His purpose there is to keep the peace, but his tool belt does not include a gun or taser. He relies on nonviolent de-escalation tactics he’s acquired through years of working in refugee camps abroad and his time with the D.C. Peace Team.
“We have three objectives,” McCarthy said. “One is to improve community relations and imagination around public safety. Then the second one is to prevent violence and harmful conflict using nonviolent responses, and the third one is to enhance access to resources such as housing and detox and treatment.”
“There is physical force in the sense of blocking or maybe holding somebody’s hand or arm, or pulling somebody off of another person, but we don’t engage in the kind of force that would be more similar to violence,” McCarthy said.in the Columbia Heights neighborhood led to the closure of a CVS in February. The Taco Bell Cantina on 14th Street even has an armed guard.
In addition to its biweekly presence at the Columbia Heights’s farmers market, the D.C. Peace Team has provided unarmed civilian protection during the March for Life protest, Bread for the City Meal Distribution, the 2020 election protests, and they worked with Rep. Cori Bush , who has called to defund the police.