It’s been a bad week for Capitol Hill tourists with two assaults involving out-of-town visitors getting the shit kicked out of them.
According to the report on the first incident, a police officer was called to Harborview last Wednesday morning to talk with a Kentucky man who said he had been assaulted overnight in Pike/Pine. The victim told police he was standing on the sidewalk in the 1000 block of E Pike around 2a when the occupants of a black Mercedes threw a wine bottle from the vehicle’s sunroof, narrowly missing him. The victim said he exchanged words with the people in the car and one of the occupants told the victim to punch him. “I wont punch you while [you’re] in the car,” the victim said he told the male. Two of the car’s occupants then got out and started fighting with the victim, knocking him to the ground and kicking him in the face.
Unfortunately, that wasn’t the end of the bad night for the man from Kentucky. According to another police report taken that night, a car that picked up the victim in a sidewalk assault on E Pike in the same timeframe crashed into a tree on its way to Harborview as the driver tried to use an “electronic handheld device” to look up directions to the hospital.
There were no significant injuries in the crash apparently but the victim suffered a broken nose and a swollen and bruised eye in the assault. He said he was reluctant to get involved with police because he had been intoxicated at the time of the assault and also had no plans to return to Seattle if the matter went to court.
A witness described the main assailant as a white male in his twenties, with short hair and wearing a white dress shirt with stripes. The witness said the occupants of the Mercedes were well-dressed and clean-cut in appearance.
Meanwhile, in another case unlikely to be shared by the Seattle tourism bureau, a Montreal man who had been visiting his 13th Ave E friends was beaten and robbed after a night of partying in Belltown. The man told police he was heavily intoxicated and thought he was getting into a taxi early last Saturday morning. The man said he was so intoxicated he couldn’t remember anything about the car or where it traveled but he said that after driving around for awhile, he was hit in the back of the head and thrown from the car — without his cellphone and his wallet. The man told the police he was too drunk to remember anything else but was able to make his way up the Hill to his friends on 13th Ave E.
Booze seems to be the common denominator in a majority of the reports here about early AM assaults, especially over recent weeks/months.
Staying sober or sobering up before heading home seems like it would markedly drop CH’s crime stats.
Side note: And 1183 wants to make it easier to buy booze. One of the main reasons my vote remains no. That and not wanting to fund Costco’s bottom line.
Wow, Alan, you’re a fucking idiot if you think what happened to those folks is in any way related to 1183.
The VICTIMS were drinking.
IN…A…BAR…
ZERO to do with 1183. In FACT, if 1183 passes, people can stay home and walk to the neighborhood QFC and get their fix.
Tom, your comment and name calling is why 1183 will be defeated. Again.
I dunno what they were drinking, where they were drinking it, or from where it was purchased. Nor do you. I didn’t even speculate. You told us all what happened IN CAPS.
See ya in November.
Wow! For that matter, drugs seem to create a lot of crime too! We should make them harder to get! Crime would surely go down!
I have to say: this certainly concerns me living in the neighborhood and especially the first incident happened just blocks from. At the same time, both reports seem very fishy to me. The first guy decided not to go to the police about this brutal attack since he wouldn’t be back to Seattle anyway, but instead decides to get into a car presumably full of his drunk friends to get to the hospital?
As for the the second dude…am I reading this right? He got into some random car thinking it was a taxi? This man cannot remember 90% of his ill-fated evening, but is sure he thought he was getting into a taxi…right!
Before you decide to (and I like your blog don’t get me wrong) sensationalize these situations as some evidence of Pike/Pine’s danger– let’s be clear…neither of these guys made very smart decisions that night based on the police reports. Doesn’t that make you wonder if some of this was avoidable?
Plus, 1183 has NOTHING to do with this. I have lived in states that sell liquor and I’ve lived in states that do not. There may be some hard evidence that refutes this, but it doesn’t seem to make a lick of difference.
There is absolutely no evidence nor studies to substantiate the total speculation that privatizing alcohol sales leads to increased consumption. NONE. In fact, there are some studies that show States with privatized alcohol sales have lower incidence of binge drinking.
I’m sure you will vote any way you want anyway, with or without evidence; but don’t pretend it’s based on any rational, substnatiative evidence. There isn’t any.
The blog did not address the question in any way whatsoever, as to whether all this was avoidable.
I’m pretty sure these guys didn’t make a decision to get their asses kicked.
Was walking home down Pike near Harvard and 3 guys who’d been drinking at KiKi approached me, made some unsavory comments and proceeded to throw me to the ground and beat me up. Luckily a crowd in front of Linda’s ran over as the guys got away. Spent 4 hours in the ER. There was not enough info from witnesses to catch anybody. The Pike/Pine area needs more coverage, support from businesses and protection. I was sober and did not try to agitate them into anything. This is the 3rd time in 15 years I have been jumped for being gay. 2nd time in Seattle in 7 years. 2 blocks away from the place I was jumped before. This is ridiculous!
Sorry to read this — send us the police report number if you have it or the most exact time and location information you can provide so we can follow up with SPD: [email protected]
Don’t get drunk. Be home by 9pm.
All the prime indicators for trouble: 2 am, continuing to provoke after someone is messed with. Not surprising of the outcome.
“Tom, your comment and name calling is why 1183 will be defeated. Again.”
Allan, naive much? If 1183 is defeated it’ll be because the liquor distributors paid millions to defeat it so they can squash competition that would lower prices.
