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- Knifepoint robbery: A teen and friends reported he was robbed at knifepoint Friday night just before midnight near the Louisa Boren Overlook park just north of 15th and Galer. According to SPD radio, police were looking for a black Chevy Tahoe SUV that carried the alleged robber and a group of four to six additional suspects from the scene. It was last seen heading south on 15th Ave E. The teens went to a nearby house to call police after the 11:40 PM hold-up. No immediate arrests were made.
- 11/Pike mugging: Police were called to 11th and Pike around 11:53 PM after a female victim said she had her phone grabbed and purse ripped away by a male suspect and a large group in a Friday night robbery. The victim described the suspect who robbed her as a black male, possibly in his 20s and wearing blue jeans and a black zip-up sweater. The suspect and the group of males he was with left the area headed south on 11th. Police searched the area but made no immediate arrests.
Are not the police at all embarrassed by the wave of robberies happening within a few blocks of the station? Is it that difficult to have a few undercover officers walk a beat or just hang around from 8 p.m. to 3 a.m. between the station and Harvard Ave E. and between Pike and Union? Or ride bicycles? Is it more important to arrest some poor schmuck for selling a $20 rock during a misguided buy/bust “operation” than to nail a violent robber? Are the police in fear of these roving packs of cell phone stealers? I’m living in fear in my own neighborhood. Get out of the police cars and do your job.
I agree, however it seems that the police are simply disinterested. It doesn’t appear that there are undercover cops in this city for *anything*, let alone to stop street robberies. And to top that off, this is the most left-leaning neighborhood in a left-leaning city, where the local citizens abhor surveillance cameras and any aspect of “secret” police. In fact a lot of people around here seem to hate the police and not want them around at all.
I’ve also wondered for years why the police don’t patrol Capitol Hill after dark. I imagine that most officers (and the department as a whole) prefer to work varied shifts from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m., so few officers are on duty in the later hours. If any vandalism, burglaries or robberies do occur overnight, the SPD approach is to ignore it all and simply file a report later (if forced to, under duress).
Then they say that the community should get together and do something about it on their own, like neighborhood watches, etc. So basically nothing ever changes.