Man killed in late night shooting in Ballard

Updated: The Tacoma News Tribune is reporting the victim is Robert Baker, the brother of Budda Baker, the UW football star and now Arizona Cardinal. Budda Baker posted this statement:

“On behalf of the Baker Family we want to thank everyone for their generous outpouring of love, support, and prayers during this extremely difficult time at the passing of our dearly beloved son, brother and husband, Robert Baker. We ask that you respect our family’s privacy in this difficult time. – The Baker Family”

Earlier: Just before 2 a.m. this morning, police raced to the 4900 block of NW Leary Way — near Cedar Room and Shelter Lounge — for a report of a shooting. They discovered a 29-year-old man with a gunshot wound a block away at NW 49th St. and 17th Ave. NW.

“Officers performed CPR until relieved by Seattle Fire. The victim was pronounced dead while being transported to the hospital,” says Detective Mark Jamieson.

Bryan Orendor told My Ballard he was outside Shelter Lounge with his girlfriend and two friends when he heard the shots.

“I heard 3 booms which sounded like fireworks,” he said. “As a second passed, a couple more shots went off and I grabbed my girlfriend and told my buddies to run and get inside Shelter now, there is an active shooter around the corner. As we ran inside, we ducked behind the bar, and I just remember everyone crying and yelling ‘lock the door, lock the door!'”

A large number of officers searched the surrounding blocks, clearing buildings looking for the suspect. (Silver posted updates in the My Ballard Facebook Group last night.) But so far, the suspect remains at large.

Investigators arrived and processed the scene for evidence, taping off the immediate area.

Anyone with information on this incident is urged to contact the SPD tip line at (206) 233-5000.

This is Ballard’s second homicide in a little more than a week. Last week officers discovered a gunshot victim inside a camper at 15th Ave. NW at north end of the Ballard Bridge.

(Top photo courtesy of KING 5’s Doug Dillon, who has a few more photos here. The video above is from KOMO’s Dan the Truck Guy.)

Geeky Swedes

The founders of My Ballard

100 thoughts to “Man killed in late night shooting in Ballard”

  1. Yea it’s definitely time to move. First it was just the usual homeless people pulling crap like stealing and harassing people. Then people started getting robbed. Then a few weeks back some kid got stabbed in the back. Now 2 homicides in a week. At $2000-$3000 for the average rent here in Ballard this is not what I signed up for. I can’t wait til my lease is up.

  2. The above 2 comments epitomize our sad situation today; 1 speaking truth thoughts and coming to an actual conclusion, and the other mimicking, being a troll/snarkster, pretending they can’t see a thing. Sort of a snapshot of America as a whole. So “No whining” will officially tell us all when it’s real bad, and THEN it’s time for group thinking.

  3. Yes — that kid got stabbed in the back by a gun. The depravity of RV urban camping was caused by a gun. The price gouging of $3,000 rent was caused by a gun.

  4. Living in Seattle the past couple of years really challenges your mental health. With the increased crime and traffic and costs of living and taxes and goofy government policy’s it’s downright depressing at times.

  5. Are you guys going to blame the homeless for this one, too?

    Or are you going to say it’s Mike O’Brien’s fault because he has ‘tied the hands’ of the police who often don’t do their job because it involves too much paperwork?

    Fortunately I bought a long time ago so didn’t ‘sign-up’ for anything (as if your high rent entitles you to live in a crime-free neighborhood– good luck with that!)

  6. @Scott: So the first person says they think Ballard is a hellhole and comes to the conclusion that they are going to move and they are the hero. The second person is encouraging the first person to follow through and they are the bad guy?

    Your analysis of their conversation is quite delirious and it sounds you’re just really trying to force the national partisan divide onto a local neighborhood blog.

  7. There is nothing wrong with feeling entitled to a crime-free or low-crime neighborhood whether you rent or own. It doesn’t make you ignorant, or a nimby. It’s folks who feel like this kind of stuff is a “day in the life” of Seattle who keep the bar low for what the community could be. If you own here and you feel safe and comfortable here, then I respect that… but the respect should go both ways. After living in a world class city on the East Coast for many years, I can tell you that you can have both an expectation of safety and the tolerance for difference that comes with a well run city and an intelligent populace.

  8. It’s clear that the stand down orders given to the police from the Mayor and City Council for petty crime and possession are escalating into increased felony crimes. The fabric of our society has been torn by people who are immobilized (who we elected.) If you want public safety, hire more police, revive enforcement and prosecute crimes. And provide decent treatment in jail.

