After a violent summer, Southeast Seattle residents are starting to
get restless. Between June and August, three kids between the ages of 14
and 18 were killed in the area. In the last month alone, there have
been at least half a dozen shootings, many of them attributed to rising
tensions between rival gangs. As Mayor Greg Nickels trots out his Youth
Violence Prevention Initiative—a $9 million program designed to
keep kids out of gangs and reduce violence in South and Central
Seattle—South Seattle residents like Rachel Risley and Scott
Schenk are getting used to the sounds of gunshots and police
helicopters outside their home.
Risley and Schenk, both 37, bought a house in the Brighton Beach
neighborhood just over a year ago after 10 years of living on Capitol
Hill. Schenk says they wanted to “escape the yuppie invasion” and find
a diverse school for their 6-year-old daughter.
In the couple’s first year in the neighborhood, Schenk says he’s
seen prostitutes living in cars on their block, witnessed drug deals at
an open-air drug market in front of a neighboring apartment building,
and been sucker punched by an aggressive panhandler. “We thought of
that as local flavor until the shootings,” Risley says.
On September 23, a 30-year-old man was shot late at night on the
corner of South Garden Street and Rainier Avenue South, just 300 feet
from Risley and Schenk’s front door. SPD sent out a fleet of officers
and called in a helicopter to search for the shooter but came up
emptyhanded. Now, Risley says, they won’t let their daughter play in
their yard unsupervised, and never after dark.
Schenk and Risley’s response, though perhaps overcautious, is hardly
unique. On October 2, a crowd of about 60 south-end residents gathered
in the basement of the Holly Park Community Church to rage at Seattle
Police Department assistant chief Nick Metz, South Precinct captain Les
Liggins, and Lieutenant James Koutsky about what some referred to as a
“gang war” in the Rainier Valley.
It’s easy to attribute Southeast Seattle residents’ collective
freak-out to the recent influx of white, middle-class homeowners in the
area. And with 2008 crime statistics not yet available, the evidence
remains anecdotal. Still, residents’ concerns do seem to have some
validity. So far this year, there have been at least three murders
(assault statistics are not yet available) in SPD’s South Precinct,
compared to six murders and 277 aggravated assaults for all of 2007.
Those numbers, however, are still relatively low compared to the nine
murders and nearly 600 assaults that took place during the same period
in the South Precinct in 1996. And some longtime residents say the
recent attention is more about gentrification than any actual surge of
violence.
“It’s been going on for a while,” says South Seattle resident Kwame
Wyking Allah Garrett. Garrett, 31—who works with groups like the
Seattle Hip-Hop Youth Council and has lived in Central and South
Seattle all his life—worries that calls for more police presence
will just exacerbate the problem, exposing more young black men to
police profiling and negative interactions with SPD.
At last week’s meeting, Garrett wasn’t shy about pointing fingers at
the mostly white crowd for suddenly demanding more police presence in
the area. “I know there’s not a lot of African Americans in this crowd.
We don’t want to have this be us versus them, but in this situation, it
is,” he said.
“I don’t think the police are the solution to social issues. What
they’re calling gang violence is really a socioeconomic issue,” Garrett
says, pointing out that a persistent lack of police presence in
wealthier neighborhoods, such as Madison Park and Queen Anne, hasn’t
led to a rise in violent crime.
While Southeast Seattle residents remain divided about the
appropriate response to violence in their neighborhoods, officers in
SPD’s South Precinct are struggling to keep up with the problems
they’ve already got.
In January, SPD shifted the South Precinct’s boundaries, requiring
south-end officers to cover a much larger area. At the October 2
meeting, Captain Liggins strongly implied his precinct was
understaffed—a fact he blamed on “city bureaucracy.”
With a lack of hard evidence that crime is on the rise, it’s still
unclear whether South Seattle residents are right that crime is
surging. However, with neighbors afraid to go out at night and South
Precinct commanders saying staffing numbers won’t be at adequate levels
for at least another year, it’s unlikely South Seattle residents are
going to feel safer anytime soon. 
Call me selfish, Kwame, but I don’t want my (white) kid shot.
At the same time, it seemed no one cared much about S. Seattle’s kids-killing-kids problem until there were white folks at risk. Suddenly, everyone cares. That doesn’t mean the root of the problem will be addressed… probably just more cops.
“Now, Risley says, they won’t let their daughter play in their yard unsupervised, and never after dark.
Schenk and Risley’s response, though perhaps overcautious, is hardly unique.”
Is it really overcautious? I grew up in an area like that in D.C. — I think their caution is wise..
