Business Community and Sponsorship Responds to Playground Violence

Local Businessmen Turn Entire Neighborhood Into Mardi Gras; Regret Consequences

Seattle Elects first gay mayor. Mayor complacent as homosexual community is targeted by violence and poverty.

"You guys gotta get out. People need to see you. If they don’t see you, why would they be fearful of you?" - total disconnect. Fear of cops is what's wrong with policing in this city already.

Seriously, is anyone surprised?

What is the irony that the same community (Capitol Hill), that has been so vitriolic about the police, is now further victimized by the same "community" (gangs) that the police have been aggressively pursuing?

Actually, it's not ironic at all. It's called "de-policing." And if you don't make any discrimination (def: 'the quality or power of finely distinguishing.') between wrongful police actions, and the B.S. fed to you about Michael Brown, Garner, etc. -- then buckle your seats and get ready for the dose of criminality that is going to visit your neighborhood. Police, like all of us, respond to positive and negative incentives. Throw shit at them and scream Black Lives Matter in defense of some low-life, fine. But don't expect them to walk around your block playing all nicey-nice until someone who doesn't believe All Lives Matter shows up.

@5: really? the police are free to act like petulant children when you hurt their feewings? I'm sure o'toole would disagree with that assertion.

they're government employees, not a protection racket - they don't get to have feewings that affect the performance of their duties.

@5
+1
What happens when affluent white gays meet homicidal delinquents?

Undercover SPD cops are a street gang too.

Why are you so surprised when guaranteed predictions come true? (Lemme' guess.... You thought the Affordable Care Act would make care affordable? Rube.)

Have you not see the de-policing statistics in Seattle. (Meet your search friend Google).

Yes, they ARE government employees, genius. So could you please find another reference point when trying to illustrate the paragons of virtue in society?

"They don't get to have feelings that effect...." Sorry: Could you be just a little more naive? They are tenured union employees in cityfuckinggovernment. (Not exactly as bastion of performance management!)

If you were a Seattle cop, are you going to go confront every single gangster, when every single interaction is prone to mindless bleating from the sheeple that you're "targeting... unfair... racists... unjustified..." yadda yadda yadda?

No. Your cops' incentives are to sit back, let a little blood flow, let some windows get smashed, let some stuff go missing,....

....and when you and your neighbors are good and truly pissed-off at the bad guys (you realize there are bad guys, not just misunderstood youth, right?), you'll welcome them back to do the thankless job of cleaning up the human messes that abound in "tolerant...progressive" cities.

It's not just about budget; it's about resource allocation. City Council can't figure out what 900 of SPD's ~1300 sworn staff are assigned to do (source: Tim Burgess, council budget workshop, Youngstown Cultural Arts Center, May 2014). Maybe they should move some staff off of sportsball duty or Blast-Ball duty. And something like 1/5 of their budget goes to "homeland security." What is that? Seattle doesn't have a homeland.

And as for beat cops, Capitol Hill residents have asked repeatedly over the decade I've been paying attention. SPD won't commit to it. I've seen it in person.

Should just do what Brussels did under threat of violence against the populace - just fill the streets with military and close the city down. And shutter all the gas stations, supermarkets, and electrical generation facilities, because these all provide essential support to such violent murderous people.

5 and 6 are tell 2 aspects of the truth, i.e they are both a little correct. i dont think seattle has the stomach to allow the police presence and temperament needed to keep order in the type of crowd that happens late Fri & Sat nites on Pike and Pine.

Like it or not, lots of cops are needed. And when they have to arrest someone, they cant risk the crowd turning against them and making the situation worse. Of course they have helped make that possiblity more likely with a lot of their dumb behavior over the last few years.

We also seem able to fund every levy imaginable, but I havent seen one dedicated to funding more police on the streets. That is something that would pass in a landslide if it was ever on the ballot. 1% for arts? How about 1% tax of new commercial construction for more & better cops?

The only thing that might change the attitude is if a drive-by kills a few innocent bystanders to wake people up.

This city think the single biggest threat to public safety is wheat gluten.
Is it any surprise it lacks the balls to deal with violent crime?

@12: that's already happened. the perp just got sentenced. I didn't notice any particular "waking up". this shit happens in nearly every city in the country.

testosterone & a sea of cheap firearms mean that there will never be a guarantee against gun violence like this.

@14
Tell me more about these rabid white rednecks shooting up the city.

Every neighborhood as been begging for beat cops or at least some form of community policing. Instead we get the same old policy of not patrolling and just responding to 911 calls to take reports.
Golden Gardens in the summer gets wild after dark. Everyone drunk or high, fights, guns out, robberies, gang battles, cars racing, etc, and not a single cop assigned down there for those weekend nights. Still.
Point is that it's not just Capitol Hill. The whole city is suffering because of this policing from 5,000 feet policy. Walk around NYC at night. Cops are out walking the streets where people are gathering.

@15: ironic, considering how I grew up in a city where you were as likely to get your ass kicked by appalachians as you were by blacks. more likely, actually.

but why don't you tell us all more about your feelings on minorities in seattle instead? you seem to have more than a few, bigot.

