solicitation, whether or not an actual employment relationship is created, or money or other property is actually contributed. Solicitation as defined in this Chapter does not include any activity conducted within or in accordance with the procedures of a lawfully approved formal assembly site for day workers, or other lawfully approved employment center use, issued a use and occupancy permit.

  2. Employment center: an established location, issued a use and occupancy permit, where employment opportunities are coordinated between persons seeking employment and persons seeking to hire persons for employment.

  3. Employment: services, industry, or labor performed by a person for wages, a fixed sum, other compensation or thing of value, under any contract for hire, whether oral, written, express or implied.

  4. Donation. – unilateral gift of money or other thing of value without an expectation of receiving goods, services or thing of value in return.

  5. Alms - charitable donations for the relief of the poor.

  6.Subscriptions – binding pledge or commitment.

• 
  (d) Prohibited Conduct
  • 1. It shall be unlawful for any person, while occupying as a pedestrian any portion of a public or private roadway, sidewalk, driveway, parking area, or alley, including drive lanes, medians and curbs, to solicit or attempt to solicit employment, donations, alms or subscriptions, from any pedestrian who temporarily exits a vehicle, or from any person occupying or traveling in a vehicle on a roadway, sidewalk, driveway, parking area, or alley.
  • 2. It shall be unlawful for any person occupying or traveling in a vehicle, or who temporarily exits a vehicle, to solicit or attempt to solicit employment, donations, alms or subscriptions, from a person who is a pedestrian on a public or private roadway, sidewalk, driveway, parking area, or alley, including drive lanes, medians and curbs.
• 
  (e) Severability
  If any word, sentence, paragraph, or other portion of this ordinance is deemed to be invalid or unenforceable for any reason by a court of competent jurisdiction, the City Council declares its intent that all remaining words, sentences, paragraphs or portions of the ordinance not held to be invalid or unenforceable shall remain in full force and effect, and shall be so construed, as if the original ordinance did not contain the invalid or unenforceable language.

The Hazelton example has often been cited by the most vocal opponents of a day laborer center in Gaithersburg, as if it were a simple solution to the difficulties faced by the City. It appears that this solution may not be so simple after all. As far as I know, the courts have been very consistent — and in my opinion correct — in rejecting anything that would require people to provide proof of legal status before exercising basic freedoms such as securing housing and medical care. I believe that this is correct because I believe that the alternative would lead us further down the path to living in a police state, wherein we would constantly be put in positions where we need to prove to the authorities that we have the right to be wherever we are and do whatever we are doing. This is not freedom.

From Judge Munley’s Opinion:

We find that this potential harm to the city is not greater than the harm faced by the plaintiffs from enforcement of the ordinances. Plaintiff has offered, in the form of affidavits, statements of the concrete harm faced by various individuals from the enforcement of the ordinances. Defendant, to the contrary, has offered only assertions that violent crime in Hazleton is a product of illegal immigration and that the city faces higher costs for social services because of the presence of undocumented persons. In a newspaper interview, the Mayor admitted that he had no statistics to support his claims of increased crime related to illegal immigration, nor even any numbers on how many illegals had entered the City. [2] Dan Geringer, Bloomberg: U.S. Can’t Stem Immigration Tide, PHILADELPHIA DAILY NEWS, July 6, 2006 at 7.

At oral argument, defendant’s counsel argued that crime in the City had increased by ten percent between 2004 and 2005, but offered no evidence to connect this increase to the presence of illegal immigrants. Counsel also offered no statistics to demonstrate the number of illegal immigrants living in Hazleton in those years. Compared to the complaints of specific harm offered by the plaintiffs, the City’s vague complaints about the presence of illegal immigrants–problems that could be ascribed to a number of factors beyond the presence of people without legal documents and which might not be alleviated by the City’s programs anyway–do not demonstrate that the City would face greater harm from issuing injunctive relief than the defendants would from not granting their motion.

[2] Some of the City’s assertions about rising crime rates appear to be contradicted by other sources. The Los Angeles Times, for instance, reported on July 14, 2006, that the violent crime rate in Hazleton as reported in Pennsylvania state statistics had actually decreased during the years when illegal immigration supposedly increased. See Ellen Barry, City Vents Anger at Illegal Immigrants, LOS ANGELES TIMES, July 14, 2006, at A1 (noting that the number of total arrests in Hazleton had decreased from 1,458 in 2000 to 1,263 in 2005 and that the number of “reported rapes, robberies, homicides and assaults” had decreased as well).

