Look at the way YOU GUYS are flipping out about this shooting. I said this elsewhere and seeing the Stranger's hysteria, I believe it more than ever: this is going to be used as a knee jerk justification to crack down on late-night parties, raves and the renting of homes by young people all over Seattle... the same way 9/11 was used to justify Iraq and the Patriot Act.

It was just a senseless act by some kid that was probably on meds. Calm the fuck down and stop it, Stranger, until everyone's got their facts straight. You're fueling a fire that's gonna lead to another chop-block on people's rights.

"OOH, creepy ravers!" You're acting just as prissy as the suburbanites you criticise every week... or are you slowly becoming them?

huh? i don't think the Stranger is 'flipping out'...they're reporting on an important story happening, almost literally, in their backyard...(I know that Savage, Keck, and the not so beloved food critic, Dickerman, all live nearby)

oops..i think i missed the link for the discussion from nwtekno:

http://nwtekno.org/vb/showthread.php?s=75384c3b35ea4bd41a689c7d03f14bb4&threadid=98954

might have to be registered to see it.

Too much emphasis is being placed on how creepy the kids involved are, a lot like how much of the emphasis on the Columbine shooters was placed on how withdrawn and weird the shooters were, which led to schools banning trenchcoats and all sorts of other silly nanny moves that didn't address the real problem.

They're helping the local media take as many gullible people as possible down the same exact road. The Stranger should be more responsible than this.

And yes, a lot of this comes from being in their own backyard. If this happened in Greenwood or White Center, they wouldn't care, and that's the saddest part of all.

We've placed no emphasis on the creepy kids—we've talked about the fact that it was an after party, and can't really avoid mentioning what it was an after party for.

We're not a bunch of little old ladies. We think a zombie party is a themed dance party, a rave, a costume party. We're not wetting ourselves.

But this shooting intersects with a lot of stuff the Stranger writes about and covers every week—dances, club nights, parties, all-ages events, house parties (glad Party Crasher wasn't there). We couldn't ignore this if we wanted to.

And I promise you, Gomez, when seven people get shot to death in Greenwood, or White Center, we'll jump on that too.

Ha, whatever. Seven people dead at a house party(!) in any neighborhood is news.

Be careful Party Crasher!

Savage beat me to it.

oh, I guess responsible journalism would be to ignore the story or not mention that the victims were dressed as 'the undead'...uh, huh.

and if you think The Stranger or any other responsible media outlet would ignore a 7 person mass murder just because it was in another part of the city, you're pretty fucking naive, don't you think? And considering that the Stranger is Capitol Hill's 'hometown' paper, and that the victims/people involved are in the Stranger target demographic, it'd be pretty fucking stupid of them not to cover this story, wouldn't it?

you seem to be more concerned that your rights to have an all night party might be curtailed rather than the fact that 7 people are dead. If the City Council or Legislature did pass any laws trying to curtail such parties, don't you think they'd be difficult to enforce and certainly challenged in the courts? Now, if the shooting had actually occured at the public event at CHAC, you might have something to worry about. Certainly, some dim witted politician would try to ban certain kinds of all ages events. A private party in a private home, as long as the cops aren't called by neighbors, is a very difficult thing to legislate against.

oh, and the Columbine shooters, they WERE weird and withdrawn; they murdered or maimed a couple dozen people. Was the media suppossed to focus their stories on those poor, little killers instead of the people they slaughtered? uh, no. You have strange, selfish priorities. You seem to be most concerned that Goth parties might be curtailed and the media might portray Goth people as freaks. Isn't that why Goth people are Goth? To be seen as anti establishment 'freaks'? If they didn't want to be viewed that way, they'd live in Bellevue and shop at JC Penney and be dull and boring. If you want to associate your self with an alternative lifestyle, you gotta take the bad lumps with the good and not cry about it. Instead, you might cry for all those poor dead people instead of being such a fucking whiney ass baby.

NO, responsible journalism mentions the attire but does not repeatedly emphasize it in lieu of reporting the story. Responsible journalism tries to find out the killer's motive, and if they can't at this time, they find out information about the victims, without labeling them as creepy or whatnot. The creepiness has little to nothing to do with what just happened.

Until there's more information, maybe they should shut their trap and let the story unfold as information becomes available, like journalists are supposed to do.

I don't recall reading anywhere where it has been emphasized repeatedly as 'creepy'. It has been reported what people were wearing and what event they had attended earlier in the evening; that's part of recording the facts of the case. The facts are, a heinous crime was committed at an after hours party following a public event that featured a Zombie/Undead theme. It's part of the story, whether you like it or not. Your raging paranoia and immaturity prevents you from seeing or understanding this.

My favorite was when Gomez said they should shut their trap "like journalists are supposed to do."

Thanks for taking me out of context, Richard.

I'm saying don't make more out of the story than what is factually there.

Well, you made it pretty easy there Gomie.

Thing is, this is already an international story. It's lurid and sensational as could be. Expect at least one major motion picture next spring, a Law & Order episode, and dozens of national cable news hours in the next week based on the new Zombie Rave threat (and its ties to Al Qaeda) . And locally, the moralizing and reaction from mainstream media and the bigbox churches will clog the public discourse for a while. That's not The Stranger's fault and its certainly not within their power to prevent.

I say kudos to The Stranger-ers for working so hard on a Saturday. And if the lurid and sensational were not allowed, what would be left of this blog anyway? O yeah, zoning reform.

But I agree Gomez, the story, and the real horror, shock and moral indignation should be directed against the shooter and whomever allowed him to be sick and armed. (Shotgun w/pistol grip, automatic pistol and assault rifle, according to the Police Chief.) That's the sound bite that will bear repeating during the coming media and public policy reaction.

Sincere respects to the dead and those that suffer their loss.

Points taken. I second the kudos to the Stranger for all their coverage today, even in light of my earlier criticisms. They were on top of this story once information was available and stayed on top of it throughout the day.

Sincere best wishes to the family and friends of those who passed, and let's see what we all can reasonably do about preventing another tragedy like this.