This testimony was offered at the DC Council Committee on Public Safety regarding the unholy collaboration between the Metropolitan Police Department and ICE.
Thank you Chair Pinto for hosting this hearing and for allowing me to speak. My name is Bill Mefford and I am the Executive Director of the Festival Center, which is a faith-based community center, providing support through affordable office space, event space, co-working space, and fiscal sponsorship to 50 nonprofits and multiple faith communities.
An average of 5000 people per month walk through our doors, so safety is of paramount importance to us. But thanks to the ongoing collaboration between ICE and MPD, this last year has been anything but safe. We have had to initiate our safety protocols over 40 times and every day we are on high alert as to the presence of ICE or MPD in our area. We have had to raise and spend an additional $20,000 on new safety equipment for our building to protect our guests and tenants from ICE and MPD. This is $20,000 that could have gone to support the amazing nonprofits who are housed in our building. The reason why we have had to take all of these steps is simple: because our current Mayor, this Council, and this committee have failed to keep us safe and hold MPD accountable.
Last year a large group of faith and nonprofit leaders asked you Chair Pinto for a hearing dedicated to ending the collaboration between ICE and MPD and we were refused. I joined with 58 faith leaders in a letter stating, among other things, this: “While MPD and federal agencies deployed precious resources to arrest people for open containers and sleeping in parks, hundreds of residents lined up for blocks to access housing support services. The juxtaposition could not be starker. DC does not need more force; it needs more care.”
I have spent 35 years in full-time ministry. I have never lived through a year like this. It has been exhausting. But I am not here just to complain. I want to give witness to hope. I have made it through this year because of the people who have testified before me and who will testify after me. I have hope because of the people who work in the Festival Center and who I get to see every day. I have hope because of my siblings who worship in faith communities across this city every weekend. I have hope because of every person who records their interactions with ICE and MPD. I have hope because of all who march and rally every time the call goes out. I have hope because of all of the activists and organizers who tirelessly build movements for justice. We just need you to listen and take action.
I want to briefly share a few events from this last year that have impacted us as a community center.
- March 17: With the help of MPD the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) took over the nonprofit U.S. Institute of Peace headquarters. This takeover of the facilities of a nonprofit sent a chill into the nonprofit community in DC, particularly those of us who thought we controlled our own facilities. The Festival Center was one of numerous organizations that, in a letter, requested Mayor Bowser and Chief of Police Smith to publicly state exactly who the MPD answers to and what the chain of command is. We have never received a response.
- March 26: I discovered a group of masked and armed people in Kevlar vests illegally parked in our parking lot. Some of the vests said Homeland Security Investigations, a couple had writing on them indicating the State Department, and a couple had no writing whatsoever. I did not know what agency they were with or if they were with MPD. I still have no idea. I respectfully asked them to leave and they did because they had just finished debriefing an action at HD Cooke Elementary School where they had attempted to kidnap a member of the school staff. Thanks to trained school staff and teachers, with no help from DPS, they were able to bring the staff member into the school safely. Because I did not know if the kidnappers were done with our neighborhood, I immediately started our safety protocols in our building. I will not share exactly what those protocols are in this forum because this is not a safe space. And I want to be clear why this is not a safe space. My concern is beyond the state-sponsored terror orchestrated by federal agencies. My greatest concern is the ongoing collaboration by the Metropolitan Police Department and the complete lack of accountability of MPD by this body or the Mayor. I will not share what our protocols are and I will not share what groups are housed in our space or what events occur in our space.
The ICE action on March 26 was not the end of the story. For afternoon pick up over 40 people showed up to protect students and their families from abduction. We also led a prayer walk around the neighborhood later that same afternoon. We had people from all religious backgrounds and those who professed no religious faith at all participating. It was beautiful! We sang songs, gave testimony, prayed prayers, and offered poems, and together we loudly proclaimed that peace can only come from us knowing one another, caring for one another, supporting one another, and loving one another. We keep us safe was our mantra.
- September 25: Out of nowhere, we had 7 unmarked cars and at least one MPD car parked in the middle of Columbia Road. Numerous police and DEA agents, many of them masked and some, armed with assault weapons, went into a residence a couple of doors down from us. Although it took two hours to discover what was happening, they were there to shut down an illegal marijuana dispensary. But this action had all of the markings of ICE kidnappings. During those two hours we initiated our safety protocols, protocols I again will not describe because this is not a safe space. The police insisted they were there for legitimate purposes. However, if they were there for a legitimate reason, why did they wear masks? Why were some of them wearing assault weapons on their chests? And why were all of the agents and the police hateful and rude to those who gathered to defend our neighborhood?
The week after this event I was sent an email from someone with MPD to attend a training for faith leaders on how to respond to threats in our neighborhood. I frankly was shocked that the greatest cause of threats to our well-being and the well-being of all who enter the Festival Center were wanting to train us on how to respond to threats! I respectfully told them that their training should focus on how to respond to MPD since they and their ICE collaborators are the greatest safety and logistical challenge I face. I have also filed an official complaint with MPD and neither of these outreaches have produced any change. Like any bureaucracy, MPD is focused on accruing more money and more power and has shown to me they have zero interest in authentic community accountability.
What I have left out in this chronology are the dozens of times we have had to stop everything we are doing and initiate our safety protocols because we have credible threats in our neighborhood; the source of those threats being the collaboration between ICE and MPD. We are being terrorized almost daily.
The bottom line is that MPD is not here to protect and serve, at least not us. MPD works directly in collaboration with the forces that are terrorizing our neighborhoods and our people. This body and the Mayor are failing in their jobs to hold the police accountable and no one is holding the federal government to account. I do not know what will repair the broken relationships between the Mayor and the Council and the Police and the people, but I can definitively say that I no longer look to these institutions for leadership when it comes to public safety. We keep us safe is not just a saying. It is a way of life.
Last year I remember when you listened to a small group of residents in Ward 2 who were bothered by loud noises from those harassing the Chinese Embassy and you worked passionately to address their problem. My hope is that you will have that same passion to listen to and fight for all DC residents now. Thank you for allowing me to testify.