Dave Meinert is right that crime is down. It's a simple fact. The 'Ferguson Effect'? Debunked. Yet here come the paranoid lunatics spouting their same bullshit from crazytown again.

Seattle's white 'progressives' see Michael Brown's self-inflicted stupidity and think one of the Huxtable kids was targeted by the Klu Klux Kops. (Or so the fairy tale is told, to not interrupt the fantasy worldview).

Spend a little time considering where most of the violence in the city stems from, and you'll understand the 'community policing' is a nice way of saying "Walk around my gay, mostly white, affluent urban neighborhood, and make sure the bad guys stay away. (But the white liberals' soft-on-criminals "enagagment" approach is thrashing poor, racially mixed neighborhoods blighted by criminality.)

In fact, watch a group like Seattle's hoover gangster crips (Sebbin-Foh!) and tell me we need nicey-nice police. We need ass-kickers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fUdxBx5e…

@17; @18

Maybe if they weren't allowed to spend a million dollars in overtime pay in order to intimidate peaceful protesters there would be money for police when they are actually needed?

Yesterday: "We hate cops!"
Today: "We need cops!"

@22 Are these the peaceful Seattle demonstrators you're referring to?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTUow-FR…

@23:

Here, let me fix that for you:

Yesterday: "Cops need to start doing the job for which they were actually hired, namely, 'Protect And Serve', NOT 'Harass And Persecute'."
Today: See Yesterday

@2 FTW

Yesterday: "The cops are racist fascist sexist pigs!"

Today: "The cops are obviously still racist fascist sexist pigs -- seeing how it's only been 12 hours since we last called them that -- but nonetheless, we want more of them patrolling the streets!"

@20: @18 is referring to YOU. I wish Ph'nglui could stand to be around here more, frankly.

Lets just count our blessings it was only four binary woo girls being shot, and not a gay guy drunk-punched for running his mouth at the bar.

@31 or punched for daring to be seen in public with his boyfriend and refusing to take any horseshit off the bloated, trashy, space-sucking bridge-and-tunnel basics who invade en masse every weekend in order to walk around shouting slurs, breaking glass, spilling drinks, and provoking fights like they own the place.

It sure is interesting how every time the Stranger has a post mentioning the SPD there is a mob of commenters who come out of the woodwork to advocate their infallibility. It's almost like there's an organized group with an agenda to squash any suggestion that the SPD need not be policed. But who would do such a thing... hm!

@34 Correction: [...] need to be policed.

Seattle is under policed. For a city this size, there aren't enough cops: http://www.governing.com/gov-data/safety…

A gang shooting occurs in Capitol Hill? The rich, white LGBTQ community throws a fit and demands action now. A gang shooting occurs two miles south in the Rainier Valley. Zero shits given.

Never change rich white liberals. Never change.

The parking lot for the Harvard Square Bartells/QFC is sketchy? I used to take my 2 yr old there anytime back in 08/09. How ironic that I now feel safer in the So Seattle neighborhood I squeamishly moved to 4 yrs ago, than, apparently, I should feel back in the old neighborhood. Too bad you priced out the artsy crowd.

@38: amazing that you can more about this apocryphal "rich white LGBTQ" community's reaction to a shooting in their neighborhood that that of all the bigots on parade here. are severin and meinert even gay?

i remember giving a shit when the bellevue cops killed that guy they were serving a warrant on, but i'm not gay or rich, so i guess that doesn't counter your straw man.

hello? speeking of crime, does the gentleman pictured on the Nov 18-24 cover have a knee?
is it a unileg? weird. Also, did he do his own tattoos? I hope to god those arent real. looks more like a sharpie. good lord those are the worst 'toos I have EVER SEEN.

Shameful youths! Who are these derelicts and why are they not at home , snug in their beds! Problem is they have no respect for us older citizens. As a billionaire, I have no need to venture into these forbidden neighborhoods,
so I am not concerned. When I was their age, I was already movin and shakin and makin stuff happen, baby. you want to ride with my crew someday, you better put down the crackpipe, marijuana cigarettes, heroin or whatever else your on and get with the program. Y'all think you tough but your sissies if you have to shoot guns.
also, what was the nationality of these street urchins? white? black? hippie?

I think he meant fearful of the consequences not the cops themselves. That's the problem. There are no consequences because they can empty a clip on Broadway --3 blocks from the East Precinct and get away. And SPD left trying to tracking down video. That intersection has just gotten worse and on a Saturday night it really is crazy this can happen. I bet if you asked to see overtime the East precinct has accumulated it would surprise you we never see cops on the street.

@38 Don Ward On the contrary --people care about Rainier Valley violence -- residents are vocal and proactive about their neighborhood and the violence level and work quite a bit with police. Why do you bring up LGBTQ? There is one gay bar near the shooting is that why? A half dozen straight bars too. Capitol Hill is hardly the gay neighborhood anymore. Not sure why it would matter. No matter if it's your businesses, your home or where you goto the grocery store once a year you have every right to be upset by what happened. Also take a look at the cities crime map before judging people. It hasn't been just one shooting. That area has seen increases in crime across the board (assaults and robberies almost every weekend)