Speed bumps!

If they're emphasising use of force instead of deescalation tactics and appropriate responses to mental health crises, then no thank you.

@4 Most excellent ideas.

Should I bring some fair trade coffee and start the conversation with an acknowledgment that we live on occupied Duwamish land?

Lester, is "Spate" really the right word to use to describe an agglomeration of something as woefully destructive and potentially tragic as shootings?

I get it, you love you some Spate. But at least work in a fusillade as in What Do Council Candidates Want to Do About the Recent Spate of Fusillades? to filter out the readers who are only attracted to articles about shootings.

Funny how triggered the trolls are by this article, they really need some time in their safe spaces.

@4:FTR POC, Transgender, Lesbian, Gay etc people are regular people, that you are such a sad frightened little man and can't comprehend this tells us all we need to know about you.

@1, 2, 4, 5, and 6 nice straw man you've built, and thank you, by admitting you can't engage the issue with any sense of reality makes it so much easier to just laugh at you.

@8 I take it you liked Kshama Sawant's suggestion a few weeks back that the city could use speed bumps and planters to prevent shootings? Along with an "Amazon tax" I suppose.

Some one needs to explain to these thugs that black lives matter.

Man, those cops in the picture look like recruiting poster-level cops!

So, when I was a cop in Dallas, we would do this in neighborhoods hit by an unusually high spike in violence. We would throw the kitchen sink at it in terms of beat officers on special assignment, so they couldn't be assigned calls for service off their beat (a common occurrence ordinarily), mounted officers from our Special Ops Division and even Tactical (SWAT) officers between critical incident call-outs (hostage and barricaded person calls) and sometimes even a couple of motorcycle cops from the Traffic Division just for good measure.

Such deployments went by different names like "directed patrol," "preventive patrol," "saturation patrol" or the most used "special assignment." It actually does work; it snuffs out most of the violence in pretty short order. It's very effective...but it's also short-term. All those resources have to come from elsewhere in the department, which can only spare them for so long.

Additionally, while community members appreciate the extra effort (most of 'em anyway) at first and even have clamored for it, once the problem has been mostly stamped out, they do start to resent the increased policing...the over-policing. So manpower needs elsewhere and a desire not to alienate the community dictated only short-term use of the method.

Spikes in violence that were bad enough to trigger that kind of a response were usually driven by some sort of beef between street gangs and on occasion even Hatfield-McCoy kinds of family feuds within the neighborhood! I was the overall supervisor in one of the latter cases, as well as a couple of the former. Anyhoo, sometimes the results lasts for awhile once deployment is back to normal, and sometimes it doesn't. In the latter case, it's back to the drawing board.

@9 - you're not looking at her words in context. that was one of the few times she made a proposal for something logical (it's one of the few times she has made a proposal to actually do something). The context is that there is one specific intersection where much of the gun violence is occurring, and in 5 instances there was a get-away down the same side street because it is a long (equivalent of 2.5 normal blocks), straight street that perpetrators have learned is a good get-away street. The concept of CPTED (crime prevention through environmental design...something that is standard is Seattle city planning) was the topic, and the reference to planters and other visual and physical barriers to speeding were relevant to that very specific block. Oh, but "Seattle proposes speed bumps and planters to prevent shootings" is just super fun to repeat and mislead with, isn't it!!

Last year The Economist did a great cover story on urban violence around the world. Crunching data on violence in South and Central America, it was found that 65% of gun violence was part of drunken brawls. Thus...young men drankin', 'having words' - then "pop pop pop". So every time I read about yet another shooting that took place at a social gathering...I gotta wonder: where is the data on alcohol and the role it is playing here? Because if all it takes is a few beers to loosen up a guy's tendency to draw and shoot - maybe we need to double down on booze laws?

Thanks for that insight, @13. Since we are seeing a spike in some places that don't usually see much gun violence, your explanation of the affects of these types of emphasis patrols makes me think that they could be effective in stopping the spike...and since the normal baseline is not super violent, hopefully that's what the areas return to.

@15: it's not drunken brawls here. this is primarily gang violence.

@15 - That was my experience. Young men, machismo and excess drinking don't go very well together.

