Guns! Guns! Guns!

KOMO News: One person was killed and at least six were injured by gunfire late Saturday and early Sunday in an extraordinary surge of [gun] violence in the Seattle area.

A gas station clerk died from his injuries after he was shot during an armed robbery in Ballard early Sunday, and six others were injured when gunfire erupted overnight on Westlake Avenue in Seattle, in SeaTac and at Seattle’s annual Torchlight Parade.

Another problem? The majority of the shooters this weekend were black. There is no hiding that. And because there are no local black leaders to address this real problem in the community means the solutions to it will be white solutions.

Charles Mudede—who writes about film, books, music, and his life in Rhodesia, Zimbabwe, the USA, and the UK for The Stranger—was born near a steel plant in Kwe Kwe, Zimbabwe. He has no memory...

52 replies on “The Neverending Story”

  3. How have those black solutions been goin’ for ya, black folk?

    Solutions indicate a fix to a problem, and has there been a fix? Nope.

  4. Oh, great. Now we get to listen to more Storm Front Troll bullshit. You know, most of the population in the Pacific Northwest is white and so most criminals here are white (I’m going to also add most are meth addicts, too). But the news certainly will give more coverage to the crimes committed by the 4.5% of the population that’s black or the 7% that’s Hispanic.

  6. Atreyu: But why is Fantasia dying, then?
    G’mork: Because people have begun to lose their hopes and forget their dreams. So the Nothing grows stronger.
    Atreyu: What is the Nothing?
    G’mork: It’s the emptiness that’s left. It’s like a despair, destroying this world. And I have been trying to help it.
    Atreyu: But why?
    G’mork: Because people who have no hopes are easy to control; and whoever has the control… has the power!
    Atreyu: Who are you, really?
    G’mork: I am the servant of the power behind the Nothing. I was sent to kill the only one who could have stopped the Nothing. I lost him in the Swamps of Sadness. His name… was Atreyu.

  9. there was a year back in he 80’s or 90’s when seattle had around 70 murders. this year we are on pace for about 20. reading the threads at that link would give you the impression that seattle is a city under siege with a homicide rate not unlike new orleans, detroit, or st. louis. the reality is our murder rate is closer to copenhagen, amsterdam, or vancouver.

  10. My friend and I were there and sensed the heightened tension in the air. The behavior of some young people was getting elevated and we decided to head back up the hill. I said to him there will be gun shots (and about ten minutes later there was).

    The young girls with their fucking baby buggies with little babies heads bobbing all around in them were driving us mad. They were rushing through the thick crowds in front of the stink A & F store knocking into people’s shins and rolling over shoes. I hate strollers/buggies in big city crowds!

    This pisses me off. Seattle was showcasing itself with two major city sports events, the Torchlight, lovely weather and Link. I really don’t know what to say, but “FUCK”.

  11. @8: What he said was that there are no local black community leaders capable of addressing the problems that lead to this kind of violence. I don’t find that nearly as difficult to understand as you seem to do.

  12. Quick, someone call black leader extraordinaire Ken Hutcherson and get him to fix this problem. Oh, maybe not. He and so many of the other black leaders are too busy trying to stop all the fags from getting married to care about people getting shot.

  13. @12, you may laugh but the fact there has been nothing like a black leader in this city since Carl Mack is, for me, hard to find funny.

  14. To be honest, white leaders aren’t exactly thick on the ground in this city, either. But I take your point, and share your unhappiness.

    Torchlight’s always kind of a trashy crime festival, isn’t it?

  17. Charles,
    This greatly, greatly saddens me. I had just finished reading several pieces regarding the Gates arrest by people like Glen Loury, Patricia Williams, Peter Werhner, Heather McDonald, Charles Blow, Clarence Page, Mary Mitchell and others when I turned to SLOG and read your piece about the shootings. Sigh.

    The unfortunate reality is that not even an Obama Presidency (and he will be Pres. not more than 8 and quite possibly 4 years) will address the tragic and chronic condition of the AA family which I believes directly contributes to crime and social dysfunctions in America today. I believe there two America’s one “Black” and another “non-black” which includes people of all races (blacks too) that don’t presuppose a racial grievance with “white America” .