I’m glad to see that your tune seems to have changed since you wrote this Jonah: http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Content?oid=262569
Maybe it’s horrible and racist that crime in South Seattle is only getting attention now that white people live there, but does that mean that the proper response is to just ignore the crime?
I get that some people may see increased police presence as something that will only exacerbate the problem, but what should be done? Garrett calls it a “socioeconomic problem” but doesn’t offer any suggestions. It seems that these activists, or maybe just The Stranger, are missing a chance to offer constructive input on how to deal with crime in lower-income, diverse neighborhoods.
South Seattle residents are upset– and not only because of the shootings you refer to here, but because of the serial groper prowling Beacon Hill earlier this year, the two rapes that occurred in the last two months, the robbed bicyclists, the Paroline case, the drug deals along Rainier and MLK.
Nice to see The Stranger finally covering the more recent South Seattle crime after Robert Jamieson’s article in the PI came out over a week ago. Good thing we have The Rainier Valley Post. Amber has been all over this stuff when it actually happens.
Well they don’t have anything to complain about. They are getting light rail. Light rail is a transformative element. It will bring into being rapid and frequent service to employment centers. Soon they’ll be able to ride it frequently. It will bring economic development. There likely will be a sidewalk cafe culture there, as in Paris. A rising tide will raise all ships. With the decreased greenhouse gases, children of all creeds and colors will be able to play outside together. Hang on folks, the youth will have a harmonious coexistence. We have light rail to thank for it.
yummm, i like that ‘local flavor’ a lot better that the yucky ‘yuppie’ flavor on capitol hill.
the issues in the article are very worthwhile, but this attempt to tie in the ‘human side’ with this couple is weak, weak, weak. their individual plight is unsympathetic – what did they think they might get when they move into that ‘hood?
Media Team, what the fuck are you talking about? Light rail isn’t going to end crime, and believe me: it has only lead to more complaining in the RV. There are many folks who don’t want the mounting gentrification that comes with light rail despite the advantage of having improved transit. To suggest that light rail somehow means that RV residents have no reason to complain is just ignorant. Come down here and catch a bullet. See how you feel then.
I’d be interested in hearing more of Garrett’s perspectives. If it is not gang activity that’s causing the shootings, where is it coming from? I don’t know, because although I have some socio-economic reasons of my own, I haven’t shot anyone. And more police will just create more shootings? You can’t just dangle these positions out there in an article like this and not force him to flesh out his opinions. How are the division of races turning into “us versus them”? Black residents don’t mind crime, but white people do? Black residents wouldn’t report their kids being shot? Come on, you’re just skimming the surface of this issue.
And for Jimmy, I tend to think that citizens should expect to live in any neighborhood without drive-bys, period. The perpetrators are breaking laws, and I’m tired of neighbors being blamed for wanting to live without exposure to violent crime. Moving to frat row and complaining about vomit on your sidewalk? Okay, I’ll understand that being silly. However, moving anywhere in Seattle and complaining about people shooting each other on your street? Totally reasonable. Our laws don’t change by zip code. Or, Garrett, they shouldn’t be expected to.
Stupid fucking credulous hack. “Open air drug markets” are code for “n*gger loitering spot”. why repeat the words so credulously?
JSL could have interviewed at least one person who is a longtime Rainier Valley resident or an activist (like community organizer Gregory Davis interviewed this week on the RV Post blog ) not so personally invested in anti-police rhetoric. As the article goes it makes the issue hysterical white yuppies versus persecuted, profiled black teens. Neither is very representative of the issues or opinions of most RV residents.
I’ve lived in the RV for well over 30 years and graduated from Rainier Beach High School in the late eighties, the last worst crime era. In a gang infested school, I never felt personally threatened as long as I followed the unofficial rules. Riding the 7 on Rainier Ave. and waiting at bus stops wasn’t an invitation for a mugging or rape.
Right now really seems worse than ever, but we can’t get statistics because Seattle Police (at the behest of the mayor?) are holding them back. Anti-snitching culture among teens cuts reporting. And young girls may not know and definitely don’t report that their boyfriend, pimp, or the “22 year old guy down the street” sleeping with/selling/beating them is committing a crime.
In the nineties and early 2000s it was not perfect, but RV had both comprehensive social programs to keep kids out of gangs AND a police anti-gang task force that kept much of the brazen crime down. Nickels and the city took that success, declared the problem solved, and cut the budgets. Then expanded the South Precinct area and cut staffing. At the same time Seattle Public schools gave up on the South End high schools and middle schools turning them into WASL warehouses that push out the kids who can’t/won’t pass the test on to the streets. Additionally the families of many youths on RV streets do not live in Seattle anymore, if they ever did. Our southern suburban neighbors have pushed their “bad kids” to the city. So now we are starting all over again.
