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Saturday, December 16, 2006

Crime! Gangs! Frozen reporters!

posted by on December 16 at 12:27 PM

I have bad meeting mojo this week. I was scheduled last night to meet a source at the Starbucks at 23rd and Jackson. Of course, when I got there at 5:30, the intersection was pitch black. The outage stretched for as far as I could see. I would have just left but a friend with no cell phone had promised to come get me at 6:30. So … I waited. My source never showed. Wearing rubber boots and a skirt my mom might tsk at, I started to get cold, and attract attention from passersby. I was plotting my escape when a woman started yelling “Call 911!” and young man with blood streaming from his nose ran up and threw himself down on the ground. The boy, a slim, pale, 22-year-old lad from Boise, had decided to skate past a group of red and black-clad young men standing at the entrance of the creepy parking lot behind the Starbucks. The young men jumped the skater. They took his board and his I-Pod. He held onto his wallet. The kid will be okay. He’ll have a black eye and maybe, but I doubt it, a broken nose. When police arrived I tried to talk to them about gangs in Seattle — what I was supposed to talk to my source about. The officer I spoke with said the Central District had lots of gangs (he couldn’t name them) but definitely no Bloods (so why were those kids wearing black and red?). I remain skeptical. To me, Seattle’s gang problem still sounds like a bunch of loose groups of scary, but not exactly organized or murderous, kids. They’re obviously out there, but we have bigger things to worry about. The police left and before frostbite set in, my ride arrived. Two hot toddies later, I had thawed out.

RSS icon Comments

1

That cop was patronizing you.

Posted by Listen To Treach | December 16, 2006 1:03 PM
2

Yep the cops have bigger things to worry about... like busting Rick's.

Posted by Dave Coffman | December 16, 2006 2:04 PM
3

guard your grill, knuckle up!

Posted by lar | December 16, 2006 2:29 PM
4

I know for a fact that there are at least some BGD's in Seattle. The one member that I know about came from Chicago. I have no idea whether they are organized or not though. The reason I know this is that one of them hit on me in a bar one night, and talked about it a little bit. When I went home later that night I researched them on the net and sure enough, the tattoos he had matched what the web pages I read claimed the BGD's typically have.

Posted by someone somewhere | December 16, 2006 2:39 PM
5

Gentrify those fuckers out of there. Let them kill each other down by the airport.

Posted by Gang Trash Sucks | December 16, 2006 3:53 PM
6

I've lived in the CD for the past four years, and I've yet to see anyone remotely scary, at least in a gang sense. Where are these gangs the cops say are here?

Posted by Gitai | December 16, 2006 3:58 PM
7

Duh!! There have been BGDs, folks, peoples, Bloods ( either Pirus or Bounty Hunter wanna be's) Surenos, Nortenos, Mara Salvatrucha, Latinos Unidos, Crips( Hoovers or some other kind) a Latin King here or there and a couple of old dudes that I use to drink with at Angies before the white folks arrived in Columbia city who use to belong to Chicago's bloodiest gang El Rukns. Nobody is saying Seattle doesnt have gangs, it does, but I agree that cops know shit about em and the so called experts view them through old school lens. The point is that these not so tightly knit groups dont control turf, arent engaged in gang wars, there is no MS 13 take over, there is no all out La style gang war. I mean shit happens here, you can get hurt, but for the most part you can walk in any neighborhood at any time and be safe,this is not LA or Chicago. It doesnt mean you go skateboarding through unlit parking lots when all the electricity is gone and there are some dudes bored, waiting to violate you. Cops, media and gang experts glorifying the very thing they are trying kids to keep away from is just plain stupid. Cops like to show off and call kids by their gang names or call them homes or this or that. Kids feel they have a right to the street. Hell, white kids hang out, skate and whatever. They dont get harass. Cops assume in certain neighborhoods all kids are up to no good. Some are, and a small minority is out to do some harm. Most are bored. Most gang prevention programs have never worked and just like Klein the respected criminologist from USC and authority on gangs has said, all these programs are destined to failiure because they dont really understand what draws kids to gangs. gang units are stupid because they just glorify what they are trying to prevent. Most cops run into the same gang kids and they think ALL gang kids are the same. They are not. Some are hard. Most are not. A lot needs to be studied, but this alarmist crap is nonsense. Ive lived here long enough, these streets are safe and yes there are knuckle heads out there, but there is no war and no organized gang threat. Most of the gangs here arent from entrenched empoverished neighborhoods where they have lived for generations. The last article that slog posted by Salon was great, it detailed the decrease in gang and gun violence and LA and most of it due to ther beeing less concentrations of poverty. Seattle has never had that history, here some kids live in different neighborhoods and even the suburbs but they take the bus to go hang out with some other kids. Ive seen blood kids and Crip kids hanging out. Trust me, you would never see that in LA. Some engage in ilegal activity, most just wanna party and get some girls. Some are dangerous, most are not. Finally, Not all youth crime is gang related. Sorry for the long post. Light just came back to MLK!!

