Last Friday, just after midnight, Seattle Police Gang Unit and Narcotics Detectives – with the help of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the United States Attorney’s office, and King County Prosecutor’s office – concluded a four-day “gang emphasis operation” that SPD says resulted in the arrest of 12 adult males and one juvenile male suspect and the seizure of a large amount of cash, three handguns, one shotgun, two vehicles and narcotics. SPD spokesperson Renee Whitt said the arrests took place in the South and East Precincts.
Then on Sunday, two more suspected gang bangers were taken into custody without incident as they exited an inbound flight from Las Vegas.
According to SPD:
This effort constitutes a comprehensive, coordinated effort to prevent, intervene in, and suppress youth gang violence. The King County Prosecutor’s office reviewed the cases against the suspects for rush filing and will request significant bail in order to ensure the safety of the public. The suspects were booked on various charges ranging from weapons and narcotics charges to outstanding warrants.
Stock photo/Will Austin Photography
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{ 19 comments }
Was that down here?
About time……
That is great news. Coordinated crimminal activity requires a coordinated response. It sounds like that may be starting to happen.
Go SPD Go!!!
Keep up the good work! These guys belong in their corporate for-profit prison cages where they can keep each other’s miserable company for the rest of their lives, and not in neighborhoods where decent hard-working people are trying to raise good families.
YAY! LET’S DO THIS ALL THE TIME! HOW ABOUT EVERY WEEK?
CLEAN UP OUR STREETS!
“Was that down here?”
SPD spokesperson Renee Whitt said the arrests took place in the South and East Precincts. She didn’t get more specific.
This solves nothing. Looks like everyone just got a promotion, besides East Union is from the CD so is Duce Eight the South precinct did nothing how could they those are CD gangs.
@lou – if that is the case, CD is right next door. I don’t think it’s a bad thing getting the trash off the street – they come down here and make trouble too. And law enforcement does deserve some kudos and encouragement for a job well done.
Yeah but what I said is what did the South precinct do to arrest CD gangs in the CD I think this is a little bit of, “gangs lets say South End too because there are gangs there.” The vast majority of people have no idea what it is like growing up with gangs. I don’t neccessary agree job well done, because it is pretty easy to catch kids on street corners. The only fact that impresses me is the police are trying to stop beef at the torch light it is at events like this and the bite where beef starts and shootings originate, I appreciate that. But, a couple of buy bust for 60$ of work to arrest teenagers, that took the FBI, really, really you can do that by giving a 20 to a fiend and watching who they walk up to. I’m sorry I am not new here and I am not scared of little kids because they are called gangs. Arresting a gang member doesn’t impress me there are more than the jails can hold. I first saw kids join gangs in 4th grade. But again I do thank the police for trying to stop beef at the Torch Light good stuff on that.
Do you have a solution Lou?
I must have missed the part of the story where they said where the gang members were from.
I don’t really like to talk to people about how to solve it because it is simple and people ask stupid, hella specific questions to a simple problem. So I will give you an example, I had two kids both “gang members” one would even be considered a leader of a smaller gang. I have been trying to get them to do positive stuff for years and the “leader” under my watch dropped out of school when he had a 3.5 gpa because the counselors thought he was a bad influence on the other kids. They basically told him to go to an alternative school(drop out factory). He was so bored he used to call me every day to hang out around the South End with him and many of he times I would give him and the other kids he was with an hour or so. I took the main two to class with me and told them about my various jobs over the years. And they saw me at work. Well I hadden’t heard from them for awhile and just after the bite I was getting nervous worried that something might have happened, I called a couple of times and then one of them got back to me and told me he has been working full time as a night janitor and he doesn’t have much time to hang out with me anymore, I laughed so hard like this little kid doesn’t have time for me, I used to say that to them. The other one is working for parks and rec and they both still get harrassed by the police, they catch the buses on Rainier and since they are “gang members” the police tell them there is no way they have a job and that “one way or another I am going to catch you with something even if I have to put it on you”. But they are working and they are trying and the longer they do it the more chance they have of success. The reason I tell you’ll this is because I didn’t do anything great, I didn’t have 50 gang members at my mom’s house everyday, I don’t have much money, I did nothing but listened, was not afraid and showed up to see them every now an again and because they saw a common bond of humanity between me and them and I was working mildly accepted by society, they gave society a try and it actually pays what it said it would. Remember there is an underworld that would accept them too but at least they have seen the other side now and it is better than jail.
