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- Street robberies: The Shell gas station at Broadway and Pike was the center of trouble on the streets of Pike/Pine early Saturday morning. Police were called to the station parking lot multiple times including a 1:40 AM incident in which four men were reportedly beating another for his cell phone. We’ll see what more we can find out about that reported robbery when more details are available after the weekend. Later in the morning, police were called to the area again after a man said his phone was taken in a street mugging at Broadway and Pine around 3:10 AM. The victim told police his assailant was hanging out on Broadway near the station after the robbery. Officers arrived to find the suspect along with a large group of teens and young males. The suspect was identified by the victim and taken into custody by police.
Warrant chase: Seattle Police surrounded a Capitol Hill building Friday afternoon after a man wanted on a Grant County warrant ran from an officer. According to East Precinct radio dispatches, a man wanted on a $25,000 DUI warrant was being pursued on foot after being spotted by an officer near Belmont and Pine just before 4 PM. The suspect fled inside a 1600 block Belmont building where he is a resident and the building was quickly surrounded by police. After a search of the building and the nearby area, police finally found the man trying to flee on foot. He was taken into custody around 4:15 PM and booked into jail on the warrant and obstruction.- Madison car fire: Seattle Fire responded to a car fire on E Madison at Broadway Ct Saturday morning. The noontime incident was handled quickly and no significant injuries were reported.
(Image: @rprins via Twitter)
I was at Fogon when this all happened; couldn’t see much from my angle but it certainly sounded exciting with all of the cops swarming on the place and all the kitchen guys came out to see what was going on. The waiter said the guy punched (or tried to punch?) one of the cops, which is probably another reason for the large response.
No matter how many times people are warned about using their cell phones in public….especially late at night….these muggings continue to occur. It’s really an epidemic…and an entirely preventable one if people were “smart” about using their smartphones.
While I agree, and certainly a lot of people engrossed in their little electronic pacifier need to be more aware of their surroundings for a host of reasons (I watched a guy walk into a pole the other day), there’s an element of blaming the victim here too. Why do so many criminals apparently feel free to mug people for their phones on Pike/Pine & Broadway without any worry of getting caught? Why is the only police presence I ever see nothing more than glimpse of an officer in a cruiser driving by (unless it’s a bunch of them gathered at the Olive Way Starbucks)? Why aren’t there more cops walking a beat, especially in Pike/Pine on the weekends between 10pm and 3am?
I’m not “blaming the victim.” But sometimes people set themselves up to be a victim. A little “preventive medicine” is what’s needed on our streets today.
Some of these people might be using their phones to try and call a cab. What are they supposed to do instead—use a pay phone?
Your posts are the dictionary definition of blaming the victim.
“Blaming the victim” is relative. Probably everyone in Seattle locks their door when they go out, yet we hear of villages where nobody does. “When in Rome, do as the Romans do”.
I agree that it is wise to take precautions; however, they aren’t really going to stop someone who wants your stuff. Jumping straight to “don’t have your phone out at night,” rather than “don’t mug” or “do have police available and visible” IS victim blaming.
You’re writing off precaution as ‘victim blaming’??
If you walk in a war zone, don’t cry when you get shot.
If you walk on the Hill with valuables out, don’t cry when you are picked as the victim. You cannot eliminate all crime…utopian society does not exist…you can make simple choices that help prevent you from being a victim.
I try to exude ‘pain in the ass’ when I’m out…they move past me to the person who’s an easier target.
Victim Blaming is a problem for our society…but not in this scenario. The victim is not provoking the attack, they are enabling the attackers to choose an easier target. The crime WILL occur…who it occurs to is up to the victim.
Ultimately, victim blaming just a way to make yourself feel safer through othering – “that will never happen to me because I’M more careful than THOSE people.” But that’s bullshit. It could happen to ANYONE, ANYTIME. It might be more of a perfect opportunity for a mugger if it happens in the dark, late at night, in a less populated area with fewer police, to a person waving their phone around. But if there’s not a mugger there (or if muggers are deterred by visible police presence), you won’t get mugged.
Well, of course the muggers are ultimately to blame for these incidents. All I’m saying is what you say in your comment above…that some people provide more of an opportunity for muggers to commit their crime. On that, hopefully, we can agree.
[…] Two reported street robberies also took place around the station over the weekend. […]
We’re reaping what we’ve sown folks, obviously the problems there could be stamped out in a heartbeat but the the cops feel unsupported by the Capitol Hill community, and in turn are returning the favor…
[…] mix with teens hanging out at the market. At the end of May, we reported on this incident in which one assailant was arrested after a late night street robbery outside the station. Early Wednesday, a male victim said he was beaten and robbed near the station […]
Some of the increase is likely a byproduct of the increased police presence.
The police are visible, many of the Cal Anderson congregation are being pushed closer together…groups that don’t get along. The homeless kids, who just seem to get high and play music and the homeless with mental issues, who just want to be left alone are being driven into the same area. The kids were already there, the ones’ with mental issues are moving away from the police presence, but end up right on top of the kids. Now they’re all agitated and making the whole group more cranky and on edge. Cranky guys with mental issues make the dealers nervous and it affects their business…they don’t like to screw with an unpredictable vet with PTSD and no fear.
The dealers at the basketball courts are having their ‘storefront’ shut down and are losing money…so they’re branching out into more crimes. It’s less the 1:00am opportunity crimes, but purposeful crimes; need funds, pick a victim, take all their readily saleable stuff….car included so you can loot it later and in a different spot. If they escalate to that…why do it once, do it 3, 4, 5 times. If you’re not caught…keep going. If they’re under 18…it’s a free for all, the courts can’t do anything to effectively punish them. They ‘learn’ that they’ll get away with it.
The police aren’t able to arrest anyone when the descriptions of 2-3 perpetrators are the same for 20-40 people within 2 blocks. They can only ‘be there’ and that just influences them to move a few more blocks down. When the dealers find a new place to set up shop, the robberies will drop again. The police will take credit for it of course….but it’s simply moving the dealers to a new location.
Take a look at what the SPD and Sheriffs do in White Center; each has an occasional increase in staffing, at different times of course, and drive the dealers 2-3 blocks over into the next jurisdiction. SPD problem solved, Sheriffs problem started. Sheriffs problem solved, SPD problem started. Rinse & repeat.
Crime stays, it just shifts around. It’s a dance.
Solutions? Stop teaching the kids that they can get away with it. (picking a crime at random) You have to be caught in car theft #3 or 4 before you get 6 months…and that occurs almost a year later, which is psychologically disassociated. Steal 20 more and you get a year. Steal 60 more and you get a year. All of those sentences get reduced from good behavior.
Make the punishment harsher, invoke the 3-strikes law we have more instead of less. If you can’t stop committing crime…protect the citizens by removing the criminal from the opportunity.