FILED
UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT NOV - 3 2010
FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA Clerk, U.S. District & Bankruptcy
Courts for the District of Columbia
)
Antonio Colbert, )
)
Plaintiff, )
)
v. ) Civil Action No.
) 10 Ib74
Metrop. Police Dep't. District 5, )
)
Defendant. )
)
MEMORANDUM OPINION
This matter is before the Court on review of plaintiff s pro se complaint and application
to proceed in forma pauperis. The application will be granted and the complaint will be
dismissed pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1915(e)(2)(B)(ii) (requiring dismissal ofa complaint upon a
determination that it fails to state a claim upon which relief can be granted).
Plaintiff, a District of Columbia resident, sues the District of Columbia Metropolitan
Police Department ("MPD") for the response of its police officers to his 911 call for help after he
was "assaulted by [a] gang of hoodlums." Compl. at 2. He seeks $500,000 in monetary
damages. Allegedly, the unidentified MPD officers who arrived at the scene "showed very little
interest" in plaintiffs plight and treated him "as if they were supposed to arrest me!" !d.
Plaintiff concludes that he was discriminated against but he has supplied no facts supporting a
claim of discrimination. Moreover, plaintiff has named as the sole defendant a District of
Columbia department that cannot be sued in its own name. See Swinson v. D. C. Metro Police
Dep 't, No. 09-5202,2010 WL 288798 (D.C. Cir. Jan. 7,2010) (concluding that "[t]he district
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court [] properly concluded that the Metropolitan Police Department is not a separate suable
entity") (citing Braxton v. Nat'l Capital Housing Auth., 396 A.2d 215, 216 (D.C. 1978)). A
separate Order of dismissal accompanies this Memorandum Opinion.
29,(1..
Date: October~, 2010
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