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Archived: 12/12/2002 at 14:42:26
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Congressman Elijah
E. Cummings |
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 23, 2002
FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:
Devika Koppikar
(202) 225-4741 or (202) 225-4024
Mike Christianson
(410) 496-2010 or (202) 225-9876
Ms. Trudy Perkins
(202) 225-1739 or (202) 225-2144
Rep. Cummings Announces Developments in Federal Response to Dawson Family Arson-Murders
Baltimore, MD -- Congressman Elijah E. Cummings (MD-07), the senior Democrat on the House Criminal Justice, Drug Policy and Human Resources Subcommittee that oversees the nation’s anti-drug initiatives, announced today that he and Director John P. Walters of the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) have reached an understanding regarding the federal government’s initial response to the drug-related arson-murders in Baltimore last week. The fire claimed the lives of Mr. Carnel Dawson, Sr., Ms. Angela Dawson and five of the family’s six young children.
"A moral society depends on parents standing up to protect their children,” ONDCP Director Walters declared. “When one family who tries to do so is cut down, it becomes the responsibility of all of us to ensure that such evil does not go unpunished.”
Effective immediately, ONDCP will redirect $1 million to $2 million in existing funding resources within the Washington-Baltimore High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area Program (HIDTA) to better protect specified high-crime neighborhoods in Baltimore City. The federal funds will help to pay the cost of additional foot patrols, police overtime pay, surveillance cameras and improved street lighting.
Director Walters also will direct HIDTA to focus even more intensively on several of Baltimore’s most dangerous drug trafficking gangs, seeking to dismantling them and further disrupt their drug markets.
Both Director Walters and Congressman Cummings stressed that these immediate measures are only the first steps in an expanded, longer-term commitment by the federal government to increasing public safety in Baltimore’s most dangerous neighborhoods.
“Our first and foremost duty is to protect the public’s safety,” Congressman Cummings declared. “We can not and we will not walk away from these cold-blooded acts of domestic terrorism..”
For additional information, please contact Ms. Trudy Perkins at (202) 225-1739 or (202) 225-2144, Ms. Devika Koppikar at (202) 225-4741 or (202) 225-4024, or Mr. Mike Christianson at (410) 496-2010 or (202) 225-9876.
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