Two Shootings in 24 Hours, Two Kids Injured, 10-Year Old Gunman, Mayor SILENT

I think that it is an issue for Amber to discuss given the Mayor had meetings about crime & youth initiative…AND ALL HE DID WAS GO TO A MEETING AND TALK. This mayor is ALL TALK!

Is it me, or does it seem like the south end is getting a little more violent?

@ Dave

That means that everytime a kid does something wrong it’s the parent’s fault? Ever hear of the suburban thug?

Just finished watching K5 coverage that discusses amped security and route diversion. I worry that any “diversion” equates to less commuter service. I also worry that too much rerouting will spread the problem around. It’d be nice to just have the 106 traveling halfway up south rainier again. I’d also like a pony and a security officer on the #7. If the Mayor could get on those last few points, I’d greatly appreciate it.

What the hell is wrong with all of you people that think that the Mayor should not pay attention to the problem in Southeast Seattle? I am afraid to go out of my house at nite, I lock everything up and I watch out my windows for something else to happen. I know that there are alot of problems in the city, but for him to take cops out of the various precincts to babysit drunks in Belltown makes me sick. We have a problems with the kids down here and no one is watching out for the innocents ones.

So what do citizens normally do when the politicans ignore their plight, and there’s no one else to turn to for help?

They organize and take care of it on their own. It hasn’t happened yet, because the crime needs to get much worse, first.

There are a lot of apathetic people in South Seattle, too. Things may need to get really bad before a sizeable chunk of the population becomes vocal enough to be heard.

Sometimes, it’s best to wish the very worst, because the result is something much better. The worst scenario would be that crime slowly builds over a long period and people get used to it and learn to live with it without becoming active about it.

“Maybe we can get the #7 diverted to Bellevue Square- t”

They are, it’ll be called ‘Light Rail’.

Of course if McGinn orders the cops to crack down then what will you all complain about? Oh yeah, that’s right…..

It’s comical how we seem to care after an event like this, when honestly we don’t care we are just concerned, after the concern dissipates normality will return, and the balance will be restored. These so called issues have been in Valley for years, guns on buses, kids with guns, etc. We need to stop acting like we care. If you really care pledge to change it, vow to make the difference not just for the short term, for the long term, undoing what has been done will take years of effort, and quite frankly I don’t care enough to invest the time need to change, so I moved. If this happened in my neighborhood, it is isolated, and dealt with because of the foundation of the area doesn’t tolerate it. Either you actively fight it, or passively support it. if you care about the valley then stop working against each other and get busy. patrol the streets, do a public ride along on buses. Force the police to be more present, if all they see on the corners are seem ol’ folks that don’t require them to serve or protect then they think business as usual and do the same thing they’ve done for years which is respond & reactive when requested. But if Taxpayer XYZ were to show his or her face then they’d have to police the streets to ensure the safety of the public. Try jogging down Rainier Ave or MLK instead of Seward Park commit to 3 months, tell me what you see on day 01 vs day 90 if you read this whole thing then thank you, if not it’s okay i thank you for even reading other comments

Yes, I think things have become more violent. Last night was it gunfire or fireworks about a block from my house?

Next time McGinn is on weekday, I think we need to organize a call-in effort. Wouldn’t it be great if we filled the KUOW phone lines with Southend callers who asked challenging questions about his public safety plan? I think we could make him squirm.

I just want to put in my two cents about Mayor McGinn on Weekday and Steve Scher. I generally like this show, but part of the blame goes to Steve, and his lack of questions on crime.

I’m sure he doesn’t think of himself as a white racist, but did anyone hear his interview of Mishna Wolff who wrote “I’m Down”? The book is a memoir about growing up in the Rainier Valley. His questions kept insinuating that Rainier Valley was a bad and dangerous neighborhood and that her grandparents moved out to get away from all the black people. I was proud of Ms. Wolff for giving him attitude on some of his ignorant questions.

Crime in the southend doesn’t register on Steve’s radar because he thinks the Rainier Valley is the ghetto, and it’s all our fault anyway. Thus it didn’t occur to him to ask any questions about two kids shooting each other.

When the southend has problems with a bar, it gets closed down.
When Belltown has bar problems, a comprehensive nightlife plan gets developed, a “poop and puke” patrol is brought in, and southend police resources are shifted to Belltown. Actually, I think closing the bar is probably easier, but this does seem to portray what areas get more political focus.

The Seattle Times reports that those involved in this altercation were members of the Down With The Crew gang. Our mayor has painted bike lanes all over the city, reduced the lanes on major streets by half, and spent hours sweating over a waterfront tunnel idea when new viaduct would work for most of us. What about spending some time investigating the gang activity in Seattle, and producing a plan to eliminate it? Many of us remember a time when Seattle did not have gangs. Isn’t being able to conduct one’s daily life in peace one of the primary reasons we have government?

I support marching in front of the Mayor’s office and bringing serious attention to this problem.

Gangs have been in the SE as long as I have been alive but I know most of them from football, basketball, school etc. They are people and when they are kids they can be taken into society the problem that I have seen is nobody cares about them until they are too deep to get out.
I felt/feel some resentment to anyone that wines about the crime now because I didn’t hear any of it when I was little and vulnerable. I remember thinking strong arm robbery wasn’t a serious crime until mardi gras when I was in high school, I repeat, I didn’t see robbery as bad until high school because it was so normal to me, like watch for cars and jack boys when I leave the house.
The only way to really solve this is to work with the kids and show them how to be you. They really don’t know how. Otherwise look both ways for cars and all ways for the lic because this is so engrained it is normal to some of us.

Dave: By “SE Seattle is not that place full of gang members”, I mean there are normal, hard-working families here, too. We want the city to stop ignoring our situation and do their jobs. That doesn’t mean we are not willing to organize and help ourselves. We just can’t do it -all- alone.