Comments on: AK-47 seized at Golden Gardens

By: david t.

david t. — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 10:41:45 +0000

Speaking of Golden Gardens, whatever came about with the story about that ladies body they found on the beach? It was a big story at the times then it dropped off the radar completely. Does anyone know?

By: Robert

Robert — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 01:56:14 +0000

Don't kid yourself. Of COURSE that kind of thing is routine. Take a look at my diary entries from yesterday:

9:27 a.m. -- Stopped at 7-11 on 24th Ave. Three cars of gang-bangers armed with AK-47s in parking lot, listening to WARM-FM at high volume. Cooler entirely out of Diet Pepsi. Clerk pretending nothing is wrong.

9:41 a.m. -- Little old lady caught in crosswalk on 24th with carful of drug-crazed criminals bearing down on her. Fortunately, she was aware of her 2nd Amendment rights and successfully deployed her grenade launcher. I sustained flesh wounds from shrapnel, but how can I complain? Amidst the terror that is modern-day Ballard, this a small thing.

10:06 a.m. - Vandals with spray paint tag the entire front of the Carnegie library building. (Odd choice to use mauve--it's such a dated color.) Police officers in car out front pretend not to notice.

10:16 a.m. -- Finally too terror stricken to pick up my sharpened kitchen knives from Kitchen-n-Things, I head home the only safe way, slinking through the vast network of ancient sewer tunnels that runs beneath Ballard. I empty a clip at a pack of rats the size of Wolverines, and reach home only to find that I'm completely out of 1/2 & 1/2 for my coffee.

And so it goes. Sadly, a now-typical morning in Ballard.

By: blueben

blueben — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 23:33:01 +0000

There's no need to be a jerk. This is great data. Thanks for digging it up.

So these numbers do show major crimes up significantly in January. Fortunately, February, March, and April all dropped back to almost the same levels they were last year. This is good news! This means that while total counts are up because of a particularly bad January, we're actually doing OK.

This data shows that while we should continue to be vigilante, there has not been an "explosion" in crime and there is NO REASON TO PANIC.

(Unless, of course, you believe that the SPD and the Mayor are engaged in a conspiracy to drive drug dealers and homeless in to Ballard and cover up the numbers.)

By: Tiptoes

Tiptoes — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 23:23:27 +0000

Here's some reason and logic for you. Don't choke on it:

http://www.seattle.gov/police/crime/TrendReport...

“As can be seen in the table below, North Precinct has seen an overall increase in Major Crimes in the first four months of 2009 when compared to the same period in 2008. Among Violent Crimes, both robberies and aggravated assaults are up through April 2009 when compared with the same period in 2008.

There are also increases in Property Crimes in North Precinct – particularly burglaries and larcenies – but these are not as large proportionally as the increases in Violent Crimes. “

By: Tiptoes

Tiptoes — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 23:21:41 +0000

Will this shut Blueben up once and for all?

http://www.seattle.gov/police/crime/TrendReport...

There are also increases in Property Crimes in North Precinct – particularly burglaries and larcenies – but these are not as large proportionally as the increases in Violent Crimes. “

By: Braincandy!

Braincandy! — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 21:10:59 +0000

Chopper did you look that up on wikipedia, or are you a crazed “gun-nut” that just knows these things; I don't really know the answer to that, but I suspect the latter because everything I have ever read from you on this blog has been ingorant, slanted, and for the most part scary. Also, when you call semantics on someone, don't have your post contain more semantics along those same lines as you accuse. For everyone else please be careful of this commenter and a few others that “hide” on this webblog; they are what is truly terrifying about the changes that happen to Ballard on a daily basis; some good, some bad. They speak with the same kind of self-righteous conviction that reminds this reader of the style of discourse seen accompanying hate rhetoric, zenophobic sentiment, and general racism. Even worse they consider themselves liberals; yet when given anonymity (this blog, possibly others) thier politics more aptly resembles nationalist conservatism. Its deffinately interesting sociologically speaking; but from a societal standpoint – rather scary. Know your real enemy poeple, Ballard can be percieved in two ways; this wonderfully positive neighborhood with the same problems as any city in such close proximity to a major metropolitan center, or in the extremely negative way – as painted so brashly by “chopper 74″ and his co-horts on this website: Its how you percieve Ballard that counts, when I walk around, go get a bite, see a movie, hang out at golden gardens all I see is good people, if not some of them flawed like the rest of us: CHopper!