    The Gates arrest was a fluke. As Mary Mitchell put it he is NOT the poster fellow for racial profiling. Far more attention should be paid to the social dysfunction of young black males than to Gates. This has been a bad week. I read earlier this week that New Orleans already has 100 murders (pop. 330,300 vs. Seattle with 10 and a pop. of 545,000), Isaiah Kalebu was arrested in the Teresa Butz murder and now this.

  23. Mmm… disturbing metaphor. You’d incite the assasination and overthrow of the current leadership to bring power to yourself and your cronies?

  25. “And because there are no local black leaders to address this real problem in the community means the solutions to it will be white solutions.”

    I have a solution.

    Require those living off of welfare for more than 3 months to have their tubes tied.

    or

    Offer $10,000 to each woman who gets her tubes tied — it costs less in the long run to prevent criminals from ever being born than to incarcerate them.

    Yeah, it’s classist, but it would fix our society’s crime problem.

  26. So a guy gets murdered in Ballard while working a job most of us would avoid because you could get shot for no reason and the problem isn’t finding the killer but the state of local leadership?

    It’s not a race thing. It is a law and order thing. Sane people, regardless of their background, are opposed to being randomly shot.

  27. Oh please.

    Charles, obviously, you wrote this to be purposefully inflammatory. A quick click-through shows that you, also, are black. Let me make this really simple: If you can’t be part of the friggin’ solution, shut the F up. If you, yourself, can’t forget about the color of a person’s skin, how do you expect us to, especially after you purposefully fling it in our faces?

    Stop railing against The Man, and step up to fight the injustices that you think exist instead of standing there behind your pretty editorial curtain and snickering, “Hey, homie, they’re covering yet another crime done by a black man. Let’s see what S I can stir up.”

  28. @Aliceinchains- How about adding vasectomy to your list of Nazi-esqe suggestions? Apparently you’re not only racist, but also sexist. WOW.

  29. Look, it’s 2009 — this isn’t really a BLACK or WHITE issue as much as it’s a POOR vs RICH issue.

    Rich folks don’t give a goddamn about what your skin color is — just as long as they’re selling guns to y’all.

    They don’t give a goddamn what you do with your gun as long as it was bought and paid.

    The only true winners here are RICH people (safe behind their estate walls, penthouse heights, lobbied senators, and suited lawyers).

    Those of us NOT making $250,000 or more/year = LOSERS in every sense of the word.

  30. @15, @22-24:

    Putting yourself on the same platform as a civil servant, Charles, is laughable, when you aim to incite aggressive and violent thinking through one- or two-liner “editorials”. Frankly, it gives a bad name to those people who ARE civil servants professionally by having your stink all over the title.

    Also, if you look back in history, Ceaser got a really rough deal. He worked all his life, served his leaders responsibly and faithfully, extended the boundaries of the Roman territories, survived a civil war and still ended up as leader. As a leader, he LED his army into battle, instead of standing behind it.

    It was only after his backstabbing, murderous colleagues decided that he was better off dead that things went all off-kilter, causing ANOTHER civil war which only brutally injured the Roman way of life among the civilians – many of whom were poor and often unable to feed themselves, clothe their children, and keep up with the production-based society that Rome was. Good thing it was okay to walk around mostly-naked back then.

    If you consider yourself to be Cassius and want to put him on the pedestal of a martyr to justify your way of thinking…go for it. You’re only perpetuating the idea of black men being riotous and insolent. Somehow, though, I don’t think you’d get away with a civil war while standing behind the army you think you have. Why don’t you exemplify him further, since you’re so badly overrun by the white man’s thinking, and end it like he did?

    Go look it up. Next time, I think you’ll pick a braver soul to exemplify when trying to defend your own hypocrisy.

  31. @28

    Sure, we could add vasectomies to the list, but the focus should be on preventing women who were too stupid to listen during Sex Ed from getting pregnant in the first place — obviously “educating” these baby-making-machines hasn’t worked.

    If we crack down on the women who are on welfare cranking out 3-5 future criminals, it saves a lot of money, time, and is far more effective.

