Stopping Youth Violence
Last week I sat down with four young people in a medical school classroom at the University of Washington for a discussion about youth violence, a pressing and continuing challenge in our city. Just before our meeting, the room had been used for a class on cardiology, apropos for a discussion about the heartbreaking reality of street violence involving our children.
Each of the young "reporters" —three men and one woman— described their own histories with violence. Listening for about 90 minutes to these good people was extremely informative. They chose to be vulnerable and their comments were raw, tragic, and piercing; I’d like to share a few of the more poignant comments from my notes. I’ve blended statements from all four of the youth to provide a sense of the breadth and impact of their personal experiences.
". . . the seeds of violence were planted at home; that’s where I learned to fight . . . I’ve never considered myself a violent person, but I kept getting into fights . . . my grandpa would pick me up after a fight and rather than steer me in a good direction would ask ‘who won?’ . . . teachers need to look past my angry words and try to understand what’s motivating those words . . . we just want people who can see our positive strengths and have empathy . . . I remember being very angry when I was about five years old . . . I started carrying guns and selling drugs . . . the first time I held a gun it made me feel powerful, cool . . . I sold drugs to get money so I could buy better things, we didn’t have much . . . my friend was killed in a car accident and I started to think about changing my life . . . I grew up in the suburbs way south of Seattle, my father was an engineer who was doing drugs, then selling drugs . . .
I was called a nigger all the time by people who hated me . . . I was fighting with people frequently, I was very angry . . . I sold drugs and did very bad things trying to gain respect . . . in the University District I experienced two worlds, all these university kids coming and going and another world of drugs, sex, violence . . . I wasn’t a bad person but I thought ‘you get justice on your own or you don’t get it at all’ . . . I realized there was a lot of unnecessary drama in my life, then somebody asked my opinion and really listened to me and I thought that I should make some different choices . . . now I work with other kids who are just looking for respect and love."
The common experiences among these four young people are striking: violence in the home, absent or uninvolved fathers, poverty, discrimination, a yearning for acceptance and love, and a deep need to belong.
The vulnerability of these young people reinforces my conviction that solving youth violence requires a continuum of actions by police officers, social workers and counselors, teachers, clergy, and family and friends. Progress will be achieved on neighborhood sidewalks not in the offices of City Hall.
I also believe city leaders need to speak frankly about the problem and help bring people together to find solutions. I first spoke about youth-on-youth violence—much of it tied to gangs—in January 2008 when a teenager was shot to death at the edge of my Queen Anne neighborhood; four others were killed before the year ended. I will continue to speak out on this issue and provide whatever leadership I can. Good people across Seattle need to do the same.
A Seattle Public Schools teacher who is having a positive impact on kids writes a blog called "Dear Mrs. Z." Read her post which expresses a view very similar to what the four young people told me in our conversation at the UW.
Specially trained police officers have been assigned to five city middle schools, a key component of the Seattle Youth Violence Prevention Initiative. I spoke at a news conference introducing the officers along with Mayor Greg Nickels.
Today, the Council’s Public Safety, Human Services, and Education Committee will vote on the Seattle Youth Violence Prevention Initiative. The Mayor’s Initiative invests nearly $8 million over the next two years in an array of specialized services—street outreach, counseling, mentoring, anger management, education, job training—aimed at approximately 800 young people who are now involved in the juvenile justice system, are likely to become involved, or are frequently suspended from middle school for violent behavior. Most important, the Initiative recognizes that one of the most effective ways to prevent violence is for community members to engage directly with at-risk youth—listen to, and respect and love, them.
You can learn more about the Initiative here.
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Safer Streets Initiative
Originally written on August 19, 2008 - Update Available Here
Last Friday morning I stopped at First Avenue and Battery Street (Belltown neighborhood) to drop off my laundry.It was just after 7 a.m. A group of eight people - six men and two women - were standing near the door of the laundry.
One man had wads of cash in both hands. He was dickering with one of the women over price. She protested, "too much," and "more than last time." Here was an open-air drug market, unfortunately a less than desired yet frequent example of commerce in our city.
My own experience last Friday morning is typical of the complaints I receive at my Council office on a daily basis. Residents from nearly every neighborhood call or email about low-level street crime and social disorder that is destroying their sense of community.
Today, I released a Council-generated Safer Street Initiative which is designed to curb street crime and improve our quality of life at the sidewalk level. You can read a summary of the Initiative here. Read today's Seattle PI coverage of the Initiative.
Later today, my Council committee will begin discussion of the Initiative and review a preliminary schedule for consideration of new legislation required by the Initiative.
The latest literature on policing strategies and social disorder shows that an integrated approach involving prevention and treatment, assertive policing, and community outreach/engagement provides the best results for neighborhoods. You can read about the experience of Providence, Rhode Island with quality-of-life or problem-solving policing here. It's a great story about how a community took back their streets and restored civil order. Academic research has also established that more assertive policing can be effective at restoring a community's confidence and reduce fear of crime. This article from May 2008 is an excellent summary of current thought among criminologists and practitioners about "broken windows policing" and why it's necessary.
The Safer Streets Initiative is a 12-part program to address the many complaints we receive about social disorder from nearly every neighborhood in the city. It's not a magic bullet or quick fix. It's a beginning designed to address a complicated set of problems. The Initiative would pair police officers with mental health professionals to respond jointly to incidents, create alternatives to jail or hospitalization, continue the city's plan to increase the number of patrol officers in our neighborhoods, increase financial penalties for patronizing a prostitute and use the funds to restore peer-counseling and support groups for women involved in prostitution, create safe housing and transition services for children involved in prostitution, impose civil and criminal penalties on business owners and property owners who "knowingly allow criminal behavior to occur and fail to take steps to stop it,"
call for more assertive policing targeted a gangs, illegal weapons, graffiti, and open-air drug markets, re-establish the city prosecutor's High Impact Offender Targeting Program, and return School Resource Officers to some Seattle Public Schools.
I would appreciate hearing your comments or questions about the Initiative.
It would also be helpful if you would share your opinion about the Initiative with my Council colleagues. I've provided a list with their contact information below. Thank you.
Councilmember Sally J. Clark, sally.clark@seattle.gov, (206) 684-8802
Councilmember Richard Conlin, richard.conlin@seattle.gov, (206) 684-8805
Councilmember Jan Drago, jan.drago@seattle.gov, (206) 684-8801
Councilmember Jean Godden, jean.godden@seattle.gov, (206) 684-8807
Councilmember Bruce Harrell, bruce.harrell@seattle.gov, (206) 684-8804
Councilmember Nick Licata, nick.licata@seattle.gov, (206) 684-8803
Councilmember Richard J. McIver, richard.mciver@seattle.gov, (206) 684-8800
Councilmember Tom Rasmussen, tom.rasmussen@seattle.gov, (206) 684-8808
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