Outreach to families to recognize signs of gang association
Outreach to schools to identify gang members, remove graffiti and provide parents notice of gang affiliation. Including and especially stricter dress codes and require after school activities or proof of employment.
Use former gang members and others to speak to schools, speak to the community about why they left and why they would never want their brothers and children to ever join one.
Remove problem gang members from the community.

"this is primarily gang violence."

Toxic masculinity more like it.

Why not settle matters the civilized way, with lawyers?

@4

OK as far as it goes, but I'm concerned that you haven't taken measures to make sure none of these meetings ever raises the completely unacceptable topic of maybe possibly taking a very small step or two to reduce the number of guns circulating in vulnerable neighborhoods.

And we should also hold rallies and spread information on the internet to let people know that these neighborhoods are full of residents whose skin-pigment-determined "culture" hasn't yet been criticised thoroughly enough, and needs another close, fault-finding examination.

Finally, we need to convene an inquest to hold local community leaders to account, to find out why none of them are priests or politicians or preachers who both speak out against and work to prevent violence in their own communities, every damn day of every damn week of the year.

Larger issues: vitriol on social media and general decline of courtesy; young men associating weapons with masculinity; use of drugs and alcohol exacerbating near conflicts into outright assaults; the need for gang protection to stay safe when someone's out gunning for you; identification of the larger society as an enemy to be mistrusted; images of athletic and entertainment-world wealth and status, making everyday jobs seem contemptibly petty; politicians afraid to speak honestly about crime who resort to feel-good cliches to avoid confronting underlying cultural issues that belie the usual conservative/progressive divide. Some prudently employed additional police patrols can help with limited target areas and goals--but this is no substitute for self-restraint, social connection beyond gangs, and loving families and social networks. No easy fix here--regardless, stay compassionate and stay honest, even if honesty costs you political allies.

"maybe possibly taking a very small step or two to reduce the number of guns circulating in vulnerable neighborhoods."

Agree. Anyone found with an illegal, unregistered gun in Seattle should be thrown in jail. 5 years.

@23, @25

Please be sensitive, it's only been three days since the tragedy. It's too soon to discuss such things. Politicizing the event at this time would be a breach of ethics and decorum. Let's give the families of the victims time to grieve, and send them our prayers.

If you don't have any prayers of your own on hand, call your local NRA chapter to request a free shipment of 7,500 American Firearm Homicide Prayers, a six-month supply. If you act now, you will also receive 2000 American Firearm Suicide And Accidental Death Prayers at absolutely no extra cost, enough for a full month of normal use. If at any time you are unsatisfied with your Firearm Death Prayers, you may return the remaining Prayers to the NRA at no extra cost or obligation. Act now!

@26 They’re not “busting a cap” at Memorial Day picnics in Boise.

Just sayin’

@27

Yes, good, just as suggested in @21, paragraph 2. This is exactly how we should try to solve the problem, thank you for setting such a fine example for everyone else.

I had no idea that there were only two districts that matter.

Lester, sorry for missing the deadline. I put out a statement on Facebook and Twitter following the shooting at Pritchard Beach.

"This is so incredibly sad. Our family is thinking of the families involved.

Our city has decided to focus on increasing police presence in neighborhoods with "percieved crime" while our district sees an increase in actual violent crime yet doesn't always see police as being the best option with the potential for increased violence toward black and brown bodies by the police. (See police tower at Rainier Ave Safeway, Charlena Lyles, John T. Williams...long long long list of POC shot my police for doing everyday things).

We need reinvestment in our community, police that know us and are from our community. We need stronger gun regulations and paths out of poverty for our children without the added pressure of gentrification and displacement that often follows.

Our city must reinvest in our community so that all people can thrive...these are the best solutions to violence in our community.

I am so saddened by this weekend's violence in our community. So many families are sufferings. We must work together so we can all thrive in place!"

"black and brown bodies"

Your "progressive" cult-jargon is worn out.
Then again, maybe it is very apt. You talk about "black and brown bodies" because talking about "black and brown minds" is such a losing proposition.

Also, a correction, I misspelled Charleena Lyles' name. My apologies to the Lyles, I did not mean to disrespect Charleena. Rest in Power!