    I say $5,000 for a vasectomy, and $10,000 for tubal ligation — women need more incentive to give up their reproductive future than a male.

  32. Vince @20, funny how Charles said “leader”, but you heard “preacher”.

    I’ll bet you’re not the only one, either. Maybe that’s part of the problem in the black community. The Preacher is old-school thinking, the man of God as both the leader of the black community and the mediator between it and the white community. But that doesn’t work anymore. Young black men who are thinking of picking up that gun don’t look to preachers for advice anymore.

    Unfortunately they look as often as not to gangster rappers who tell them “have you been disrespected? Don’t stand for that, son — pick it up, pick that gun up”.

    Someone with the ear of young black males should be telling them that picking up a gun makes you an asshole. Pick up a book instead.

    Funny too how when Charles says “leader”, Charles himself hears “Caesar”, a political figure. There are other kinds of leaders. I don’t think the concept of a black Caesar convincing young black men not to pick up guns is too realistic, either.

    I know that Seattle has a black middle class, but what they don’t have anywhere near enough of is a VISIBLE black middle class. One of the destructors of both racism by whites and the internalized inferiority beliefs of black people is the visible presence not of leaders but of boring but numerous black men and women in suits, on TV, in the paper, on the subway and on the sidewalks. You could call these “positive role models” but it’s more complex than that. We have them but we don’t have enough of them. A thousand middle-class middle managers would make a big difference.

    Charles can have some of that effect in some ways but really his accent and his origin are too different to slave-descended African-Americans to be that kind of leader.

    Also, intellectuals today are not figures of prestige. Unfortunately this is probably even more true in the black community; there’s probably more whites than blacks in this country who see Prof. Gates and say to their boy “look, son, you could be like him”.

  33. Here’s a thought, maybe you don’t need a black leader? You might try looking for a white one. I’m just saying, a little rock and roll, good old fashioned atheism, knitting, and an interest in decent books would patch this problem right up.

  34. @28: Arguing VERY, VERY NARROWLY, and not specifically about humans (I am not AT ALL in favor of either forced or incentivized sterilization), males and females are not equivalent in terms of reproductive capacity. Males are generally profligate in terms of sperm production and distribution; females are parsimonious in the production of ova and also bear the gestational burden in terms of time and nutrition invested. Females, in other words, are the reproductive bottleneck, so the fastest way to limit the fecundity of a population (all other things being equal) is to limit ovulation.

    If anybody feels their blood beginning to boil, PLEASE go back and reread the first sentence. In relation to humans, if I were hetero and there were a male pill, I would get in line for either that or vasectomy because I believe in zero (preferably negative) population growth.

  35. Re: 34 “…I believe in zero (preferably negative) population growth”—as a matter of personal choice through education and contemplation of the direction in which the world is headed.

  37. This isn’t about being rich or poor, black or white.

    This is about people who do — and people who don’t — respect the dignity of human life.

    When a vastly disproportionate amount of crime is committed by a segment of the population –- you have to look at the underlying issues. The facts aren’t on your side if you argue rich vs. poor. There are plenty of examples of poor/disadvantaged people who live peacefully within society.

    The common denominators for increased crime are consistent: single-parent households, substance abuse, excessive exposure to media, and failing to complete high school. These are social factors that the black “community” has substantially talked about, but failed to meaningfully address. Until those choices become re-stigmatized, little is going to change.

    Unfortunately, the black “community” has built a grievance economy, where its “leaders” have substantial financial and political interests to assure that these problems are never effectively addressed.

  39. There, you’re doing it too, Zok. You’re talking about Jackson and Sharpton there. Nobody in the black community gives a shit about them. Al Sharpton doesn’t represent the black community, he represents FOR WHITES. He’s always there for the WHITE media, like at the Michael Jackson funeral.

  40. @37- I 100% agree with you… esp the last paragraph. The problem can’t be solved without acknowledging what the problem is. We are spoonfed the lie that povery and “social injustice” are what causes crime and anyone who questions this gets a verbal beatdown.
    But women are more likely to be poor then men (but men commit 94% of violent crime) and old people are more likely to be poor than young (but people under 25 are more likely to committ crime than people over 50 but a huge %).
    If social injustice were the cause of crime women and gays would be disproportiately involved in it, esp in countries where there are most repressed. But this is not the case. In fact, women are responisble for a much larger percentage of crime in countries where they have the most social, economic, and judicial equality.

