With the large amount of attention being paid to safety issues in Cal Anderson Park, a weekend mugging attempt in another area of Capitol Hill is a reminder both that there’s more to fighting area crime than patrolling one park — and that serious street crime in the area is still a relatively rare occurrence on the streets of the East Precinct. According to SPD, a man was cracked over the head but escaped his assailant in an early Saturday morning mugging attempt on E Union near Boylston.
According to the SPD report on the 1:55a incident, the victim was walking on E Union early Saturday when he was struck in the head by an unknown assailant. The victim told police he thought the attacker said “Give me your stuff.” The victim the threw his phone at the attacker — a Droid X worth $400, according to the report — and ran from the scene where he found people on Belmont Ave who called the police to report the mugging.
The man was treated at the scene for a deep, star-shaped laceration. He could not provide a suspect description to police.
With 16 robberies reported in the first six months of the year, the area of the Hill where the attack occurred has seen a 20% dip in robberies in the first half of 2011 compared to recent trends for the E2 beat that covers the area. Overall, there were fewer Capitol Hill-area robberies in the first half of 2011 with 43 crimes reported compared to 57 robberies reported in the same period in 2010, a 24.5% drop.
At the same intersection in 2009, a man was shot after being asked for his wristwatch. http://www.capitolhillseattle.com/2009/11/20/shooting-report
The 2009 incident was highly unusual, since it happened at 5:55 pm on a weekday evening (and someone got shot). This one is more of the standard late night Capitol Hill solo-pedestrian smartphone mugging.
Also:
“A man shot in the chest in what he said was an attempt to steal his watch back in November near Boylston and E. Union is recovering from his injuries in King County Jail, East Precinct Commander Capt. Jim Dermody told the audience at a community crime meeting Thursday night.
“He’s someone who was on our radar,” Dermody said.
According to Dermody, detectives discovered that the victim in the shooting had a felony warrant out for his arrest. Dermody also said the man was in possession of a firearm and was a registered sex offender.”
http://www.capitolhillseattle.com/2010/01/28/wanted-cops-put
This was probably not a standard predator-victim crime, unlike last night’s robbery. It was definitely a freakish occurrence for that intersection, since most of the foot traffic there is people going to and from QFC.
Justin (CHS owner) writes: “and that serious street crime in the area is still a relatively rare occurrence on the streets of the East Precinct.”
Justin, you often make this statement in writing about the various and frequent muggings on Capitol Hill. Perhaps the crime statistics show a decreased incidence, but such figures can be misleading. For sure, there is a perception of more crime, not less…you would be hard-pressed to find someone who lives in our neighborhood who would disagree and who feels safer now compared to a few years ago.
It is just not accurate to state that street crime is a “rare” occurrence, and such terminology is of little solace to the victims.
The areas including Cal Anderson and the Pike/Pine Corridor need a Paul Kersey. A guy stalking around looking for assholes to pull some shit, then POP!POP!POP! Like the movie, the police can pretend they’re really looking for this guy. When they eventually find out who it is, don’t bust him, just send him down to Belltown!
Calhoun- maybe the cause of the increased PERCEPTION (your word) of more crime– is that it’s getting reported by more outlets, talked about by more people, brought forward to police by more people, etc.etc.. Increased depth of social networking sites also makes local crime news much more widely available and talked about.
I believe it’s this combination of many factors that create an increased PERCEPTION of crime.
While I understand the sometimes-manipulated crime reporting statistics, I’ve not heard of any of these issues in Capitol Hill or Seattle.
To your challenge of finding someone who feels safer on the Hill than a few years ago…
I actually feel safer in a few areas of the Hill than I did a few years ago… I remember 2-3 years ago I would **NEVER** consider walking on Union between Broadway and 11th. It appears to me that there’s a lot less scary vagrants hanging out in the abandoned doorways, and I now feel safe walking there.