  9. I guess I might be a Nimby. Here’s a list of things I don’t want in my proverbial “backyard”.
    1) Thieving junkies prowling cars and loitering in front of every business
    2) Tweakers and their edgy pit bulls feeling welcome to harass and assault people
    3) Tweakers and their edgy pit bulls camping or living in RVs
    4) Tweakers chopping up stolen bikes along the trail, or breaking into cars
    5) Junkies feeling “welcome” to slam heroin in public
    6) Murderous drug dealers competing for turf. The drugs come from somewhere, Geniuses. Even more comical, when the cops send one of these creeps to the morgue the city punishes the cops. Muh Che Taylor!
    7) Degenerates, junkies, and known sex offenders hanging out the LIBRARIES. Read more books! Comedy
    8) Never ending tax increases that SUBSIDIZE these criminals. Not only do we have a filth and crime infestation in Ballard, Durkan wants us to PAY MORE for the privilege

  10. Wait, where’s the post that says something like, “This is nothing new. People have been getting murdered in Ballard since I moved here in 1977?” I’d like to see the concerns expressed by some folks here negated as soon as possible! We don’t need the distraction. Oh look, a cool Pilsner is on tap at !!!

  11. The world changes. Ballard and Seattle is changing…again. It’s not the first tech boom for Seattle. Seattle survived the last one. It can survive this too. But Ballard will not be the same. Austin isn’t. Denver, Atlanta, SLC not the same. But staying or going, neither is wrong or stupid. We’ve been retired here for three years and we love it.

  12. When my mom and us moved here in the mid 70’s, there was a gunfight at the Old Pequliar, at the time named the Valhalla, the victims running to the ER at Swedish, leaving bloody footprints all the way there. That’s how the cops traced him. Old town was a bunch of creepy unused places, Hattie’s Hat had mostly drunken fishermen rolling out of it. Looks like Ballard is going back to square one with higher rents included.

    I for once was happy not to hear the loud young drunks last night. Usually they walk down my block, very close to the Shelter, shouting at the top of their lungs at 2 am like they have a hearing problem, I’ll be happy when they all move out of here and back to their ‘safe’ enclaves in Cali or Kansas.

  13. Forgot to mention – the Shelter used to be a garage. Back in the 70’s, a young woman’s body was found in one of the bathrooms there, She’d been abducted from a bus stop near 15th and 80th. Cold case not solved until a few years ago via DNA. Perp was in jail at the time.

  14. I love this neighborhood, have experienced cities with worse problems, but just don’t see why our neighborhood needs to be this badly managed. I hope we get better management. Elections can’t happen soon enough. People do have options but not always good ones.

    Pretty easy to leave if you simply rent. It’s only a matter of waiting for the lease to come up then renting a u-haul for $80. Easy to say… Buhbye.

    Owners have a different bar to get over. Higher transaction costs with getting a realtor, buffing up the home for sale, stepping through the sales process, then watching 5% to 7% of your homes equity vanish into realtor fees, taxes, etc. If a median home is $800K that equates to at least $40K out of a homeowners wallet. It sucks.

  15. Re: cities change etc just move
    It’s a very sad attitude that says “we prefer to lose our neighbors than deal with public safety issues”. What a joke. Not to mention the fact that working people can’t just sell their nonexistent $750k house and flee to Boise.

    Regarding declines in Atlanta, Denver, Austin, and of course, Seattle: what do thee cities have in common, politically? Bellevue is pretty safe and clean and the police response is reasonable.

    People here have higher expectations for tiny restaurants on yelp than they do for a city that mismanages billions of dollars in resources.

  16. “A large number of officers searched the surrounding blocks, clearing buildings looking for the suspect.”

    let me guess, they didn’t knock on the doors of our RV “neighbors”, did they?

  17. Every single time there is a serious crime in Ballard, the same 3 or 4 guys go on Nextdoor and My Ballard and they lie about crime going up when it’s not, and lie about homeless people being to blame when they’re not, and lie about Mike O’Brien being to blame when he’s not. They incorrectly predict that O’Brien will not be re-elected, and in fact two thirds of District 6 votes for him (again!), without him even needing to bother to campaign.

    Same 3 or 4 guys. Same lies. They bat a big fat zero every time. I guess you could say they’re batting 1,000 at being wrong. That’s a kind of winning. Sort of. Congratulations?

    When are you going to learn? Are you ever going to change your tune? How can you go on being so wrong for so long and never admit it?

  18. @Elenchos
    Hey, we missed your high school level comments but welcome back!
    Those of us that have lived and worked in Ballard/Fremont for the last 20yrs have all seen the same decline in behavior and safety during the last 3yrs. I know it’s time consuming to stage marches supporting felons, taking dog selfies for your instagram, or crocheting a pink p*ssy hat, but maybe it’s time you talk to some local biz owners before Sawanting everywhere, Amiga.

  19. As if the bums, drug dealers, dopers, hustlers and various scum bags who have invaded Ballard, housed and unhoused, are all somehow unrelated, orbiting in their own separate universes instead of what they actually are, a fetus organism being welcomed and encouraged by Weepy Mike O’Brien and the guilt-ridden, phoney compassion crowd.