Actually Marlee, it clearly states: “The victim said he exchanged words with the people in the car and one of the occupants told the victim to punch him. “I wont punch you while [you’re] in the car,” the victim said he told the male. Two of the car’s occupants then got out …”
So at least that victim *did* make a decision to get his ass kicked, albeit a very drunken one of rather poor judgement.
As any older person I often see you name this or that brand running shoes hanging over head most often on power line or telephones lines and think it is a kid’s prank. After being informed my eldest son that lives in LA and why the cops here have not informed the public of this outward display is not a kid prank but and gang that may claim where you live as belonging to said gang. Those shoes across those wires are gang markers so look up those shoes you see that dangle there as a community we must take down that is not a display of a child prank with shoes it is our communities be over taken. A small detail that does not escape me now shoes on a wire I go on alert drugs and gangs are about.
Take down the shoes in the wires overhead and let visitors here from anywhere in the world be informed as to what hanging shoes in overhead wires mean. Don;t argue with me take a walk and find and remove the shoes.
Anywhere that has a line of bars like Pioneer Square, Ballard, Cap Hill, and Belltown, you will see drunk people and fights in a big city. Nothing new but unfortunate. Cops hardly do jack unless they show a militant presence. Drink smartly, don’t retaliate, and don’t be an a-hole, and you will likely survive.
If a woman is drinking and mouthing off to someone does she deserve to be a victim of a street crime?
KKK frat boys who like thug rap beat up someone again. These people have all the traits of the kkk during the 1960as where they start out with friendly banter and then end assaulting someone who does not realize these people are out to assault people. the victim should have been willing to go to court if his attackers are caught so they don’t do it to someone else.
if a group yelling “kkk” beat up a black person would you blame it on booze or would you want them charged with a hate crime?
you’re preaching to the choir Christopher. This article doesn’t “sensationalize these situations as some evidence of Pike/Pine’s danger” in any way.
get all the documentation of you being a victim of street crimes and then get a gun and learn how to use it and be willing to use it. the businessses on capital hill only care about making money. mixing straights and gays makes them more money but too many gay men get bashed when straight bars are near gay bars. the gay businesses in seattle are parasites who want to get as much out of every gay man and could care less if there is street crime against gays happening.
also, there are no resources and support organizations for gay men who are victims of hate crimes because the gay community does not care about anything other than making money off of other gays.
too many straight women come to captial hill and then tease the straight men who follow these women into bars by telling these men that gay guys are looking at them. they have all of puget sound to go to bars but they want to be near gays and then they assault gays.
…are most of the comments here illogical misguided kinda non sequitur how about a baseball game type comments?
“Activist”….I don’t even know where to start refuting your gross generalizations….so I won’t.
C’mon folks. Drinking, fighting, #ucking, gambling, drugs. These are the primary activities of the “nightlife” since the beginning of time. Buck up and enjoy it. If you don’t want to participate in any of those activities then stay at home.
Boring.
So wait a minute, the evil straight women who just won’t stay off the hill (Capitol hill, btw) are assaulting the gay men they can’t stay away from?or the straight men who just can’t take the “teasing”. And the straight women are conspiring to be near “gays” as you put it only so they can have them beat up? Cray cray!
You sound like you have some serious issues.
Why didn’t anyone help him? If I saw this go down I would immediately have been there breaking this up. It’s Capitol Hill, there are people out at 2am that should have stepped up and put a stop to this situation. This doesn’t sound like a quick skirmish and bail, it sounds like a lot lead up to a situation which climaxed with two assholes beating the shit out of some loud mouth southerner. Community means looking out for the well being of people in your neighborhood.
And 1183 has absolutely nothing to do with this situation, Alan.
Agreed. The comments have alerted me to be home at 9, not talk to people on the streets, fear gay businesses b/c they only care about my money, fear straight women b/c they will tease straight men and convince them to beat gay men up, fear tennis shoes on a wire b/c they are gang affiliations, and to be afraid of 1183.
No kidding. Hard partying is best left to experts. :-)
And lessons learned while blotto drunk are still lessons learned– likely not to be repeated.
Please take your paranoid ramblings someplace else.
I agree. If you pay close attention to most (not all) of the violent attacts in the neighborhood they occur between the hours of 2:00 am and 5:00 am and involve drugs and alcohol.
First of all, I did not intend for you to read from my comment that I do not believe that ANY and all violence toward one person or the other is deplorable. I do. I don’t believe in retaliation or retribution, and it certainly concerns me when someone is violently attacked in my neighborhood for any reason, especially when it is motivated by racial, gender, or sexual orientation-based hate.
The central point of my comment that I continue to believe is that this blog insinuated from this post that Pike/Pine is unsafe for everyday Pike/Pine visitors/tourists. I disagree. Especially given the two cases used as evidence in this article.
A few highlights:
The title: ‘Thanks for visiting Capitol Hill, sorry you got beat up’
The lead in: ‘It’s been a bad week for Capitol Hill tourists with two assaults involving out-of-town visitors getting the shit kicked out of them.”
Continued commentary: ‘Meanwhile, in another case unlikely to be shared by the Seattle tourism bureau’
Ultimately I would say, that by in large visitors are safe in my neighborhood. I am not overly concerned for my mother’s safety when she visits, or my sister with her infant son, my brother with his toddler daughter, or other out of town guests that visit and stroll through the neighborhood. I don’t tell them they must walk briskly from point a to b, and not engage with anyone on the street. Do yo?
The post has a flavor of this, it’s not that it’s screaming harry carry, but it has a dash of it. Basically asking for a tempered approach is all. Unless I am totally off base, and naive, in which case provide me with evidence that proves otherwise, and I will begin to provide safety instructions to my guests when they visit.