It’s going to be a violent summer. After three years of street
shoot-outs sparked by disputes over drug turf, prostitution rackets,
and disrespect between rival gangs, the Seattle Police Department is beefing up its gang unit, bringing the unit’s total to
15 detectives and three sergeants in preparation for an anticipated
street war.
“It’s been a busy three years,” says SPD Gang Unit lieutenant Ron
Wilson. Wilson says the gang problem—an estimated 4,600 members
and counting—”outnumbers any law-enforcement resources.” Wilson
says gang members are now involved in just about every type of crime,
including burglary, identity and auto theft, prostitution, and
robbery—a major shift from the crack-focused gangs that prompted
SPD to create the gang unit in the mid-1980s.
Gang detectives investigated nearly half of Seattle’s 28 homicides
in 2008, all young black men who died in a hail of gunfire. By now,
you’ve likely forgotten their names. Here are a few: Allen Joplin, 17,
shot to death at a high-school party on Lower Queen Anne. De’Che
Morrison, 14, killed days later near his South Seattle home. Pierre
LaPoint, 15, gunned down near Rainier Avenue South and Graham Street in
August. And Quincy Coleman, 15, fatally shot near Garfield High
School.
To keep that list from growing, Mayor Greg Nickels and the city
council have trotted out the Youth Violence Prevention Initiative, a $9
million program designed to “reduce youth violence by 50 percent” and
provide alternatives to the gang lifestyle, according to the mayor’s
office.
For all the good the program will do, there’s a lot it might not.
Part of the problem is in the name: Youth Violence Prevention Initiative. Prevention—cutting gang recruiters off before they
can recruit middle-school kids into gangs—seems like an obvious
solution, but prevention only addresses half the problem.
“Those kids in high schools have probably been around the gangs long
enough that it’s tougher,” SPD’s Wilson says. “Prevention won’t work.
They’re already so involved.” Middle-school kids aren’t the ones
pulling off daylight drive-bys on busy blocks or bleeding out on street
corners.
And if hardened gang members are beyond the reach of prevention
efforts, the city only has two other options: Count on the bigger,
badder gang unit to arrest the city’s way out of the problem or hope
that intervention—reaching out to gang members to try to help
them escape gang life—works. But that might be easier said than
done.
Tom Boerman, a former cop, parole officer, and gang consultant based
out of Eugene, Oregon, says that while there are working models for
intervention in other cities, the wrong people are usually in charge of
designing
anti-gang programs. “If what you were looking at was a
medical issue, the people making the decisions would be the
epidemiologists,” he says. “With gangs, the elected officials make the
decisions and tell the law enforcement [how to deal with it]. It’s kind
of backwards.”
According to Boerman, the gang problem isn’t homogenous and members
must be approached based on their individual needs. “What happens if we
convince a young man to become part of an intervention program, but all
the guys who used to be his rivals are still on his ass? He has no
protection because he’s left the gang.”
Most of all, Boerman says, the city will have to overcome the
hopelessness and despair found in gang-involved youth. “These gang kids
will tell you, ‘Fuck, man, I’m not going to live to 20 years old.
There’s a bullet out there with my name on it,'” Boerman says. “They
feel like they’re dead walking. It just hasn’t happened yet.”
The city has already put police resource officers into four middle
schools and one high school in hopes of keeping violence out of
classrooms and guiding kids away from gangs. Part of that $9 million
will also go toward keeping community centers open
later—hopefully giving potential gang recruits a place to
go—and will pay for anger-management classes for youth and a
small army of social workers to help steer young recruits and older
members out of gangs. So far, the city has a list of 762 names of kids
from Southeast, Southwest, and Central
Seattle from court
referrals.
Those resources may help keep kids from becoming gang members, but
they won’t help older kids who are already deeply entrenched in gang
life. Which raises a question: If the city has known the gang problem
has been getting worse since 2008, why did it take so long to act?
“It’s easy to be a Monday-
morning quarterback,” says city council
member Tim Burgess, who worked with the mayor on the initiative. “We
could’ve responded better. I think what we can say today is we are
firing on all cylinders now, and I think our responses are good ones.”
people need money! as long as people need money gangs and crime will prevail, life’s of crime are started for the “need” of something and not the “want”! after you get good at getting what you need you roll with what you know!
It used to be money was the root of all evil! now its much worse as money is everything and the government and the banks and the meter maid are after your wallet big time!
For those poor souls who grew up in it and live it! its not the news article that’s been repeated since Gen Custer got whacked by the Sioux gangs as its just life and when its just part of life? well 6.5 million paid for the penguin prison at the zoo? the Mayors 9 million would get a larger penguin prison! only Scooter Libbey’s get second chances and are forgiven! if you made a mistake and have a criminal record? your unforgiven.
So your asking is 9 million going to keep teenagers who are still living with mom and pop safe?
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?
ive lived in south seattle all my life, and the DARE programs and all of that? SAVE it for those who come from good families…your talking about southend, west seattle, and the central district, we have been beefing with those cats for months, years, days,….its not going to stop, regardless of what police, money, goverment, whatever we use to keep our families safe. We arent even safe in our own homes, let alone on the streets. Everyday we as a community have to watch our backs and listen to the conversations around us to make sure we arent targeted. I know most of these children that they name in these newspapers and media. It hurts that i was talking to them one minute and the next, they leave me to a better place. And the OGs, that run these gangs, are just as stupid for letting anyone in their gang,these are children, babies, that are dying for them. This aint about turf, or money, its about who is willing to die to become legend. These gangs sit there and brainwash these children about how people are telling them how low class they are, and how they arent much better than the other parts of seattle, and blah blah blah, these children suck it up and believe it, act out on it, and all of a sudden, guess what? we morn another baby…..and the police think that beefing up its department will help, for every gang member shot, another one is born. CONGRATS SPD, i hope that all the money you use is worth every penny worth spending.
9 Million dollars sounds like a lot of money. And, it is – a lot of money, that is. But, the VAST majority of 9M will go to CITY programs – police, community centers, etc… EXISTING SERVICES. This isn’t really new money at least not most of it.
Its true that prevention won’t help current teens – but what about those who will be in the same position in 10 years? Preschool, parenting classes, literacy programs, and access to parks and good quality schools will be what makes the difference in coming years.
Additionally, there are a huge number of non-profit partners who create a safety net. Given the economy and realities of nonprofits most of these organizations are at 20% below budget and are unable to serve the large number of people who need help.
Why doesn’t the City pony up some REAL money and fund programs outside those that line government pockets.
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.
How about a prevention program? Why don’t we looking into the differences between East-side and Seattle gangs? Why don’t we make it more lucrative to NOT be in a gang instead of forcing them into one by financial burden?
As far as the Anti-gang cops, from what I heard they are worse then the gangs themselves!
Legalize/regulate drugs and prostitution, eliminate the black market, increase education, and provide living wages. That’s the solution to a gang problem. Not above the law cops.
Sadly, gangs are the symptom, not the root problem. Children who feel totally disconnected from society as a whole feel no remorse about robbing and killing.
“Mayor Greg Nickels and the city council have trotted out the Youth Violence Prevention Initiative, a $9 million program designed to “reduce youth violence by 50 percent” and provide alternatives to the gang lifestyle, according to the mayor’s office.”
$9 Million/projected reduction of gang-related deaths (7)= $1,285,714.30 per life saved. Excellent.
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