DC Police Turn To Internet to Shame Bureaucrats.

“Never confuse the law with justice,” Judge Paul Oschenbein.

D.C. police, frustrated that the same teenage robbery suspect implicated in a string of 21 robberies that they have repeatedly arrested only to have him released time and again, took to cyberspace Friday in an unusual effort to lobby judges and city officials to keep him off the streets.

The subject line says “ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT,” and WDC detective Inspector Edward Delgado described how the teenager allegedly had been sneaking up behind victims, knocking them to the ground and swiping whatever he could: money, cellphones, iPods.

A judge ruled the teen mentally incompetent to stand trial. It was not immediately clear whether there was any alternative to releasing him. The basis for the release him after the finding could not be learned last night by the Washington Post that broke the story this morning. A court official said authorities could not locate a case yesterday matching the description.

“Flood the email system today because time is critical in this matter,” Delgado implored the subscribers to the 3rd District Substation e-mail group. “Let them not release this criminal yet again into the community.”

The unprecedented email barrage appears to have worked and the deranged thug is still in custody.

District Attorney Nickles got more messages than he cared to count and said the orchestrated letter-writing campaign was inappropriate.

In a classic tone deaf manner he said he hasn’t touched the emails, and “I told my secretary to put them in a pile.”

In the District’s complex juvenile e system District those charged as juveniles go to Family Court. Their cases are open only to relatives of those charged and to victims, who are sworn to secrecy.

Those charged with serious crimes and awaiting trial can be held at the Youth Services Center, operated by the Department of Youth and Rehabilitation Services. Others participate in a diversion program that sends them to halfway houses or group homes, an effort to keep fewer youths in locked facilities.

Since the US Supreme Court reversed local laws allowing law abiding citizens to own handguns it raises the issue if this thug or any other would have attacked an armed citizen resolving the attack and attacker with finality what would happen.

When Assistant Chief Diane Groomes learned about the arrest, she thought it was an opportunity to tap what she considered pent-up community desire to help police. She contacted Delgado and encouraged him to send out the bulletin. “This is a test case,” Groomes said.

In a community meeting in Brightwood last week, Police Chief Cathy L. Lanier encouraged residents to write to judges and prosecutors and air frustrations about criminals who cycle through the revolving doors of criminal justice, with arrests followed by speedy releases.

Frustrated over a drunk driver’s repeated release I once complained to a judge who counseled me, “never confuse the law and justice.” Ironically the drunk driver was killed 6 months later when he drove off a 60 foot cliff – drunk.