While public services are failing some youth, it is not acceptable for crime and intimidation by teens and young adults to take over our streets. The most victimized are other young people and children. Kids with bikes, ipods, sneakers or other nice things are targeted for mugging. Young girls and women are threatened by rape and forced/lured into prostitution and abusive relationships. Parents have to drive teens everywhere because riding the bus and walking to and from stops outside of commuting hours or daylight makes them vulnerable targets.
Homeowners (most have been here more than one year and are not white or rich) shouldn’t have to put up with young men loitering while selling drugs or women’s bodies in front of their homes. They should be safe enjoying their backyards in the evenings. Neighbors should be able to take care of traffic circle plantings without being attacked by strangers racing through a side street. Drivers, bicyclists, and pedestrians shouldn’t have to dodge the drunk, high, underage/child, unlicensed drivers that make Rainier Ave and King Way nightmares to cross or ride on. Small business shouldn’t have to paint over tagging on their walls every week.
Profiling? Teenage boys loitering for hours on the same corners, teenage girls in skimpy clothes being yelled at and beat by older (still young) men at bus stops, aggressive reckless driving by children clearly not 16 years old yet. $80K SUVs or $2K sedans with $40K of spinning wheels driven by teenagers too young to afford them through a legitimate job. The police should stop and intervene, ask for ID or license, registration, and insurance in these instances. Get the children to services or home to their parents.
As an almost middle aged, middle class professional I have not been directly affected(yet). I hear the gunshots and twice this summer had to stay locked up in the house while yards on my block were searched for suspects in those shootings. I won’t ride the #7 anytime and or any other bus after 7-8pm, the real intimidation from young riders makes having a car or taking a taxi necessary(sorry ECB). How will it be on the light rail?
And I’m sure the story is the same in the Central District…
you know what, you have your loitering spots, and you have your drug markets, and after 4.5 years living just off Rainier, I can tell the difference. I’m guessing I’m not the only one…
ps. we’re not all afraid to go out at night, or ride the #7 after dark either
I thought the point was that people like Kwame ARE doing something, while the rest of us stand on the fringe. We have an incredible neighborhood down here when it comes to people in community. Families here go back and way back, and that includes many white families. The question is how far we are willing to go in understanding each other’s lives.
I, as a white father, know NOTHING about what it is like to be a African American mother who’s teenage son has NO CHOICE but to come into contact with dangerous people. By contrast, I have a criminal problem in my neighborhood.
Can’t wait to see how they like their daughter’s “more diverse school” when she turns 12.
I feel for you, until I remember that I live in Philadelphia with over 300 murders last year. Gawd, do I miss Seattle.
They should have just stayed in Capitol Hill and rented New Jack City. Then they could turn the violence off at their convenience- unlike the other residents who have been enduring it long before their ‘manifest destiny’ arrival.
A few more police patrols won’t make a difference if the city just reassigns them to the next trouble that catches their attention. SPD is grossly undersized for this city and because of that winds up zipping from call to call to fill out the reports without having the time or resources to actually investigate and arrest perpetrators.
Effective policing isn’t just a heavy presence on the street but the ability to follow up, bring the criminals to justice and prevent them from striking over and over with impunity.
“What they’re calling gang violence is really a socioeconomic issue,” Garrett says, **pointing out that a persistent lack of police presence in wealthier neighborhoods, such as Madison Park and Queen Anne, hasn’t led to a rise in violent crime.**” emphasis added
A Blank-slater if there ever was one!
Yeah, lol, New Jack City. Listen up smart guy. You’d have to live under a rock, or in Bellevue or Federal Way to have missed the fact that Seattle has a segregated nature. I’d guess it goes back to things like curfews for african-americans in the U-district, etc. That doesn’t mean that there aren’t some of us that actually want, even enjoy living in a culturally mixed hood, regardless of the crime, or ‘local flavor’.
BTW, if I thought hookers and bullets would help prevent stupid yuppies of any color coming into my neighborhood, putting up a fence to hide behind and killing local businesses by shopping at Big Boxes, I’d have to say, let the crime commence.
“Can’t wait to see how they like their daughter’s “more diverse school” when she turns 12.”
Is that a comment borne of your experience or just your prejudice? Either way, I think I’d like it just fine, especially if she doesn’t grow up with presumptions like that firmly planted.
