Residents concerned by the recent uptick in violence crowded EastPAC’s August meeting Thursday night. “I have heard more shots this summer than I have in eight years,” one man said at the meeting, which was attended by officials from the Seattle Police Department and a representative from the City Attorney’s office.
East Precinct neighborhoods have seen a 13% increase in violent crime and a 23% increase in reports of shots fired this year. This bullet-fueled crime wave has brought murder to the Central District and Capitol Hill including the slaying of 23-year-old Ramon Mitchell outside the Baltic Room.
At Thursday’s meeting, residents demanded to know what SPD was doing to combat the crime that had made them feel unsafe in their homes and neighborhoods. “There is no higher priority in the city for the chief than dealing with the gun violence that’s going on,” said Capt. Paul McDonagh, commander of the East Precinct since April.
McDonagh said SPD has noticed an increased willingness among some area youth to “use firearms at will” and the department was struggling to solve crimes because of what he said is a “no snitching” culture on the streets. He said the department was trying to steer youth away from crime by supporting initiatives such as the Seattle Youth Summer Employment Program while also building relationships with federal anti-crime agencies such as the ATF to enhance its crime fighting abilities.
“We have to talk about race,” said Pamela Banks, Urban League CEO and current District 3 candidate. “That’s the conversation we have to have around this. We also have to talk about gentrification, and the impact it has on this community.”
Banks said the changing demographics in some parts of the East Precinct, primarily the Central District, was resulting in a strange dynamic where neighbors didn’t know or talk to one another, and where people were afraid of one another based on preconceived notions.
She said more had to be done to address the disproportionate number of black and brown people ensnared in the criminal justice system and that the community had to support people susceptible to engaging in criminal behaviors, including recently freed prisoners. She highlighted a program called Career Bridge which helps recently freed minority men earn college credit and find a job, with 80% finding employment within a year of enrolling. “Jobs stop bullets. Jobs stop crime,” Banks said.
A representative for District 3 opponent and City Council member Kshama Sawant’s office was scheduled to attend the meeting but did not address the EastPAC crowd.
In addition to gun violence, McDonagh said there has been an increase in car prowlings and burglaries. He said “vigilant neighbors” could help undercut crime by reporting suspicious behavior to SPD.
CHS notes and quotes:
- “All of us in the neighborhood feel unsafe talking with the police, especially after an incident. We don’t want to become a target…it’s just not going to work to question people on the scene…we’ve seen people planted at the scene, who are involved, who are watching…”
- “I think when people don’t trust police, it’s usually for a good reason.”
- “I think the number of people in this room shows we’re failing right now. We want this room to be empty.”
- “We had them throwing concrete up at our cameras.”
- “We’ve tried to partner with you [SPD], but with the turnover at the captain level, and the operations level, it’s really frustrating.”
- “I could have been walking my dog where that guy got gunned down.”
- “I feel that we have to stand up to it, we live here and it’s not okay.”
- “You mentioned race, and that’s a huge elephant in this, but why is everybody in this room white?”
- “I know he treated me differently just because of that [because I am a white woman]”
- “We need more black police officers coming. We need more diversity at all levels.”
- “I don’t want to do another damn meeting where we don’t have solutions.”
New EastPac chair Troy Meyers said at the meeting that the group had sent a letter to the mayor and city officials supporting the installation of cameras in some areas of the precinct, including Cal Anderson Park. He also said that they had sent a letter to the Department of Neighborhoods supporting the continuation of alcohol-impact zone policies which forbid the selling of fortified alcohol in some areas of the city, including parts of the Central District.
The next EastPac meeting is scheduled for September 24th.
UPDATE 8/30/2015 9 AM: Slim details at this point but reports of gunfire near Pike and Broadway early Sunday morning were followed by the arrest of a male suspect and the recovery of a handgun in the Harvard Market upper-level parking lot. We’ll update when we learn more. There were no reported injuries.
@jseattle multiple gun shots and numerous police sirens heard near north Broadway
— Mike Susak (@mikesinseattle) August 30, 2015
The East Precinct Advisory Council “evaluates and advocates for public safety priorities and quality of life issues for stakeholders in Seattle’s East Precinct.” To find out more , visit their Facebook page.
Why is Volunteer Park free of campers and trouble?
Excellent question! In Volunteer Park I don’t see tweakers twitching, needles on the ground, human feces behind trees, bicycle chop shops or day camps.
What’s up with that? I hope it isn’t what appears to be obvious.
It must be too far to walk for most of the lowlifes that hang around Cal Anderson.
There are no “panhandling opportunities” anywhere near Volunteer Park.
