We know D.C. Get our free newsletter to stay in the know.
Your article on Red, the homeless drunk terrorizing Brookland (“Battered Neighborhood Syndrome,” 5/31), did not contain any mention of how easy it is for him to obtain the liquor that causes him to wreak his havoc. Across the street from where Red supposedly assaulted a young lady, and next door to the dry cleaners where an employee burned him, is a liquor store. On the same block is another liquor store, and two blocks down is an establishment that sells liquor.
There has been a proliferation of drunks in Brookland, thanks to these stores.
This is the source of the terror of Brookland, not Red.
It is impossible to walk up 12th and Michigan without seeing a drunk urinating in the street or on the grounds of Brookland Elementary School, located across the street from a liquor store. After school hours, the drunks urinate on the school itself.
The city should move swiftly to pass an ordinance prohibiting the sale of liquor within a mile radius of an elementary school, and one that holds the owners of these stores responsible for any harm caused by drunks who purchased their liquor from them.
Brookland