Yes, most Seattites are not discouraged over their race and they are certainly not discouraged by not being affiliated with a gang. May the protest be peaceful and gracious to the police escort along the way.

Don't forget the other Kent Killings this month:

Man charged in Kent's West Hill shooting death

Gary and Hutton had reportedly known each other for a number of years. An aunt of Gary told detectives that she had dated Hutton many years ago.

This marked the second time in three years that Gary had been shot. Gary testified in 2012 against a Seattle gang member who shot and wounded him outside of a South Seattle restaurant.

http://www.kentreporter.com/news/3079944…

And the one outside my apartment complex a couple of days ago:

Kent Police investigate auto theft that kills man

http://www.kentreporter.com/news/3071296…

I thank the gang members who stepped up. For a first time, this is really well done. Really smart. This kind of thing happened inside the Golden Gulag, the California prisons with a number of other prisons joining. The inside leaders of all color and no-color gangs together held a truce about ten months before the actual hunger and work strike they organized began. Brilliant show of solidarity and understanding of where power lies. Each time this happens, there is a change in the overall balance of power. Much hope. And the peace is pretty awesome too.

Well, I guess I know where not to be Saturday.

@4 you won't be missed.

When bangers are a voice of reason, you realize how far out of whack (and how far to the extreme right) this discussion has shifted.

Looking forward to being a part of this United Hood Movement. See everyone today wearing all black everything.

Are not gangs responsible for more deaths in our big cities several times over than all the police shootings combined?

How many black people get killed every year due to gang activity as compared to at the hands of police officers?

Anyone happen to know?

This is an excellent development! I hope the march and the move towards unity goes well!

These young men are trying to impact and influence what they can control. Their behavior toward one another in the gang culture. Good for them!

@8,9:

Guess it depends on where you live.

Murderous gangs marching for police accountability? Got it. How many people have Seattle police killed last five years? And how many people have been murdered by gangs? Maybe the gangs should march for their own accountability to the communities they ruin and families they destroy?

But it still give Sloggers a little self-righteous thrill to be down with the Bad Black Kids. Nothing has changed since Tom Wolfe wrote Radical Chic nearly half a century ago.

@14, they'll be down with the "Bad Black Kids" as you call them until one of the "Bad Black Kids" pumps a bullet in their lily white upper middle class asses.

@12: That's astounding. Utah's always been a quirk - as its populations are used for control studies. On the their "bright" side - easier to fire bad cops than get kids away from bad parents.

@13: This happened in Baltimore as well, sadly, the "truce" only lasted about fifteen minutes until the gangs were killing each other again, along with lots and lots of innocent bystanders.

The peace was apparently not as important as killing the competition who were also trying to sell the pills looted from CVS stores.

Hopefully Seattle is different. I don't imagine there is too much gangland violence going on in Seattle anyway.

I tried the email given, it's not a working address. It would be great if someone could ask for a candlelight vigil or some other alternative to the balloon release. Balloon releases are harmful to wildlife when they imminently become widely spread latex litter.

@17: There's rampant gang activity in Seattle that is increasing exponentially. Our bridges, overpasses, street signs, homes and businesses are tagged with their evil pee fests like a bunch of rabid dogs, ugly and far from artistic, contribute to the decline of our great city.

@19 hello there! you seem to have mistaken wild youth with the artistic propensity towards letter styles with villainous gang gang members! please take this moment to reflect on your ignorance!

@20: Perhaps in some cases, you can recognize real gang tagging, but the result is the same and so is the crime and so is the ugly blight and evil erosion on the civility and livability in our city.

These comments make me sad. You're not a racist cuz when a 15-year old valedictorian gets gunned down you go, "that's wrong!", but when a young fuck-up loses his life, you say, "well, HE WAS A DOG." No. Dogs are dogs.

@22: No, good citizens can help Charleston heal and put an end to racial hate - but that doesn't mean we need to give criminally-orienteted gangs a coating of pseudo-respectability.

If the police are smart they will execute several of the warrants they have for the various black on black shootings that have happened in Seattle with this march tonight.

This whole "how many people have gangs killed?" line of reasoning is just an extension of the notion that "black-on-black crime" is an argument against clear acts of police brutality or racial profiling. The counterarguments are the same: crime is already distinct from ostensibly legal behavior, and particularly so from behavior on the part of those charged with serving and protecting the public (which includes, in principle, the criminal; it is criminal behavior, more than the criminal individual, from which law enforcement protects the public); black-on-black crime is itself often a product of economic and geographic marginalization of minority communities.

None of which is to minimize the violence committed in the name of gang affiliation, or the pain suffered by the victims of that violence or their families. I just think that making a numerical comparison of the "how many people have been killed by ______ vs. ______" is wrongheaded.

I just think that making a numerical comparison of the "how many people have been killed by ______ vs. ______" is wrongheaded.

That's funny, after teaching critical thinking and logic in university, I must have missed the chapter on 'wrong headed'. I don't recall it being a concept. In fact, it seems like something that someone uses when they don't have an argument and can't point out a flaw in someone else's.

@25: I agree that such juxtapositions are flawed. I would also say that the last clause of your first paragraph is spot on:

black-on-black crime is itself often a product of economic and geographic marginalization of minority communities.

Indeed, these are organic systemic issues keep such vicious cycles perpetuating. Police violence against blacks is a real issue for America, and yet it's also tangential to the root causes you unearthed.

OK spd here is a chance to get some felons with warrents off the street!

This city is willing to beat a guy wearing a swastika on his arm , not bothering anybody, but are all for a bunch of violent thugs marching in the streets.

Black people are literally saying stop killing us, and people are saying...but

@26 - Disagreement and debate are welcome; being deliberately obtuse regarding what I'm saying is a waste of both our time. I know I have more important things to do than explain to you what Raindrop was able to deduce rather handily about my thesis (again, regardless of how you feel about my conclusions). And if you are, indeed, a professor of critical thinking and logic, then I would say you, also, could be spending your time more effectively than "logic trolling."

Of course, you came in with am announcement of your credentials, aced as if to set up your pointless insult. Not sure, then, if an "argument from authority" amounts to more serious or astute debate than use of the word "wrongheaded" ... But I'm no professor of logic and critical thinking, so I'll defer to your expertise (or leave you to wallow in your toxic self-regard; in the net, both approaches look about the same).

Typos given; I'm on a touchscreen phones after four hours of teaching kickboxing. My fingers look and feel like big, swollen sausages.

Great comments everyone!