  41. Fnarf,

    You don’t know what the hell you’re talking about. I’m not talking about Sharpton or Jackson.

    I’m talking about the likes of Charles Rangel, Maxine Waters, Cornel West, Kanye, Tavis, John Conyers, Jeremiah Wright, Kwame Kilpatrick (and almost any other Detroit Mayor), …

    And, important to note, the leaders of the black community aren’t always black…

    Fnarf, Instead of trying to referee who is/isn’t entitled to identify black community representatives, how about contributing something worthwhile to the conversation?

  44. @37–“don’t respect human dignity”. I think that’s really on the money.

    Sadly, I don’t think so called community and political leaders can make much of a difference when the cause is at the family level. The absence of fathers leads to a multitude of problems and that absence is particularly concentrated in black families. When men don’t take responsibility for their children, the whole community suffers.

  48. ok, trolls, I’ll bite:
    @25/31: no, it’s not classist, it’s sexist, you anti-choice redstate jackwipe poster-child-for-birth-control troll. I love how you reduce it all to veterinary terms. Tho the WSU cougar emblem should say it all, huh? Oops, is my snark showing? On a more constructive note; read Freakonomics for more stats on where criminals come from/develop. Hint: it’s larger and more immaterial than a human vagina. Not that you would know much about those.

    @44 I’ll assume you’re ignorant rather than racist: My best friend works in KingCo juvy court: there are plenty of shitty criminals and murderers even with fathers. Your theory holds little water other than ‘positive family influence can make a big difference’. ( What causes families to lose dads? Divorce/abandonment isn’t particularly more pronounced in ‘racial minority’ families, but incarceration is – by an astounding degree, so you might rethink the depth & causes of the problem there).

    @42 haha FTW

    @43 SUBTLE INTERNET TRUTH: because no one listens to an idiot in reallife; the only way they get heard is on the internets. sigh. Now I’m a sad panda. *pout*

    @23: it’s fair to say the current leadership, city wise, is due for an “et tu brute?” moment. [[No, hatemongers: not via daggers, via votes.]]

    @30: That’s quite a hardon you have for Caesar. it was an analogy, but you seem to have latched on to being only the first 4 letters of it.
    And you presume that Rome and their efficient yet souless grid-system bulldozing of town planning, their decimation/transformation of existing culture and religion, and conscription/slavery of peaceful peoples was something to aspire to. Some (e.g.Greeks) would disagree. Some would also think Cassius stood for change- not for bravery of deeds but openmindness toward all options.

    @16 parker: seriously? you’re going to perpetuate that little gem of guano that marginalizes teachers? THAT’s what you think we need right now? Yes, the very worst teachers fall into your little chestnut’s reasoning – but the very best teachers are those who can do, and happen to also have the separate and highly gifted talent to instruct. Charles seems to be trying to instruct, not from a lack of skill or action, but because he’s got a decent podium from which to help society. What the fuck are YOU doing with your given power?

  49. Reverend Smith

    While the incidence of divorce between blacks and whites may not vary appreciably, the share of children born to single, black parents is ASTOUNDINGLY higher — and there is a direct correlation of that factor, to crime.

    While 33.3% of white children are born to single mothers (a share which is high in its own right), more than 7-out-of-10 (70.2%) of African American children are born to single moms. That’s cultural suicide.

    Looking at divorce rates is a distraction. What it mean is that, once deciding to marry, blacks and whites enjoy the same success rate with raising children in a two-parent household.

    The overriding issue is the number of African Americans who have a go at parenting without marriage.

    And – between races – access to healthcare, contraception, education accounts for little of the difference.

    It’s about choices — and not making smart ones.

  50. White solutions? How preposterous. We need more armed solutions. Bullet solutions. Automatic high caliber Uzi solutions.

    No single citizen will be safe

    until

    every citizen is HEAVILY armed

    all the time

    concealed et al.

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