By: demian

demian — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 08:16:59 +0000

holy crap. that's hardcore. who has an ak-47 anymore? besides being seriously deadly it's also a funny sort of gun. …and a butterfly kinfe? who did they arrest? a wolverine?

By: Tiptoes

Tiptoes — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 06:13:02 +0000

I HEAR they issue….damn iPhones, hard to type!

By: Tiptoes

Tiptoes — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 06:12:30 +0000

Yes, I here they issue you an AK and a bag of crack as part of the condo association fees in Ballard.

By: RudyT

RudyT — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 06:03:30 +0000

I wonder how many of the businesses were actually burglarized “back in the day” but we just didn't have the information available to us through community blogs like this so we didn't know about it. I think that the ease of information and often misinformation available to us now can make things seem WAY different now when they may be just the same. Just a thought.

By: Mayor Nickel bag

Mayor Nickel bag — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 04:09:39 +0000

All the voters and businesses who are campaign contributors are Downtown, Capital Hill other areas. Ballard has a very small voter block and can't finance campaigns. After the election, the transients will be chased back downtown, but for now, they are out of sight and out of mind to the Nikels voters. Nice and clean for the summer tourist season downtown and the cruise ship industry.

By: SeaSpider

SeaSpider — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 01:42:01 +0000

I'm with you. People here are turning into real cowards. My guess is the people who whine about the “explosion” of crime are probably the same sort of people who grew up here and have never lived anywhere else. Sorry folks but Ballard has a LONG way to go before you can say it has a major crime problem by any reasonable definition.

By: chopper_74

chopper_74 — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 01:20:31 +0000

Semantics, but, the police said that the knife was illegal, which it is, but said nothing of the gun being illegal. I'd guess it wasn't fully automatic, which is illegal, or they would have noted it. A semi-automatic AK47 is not an illegal weapon. Of course, I don't think these boys were preparing to hunt deer…

By: chopper_74

chopper_74 — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 01:10:15 +0000

Wow, now that sounds quite intelligent…
So, that must be the 'new math' I've heard so much about.
Hows this one…
Smarter than you=everyone ;-)

By: Katya

Katya — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 00:34:06 +0000

AK-47s are easily converted into automatic weapons, although they are sold semi auto. Either way, they shouldn't be in the hands of a minor. They didn't go shoot up the park, but it's still a safety risk.

Golden Gardens is full of bottle sucking morons like this. There's somewhat of a police presence after an incident, I've noticed, but once the incident is cleared from most everyone's mind (1-2 days) they go back to patrolling downtown, Broadway, the Ave, etc. and largely ignoring Ballard. I don't think it's a fluke at all. I do, however, think it's a fluke that police were actually there to catch the thug.

By: Mayor Nickel bag

Mayor Nickel bag — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 00:17:20 +0000

Yes, they enjoy the attention. Surprising, but true. Some, not all. This blog is entertainment to a few. I know this first hand. They also know its nearly impossible to get arrested, because they must be caught red handed, and are technicaly breaking no law. So, dont expect a mass exodus from the park. It's not coming. First hand knowledge here. Really, they could sit in there by the dozens all day and truthfully, its totally legal. Thats reality. Where are they supposed to go? On to private property? Then, they get arrested.

By: KyleAnne

KyleAnne — Sun, 31 May 2009 22:33:08 +0000

Hi SPG, this wasn't directed at you, sorry if it seemed too broad. I am happy to hear others' opinions, and I share many of the opinions on this board. It's the epitaphs and insults hurled at other posters are what I object to. I posted examples of these insults from actual posts, but they were removed by the hard-working Geeky Swedes, as have other posts in this topic that violated forum rules. (They smartly deleted a couple of mine after I regressed to childhood and got a little rude myself.)

By: Edog

Edog — Sun, 31 May 2009 22:31:20 +0000

“Beatings and armed robberies” You have no idea what you are talking about. I've lived in areas where aggravated robbery was COMMON PLACE. For example, went to my local, met the new neighbors, was asked if I was robbed yet, told I would be, and don't fight it when it happens its only property, and they will kill you, was robbed, gun in face, did not fight it. No, this does not happen in Ballard!

You know, I really get the sense that many of the people who post here about crime have no persepctice, other than watching 48hours mystery.

By: silence.kit

silence.kit — Sun, 31 May 2009 22:05:29 +0000

Good to see that insanity, false accusations, misinformation, and fear mongering still reign here on myballard! Don't bother posting facts or speaking about statistics. They will be ignored.

