Community Post

CD Scanner – 7/14

Posted on by

Is it already mid July?  Summer is flying by.   Here’s what’s going on out on the streets of the East Precinct:

0 thoughts on “CD Scanner – 7/14”

  1. Crime is down in Seattle indeed. I wonder what happens at night when the Scanners are off? Residents in the CD need to get their head out of the clouds and realize whats going on.

  2. oh do tell us how we might come down to earth, oh wise one? please, enlighten me with your anonymous ways

  3. Alright, Mr. Presley. How’s about admitting the gang and crack issues are increasing every day? You ever drive by 28th and Jackson, or 23rd and Union, or practically anywhere on Yesler? I’m sure you do. This crap is only getting worse. Rather than banding together as a community, especially after the increase in burglaries/robberies over the past few months, Central residents sit back eagerly awaiting the arrival of gentrification or for the teenagers committing many of the crimes to start school again. It seems the primary solution offered is for people to volunteer their time at a local high school, so when the resident’s children inherit their house 25 years down the road, their neighborhood MAY be a tad safer. The key is may.

    Here is one of many effective solutions: pressure local politicians for more cops/biker cops patrolling the area. You pay taxes, right? Also residents banding together for EFFECTIVE neighborhood watches would also help deter the increase in burglaries, such as organized block strolls. It seems the extent of neighborhood watches in Central amounts to placing a sign in your front window, and perhaps watching your adjacent neighbors house when their vacationing in Malibu. These are quite common-sensical ideas, but unfortunately there is not enough Centralites pushing the safety agenda as a community. Criminals prey on the scared and passive. If the community established effective watches, many criminals would know that the CD won’t put up with that shit.

    The sheer number of burglaries as of late are a good indicator that this neighborhood is easy prey. I hope you prove me wrong.

  4. We are a containment zone. If we do not sue the city for discrimination we will not get the attenton that will finally, after decades, get rid of the criminals. Ask yourself, how long would this “shit” go on north of the ship canal, in west Seattle???

  5. There are certainly neighborhoods that would see a quicker reduction in these kinds of crimes after a spike than we do. I’m not sure West Seattle neighborhoods, or U District are among them. One complicating factor in our area is that many of the kinds of crimes in question are carried out by residents.

    Here’s a link to comparative crmie stats (are there better sources?): http://www.seattle.gov/Police/crime/default.htm

  6. I wasn’t disagreeing with you, Elvis Jr, I was simply letting Mr. Anonymous know that we all live very firmly on this planet and know what the f%&$ is going on.

    I will agree, however, that our acknowledgement of what is happening vs actually doing something represents a significant gap. I’ve suggested that we formulate different task forces or committees to handle specific tasks, i.e…lobbying and petitioning, grassroots organizing (block watchs, events, etc), and possibly public awareness/relations. We need a team of a few loud and consistent voices to pester the crap out of the council (Conlin, Licata, Harrell).

    Btw, this last points really demonstrates the glaring inadequacies of the non-representative gov in this city. If we had a councilmember specifically dedicated to our neighborhood, getting resources would be much easier.

  7. To krgl’s point, you’d be surprised how many crimes are committed by people who don’t live here. For example, the target of one of the foot pursuits in this report? Lives downtown.

    And I would say that most of the time when we hear about suspects or vehicles that are involved, they live or are registered to an address outside of the city. Tukwila seems to be a frequent spot.

  8. Great point about the block watches. Actually, that helps to identify individuals who are criminals because the neighbors compare notes.

    Here is the problem with just demanding more police. Unless we have enough money to hire one cop per block, it won’t work. In addition, the individual crimes are small enough that detectives cannot prioritize them. They are off dealing with ‘big’ dollar value cases, etc. So, to make it a ‘big’ case takes the block watch info, plus aggregation of that info in a venue like the East Precinct Crime Coalition.

