WASHINGTON (Map, News) - A certified letter telling the troubling tale of Tamika Hampton arrived Monday on the desks of Mayor Adrian Fenty, Representative Eleanor Holmes Norton and Superior Court Chief Judge Rufus King.

It is a plea for justice from Hampton, a native Washingtonian, a single mother, a police officer, who has chosen to live in Anacostia, her ’hood. Her thanks: harassment by drug-dealing neighbors — one of whom threatened to “blow her head off.” Her protection by the legal system: weak.

“The court system seems to be working against us,” Hampton told me one day last week in the living room of her home. “If you threaten to kill a police officer in Washington, D.C., these days, you get respect on the street, and you might not be held accountable.”

Hampton is one of the most sincere, committed cops I have encountered. She’s the counterpart to gruff cops who want to sweep thugs from the streets; she’s the quintessential “Officer Friendly,” working with kids, troubled or not, to build trust and head them toward successful lives.

Her strength and effectiveness come from the fact she was one of them.

Hampton comes from a strong family. Her father is a retired roofer; her mother manages the food program at Providence Hospital. She is the youngest of four.

At Ballou High, she was a singer and a dancer and played the lead in “Ruby.”

She was studying for a health care degree at UDC when she gave birth to her son, David.

For a time she dropped out and went on welfare, before she landed a job with the MPD. She became Officer Hampton on Aug. 6, 2004. Based in Anacostia’s 7D, she worked with kids. “They are my passion,” she says.

Hampton, 24, was so successful that she was invited on a boat trip by the Anacostia Coordinating Council last month. She shows me photos of her and Norton and Council Chair Vince Gray from that day on the river.

It was a crowning achievement when she bought a house on Congress Street in January 2006 and moved in with her son. The harassment from two men who lived in their grandmother’s house across the street started soon after.

One day last December, Demarrieo Davis, Robert Bartley and 10 friends surrounded her in the foyer of a nearby apartment building, Hampton said. She testified in court Oct. 1 that they said, “That bitch is the police,” and “his gun was bigger than mine,” and “he was going to blow my head off.”

The thugs scattered when the police came. She pressed charges. Bartley was found guilty of misdemeanor threats; Davis pleaded guilty Oct. 2. Neither served much time. Both are back to harassing Hampton. Meanwhile, Tamika Hampton is too scared to bring her son home. David is living with her parents.

“I bought this house to show my son good things happen to good people if they work hard,” she says. “My friends tell me to quit the police. I’m not a quitter. I’m a fighter.”

But she feels as if she’s fighting a lonely battle. More on how the system has failed her in my Friday column.

Harry Jaffe has been covering the Washington area since 1985. E-mail him at hjaffe@washingtonian.com.