I’m so tired of everyone saying we need to have a “conversation”, because that’s never going to happen. There’s blame to go around on all sides (Cops, civilians, black, white, government, churches, rich, poor, etc) but everyone just wants to say their piece and not listen to what anyone else has to say. Defensiveness and victimhood abounds on all sides. We lack the emotional maturity to ever have that “conversation”.
The problem is that a certain amount of the population will never change no matter what help and support is available to them. you cannot force people to become good citizens and take responsibility for themselves if they have no will to do so.
It’s really unfortunate that the “no snitching” rule has become so embedded in some segments of the community. Is it because people fear retaliation?….if so, that is a smokescreen because cooperating with the police can be done quietly or even anonymously, if people care enough to do something about crime instead of just bemoaning it.
So none of the parents of these “kids” do not know that their kids have guns and they are out at all hours? There is not s lot of personal responsibility. People need to raise the children they have, instead of spitting out 5-6 and letting some of them prey on society. Blame blame blame. Walk up Pike or Pine at 2:00 in the morning talking on your cell phone and call me from the hospital and I’ll tell you Black Lives Matter. Everyone should raise their children, go to school and get a job. Oh, no we can’t because of this, this, that, that…
A crime-prone underclass doesn’t create itself. Also, maybe keep your racist shitwhistle screeds to yourself.
Have a great Sunday!
There is some truth to what Scott is saying. It’s not the whole truth of it, and it’s not the entire reason for the problem, but its part of the problem. No one can go there though, because that means you’re a racist.
And yes, racists are usually the first to bring this particular issue up, but no one ever responds to them with any sort of coherent response. At best, we get cliches like “white privilege” and “legacy of slavery”. There’s no “conversation” to be had. Just buzzwords and defensiveness. Same with the cops.
Racist? Oh yeah. We’re in Seattle. If you disagree you must be a racist.
To the politically correct: You are walking through Belltown and on your side of the street there are 6 guys, standing in a doorway at 3:00 am and the other side is clear. If you change sides of the street YOU ARE A RACIST. So cute. Lack of common sense + holier than thou polical correctness = beaten and robbed or shot.
If they are Asian software engineers, I will stay on the same side of the street.
touche’
@M.C. Barrett. If you change sides of the street you are acting in a street smart manner, not being a racist. If you don’t change sides of the street you are simply stupid or overriding your safety with white guilt. .Spend some time around poor people, almost all of them are not doing crime.
scott is right. Parenthood is a full time job.
Agreed. Good…or at least adequate…parenting is critical to preventing crime. The breakdown of family structure is resulting in lousy parenting in far too many cases.
Racism is INSTITUTIONALIZED. Only people with power can be racist. A landlord can be racist because he controls housing. A sheriff can be racist because he controls the police in a county… ect.
The rest of us are simply bigots.
Pamela Banks sounds like an idiot. Gentrification is not the cause of young black men running around Capitol Hill beating people up. With the shrinking African American pop. in the city she’s going to have to come up with better excuses. District 3 has horrible choices for city council.
No, gentrification isn’t the cause of young black men beating people up, but they are both manifestations of the same thing. It’s all about economics. How many software developers are gang members or shoot up the CD? None. People with viable jobs don’t have time for that shit. Seattle’s economy is booming with techie jobs and rents are skyrocketing. Yes, Gentrification. But this economy is leaving a lot of people behind. Banks isn’t an idiot, she’s exactly right. These are guys with no marketable skills to match the booming job market. They get up to this shit because they have nothing else to do. They go to jail, they come out, they’re no better off, they do it again. She’s right when she says “Jobs stop bullets. Jobs stop crime”.
Not only do they go around shooting guns, they go around fathering kids who grow up to go around shooting guns. That guy who got killed outside the Baltic Room was one of those guys. His dad was a banger, and he followed in his footsteps.
Jobs are a big part of the answer, but to get jobs, you need education and someone who takes an interest in the kids and sees to their best interest. Teachers can do their best for the kids for the 1/3 of the day that they see them, but that’s not enough. We can (and should) provide nutritional, recreational and healthcare programs, but when those kids go home, there needs to be someone who can parent. We can help with that too (because if you never had a decent parent, how can you expect to be one?), but this idea of the throw away kid needs to end at the point of conception.
But not everyone’s going to land a programming job. We need a range of jobs, at every intellectual level, that at least pay enough to put food on the table and a roof overhead.
And we need to acknowledge that this is a regional problem. If changing real estate markets push the underprivileged to places like Kent and Auburn, but they come up into Seattle to shoot things up, the problem is still there.
Right, and it’s a real luxury to be able to be home when your kids get let out of school at 3:30 or whenever. This hypothetical banger dad probably wasn’t in a position socially, educationally, or economically to pursue a career outside a low end wage environment. Thus the allure of drugs/crime, thus the lack of means and stability, thus the cycle of poverty.