    Do look at the crime stats. Especially the dollar value of robberies, the dollar value recovered and the numbers of cases closed. Sad. Unless the individuals are identified through shared information, the police are just running scattered and the detective have no chance to find who is pawning the goods in the case of robbery, or wholesaling the drugs in the case of dealing,

  9. Helpful perspective, Scott. I was aware this point when I wrote. Whether or not criminal activity is carried out by neighbors or friends or relatives, or relatives of neighbors etc. affects how a community responds to it.

  10. They live here? Sure they live here, we are in a CONTAINMENT zone. In any outher neighborhood north of the ship canal they would have been moved no long ago!! Wake up!!

  11. This neighborhood needs to be more proactive. I’ve only been a CD resident for 2 years, but the crime has increased drastically. We need to stop being victimized and band together. True, if we focus on individual crimes then the SPD won’t devote their resources to our neighborhood. However, if we focus on the sheer number or, hell, even the aggregate number of crimes per capita in the CD, we should be able to make a change. Further, if we take the initiative and establish effective neighborhood watches, the SPD may pay more attention.

    I’m sick of seeing crack deals in front of my house or down the street. I’m sick of walking by a cross street where a violent robbery occurred the week before. I’m tired of seeing gang members loitering on a corner flashing signs and wearing gang-related clothing (I’m sorry, if 12 out of 12 guys on a corner are wearing red, that’s a pretty blatant indicator).

    Let’s face it, the CD is ignored by Greater Seattle. Our residents don’t make as much money as the rest of Seattle, nor are our houses worth as much. Further, we’re significantly more racially diverse and, let’s be real here, if the crime is committed by an under-represented minority (URM) and the victim is part of a URM as well, the crime seems to automatically drop to the bottom of the priority list for the SPD and will likely go unreported by local news. However, if the victim is white, then it’s all over the news (Rainier beach gardener incident, for example). In order to make Seattle more attractive and be viewed as one of the safest cities in Seattle, the shit that goes down in the CD is conveniently underreported unless something especially egregious occurs.

    And here is an example of one of many of the local gangs, the Deuce 8s, who currently claim 28th and S. Jackson as their “turf” and who are grudging a gang called Low Profile (“LP”). The kid killed at a party in Belltown last year was a member of this gang and the perpetrator was a member of LP. While D8 is currently comprised of mostly H.S. students, there are plenty 18+ members. A search for “Deuce 8 Seattle” on Myspace will show you what’s occurring right under your noses. Here’s an example: http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewpro . And here’s a video by D8 aimed at LP: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrO-QpaLaqo (pay careful attention to the gun being waved at the end of the video); http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrO-QpaLaqo ; And here’s some more under the person’s username: http://www.youtube.com/user/getyamoneyent . This shit is only getting worse.

    I’m not even going to touch education reform. That’s for another time.

  12. Altho it says to contact the coordinator first, it’s really about pulling your neighbors together:
    http://www.seattle.gov/police/programs/blockwatch/default.ht

    And the East Precinct Crime Coalition:
    http://www.sngi.org/epcpc/epcpc2.html

    Finally, I do not understand why there are not any numbers posted for 2008 yet. That said, it is still worth taking a look at the stats and trends, note it’s about reported crime — no report we are SOL.

    For example, Census Tract 77 is pretty much flat, but other tracts have had drastic ups and downs and BIG drops last year.

    http://www.seattle.gov/police/crime/stats.htm
    http://web1.seattle.gov/seastats/doStatistics.aspx#graph

  13. Just a correction. Our homes in the CD are not worth less than the rest of Seattle, that was true some 5 to 10 years ago. Town homes go for between 400 to 600 K and single family is in the uppeer 500 to 600 K for smaller wooden bungalows.

    Our real estate values are going to continue to climb becaue of our closeness to downtown and walkability (the new value in realestate). This pisses off the old guard in city government who still use us as a dumping ground for ex cons to live and a convient place to contain crime and criminals. They give us this “sickness” and a cure, locating social service agencies here to try and “help” the situation.

  15. Thanks for the links, KT.

    Zillow has comparisons on home prices. Interesting break-out of condo vs. homes. Box on lower left shows other neighborhoods to compare:
    http://www.zillow.com/real-estate/WA-Seattle/Central

    (Is Zillow reliable?)