Lou-
Thanks for your angle on this. Like others in this thread I rejoiced when I heard some arrests were made. And it is important to keep up the police work, because arrest/jail is a much needed deterrent, right?
But you really made me think about what happens when kids have nothing to live for and nothing to lose. The deterrent kinda loses its punch. Then what?
So effective police work/increased heat to improve the odds that gang related activity will result in getting caught HAS to be combined with life alternatives (the something to live for that you allude to). Sounds obvious, and I’m FAR from the first to say it…
But that means not referring to these kids as hopeless pieces of “trash”, as some have done. Once that die is cast and that’s all you are/will ever be, what the hell…If you can’t come up, what diff does it make?
I’m no expert, not claimin’ to be. But I think dehumanizing people (yes, even criminals) is not going to get us anywhere. And I appreciate Lou opening up his story that made me think more about the human side of this situation. If for no other reason than Lou’s correct assertion that there is not enough room in jail (and ALL the TARP $$ can’t build enough) to lock up every kid involved in gangs.
A friend of mine is african american and he lived in Columbia City as a child/teen in the 80s and he had some good insight. He had a job working for the apt manager in the building he lived in. He observed how a lot of the jobs that kids used to have like paper routes, mowing lawns, lawnwork, raking leaves, painting fences, babysitting, doing chores are no longer available. The irony is that a lot of people hire the services out to “professional companies.” He said that when he earned his own money thru hard work as a teen, he was careful with his money and learned hard work and wanted to get out of Columbia City since it was not that great of a neighborhood back then. He said that when he had the jobs he was not going to mess up the apt complex, litter or grafitti. We need to make more jobs available to youth and teens to learn a skill, build confidence and value honestly earned money.
Ahow, I know sometimes I come off like I will defend these kids no matter what but I know jails and police are vital, I know people need consequenses and I know that to some what goes on is scary. I just grew up here and it is normal to me, I know getting a quarter ounce of crack off the street is a joke I can get you another right now, tomorrow next week it doesn’t stop the drugs are there and so is the insentive for poor kids to sell them.
My main problem with the investigation is it took the FBI, how much did that investigation cost to get some perscription meds and small quantities of work off the streets, where did the meds come from because that person will find someone else to buy them. Here I have an idea pay that money to 14 year olds to pick up garbage along the hood blocks paint over tags and give them an extra 10 bucks cash on the spot if they get a certain weight ( I have done this and watch out for them getting trash out of the garbage) take them on “field trips” (they are little kids if you say field trip they will be so happy and do hella to go) to colleges and jobsites so they can see it is real. They respect their neighborhoods but lets show them a better way to manifest that respect it doesn’t cost much they are selling 60$ rocks and 15 is profit so long as you beat 15 to 45 dollars a day you are offering more and they will work hard (look at how long they stand on the corner).
I agree with what you said everyone throws stones at teenagers who don’t interact with anyone that cares about them who has a legit job but then these same people ask why don’t these kids work a job alongside of us the people who think they are sub-human?
Lou = “Quality Comments”
Thanks, Lou.
I find that “Quality Comments” are also closed comments.
Ain’t that how life just is?
Lou is right on. There are two sides to every story. People have the right to be ticked off at gangbangers in general for wreaking havoc on innocent people. The gangbangers have the right to be ticked off at a society that has rejected them. In my opinion, this societal rejection has been a highly organized, intentional, and well-coordinated long-term effort conducted by the eugenics-happy super-wealthy who have their fingers in most of our infrastructure and political system, worldwide. Ever wonder what kind of people **privately own** our IRS and the “federal” banks in nearly every country, worldwide? Do you even know their names? Much of the pro-socialist/pro-communist privately owned wealth on this planet is as extreme racist as can possibly be.
Yet, the non-African Americans at the local level get blamed for the efforts of the few who sit up on high. And so the local whites/Asians are assumed to be the representatives of the super-wealth elite, when in fact they are also victims of these same entities — for example, we all pay income tax on our personal wages, 100% of which goes as pure profit into the pockets of these private wealth interests.
It really truly is a messed up world, that we even have a system like this in place and that it functions and no one seems to know about it or even care once told.
I say attack the head of the monster because doing anything at the local level is a complete waste of time anymore. I feel for the gangbangers and their victims alike. The cycle continues because both sides still don’t realize what the heck is going on around them, with the bigger picture.
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