Results tagged “gangviolence”

• Friday's zombie crawl scared the living daylights out of Capitol Hill residents. Calls came into the SPD, who later detained the zombies until they realized it was just a costume.
• A colorful health-care rally of 3,500 strong moved into downtown Seattle on Saturday. The staged rally titled, "Health Care for All in 2009" alerted lawmakers that they wanted a single-payer national health-insurance system.
• Leave it to the Boy Scouts to come to the rescue. Kirkland-based Troop 570 was on a camping trip to Blake Island this weekend, when a woman with Alzheimer's went missing. Assembled into search parties, the troop of 29 boys found the woman unharmed two hours later.

The Seattle Police Gang Unit is shaking things up a bit with a new strategy and initiative--plus overtime--this summer to prevent and control the rise in gang violence shifting daily between Central and South Seattle. Honestly, we prefer not writing about the slew of shootings and gang violence taking over parts of Seattle, because we are lovers, not fighters here. But it's getting bad out there. Last year alone, there were 28 homicides due to gang violence. So for everyone's sake we hope whatever new strategies SPD has up their bullet-proof sleeves, they work.

The evening ended abruptly for a group of teens in South Seattle as they came under gunfire after leaving King Donuts, off Rainier Avenue South. Two teen boys, shot in the back, were transported to Harborview with non-life-threatening injuries. Police say the the gunshots, suspected to be gang related, were fired by a man standing across the street.

The group was clear on how important it is for them to respond proactively to the weekend's violence, and organized a few specific ways they plan to do that on a city-wide level. The consensus formed through a respectful but lively debate, informed both by those who had been at the show on Saturday and by senior members of the community who have seen the cycle of anti-hiphop sentiment related to tragic waves of violence rise and fall in Seattle before. Everyone agreed that in the next few weeks, one of the most important things they can do is to support the victims and their families as much as possible. Details are forthcoming about how the community can help, but for now, friends and family are rallying around each other to get through the next crucial hours.

Around 12:30 a.m. this morning, a dispute broke out; someone opened the side door at Capitol Hill venue Chop Suey and began to fire their gun inside at the artists and show attenders inside the hallway. Three men were shot, and subsequently taken to Harborview. Local rapper 29-E died from his gun wounds at the hospital, and the host of the show, 1st Black Prez, was shot in the chest and is in very critical condition. It is not known whether he'll make it through surgery. The third man, Trama of Black Senate, has less critical injuries. The SPD has two suspects in for questioning, and their specialized gang unit detectives, homicide and CSI are all on the case. The violence appears to be gang-related. Slog is reporting that one of the promoters (Big Kountry Entertainment) was warned about the high probability of gang violence at the show and advised to cancel it, but chose to continue with the night as planned. More details when we've got them, and our heart goes out to the friends and family of 29-E, 1st Black Prez and Trama. This was a tragedy.

Last night there was a drive-by shooting in Pioneer Square (at James and 2nd Ave.) in what appears to be another outbreak of gang violence. No one appeared to be hurt, as it was 3 a.m. on the snowiest day of the year and the streets were all but deserted; the only two witnesses are saying the car might have been a VW Passat, which is not very gangsta. We're just saying. Four businesses were hit and the ever-competent SPD gang unit is investigating. As a commenter on the P-I article points out, it's kind of ironic that the mayor starts talking about banning guns from public places while gang violence simultaneously intensifies. Then the commenter starts talking about citizen deputies and vigilantism, thereby losing our initial support. That's not the kind of civilian involvement we need here.

The proposed school closure list has been changed, yet again! The big news is that Rainier Beach High School (previously announced as considered for a merger with Cleveland High School, to the chagrin of almost everyone) is off the closure table. Instead, the plan is to either move Aki Kurose middle school students into the RBHS building or to close down the Center School Program and request that those high-schoolers attend Rainier Beach.

What is going on down there? Yesterday, two teens--aged 17 and 19--were rushed to Harborview with gunshot wounds after a meet-up in Federal Way's Alderdale Park turned violent. The 19-year-old sustained head wounds from the shoot-out and as of last night was in critical condition; sounds like the 17-year-old's wounds are less serious. According to the SPD, the gunshots "might have taken place during a drug deal"; we're just relieved the word "gang" wasn't tossed in, after the uptick in gang-related violence this season.

• Darcy Burner commented on The Daily Weekly this weekend and on Seattlest yesterday, which has us wondering if the person posting as "sir-mix-a-lot" on the Central District News is indeed the Sir Mix-A-Lot. Curses! Just that thought alone, and "Baby's Got Back" is already stuck in our head.
• Watch out, West Seattle: with the wet weather here and more on the way, there's an elevated risk for landslides.
• Violence in Central and South East Seattle is getting scarier by the day. The Rainier Valley Post reports of a seemingly random mid-day shooting with no arrests made.

• Since doing your civic duty (not to mention voting in a historical election) might not be enough to get you to vote today, the Big Blog brings you 7.5 things you can get for free on Election Day.
• Capitalizing on tragedy, local gangs are in the midst of a string of retribution shootings, presumably in response to the shooting we mentioned in yesterday's Neighborhood News. What's that saying? It seemed so trite, but now so true: "two wrongs don't make a right."
• If you live in Phinney Ridge, Wallingford, or Fremont, and you didn't have power yesterday morning, you can blame it on a goose. The bird paid the ultimate price for flying too close to your neighborhood power lines.

• We would go to this new West Seattle restaurant for the name alone: "OK Corral Sam'mich Slingers." Also the words "pulled pork" and "sammiches" are featured largely on their "sammich"-board, so we are 100% sold.
• Our friends at the Rainier Valley Post had an epic day of blogging yesterday, covering everything from the ongoing violence in the Othello neighborhood to updates on Nickelsville and "The Jungle" (two of Seattle's homeless encampments) to a call for volunteers for a Seward Park clean-up this weekend.
• Seattle Metblogs answers a plaguing question brought to us by a distressed reader yesterday: the Alibi Room is a pizza joint now? Sorry, jessejb, but it seems to be true.

If Mayor Greg Nickels can cut youth crime in half, as long as we give him $9 million, shouldn't we just give him $18 million and get rid of youth crime all together?