A conversation with Seattle
I checked with Washington’s Department of Health death statistics. For 2009, they list 597 firearm deaths, compared to 538 motor vehicle deaths. In 2010, 592 to 510. Oho! you may protest. Those firearm deaths include suicides: 462 suicides, in fact, to 113 homicides in 2010. It’s true. But everyone killed by a gun is still a dead person. Continue reading What Kills More People in Washington State: Cars or Guns?
From South Dearborn to Denny Way, Seattle’s Third Avenue marks the spine of an area that could be papered over with the police reports used to track the crime within it. During the past year, it’s been the setting for more than 3,800 incidents, everything from shoplifting and narcotics use to car theft, robbery, and shootings. 33 times, someone threatened to kill someone else. Continue reading Seattle Plans Third Avenue Clean-Out Redux
If you’re wondering, the primary purpose of a mutual combat law seems to be to allow people to spar or fight without someone suing later. (It helps Cappy’s Boxing Gym stay in business.) The state’s generosity here is often restricted by local municipalities, so do your research before you go around fisticuffing the unruly. Continue reading Phoenix Jones and the Invocation of Mutual Combat
Belltown boulevardier Ronald Holden tips us that armed, private security guards will be patrolling First Avenue in Seattle, the three blocks from Battery to Lenora, after a recent fatal stabbing. “Seattle’s 25th homicide victim this year is identified,” reported the Seattle Times. Continue reading After Stabbing, Belltown Bar Puts Private Security on Foot Patrol
If you read the Rainier Valley Post, which excerpted those exact lines from Prometheus Brown, you’ll see that the concern of southend residents cuts across color lines when it comes to the nagging suspicion that they’re supposed, simply, to be used to homicides. As one contributor paraphrased it: “The Rainier Valley will always have crime, so it’s no big deal when it happens.” Continue reading Two Seattles Endure a 2012 Murder Spree
This “spate” of gun violence–an inaccurate term for the variability in a chronic situation–has at least got Seattle’s city council reviewing what they can do to provide controls on handguns. Do you remember Kyle Huff (2006)? Do you remember Maurice Clemmons (2009)? How many episodic mass murders, do you think, will it take before people start connecting them as an ongoing problem? Continue reading Jay Inslee on Seattle’s Latest Mass Murder: *Crickets*
At 9:22 a.m. Friday morning, on the 300 block of Terry Avenue North, armed robbers entered a restaurant–police are specifying which, but since the block includes the Brave Horse Tavern, Cuoco, and Portage Bay Cafe, the odds are good that Tom Douglas took a loss. Continue reading A Daylight Restaurant Robbery in the Heart of Amazon Country