Jon Hurdle reports in Reuters,

The law, which had been scheduled to take effect Wednesday, would fine landlords found to be renting space to illegal aliens, close down businesses that hire them, and allow legal employees to sue the businesses for employment lost during such a shutdown. A related law also establishes English as the town’s official language.

The restraining order is valid until November 14.

In a 13-page opinion, Munley said immigrants risked “irreparable injury” by being evicted from their apartments if the law is enforced. He also said he was not convinced by the city council’s argument that illegal immigration increases crime and overburdens social services.

“Defendant offers only vague generalizations about the crime allegedly caused by illegal immigrants but has nothing concrete to back up these claims,” Munley wrote.

He added that since the plaintiffs — representing the town’s Hispanic community — claim the law affects constitutionally protected rights, it is in the public interest to delay enforcement of the ordinance until a court can consider its constitutional implications.

From an AP story in the Washington Times,

A federal judge yesterday blocked the city of Hazleton from enforcing a pair of ordinances targeting illegal aliens, just hours before the measures were to go into effect.

The measures, approved by the City Council last month, would have imposed fines on landlords who rent to illegal aliens and denied business permits to companies that give them jobs.

They also would have required tenants to register with City Hall and pay for a rental permit.

U.S. District Judge James M. Munley ruled that landlords, tenants and businesses that cater to Hispanics faced “irreparable harm” from the laws and issued a temporary restraining order blocking their enforcement.

“We find it in the public interest to protect residents’ access to homes, education, jobs and businesses,” Judge Munley, a 1998 appointee of President Clinton, wrote in a 13-page opinion.

“These ordinances are nothing more than an officially sanctioned witch hunt,” said Cesar Perales, president of the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund, a group representing plaintiffs in the case. They include the Hazleton Hispanic Business Association, several illegal aliens, landlords and a restaurateur.

The mayor said he would fight all the way to the Supreme Court if necessary, saying the ordinance is “as bulletproof as we can get it.”

Note that “bulletproof as we can get it” does not automatically imply “bulletproof”.

Please note that any further updates on this story will be added to my main post on this subject.

MCPD has posted a statement saying that they have determined that Sgt. Michael Anthony McQueen (pictured to the left), who died of gunshot wounds at his apartment in the 400 block of North Summit Ave on September 26, 2006, was murdered. Police have charged Sgt. McQueen’s roommate, Gary James Smith, in the death.

Update: Ernesto Londoño writes in the Washington Post,

According to a charging document, Smith gave police conflicting stories about the shooting. He initially told detectives that he found McQueen sitting in the living room of the apartment, suffering from a gunshot wound.

He then told detectives that he had dropped McQueen off at home after they had drinks at local bars, then left home to run some errands and returned, finding McQueen dead with a gun in his hand.

Smith told detectives he panicked and drove to a nearby lake — the apartment is near Lake Needwood — to discard the gun.

In a third version of events, Smith told detectives that McQueen shot himself while Smith was in the bathroom. He again said he threw the gun in a lake.

From the MCPD press release:

Update - September Undetermined Death in Gaithersburg Classified as Homicide

Detectives from the Montgomery County Police Major Crimes Division – Homicide/Sex Section have been investigating the undetermined death that occurred in Gaithersburg, on Tuesday, September 26. The victim, Michael Anthony McQueen, age 22, of the 400 block of North Summit Avenue, was found deceased in the residence.

On September 26, at 12:56 a.m., 6th District and Gaithersburg City Police officers responded to the report of a suspicious situation in the 400 block of North Summit Avenue.
Upon arrival, they found McQueen. He appeared to be suffering from a gunshot wound, but no gun was found at the scene.

Today, Gary James Smith, age 24, formerly of the 400 block of North Summit Avenue, was arrested and charged with first-degree murder.

Through the course of the investigation and after forensic testing and evaluation, probable cause for developed to charge Smith, McQueen’s roommate. The motive for the shooting is not known.

Smith was taken to the Montgomery County Detention Center. Bond information is not available at this time.