Communications: Some important lessons from a riot in Washington, DC 20-years-ago today.

Twenty-years-ago this evening I had one of the more interesting and educational moments of my life. I was in the middle of a riot in Washington, D.C. While I was far from thrilled it was happening, or that rocks and bottles were flying by my head, it was still fascinating. Fascinating because I was there before it started and had a front row seat as it developed. It was clear to me it grew out of misinformation, rumor and the inability to communicate. There are some lessons from this episode that are important not only to law enforcement, but for anyone in government or business who deals with the public.

The scene was the Mt. Pleasant community in Northwest Washington. A neighborhood with a large Hispanic population adjacent to Adams Morgan where a Cinco de Mayo celebration had been held that Sunday evening. Some of the celebrating had spilled over to Mt. Pleasant. Rookie DC Police Officer Angela Jewell had a confrontation in a small park with Daniel Enrique Gomez. Gomez, who later admitted he was drunk, had come from El Salvador two years earlier. While Officer Jewell tried to arrest Gomez, he broke free. The officer said Gomez then came at her with a large knife. She shot him.

I arrived on the scene with photographer Greg Guise as Gomez was loaded into a DCFD ambulance. A crowd had gathered and there was a great deal of tension.

We soon learned that many of the people believed the man had been shot while he was handcuffed. While there was no official word from DC Police, Greg and I were very quickly able to determine, from talking off-the-record with some cops and on-the-record with witnesses from the community, that the crowd was misinformed. The video above, shot by Greg and Mike Flynn, shows how this soon developed into a situation where police had lost control and were on the defensive. Before long, it was a riot.

A young girl who had seen the shooting up close, and did some translating for us, helped me understand what had really happened. The crowd was operating on information from people who ran up to the scene immediately after the shooting. They heard the gun shot and by the time they got to the wounded man he was, in fact, on the ground in handcuffs. They spread the word and the anger soon grew.

What those witnesses missed, that the girl and some others had seen, was crucial to understanding the truth of the situation. They told me Officer Jewell had gotten one side of the handcuffs on when the man broke free. When he came toward the officer and was shot, the handcuffs were dangling from one wrist. The other arm was free. It was only after the man was wounded and on the ground that officers followed standard operating procedure and properly handcuffed him. That's when the other "witnesses" arrived and told anyone who would listen that a handcuffed man had been shot.

That we saw, there was only one Spanish speaking officer on the scene in the early stages of this incident. It was never clear to me if he was trying to explain the misunderstanding that had developed. Either way it was too little and too late.

Some of the government generated reports that followed cited a lack of trust of the police by many in the Spanish speaking community. There were also many news reports of a poor relationship between community leaders and the police and the District of Columbia government in general. That's an important lesson for anyone trying to communicate during a crisis situation. You are going to be much more effective in getting your message across if you already have a good working relationship with key stakeholders such as those community leaders.

I have mentioned building reputation equity many times on this forum and in talks that I give. If you already have standing with the people you serve, and they know on a daily basis you communicate openly and honestly, they are more likely to give you the benefit of the doubt when times are tough and others are tearing you down.

None of this is meant to excuse lawbreakers and those who attack police officers and other first responders. But many times, your jobs can be made easier by communicating effectively on a daily basis. If you wait until it hits the fan, it may be too late.

Some other notes from the Mt. Pleasant riots: I have been in many, many situations where people play to the camera. News crews see it all of the time in demonstrations. And there is no doubt in my mind there are occasions when the presence of TV cameras can incite a crowd. It is something I always tried to be conscious of when I did my work as a TV reporter.

I can tell you, without question in my mind, during the first night of rioting in Mt. Pleasant, it was as if the few TV cameras on the scene were invisible. We were all but ignored. The anger and focus was solely directed at the police and I am confident the outcome would have been the same whether we were there or not.

But there was a second night of rioting and I have long believed TV played a somewhat significant role. My impression was the live evening TV coverage on Monday from the riot area, which had been quiet during the day, attracted people from all over the city. Many appeared to be there to take advantage of an already tense situation.

The first confrontations that evening happened in front of the live TV cameras on Mt. Pleasant Street and quickly spread to adjoining streets and neighborhoods. Many of the people I talked to weren't from the area and confirmed they came because they saw it on TV.

Short of not covering the story or not covering it live, I am not sure how TV news could have lessened its influence on what happened Monday.