Posted by SeMe | December 16, 2006 6:09 PM
8

Gangs as we got to know them are an outdated concept. Much like al Qaeda, semi-organized criminal activity without centralization is the way gangstas roll today. They form small, localized groups, roam and separate freely, and do their damage independent of the wishes of any larger criminal organization. There's more independence that way and it's harder to crack down upon because they don't have a network for detectives or police to follow.

Of course, since police are slow to adapt due to their limited adaptability and intelligence, it works. It'll be a decade before the SPD figures out how to fight it and, by then, thugs will have figured out something new.

Posted by Gomez | December 16, 2006 6:36 PM
9

My favorite piece of legal humor ever is that some Reagan-era "lets get tough on the gangs" crime bill used a definition of 'gang' that pretty clearly defined Congress as one.

Posted by Some Jerk | December 16, 2006 8:11 PM
10

Gangs are an American rite of passage. In Los Angeles it was never restricted to racial or economic boundaries. FFF was a notorious white gang that had it's roots in upper middle class Hollywood and West Valley nieghborhoods. Posse In Effect (now defunct) was a predominantly white gang from Rancho Palos Verdes (read: Richest neighborhood in the Western Hemisphere), Blood gnags in Los Angeles have a widely recognized reputation for being better organized and from better, more middle class neighborhoods than their blue ragging counterparts Crips and Surenos. Pasadena and Altadena are rife with single fmaily homes located on Cul De Sacs that boast Benzos in their driveways and house some of the most dangerous youths in the East Valley. Glendale is home to the AP 13 gang. They're wealthy Armenians for the most part. Inglewood has wealthy Persian gangs. Largely rural Oklahoma's gang history is as rich as any urban area's. Gangs are not inherantly mischievous or violent or preoccupied with black market paydays. This nation's entire political and social history is the history of the gang. It's American. And if you're not in a gang then the terrorists have already won (wocka wocka wocka).

Whatever. The recent gang panic in Seattle is so specious. I'm sure it sells newspapers and fills the warchests of whatever candidate cares to exploit the issue.

I'll get on board when Critical Mass and the Mosquito Fleet are targeted. They're about as organized a public threat as any Central District gang.

1980s L.A. is proof that the quickest way to accelerate the growth empowerment and emboldening of a gang menace is to give it face time in the press. L.A. news outlets all have a long stnading policy to be very, very discretionary of what and how gang activity is covered so as not to offer any spotlight.

Let's move on.

Posted by I Should Know, I Used To Be A Member Of The Powderpuffs | December 16, 2006 8:23 PM
11

"I've lived in the CD for the past four years, and I've yet to see anyone remotely scary, at least in a gang sense."

Really? Hang out on 19th and Yesler some day, especially when the weather is nice, and check out the corner boys running their crack business. Those guys are scary to me.

Also, you should have been on 23rd and Jackson last Tuesday afternoon. There was a funeral at the church on Jackson, and it looked like every thug in the city was in attendance (along with at least 6 patrol cars). Wish I knew who the service was for.

Posted by Sean | December 17, 2006 7:00 AM
12

Sean, you are absolutely right.

We live right by 20th and Yessler and there are plenty of gang kids around.

Seems to me the Stranger would rather present their point of view than actually report on facts.

Then again, that's the difference between actual reporters and the gaggle of hipster wannabe's at The Stranger.

Posted by Wake Up | December 17, 2006 10:45 AM
13

Hey now. I think I'm a "real reporter" as well as a hipster wannabe. Can't you be both? How about reporting on the facts instead of just regurgitating the standard line about gangs? What about asking questions and being skeptical? Isn't that my job? I don't doubt you see tough-looking black kids on corners in your neighborhood. Does that mean we have a blossoming gang resurgence. Doesn't sound like proof to me.

Posted by Angela Valdez | December 17, 2006 11:06 AM
14

So, Katie Couric.

Have you gone to Pratt Park and talked to the people selling drugs & Turning Tricks?

How about by the park on 21st, between Yessler and Jackson?

Or did you top notch reporter skills keep you lounging around Starbucks looking for Sharks/Jet's jackets and switchblades?

Sounds to me like a wanna be hipster/reporter would be smart enough to get out of the "retail" hood and ask some questions on a street level.

Why don't you contact Aaron Dixon, who does a good bit of counseling for getting kids out of Gangs?

Posted by Wake Up | December 17, 2006 1:50 PM
15

I've done that kind of reporting and will do it again. But I'm not dumb. I picked up a few street skills living in North Philly -- like not wandering around and talking to hoods at night during a power outage.

Posted by Angela Valdez | December 17, 2006 2:10 PM
16

C'mon Angela! The Caucasian District is demanding validation of their assumptions that the scary black kids they see are a reemerging gang menace!

We need action!

Posted by I Should Know, I Used To Be Christopher Columbus | December 17, 2006 4:51 PM
17

life is so rich.

Posted by lar | December 17, 2006 6:14 PM
18

Angela...

I'm confused? You've just finished telling us in the power outage post that this neighborhood could only be one of the more affluent in the city?

We had power back on Friday afternoon, and there is no way that the racist Seattle city Light would turn the lights back on if this is where black poor folks could be found?

So much for your skeptical reporting skills.


Posted by wake up | December 17, 2006 10:30 PM

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