By Lisa Leval
As a member of the District of Columbia Metropolitan Chief-of-Police Citizens Advisory Board and vice chair of the D.C. Second District Citizens Advisory Board, I have been actively engaged in the work of public safety in Washington. With the recent dramatic rise in antisemitism and resultant hate crimes across the nation, I have increasingly focused my efforts on strengthening the MPD’s response to anti-Jewish incidents.
In a recent public statement, I urged D.C. Police Chief Pamela A. Smith to create an antisemitism unit within the Special Liaison Branch of the Metropolitan Police Department.
There are currently six special police units, soon to be seven, designated to address the specific public safety needs of groups in Washington, D.C., who are deemed to be both targeted and vulnerable. These units are intended to protect Latino, Asian, Black, deaf and hard-of-hearing, interfaith and LGBTQIA+ communities. A domestic violence unit is soon to be added.
With the rapid and public rise of antisemitism, it surely cannot be a surprise, nor in any way inappropriate, that an adviser to the police chief would seek to create an antisemitism special police unit to promote the safety of the Jewish community.
Such a focus group would assist with the allocation of police resources in protecting synagogues, Jewish educational institutions, community facilities and kosher restaurants and markets, as well as help to promote a more comprehensive real-time police response to antisemitic incidents.
And yet, the dramatically hostile pushback I received at a Second District Citizens Advisory Council meeting by stating the obvious, that Jews in Washington, D.C., are concerned for their physical safety and are deserving of protection, was jaw-dropping.
Two members of the 2D CAC vigorously opposed allocating any additional resources to protecting the Jewish community. One of the two members went so far as to call for my removal as the vice chair of the group, accusing me of being “too political” by suggesting that Jews deserved any special public safety-related attention.
Shortly after I made my suggestion at the 2D CAC meeting, I received repeated cyberthreats from a radical Muslim group out of Indonesia. Subsequently, my synagogue in Georgetown was threatened by a man who pulled his rental van up to the front door spraying some type of substance at passersby and yelling, “gas the Jews.”
More recently, my alma mater, George Washington University, has been the site of a pro-Palestinian encampment with accompanying antisemitic demonstrations. A crowd of allegedly peaceful demonstrators supporting the U.S.-designated terrorist group, Hamas, and espousing calls for the elimination of the state of Israel and its Jewish citizens, anchored the unauthorized encampment which was located in the middle of the GW campus and in public space.
Understandably, university officials called upon the MPD to clear the encampment and end the vandalism, trespassing and occupation of public and private space — all of which served to intimidate Jewish students and faculty.
But Chief Smith refused GW’s request and ordered the police to “stand down.” In a recent letter I sent to Chief Smith I asked, “Would you also refuse to have the MPD remove an encampment of individuals if they were calling for the removal of Black people from the Potomac River to the Chesapeake Bay? Would you also stand by if a group called for a “final solution” for individuals identifying as transgender?”
Not until House Committee on Oversight and Accountability Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) summoned Police Chief Smith and Mayor Muriel Bowser to come to a congressional hearing to answer for the refusal to assist GWU, did the MPD finally clear the illegal encampment.
Comer responded with a scathing rebuke of the MPD: “It was unfortunate the situation at GW forced the Oversight Committee to act; however, it was apparent that the DC police
force was not going to do their job.”
In an effort to ultimately quash the notion of creating an MPD task force to address antisemitism, a colleague of mine sent bias-related (hate crime) statistics assembled by the MPD. It showed a prevalence of hate crimes rooted in ethnic and sexual orientation bias but reflected relatively few antisemitic incidents.
In fact, no antisemitic acts were reported in the data related to the GW protests. This information was provided to me as a means of justifying that Jews are not often targeted and thus are not a vulnerable community worthy of a special unit.
The old adage that the squeaky wheel gets the grease aptly explains the workings of the MPD. The more times the Office of Unified Communications (the 911 and 311 call center) reports receiving calls for alleged crimes against Jews and Jewish communal facilities, the more resources will be allocated to the protection of the Jewish community.
However, from the statistics, it appears that Jews are less likely to call 911 or 311 in reaction to anti-Jewish occurrences than are members of other communities in reaction to actions against them. Hence, antisemitism is not viewed as a pressing problem in the District of Columbia.
The lesson for all Jews is that it is necessary to call 911 or 311 to report every incident stemming from antisemitic bias. The police will not necessarily follow up on these calls, but a report will be issued, and the statistics will more accurately reflect the current increase in antisemitic incidents.
At a time when police resources are limited and scarce, they are being rationed to the most targeted groups. The Jewish community is becoming increasingly vulnerable, and the matter of the community’s protection depends heavily on the number of reported incidents. Every antisemitic event must be recorded if we want to create a safer environment for every member of the Jewish community.
Lisa Leval, a member of Kesher Israel Congregation in Georgetown, serves as vice chair of the D.C. Second District Citizens Advisory Board and member of D.C. Chief-of-Police Citizens Advisory Council.