Remember that big ATF drug bust last May where 47 people were arrested for dealing drugs in the CD? Three of them were sentenced today to 7 years in federal prison, and the Seattle PI has a lot of interesting and tragic details in their specific case.
Two of the three sentenced today were a father and his son. Known as “Pootie” and “Little Pootie”, they worked most of their deals from an SUV parked in the 100 block of 26th Ave, where their sister, who has multiple-sclerosis, had a home. The authorities caught a lot of the activity on videotape as they worked from both the vehicle and the house, drawing “an almost continuous stream of customers.”
And in one of the many tragic parts of this story, it turns out that this father/son crime team have a wife/mother who has dedicated her whole life to trying to get people off of crack.
With names like Pootie and Lil Pootie, I’m surprised by this news.
The Tang family? I wonder who keeps the belt?
I wouldn’t waste much sympathy on these guys. Sending three of them to prison is a good start; how about the other 44?
I had many occasions to watch them dealing on that block – seven days a week, even in the pouring rain (they’d sit in cars and wait for people to drive up). On sunny days you’d typically see a dozen or more people just standing in the front yard, either dealing or lurching around like twitchy zombies.
The neighbors I spoke to were apathetic at best. “So long as they don’t come to my end of the block, I don’t mind.” We need to snuff out that attitude. Maybe then we’ll see fewer teenagers shooting each other, too.
The Big Bust is one of the few instances of police involvement that gives me some hope for this neighborhood.