As some who lived in this area for most of his life, find ironic that white have now taken over the area & now have the same complaints that we have had, but no one listened & we moved
In Madison Park and Queen Anne, the cops show up when your car gets stolen.
Here, they chuckle and mutter something about “niggers” before they’re off the phone. Big difference, kids.
I am calling bullshit on Kwame.
Where is the African American community in SE Seattle who are organizing, meeting their neighbors and protecting the children, who I watch daily stand alone at their bus stops within feet of drug dealers, users and prostitutes. It’s obvious who is dealing or looking, as opposed to hanging out.
This is norm for this community, but it’s a norm that needs to change. This community is in crisis, our African American community is in crisis. I have lived in South Seattle 8 years, but only moved to the Rainier and Othello neighborhood 2 1/2 years ago. It’s appalling that this community will stand by and watch (or look the other way) what I see every day. I don’t care how it’s always been. It’s wrong.
I speak up and pay attention to the shit going on in this neighborhood because of those kids. I am less concerned about my safety. Who is getting shot? Not middle aged white women.
How do we work together to make it safer, Kwame? How do we work with law enforcement instead of against them? These kids in this neighborhood deserve more, and they don’t have the choice to move.
there jsut isnt an easy solution to solve this. the increase in a middle class mostly white populace to the area has prduced more outcry and attention to the problems of south seattle, i think the fact that its THIER outcry, not the outcry of the parents of these dead kids and the communities for over the lasy 20 years that produced corrective action and attention from the mayor, city and media that has so many rattled by the socio-economic implications.
an increase in police MAY help the problem but really it boils down to values and family. im latino, gangs have run in my family for generations in chicago. i took another route and my parents pushed another route on me, by dissuading the gangster lifestyle that crippled my uncle. part of the problem is that the communities(white/black/asian/latino) are not taking accuontability for the actions of their youth. the kids become teens and the parents jsut give up on them instead of standing by their side to guide them. parenting stops being about coddling when your kid hits puberty, from that point on parents need to guide their kids into adulthood and teach them REAL values and responsibilities. most of these have been given up on.
theres no quick fix. better schools better funding for better pprograms will help to an extned, but its the family and values that need to be addressed to really fix anything.
Garrett should consider mayyyybe doing a little research before advertising “us against them” racial messages in the media. I live in New Holly dubbed a “social experiment” (Seattle Times, 2007) and after sitting through similar meetings with the SPD, the reason that this article mentions increased gang activity is because there IS INCREASED GANG ACTIVITY. The SPD has provided numerous statements in these meetings and to the press that there are currently three gangs rivaling for the New Holly neighborhood. The bottom line is that whether the crime stats for 2008 are up or down, there IS TOO MUCH CRIME in this area that needs to get under control. Not just for my sake or for Garrett’s but for all of our fellow RV neighbors. If you are interested in learning more about New Holly you can read the Seattle Times article at http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2003705070_newholly13m.html.
Kwame is mimicking the sound bits of the local NAACP.
Racial profiling is there, no question, but that doesn’t negate the violence in the African American community. When has the NAACP held a press conference highlighting the drug and gang culture that is prevalent in SE Seattle?
i moved to n beacon hill where my neighbors (black) routinely park their car in the drive blasting hip hop so loud my windows vibrate. the family stands in the driveway screaming at each other loudly. the neighbors (black) beyond have a pair of shoes hanging over the telephone wires. their yard is filled with trash and a neglected pitbull that howls all night. they drive expensive cars and young women that look like hookers and men that look like drug dealers arrive and leave at all hours of the night. if i wasn’t a racist before, i am becoming one now.
I live in Capitol Hill and work in SE. The crime exists in both neighborhoods – in fact if you look at statistics by zip codes, crime in Capitol Hill is actually higher. But this is not the issue – the issue is that kids are getting shot. I have talked with mother’s who have lost their children to gun violence, and am working with members of the community to help organize another March for Youth in SE Seattle.
No amount of money from the city will “fix” this problem – their 9 million will be a band-aid at best. Without the involvement of parents, teachers and community groups that are working on the front-lines with these kids, we’re not going to be making any head way any time soon. Funding for stipends for youth involved in positive activities that keep them off the streets, incentives for parents to be involved in their kids lives while working multiple jobs and worrying about the economy, opportunities for positive african american role models to reach out to students — it’s time for a culture shift.
Read “Street Soldiers” to see how someone else has done it…
well Scott I hope you and your wife and your daughter have moved away from that place. long time no hear this is Dina Curvin, I live in LA with my husband and twins.
P.S
you look the same
regards,
Dina
P.S.S
visit my youtube page
dina9000