About

#SayThisName

This weekly listing of homicides in the District of Columbia is meant to help District residents and others who care about the city mark each loss to homicide.

For years, Chris and Laura Amico maintained the powerful and useful website, Homicide Watch DC. In December 2014, the local site ceased regular publication when the couple moved to Boston and no one stepped up to take on their crucial work here. I am not able to continue all their work, either. But I am committed to creating a list of names that individuals and congregations can use to keep these losses in mind.

The listings here are taken from the District of Columbia’s Metropolitan Police Department Newsroom, where homicide investigations are shared with the public. It is worth noting here that DC’s MPD shares crime news with citizens in each police district through local listservs and tailors any discussion to that specific community; they share all homicide notices, regardless of where they occur, however, with every listserv in the city. I commend this recognition of our joint citizenship. Visit MPD.dc.gov to get on your local listserv.

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Occasional posts with links to related resources are shared. Recommendations for additional resources welcome.

#SeekCityPeace

See also Songeveryday for more on the prophetic command to “Seek the peace of the city” where one dwells.

It has been one of my deepest prayers that we can find ways, as individuals in a divided society — and, where appropriate, in our various worship communities — to ensure that our prayers and public worship reflect the welfare of our own city, specifically, while never losing cite of our wider place as citizens of the world. One place to start: Each of us, and all of our houses of worship, must acknowledge the violent losses of its citizens, even if those lost and their primary mourners are not members of the congregation.

Share your thoughts, prayers, and resources via comments or contact me about guest-blogging.

For more on the “author,” although all I’m doing is repeating what MPD tells us, author’s website.