Capitol Police files: Disorderly conduct in the nation’s capital

It may seem that Capitol Police officers spend most of their time
guarding doors or directing tourists, but they also have daily
encounters with umbrella-wielding protesters, drug-toting citizens and
reckless drivers.

The
force protects thousands of people who work and visit the Capitol every
day, and as such, incidents vary widely. In a review of a year’s worth
of police reports, The Hill found officers who have wrested knives out
of criminals’ hands, apprehended bike thieves and extradited persons
wanted for crimes. The force, which numbers 1,800 officers, does much
more than metal-detector screening on a daily basis.

{mosads}The most
common incidents are traffic stops, which often lead to other
discoveries, such as a driver’s suspended license, an outstanding
warrant for arrest or drunken driving.

The following are several of the past year’s notable escapades, as detailed in the police force’s incident reports.

Metal knuckles

May 14, 2009 —
At approximately 11 a.m. on what records show was an otherwise ordinary
Thursday, officers stopped a man attempting to enter the Senate Hart
Office Building. As he was passing through the security checkpoint at
the building’s entrance, police informed him that his belt buckle was a
prohibited weapon. The buckle was in the shape and had the weight of a
$15 pair of metal knuckles. The man was placed under arrest, charged
with possessing a prohibited weapon and transported to Capitol Police
headquarters for processing.

Disorderly conduct

Oct. 15, 2009 —
Officers received a call about a man dressed in all black clothing in
the upper Senate Park. People had complained that the man, who was
black, was shouting racial slurs at passers-by. As a Capitol Police
officer approached, the man continued screaming slurs at people on the
streets and pointed a pink umbrella at the officer. The officer reached
to grab the pink umbrella “due to officer safety concerns,” but the man
pulled it away and began swinging it at the officer. “A struggle
ensued,” according to police reports, and the man further resisted
arrest, striking the officer with the umbrella. Eventually the man was
subdued, arrested and charged with disorderly conduct, assaulting a
police officer, assault with a dangerous weapon, resisting arrest and
failure to obey a police command. He was taken to Capitol Police
headquarters for processing.

Possession of marijuana

May 16, 2009 —
At around 10:30 a.m. a man came through a Capitol Visitor Center metal
detector and security screening. The man placed several items,
including a small gray container, into the plastic bowl used for loose
items. An officer saw the gray container and asked the man what was in
it. “Marijuana,” the man responded, according to police reports. After
inspecting it, the officer found a green, leafy substance inside, and a
drug field test was conducted on the scene. Just before 11 a.m., the
results came back positive for marijuana. The drugs were heat-sealed in
an evidence bag in front of the man, who was then arrested and
transported to Capitol Police headquarters for processing.

Traffic accident and DWI

Jan. 9, 2009 —
Just after midnight, a Capitol Police officer heard a loud crash on
Independence Avenue SE. As the officer approached the scene, he noticed
damage to the driver’s side of a car parked outside of the Library of
Congress’s Jefferson building.

Meanwhile, down the block, a
second officer stopped a black Acura sport utility vehicle after
noticing that its passenger door and side mirror were damaged. The
officer smelled a strong odor of alcohol coming from the driver’s
breath. The officer then conducted a field sobriety test on the driver,
a 34-year-old technology manager from Virginia. The man showed
“numerous signs of impairment,” according to the report. He had a blood
alcohol content level of 0.15 percent, nearly twice the District of
Columbia’s 0.08 percent legal limit. The officer arrested and charged
the man with driving while intoxicated. He took him to Capitol Police
headquarters for processing.

The owner of the struck car was
contacted shortly after the traffic stop, and police took her name and
insurance information, saying they had the man in custody who damaged
her car.

Fugitive from justice

Jan. 9, 2009 —
Making his security-check rounds of the Capitol Hill neighborhood just
before 3:30 p.m., a Capitol Police officer observed a parked and
unoccupied van near the rear gate of the Little Scholars Child
Development Center building at 601 East Capitol St. SE. The officer ran
a check on the vehicle and found that it was not registered. When the
vehicle’s driver returned, the officer conducted a background check and
found he had an outstanding arrest warrant for larceny in Prince
George’s County, Md. The county police department confirmed the warrant
was valid and authorized the extradition. The man was arrested and
taken to Capitol Police headquarters for processing.

Attempted theft

April 5, 2009 —
A 24-year-old woman flagged down a Capitol Police officer by Union
Station around 6 p.m. She told the officer that a man was trying to
steal her Giant FCR bicycle, worth hundreds of dollars, by cutting the
lock with a pair of pliers. A colleague joined the officer and together
they responded to the scene, where the woman positively identified the
man. After questioning him, police arrested the man, charged him with
attempted theft and took him to Capitol Police headquarters for
processing.

Assault on a police officer

April 5, 2009 —
Just before noon, two Capitol Police officers responded to a call
regarding an assault with a knife at a nonprofit organization, DC
Central Kitchen, several blocks from the Capitol on Second Street NW.
The first officer successfully disarmed the suspect, but when the
second officer arrived, he saw the man hitting his fellow officer on
the back of his head with a flashlight. The man was arrested and taken
to Capitol Police headquarters for processing.
 
Disruption of Congress

July 13, 2009 — On
the first day of Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s Senate
confirmation hearing, Capitol Police responded to a disturbance. Upon
arriving at a hearing room in the Hart Senate Office Building, the
officers witnessed a woman, later identified as Norma McCorvey, or
“Jane Roe” from the famous 1973 Roe v. Wade abortion case, yelling in a
“loud, boisterous” voice, “What about the children?” Senate Judiciary
Committee Chairman Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) banged his gavel and
called for order. Capitol Police arrested her and another woman and
took them to headquarters to be processed.