Comments on: Car full of Christmas gifts stolen on Ballard Ave.

By: edmundhooper

edmundhooper — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 11:44:57 +0000

thats a real bummer, i searched stolen property and saw this. i was searching because my car was broken into in the same area. as i looked around not one camera, hmmm… must have been exactly what the theives were thinking.

By: SPG

SPG — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 23:19:19 +0000

Except that Seattle isn't following the national trend...

http://www.seattlepi.com/local/413509_crime21.html

"Led by a spike in robberies and assaults, the violent crime rate in Seattle increased by more than 21 percent during the first part of this year compared to last."
"The property crime rate increased in Seattle, too. The number of car theft, larceny, burglary and thefts rose more than 4.4 percent during the first part of this year (16,325 incidents) compared to last year, when there were 1,5629."
"Overall, property crimes fell nationally by 6.1 percent, and violent crimes by 4.4 percent, according to the six-month data collected by the FBI. "

By: linusrox

linusrox — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 13:35:56 +0000

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091221/ap_on_go_ca...

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/30/nyregion/30cr...

By: SPG

SPG — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 08:27:50 +0000

I haven't read the book, but I did live there for both the Dinkins administration and the first part of Guiliani's where I got to see it first hand.
I take issue with your assessment that more cops on the street won't cut down on crime. Right now we often don't even have enough cops to respond to calls let alone follow up on the crimes and catch the perpetrators. More cops on patrol means a faster response and larger response. When you call in someone breaking into your car and nobody is close enough to get there in a couple minutes there's slim chance of the thief being caught. If there is a cop a few blocks away that isn't in the middle of another call you have a really good chance of catching the thief, especially if there's backup available to cut off the escape route.
In a properly sized police force you'd also have cops who follow up on property crimes and take down the thieves days after the theft.
We don't need to put five times the number of cops on the street, but we do desperately need more.

By: SPG

SPG — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 12:08:57 +0000

I know you weren't burglarizing cars. You know you weren't burglarizing cars. How does it look to the police who roll up on you trying door handles? How does it look to the car owner who catches you?
From your link: “In any prosecution for burglary, any person who enters or remains unlawfully in a building may be inferred to have acted with intent to commit a crime against a person or property therein, unless such entering or remaining shall be explained by evidence satisfactory to the trier of fact to have been made without such criminal intent.” How do you prove that? You'd really be at the mercy of whoever catches you and I wouldn't be especially merciful in the wee hours of the morning.

By: wtf2

wtf2 — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 06:42:23 +0000

Agreed. Did they have to add politics into this sad story. I hope everything turns out well. I have had my car stolen twice and it is a stressfull time.

By: PhinneyNotBallard

PhinneyNotBallard — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 23:29:23 +0000

That's part of your compensation as an employee. There are taxes on your wages that are being paid to cover your potential need to collect unemployment. Your employer withholds lots of taxes and pays them directly to the government. I suppose that means that the Social Security tax that my employer pays out isn't mine either, as it did not come directly as a check from me to the government, right?

If you didn't exist, these taxes wouldn't be paid by your employer. The money is being funded from your work any way you slice it.

By: sweetrose

sweetrose — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 22:53:53 +0000

Jules to answer that would be an insult to the intelligence I know you posses. To answer it here would be unkind. Neither it seems does any good anyway.

By: sweetrose

sweetrose — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 22:52:47 +0000

I am very glad I misunderstood.

By: Huey Dewey Louie

Huey Dewey Louie — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 22:39:48 +0000

What, no Ballard crime to report from last night?

By: wtc

wtc — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 21:34:56 +0000

did you go to Seattle Public Schools, jules?

either
a) I'm glad your family was well-off enough to send you elsewhere

or
b) I'm glad your predecessors weren't as stingy as you and DID pay their public school taxes so you could get an eduaction, deary

By: mikiec420

mikiec420 — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 20:12:29 +0000

you misunderstand me, i do not define myself by my crap, i define myself by my actions. one of my actions however would be to defend my crap. its the most basic of human nature.

By: LBB

LBB — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 12:05:18 +0000

the skis were BORROWED – and it's xc – not downhill.

By: Jules

Jules — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 07:42:00 +0000

What does the phrase “keeping it real” REALLY mean?

By: SnarkHurts

SnarkHurts — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 02:02:27 +0000

Hear, hear. Well said.

By: 20022002

20022002 — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 01:06:01 +0000

Of all the cars I've owned or borrowed in my life, only three have been stolen. And it was probably the ugliest and cheapest cars of the bunch: beat up Japanese cars from the 80's and early 90's. Apparently after so many miles the lock cylinders get worn out and you can start them with most any key. So guys go around with a keyring full of old Japanese car keys and steal a different car every week or so. SPD often finds the cars later because they were parked near where another was stolen. I was told that when these guys are actually caught they get away with it because they can claim they were given the key by someone they thought was the owner.

So whenever possible, keep your cheap old car empty of valuables because it's not just expensive cars that are on a thief's radar.

By: sweetrose

sweetrose — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 23:42:38 +0000

Oh but it is. As I said before, we live 90% of our lives in our heads and the internet allows us to see inside and observe what people think about break ins and petty crime.

By: sweetrose

sweetrose — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 23:40:46 +0000

Be fair, Ytoo said no such thing. You attended public schools and you drive on the Viaduct which is maintained by tax dollars in the same manner as will be its replacement.

