Tempers flared on Thursday night during a community forum that included D.C. residents and U.S. Attorney for D.C. Jeanine Pirro.
The heated exchange between Pirro and a District resident took place during the Citizens Advisory Council forum for the MPD’s third district, while Pirro gave a presentation about crime statistics and a discussion about the federal takeover.
“She needs to be held accountable,” that resident, Robert Vinson Brannum, can be seen saying over Pirro in a video taken at the event. “President Trump needs to be held accountable.”
“Why are you interrupting me sir?” Pirro asks.
“Because you’re lying,” Brannum says, without hesitation.
“Because I’m lying?” Pirro responds with a grin.
The back and forth was one part of a near-hour-long appearance by Pirro, who showed up to the forum to discuss crime statistics in D.C., federal-local cooperation, and her priorities.
“Beyond the guns, we’ve got drugs, we’ve also got domestic violence, we’ve got robberies,” Pirro said.
“What I want is the open dialogue and the communication,” she elaborated. “As I said, we’re not going to agree on anything, but if there is a problem and I can do something to change it, I’m all ears.”
Pirro also stated her need to prosecute what she calls “violent repeat youth offenders.”
“You can’t repeatedly allow young people committing violent crimes to go to ice cream socials and yoga, because that’s what they do,” she said, appearing to reference the Youth Rehabilitation Act, which provides sentencing alternatives for young adult offenders sentenced for crimes other than murder.
The third district’s CAC says they want to keep the line of communication open with the U.S. Attorney’s office. They’re calling for transparency in prosecution decisions impacting neighborhoods.
One of those neighborhoods is Mount Pleasant. That’s where Athena Viscusi has lived for years. She described what she’s experienced since the federal takeover.
“Ruthlessly profiling people, picking them up off the street and dragging them away and then finding out some of them are maybe citizens, residents — this is not law enforcement,” Viscusi said. “This is lawlessness. This is a reign of terror. If crime is going to go down because we’re all intimidated and we’re staying in our houses, have we gained anything?”
D.C. residents say they hope the concerns raised on Thursday will be addressed in the future.
“Having an atmosphere where people feel safe to take their kids to school, where people feel safe to go to work, that people feel safe to go to the police when you do sometimes need to go to the police,” Viscusi said. “I hope she realizes that public safety is not a little narrow thing. It’s 360 degrees. We do not feel safe.”
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