This also seems worth pointing out: Poverty and race are correlated, but it’s not a causal relationship. Coming from the mountain west, I can tell you there are *plenty* of white criminals with addiction issues (often meth and/or heroin)…
Well the answer to that is simple: don’t have kids if the only reason you’re doing it is to prove how manly you are or (if you’re a woman) to have proof that someone loved you.
Free birth control, abortions and sterilization would help, but you have to break the idea that drives them to have unwanted children in the first place.
And lest you accuse me of being racist (the old fallback when one has nothing to counter with), I think these servicesshould be offered across all of society. Stop having kids if you can’t support them or aren’t interested in them beyond showing off the baby and puffing your chest out.
How these particular young men are socialized and the absence of fathers has more bearing than economic status. Yes, opportunity changes life directions but when people come here from Africa and see opportunity and pursue it that sort of deflates some of the academic rhetoric about the victim mentality.
There was just another shooting around 3:30 pm today at 24th and Yesler. A few blocks are taped off with police tape and officers and homicide units are investigating. We heard about eight shots. I hope everyone is okay.
Banks doesn’t offer any real solutions to the issues – she lnly talks about the conversation we need to have. Unemployment is at the lowest level in years. There is no lack of jobs. Every job is not going to pay $100k per year. What is the salary for a 17 yr old gang member these days?
Did you miss her discussion of Career Bridge? Sounded pretty tangible and specific to me. Certainly a lot more productive than what we’ve heard from her competitor. As if blathering on about rent control will fix this? Haven’t heard any other suggestions from her on this subject, have we?
PAM “DOWNTOWN” BANGSTER AND HER URBAN LEAGUE ORGANIZED CRIME RICO-RACKETEERING FAMILY ARE THE PROBLEM??? WE WERE GETTING BLACK YOUTH OUT OF GANGS AND DEVELOPING COMMUNITY PRIDE, SELF-RESPECT AND DISCIPLINE WITH THE AFRICAN AMERICAN HERITAGE MUSEUM AND CULTURAL CENTER AT THE OLD COLMAN SCHOOL SITE BEFORE THE GOVERNMENT AGENTS WITH GUNS AND BADGES FORCED “REGIME CHANGE” AT THE BARREL OF GUNS???
ASK MURDERED DISABLED NATIVE AMERICAN ELDER JOHN T. WILLIAMS WHAT “GANG BANGER” MURDERED HIM ON VIDEO IN BROAD DAYLIGHT??? ALSO WHY THE CITY HIRED URBAN LEAGUE “CEO” JAMES “GUNSLINGER” KELLY, A MACHINE GUN KELLY WANNABE AFTER HE “SNITCHED” ON HIMSELF FOR PULLING LOADED AUTOMATIC PISTOL (FORTUNATELY IT WASN’T A DRONE) ON RESPECTED COMMUNITY VOLUNTEER INSIDE RAINIER BEACH HIGH SCHOOL????
NOW THE REAL CITY SHOT CALLERS (RESEARCH WEEKLY NEWS PAPER ARTICLE “WHO REALLY RUNS SEATTLE”) WANT PAM “DOWNTOWN” BANGSTER TO BE YOUR DISTRICT 3 (AFRICATOWN / CENTRAL DISTRICT CITY COUNCIL MAMMY???
CLEAN OUT AND DIS-INFFECT “POLICE DEPARTMENT / POLICE GUILD THE GOVERNMENT AGENTS WITH “KILL POWER”??? NEXT GET RID OF THE CITY COUNCIL GANG OF FOUR” (BURGESS….GOING….GOING…., GODDEN….GONE….GONE…GONE, BAGWOMAN…STILL HERE AND HANGING AROUND HARRELL) FOR STARTERS??? “MAYBE THEN WE CAN “GIVE PEACE A CHANCE”
THE STRUGGLE AGAINST EXCLUSION, JOBLESSNESS, HOMELESSNESS AND HOPELESSNESS CONTINUES, Omari Tahir-Garrett, VIETNAM VETERAN, WORLD TRAVELER, HISTORY / ANTI-COLONIAL SOCIAL STUDIES TEACHER AND CANDIDATE FOR SEATTLE CITY COUNCIL (2018)
WEBSITE: OmariForCityCouncil
WEBSITE: AFRICATOWN / CHINATOWN NEWS DIGEST
WEBSITE: prison2president
Worst Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soap label ever.
At least he’s consistent and makes it easy for you. As soon as you see a blathering huge missive typed in ALL CAPS, you know immediately it’s all nonsensical drivel and you can just skip the whole thing.
Amen!!!!!!!!!
WEBSITE: prison2president
Is this like a .biz account, or..?
