Seattle is now reaping the rewards of its retarded version of white-guilt "progressive liberalism" and its fight against "white privilege", the same retard philosophy that brought Seattle Caprice Hollins, the "Office of Race and Equity", and the "African American Academy", the poorest performing school in the whole SPS.

The only funny thing is that white-guilt Seattle "progressive liberals" have to live with the filth, chaos, and retardedness that their policies create.

The SPD needs to ask itself, what would Vic Mackey do?

Excellent piece, Jonah. Thank you!

Vic Mackey, indeed! He would set Los Treces up against the Disciples and make a handy profit that he could reinvest in the local economy. It would be perfect. I wish Seattle had more dirty cops.

Thanks to lazy journalism that caters to people's cynicism about youth violence, you are part of the problem.

You give us glib, sensationalistic assertions like "it's going to be a violent summer." Really? Why is that, do you think? And I bet Lt. Wilson wouldn't agree that the increased gang unit headcount is in preparation for an "anticipated street war."

You say that "gang members are now involved in just about every type of crime" instead of just crack, as in the mid-Eighties. It would be more accurate to say that today's gangs are less tied to criminal commerce of any type than in the Eighties and are less of a public menace because of it -- the opposite of the impression you give. But that wouldn't be very exciting!

We don't get the answer to the loaded question "Is the City's Anti-Gang Plan Destined for Failure?" because you dismiss the plan's premise, apparently without understanding it. What kind of a sentence is "for all the good the program might do, there's a lot it might not"? So there's a bunch of stuff you don't identify that the program "might do," but your beef is that it won't stop older, hardened gang members from committing acts of violence.

You then describe just how impossible it would be to reach the older kids by quoting your gang expert from Eugene, Oregon. He says "with gangs, the elected officials make the decisions and tell the law enforcement" how to deal with it, implying that's the case with Seattle's Youth Violence Prevention Initiative, but without having the nuts to explicitly assert it (which would have been false). The YVPI has its weaknesses, but you apparently haven't taken the time to understand what it's about.

And where are the "lost boys" of the article's title? You pose them cinematically in a hail of bullets, shooting out of a car window, and "bleeding out on street corners," but their only speaking part comes when your middle-aged, white, Eugene resident explains what they're thinking - "Fuck, man, I'm not going to live to 20 years old." How hopeless! You hold our hands, rehearsing how helpless we are to affect the situation. The only thing to do is join the Stranger in carping at city government for not solving the WHOLE problem last year.

Me, I am trying to do something about youth violence in Seattle and the surrounding communities, even if it's modest. I'm helping to organize a march and rally in support of our youth, which will go down on Saturday, June 20th:

http://tinyurl.com/oqty4c

People of all ages, from all walks of life, from neighborhoods all around will show. We will present some very specific opportunities for people who attend to help support youth and be a part of the solution to the youth violence problem.

I have to agree with Tom Boerman who stated that the wrong people are working on the answers. Local politicians are not qualified to solve the problem. I would like to know how many of these "decision makers" live in the neighborhoods where these activities are taking place.

Living down in the southend I have heard gunshots at night, seen one guy lying on the sidewalk bleeding another time and seen people running when shots were fired near the Bank of America in Rainier Beach. The prostitutes working Rainier Ave do their business on the streets near my house, leaving the condoms after they leave.

im thinking about all the teachers that could have been paid with that nine million