I understand and sympathize with your current situation but keeping it real will go a long way in the solution.

By: Bjorn Toobywild

Bjorn Toobywild — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 23:32:37 +0000

Yeah, I thought this was about car break-ins and annoying petty street crime.

By: sweetrose

sweetrose — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 23:30:03 +0000

Please don't ever define who you are by your crap. It’s a plan that is bound to fail. People spend their lives accumulating crap only to find they are still the same person they were before all that energy was spent.

By: boardbrown

boardbrown — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 23:22:55 +0000

Well, this thread has certainly hit an all-time low for My Ballard. There are some mean spitited assholes on here. Plain and simple.

By: Skip Towne

Skip Towne — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 22:28:08 +0000

KOMO 4 TV has picked-up on the Ballard crime crisis.

By: Jules

Jules — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 22:27:13 +0000

So, Ebenezer Scrooge, the poor are NOT allowed to partake of FREE, YES FREE, healthful outdoor exercise? Perhaps they shouldn't be allowed to run around Greenlake, either, because YOUR tax dollars may have paid for the upkeep of Greenlake? How the hell do you know how she paid for her Christmas presents? Are you psychic?

My taxes go to pay for schools, and I don't have kids. So, why should I have to pay for schools?

"Are there no prisons? Are there no workhouses? "

Your money? I've been paying taxes (and working) for a lot longer than most of the people on this board have been alive.
BTW, what people do NOT realize is that you are in fact TAXESD on your unemployment benefits. So, as a taxpayer, I strongly object to paying for the war in Iraq, Seattle Public Schools, and the idiotic boondogle thus far known as the Viaduct/Tunnel project as well.

By: cyclistandSUVdriver

cyclistandSUVdriver — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 21:22:09 +0000

Actually, what we were doing was not burglary: http://apps.leg.wa.gov/RCW/default.aspx?cite=9A.52

It wasn't even a vehicle prowl. Surely it was stupid! But young people who are drunk often do incredibly stupid things. Maybe you were never stupid, but I sure was. And it was back in the 80s when probably half the people in Ballard didn't bother to lock house doors either... although we never did check that out!

By: Ytoo

Ytoo — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 21:01:10 +0000

Snark yes it would be lovely if the nature of humans stopped. Yes the world is a complicated place. Would you really want it any other way?

There is a book out, The Great Depression, A Diary, by Benjamin Roth. I have not read it but I did see a review where the following quote was included. “This is the most puzzling period of my personal life. I can’t understand things. Everything I thought was right is now proving to be wrong.” The book is not the work or story of down and out Grapes of Wrath type characters. It is the work of a young educated professional man with a wife and children. Ballard, and I assume My Ballard, is attracting just this sort of young people. They have followed the rules and toed the line and worked hard and expected that would allow them to lead a perfect life with never a complication. Most have been taught little history beyond the myth of American exceptionalism.

Americans in general are scared and angry right now. Ballard is no different. Times are a changing and this is nothing new. It’s just new to those you are very young or have led limited or overly protected lives. Our society infantilizes people but they do eventually have to grow up. It’s all perception and perception changes and we grow. This basic fact of life has pissed off a lot of people today.

I taught young people for a long time and can tell you the hardest lesson any child learns is when he learns his parents, or other authority figures he respects and admires, are human beings right along with everyone else. The second hardest is when he learns that a man or a society can do everything right and there will still be complications. Eventually he will learn that there is no such thing as absolute right or wrong and that the world is a very grey place.

By: SeaSpider

SeaSpider — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 08:53:07 +0000

“But she has in no way paid more in federal taxes she has received. “

Wrong. Most people pay more in taxes than the benefits they receive because government funds pay for a wide variety of programs that do not universally benefit all citizens. If that wasn't the case the government would very quickly go bankrupt. Also I never said all the money she paid in taxes went to unemployment. My point is that Ytoo is implying that this woman is receiving an undeserved “grant” from the tax payers when in fact this woman is a tax payer and is simply receiving a benefit she paid for.

By: SnarkHurts

SnarkHurts — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 08:21:40 +0000

Oh, come to think of it, the book was “The Tipping Point”, not “Blink”. Right? It was Gladwell, I know that. Facts are such slippery things.

By: SnarkHurts

SnarkHurts — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 08:18:18 +0000

I read “Blink” also and completely agree that there should be more focus on dealing with the nuisance crimes such as tagging, much of which is perpetrated by adolescent Ballard residents. But I'm not sure that doubling or even quintupling the number of officers will increase the police presence on the street enough to be a deterrent to opportunistic crime. And do you really want to jail every car prowler, petty thief and tagger? Aren't the jails overcrowded already? And if everyone's just getting a slap on the wrist or less, who are all those people in jail?

Gee, why do things have to be so complicated in the real world?

By: mikiec420

mikiec420 — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 06:51:24 +0000

yes, my stuff is crap. but its mine! its really all i have!

By: SPG

SPG — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 06:50:44 +0000

I had a friend who made some poor choices and was doing this kind of thing for real. He wound up one night with a piss drunk DEA agent holding a loaded gun to his head while trying to pull a stereo. He made it out alive, but barely. He admits he had a 50-50 survival chance that night.
I can assure you that if anyone tried pulling my car door handle in the middle of the night they'd have a dog attached to that arm while I called 911. It's burglary whether you take anything or not.