People continue to look at income and poverty for our street problems. This does not foot with what I have seen in other countries I have had the white privelege of traveling in over the last couple of years. This includes Spain, Mexico (San Miguel), Ukraine, Poland, Georgia, and Peru – all of which are poorer to a greater or lesser degree – where I wandered on foot in central neighborhoods of major cities. I did not see beggars or nearly as many, obviously homeless, or tweakers. I will admit that I don’t have a deep grasp of the nuances, but am not aware of any of these with possible exception of Spain, that have a significant social safety net. I have no idea whether housing affordability is relevant but find myself doubting whether those inflicting misery on our community are displaced due to economic factors, or if this is a matter of culture, values and perhaps government? If rent were cut in half, how many of them would suddenly have apartments? How many are truly willing to work vs. truly refusing to work? I would also add that on the streets of these cities, I did not experience the sense of anger and hostility that is a common theme on the topic, depite in some cases a vast wealth disparity and minimal middle classes. Simple answers may sound good and support personal political agendas, but they may be very wrong.
As a deep south transplant (1991) from Atlanta, I have taken on a very diverse perspective coming from whence I came. To a great extant in the ‘South’…from the early 20th century onward, Blacks and Whites had understood their respective places in each others society. Very basic and early ‘respect’ for your mother & father, older family/relatives, your neighbor, your faith, right from wrong/the laws and people of authority-be it the Black town preacher, white-owned neighborhood grocer, your school teacher or ‘like’ iterations-there-of’. You were raised to know ‘your place’. Apart from the elements of bigotry, racism, ignorance and blatant evil…a healthy amount of tolerable co-existence ruled the day. Different times of course…though the same principles still apply. It all starts with the initial positive and right decision to be an accountable, responsible, dutiful, conscientious, positive, dignified and respectful member of this society such as it is, without ANY excuses to blame for not achieving this ‘should-be common-place’ mentality in us all. Jus my perspective.
The Central District is a segregated community. What I mean by that is there are the blacks/people of color and then there are the whites. There is no attempt to get to know one another. Whites won’t attend functions sponsored by blacks/people of color. The don’t speak and they turn up there nose when they see us as though we don’t belong in our own community. They paint us all with the same brush as witnessed in several posts seen here. Making assumptions about our character as a whole race. The reality is that just as in white society all blacks are not the same. We also don’t want the crime and lawlessness. It is statements like we are all having babies and not raising them that is a deterrent to any meeting of the minds or community cohesiveness. The difference in the two communities is that we do see and recognize that there is and always has been institutionalized racism at work here.
When you insist that because it is not your experience we are wrong. (See Seattle Times article on treatment of children of color in Seattle Public Schools as one example.) You continue to paint us all with the same brush while not bothering to get to know your black neighbors. You refuse to understand or even acknowledge that we all (as individuals) have different life experiences and therefore view things differently, not right or wrong, just differently. I have had whites say the most ridiculous absurd things to me and not even realize how offensive it was. Whites came to our community, the community that was redlined by the financial institutions for decades and pronounced how things have improved in the neighborhood since your arrival. Took our community institutions and changed there entire purpose, the name and wiped out their history (Central Area Motivation Program.) My father was never so angry when Centerstone employees/volunteers knocked on his door and offered him bread. This was a man who worked and provided for his family owned several homes in the area and they assumed he needed free bread simply because he was black. These are the kinds of insults we have endured in recent years. But it goes back to the fact that you don’t even really know your neighbors.
I grew up in this neighborhood for over 50 years. All of my friends and peers were hard working, respectable people. (not perfect as nobody is). No jails birds, gangbangers, baby having irresponsible people. I can tell you from my experience on my job in the court system that whites suffer the same ills as everyone else (though the institutionalized racist media tries to focus the ills of society on people of color to hid the disfunction) No better or worse than anyone else, just deeper pockets and white privilege.
I can tell you this, if people start calling the police on my friends who visit me just because they don’t know who they are and because they are black, I am going to have a problem with it. Before you do that get to know your neighbors (all of them), you can discover a lot about people with a little conversation. You will also discover that we all have similar concerns. Exchange phone numbers, give them a call if you see something that you don’t understand or are concerned about. Do not assume that all black people in the neighborhood are criminals. Believe me when I say, I don’t want anyone shooting up my neighborhood either. I also want intervention on that type of behavior.
Also believe me when I say, I am not going to tolerate racism or bigotry at my front door. I am staying here and have a right to be here and I am not going to be treated like a second class citizen or my children or grandchildren treated like such.
I love and respect the differences in people. When I don’t understand a perspective, I ask so that I can understand where a person is coming from. I may not ever understand or even agree after the conversation but I know that individual perspective is relevant and I show respect. In my opinion, that is what is lacking in the Central Area these days. No respect for differences.