Over the past two years, Merwyn De Mello has become a fixture at the Columbia Heights farmers markets held every Wednesday and Saturday in the neighborhood’s Civic Plaza.
His presence keeps the vendors at ease, for they know De Mello will intervene if a homeless person attempts to swipe their products. They know that if a fight were to break out, De Mello would step in.
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.
“There are the people who inhabit the plaza who rightfully belong there that are sort of displaced by the coming of the farmers market or by the vendors,” De Mello said. “Many of them are houseless individuals who have fallen through the cracks of society. Many of them tend to be people from Central America, but mainly from El Salvador.”
De Mello had befriended an immigrant from El Salvador who suffered from alcoholism. De Mello would oftentimes step in to intervene as the man would attempt to steal food from the vendors.
“He was constantly hungry,” De Mello said. “He would reach for food or whatever attracted his attention to eat something, so we had to be the nonviolent presence in between him and the vendor.”
The man died, and De Mello attended a small memorial service held for him at the plaza.
Establishing a relationship with the members of the community is key for the work of the D.C. Peace Team to be effective, according to Director of Programs Eli McCarthy.
“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.”
For three years, the D.C. Peace Team has been contracted by Fresh Farm Markets to work as the community safety unit. From August 2021 to August 2023, the D.C. Peace Team has recorded 197 de- escalations and 18 interventions, preventing arrests at the plaza. There are currently 18 active unarmed civilian protection and accompaniment guards.
“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.
A rise in theft and property crime 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.
Metro Police does not have any interaction with the D.C. Peace Team, but the department does “encourage community engagement that helps strengthen the safety within these communities,” a spokesperson for the department said.
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 (D-MO), who has called to defund the police.
The death of George Floyd at the hands of police officers in 2020 spurred a national conversation on police reform, with many calling for a greater embrace of de-escalation tactics and training for how to deal with mental health crises.
Public confidence in police officers reached a low as just 45% of Americans had confidence in law enforcement, according to a 2022 Gallup poll.
According to McCarthy, the D.C. Peace Team seeks to build trust with the community members.
“We have our team there twice a week at least, but we have that kind of consistency so they can build familiarity, a kind of joyfulness or openness to engaging with other people and being able to have an extended conversation,” he said.
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While the D.C. Peace Team has been effective in building relationships with the community and assisting those struggling with addiction and mental health crises, there are moments when their de-escalation tactics don’t work. De Mello recounted a time when he was attempting to break up a fight between several men, but they wouldn’t stop. It was only when a nearby woman screamed for the police that the fight ended.
“And within seconds, everybody dispersed,” De Mello said. “They were gone like nothing had happened.”