And then when one or two people try to actually talk sense, they're lambasted and insulted. So familiar...

You're going to give yourself an ulcer.

By: silence.kit

silence.kit — Sun, 31 May 2009 21:56:42 +0000

Somebody watches The Wire too much.

By: KyleAnne

KyleAnne — Sun, 31 May 2009 21:54:25 +0000

Sorry, my comment was sarcastic and sounded more directed at Jules' reading comprehension than I meant. I was referring to another comment about reading comprehension from earlier.

By: KyleAnne

KyleAnne — Sun, 31 May 2009 21:26:42 +0000

Once again, we have a reading comprehension problem here. Jules, go back and read my post and maybe you'll get it this time.

By: SPG

SPG — Sun, 31 May 2009 21:14:12 +0000

I don't think that the report said whether this “AK-47″ was fully automatic, but that's a technicality. You can legally own a semi-automatic assault rifle, but if you're running off to hide it before the cops come I kinda doubt that this one was legal.
That said, I think this incident is more of a fluke. A couple of dumb kids who think being all gangsta and s… is so dope yo. I'm sure there's a bunch more coming to GG on friday and sat nights armed and stupid, but I don't think that they pose much threat to the rest of us. Should the police have a greater presence there and pick up more of these idiots? Absolutely.

By: eric

eric — Sun, 31 May 2009 21:07:26 +0000

so you are suggesting that drug dealers from the park feel like celebs becuse of myballard? what, do they have laptops with 'em? weird comment.

By: SPG

SPG — Sun, 31 May 2009 21:03:24 +0000

blueben, We do like this neighborhood. A lot. We know how nice it is and we appreciate it. What we don't like and why you see so many outraged, and yes some are over the top, comments is that we don't want to see the neighborhood we love so much go completely to crap.
If we all took the position that 2007's crime stats show a decrease citywide so everything is fine, and just sat back without lodging any complaints then what? Let the neighborhood slide and become a place we don't want to live in anymore?
I'll grant that posting on a blog comments section isn't going to accomplish much, but we do need to vent sometimes.

By: SPG

SPG — Sun, 31 May 2009 20:52:13 +0000

KyleAnne, What constitutes hatred and hostility on these comments? That some of us are fed up with having petty criminals steal from us?
What's really heartbreaking is that those of us who work for a living have to lock everything up and still get our homes, cars, and businesses burglarized. I'd much rather be able to go on living happily blissfully unaware of crime except that my business almost got wiped out when all my equipment was stolen. I'd rather be taking a vacation for the weekend than paying off damage repairs. I'd also like all my neighbors to be on a first name basis with the glass replacement guy because he's a nice guy, not because he's replacing car windows on our block every week.
What you see as fear mongering and hate is frustration from the majority of us who have had enough of these crimes which aren't so petty when they happen to you.

By: SPG

SPG — Sun, 31 May 2009 20:22:54 +0000

Rather than go around in circles asking for stats that don't exist and you claiming that everything is just fine, I have a better idea.
Business burglaries: Go down to the shops and ask if or how many times they've been broken into over the past 9 months vs the past 9 years. You'll be shocked to find out how many of the businesses in Ballard and Greenwood have been robbed this year that have never been robbed before.
As for dismissing the rest as anecdotes, the plural of anecdote is data.

By: Jakey

Jakey — Sun, 31 May 2009 19:52:18 +0000

much less a drunk teen sporting gang colors…

By: Braincandy!

Braincandy! — Sun, 31 May 2009 19:12:10 +0000

Because with the good comes the bad; and for this price we get our last free place to enjoy ourselves without restrictions – at least until the cops make everyone leave around eleven or so depending on how busy they are. Poeple somtimes forgot the freedoms that make this country great and if poeple start to focus on the “bad” as a reason to take away these freedoms then we will all suffer, seriously. The real question about this story shouldn't be location, but more likely: How did these individuals get a friggin AK47 – a fully automatic assult rifle that is totally illegal to own and possess. Seriously, when the Mexican drug cartel members come over the border to obtain weapons at Texas gun shows they cant even get AK's, what the F is up here?

By: Smarterthanyou

Smarterthanyou — Sun, 31 May 2009 12:54:23 +0000

Ballard or not I hate that we have people in our city with fully automatic weapons. There is no reason a civilian should be able to have that kind of weapon.