  20. So 2 murders in 2 weeks. Stabbing on Wednesday on 24th in front of a home with a reputation to be a drug house. A few days later every car on 24th between 83rd and 85th tires were slashed (suspected to be from the junkies in the drug house)- A food truck was robbed of 6k of equipment- new encampments are showing up in North Beach and Soundview Park in the last few days. This is not normal. The situation here is getting worse by the minute- O’Brien doesn’t care about you or your families safety. That should be the priority of any elected official. He has policies that destroy our environment. He is making these addicts lives much worse by enabling them.

  21. So is it that you think Mike O’Brien is Police Commissioner? Because he’s actually a city council member. And Seattle doesn’t have a police commissioner. Do you think he’s chair of the public safety committee? Because he’s not chair. He’s not even on that committee. Burgess was chair of that one since forever. Now it’s someone else (Lorena González) .

    These are some of the reasons the false claims you guys and your sock puppet accounts post every single time failed to prevent OBrien from getting re-elected. By a landslide. Again!

    It’s funny when Wile E Coyote does the same stupid thing over and over and never learns. It’s funny when Charlie Brown kicks that football over and over. You Ballard ninnies were even funny. Once. Like back in 2004 or 2005. Nobody has thought your repetitive schtick has been funny for at least a dozen years. Yes. It’s really been THAT LONG! Get some new material! Stop lying!

  22. The Nickelsville public camping protests brought this whole problem here, and it is still here.
    You give notice, and then sweep, and then put people in jail or issue citations, and run background checks on all of them, because: THEY ARE BREAKING THE LAW!

    1) Enforce the law. (Loitering, camping in public places, harassment on streets, in the library,
    definitely on public transportation, in the grocery stores, in front of the grocery stores. In bus stops.
    Turn the bus stops around, and take the lights out of them. No-one wants to sit staring and listening to a busy street under lights in their eyes. Put benches back in bus stops. Don’t build the village around the idiot. Take down fencing under bridges. ENFORCE THE LAW. ENFORCE THE LAW!
    Public intoxication is a citation. With that you can detain someone and run a background check. With more jails, you can put them in jail.
    2) More jails. Big modern jails. More mental hospitals (for drugs and other mental illnesses.)
    3) There is already infrastructure for the homeless! It’s called “HOUSING!” Seattle Housing Authority!!
    HOUSING and Urban Development. If they don’t want to go fill out an application for HOUSING, take them to jail, and run their backgrounds. Drive them to the national or Federal forest where they can play “I’m living outside!” legally.
    4) If you don’t want to weed a garden, then you don’t deserve to eat out of it.
    5) Last but not least, it’s not only the “homeless.” It’s METH. METH METH METH. Those people are so crazy for so long, they will break into your house even if they know your home, and sit there and refuse to leave, if you (ask them to?) THESE PEOPLE ARE NUTS ON METH. It is very cheap, it drives you nuts, and it lasts a LONG time. They deal it out of and around the Ballard library.
    6) Churches with that pay NO PROPERTY taxes are inviting these people to our neighborhoods, they have almost no local congregation. Nationally, they have deep pockets to keep sending people to mission overseas, and feed the local drug addicts and thieves. Locally, they pay NO TAXES, and invite CRIME into our neighborhood.
    7) Homelessness? Housing! Seattle Housing Authority! It’s already there!!!! Tear down all camps!!!!!!
    8) Prosecute black on white hate crime, prosecute people standing in the middle of the street without permit. Don’t ignore the new Female on Male hate either. You are not fighting bigotry, you are CREATING bigots. You think you are special? No one wants to hear it, or see your face. Pay that very basic price, to begin with. No one likes you when you are Loud, Violent, Belligerent and think you are special because you are a color or because you are ugly or because you were assaulted.

  23. Which black on white hate crimes did they fail to prosecute? Which female on male hate crimes did they not prosecute? Asking for a friend.

    “No one likes you when you are Loud, Violent, Belligerent and think you are special because you are a color or because you are ugly or because you were assaulted.”

    No one except the 60% + of District 6 residents who voted for Mike O’Brien last election. And the election before that. And will vote for him again in the next election. No one except them. You know who is special? You are special. Yes, you, dear cupcake. You are a member of a special minority. Your specialness is that you represent a point of view with so few adherents that nobody who thinks like you can get elected to anything in Seattle. It sucks to be unpopular. But it’s awesome to be special.

    Posting the Republican Party platform on My Ballard and thinking that’s going to be popular is the most special thing of all.

    You guys have spent a decade and more lying about Mike O’Brien and lying about crime and it clearly doesn’t work. Why do you keep doing it? This doesn’t work. If it was going to work it would have worked a long, long time ago. Do something else.

    Seriously. Which black on white hate crimes did they not prosecute? Which female on male? Names. Dates. Locations. When did this happen?

  24. It’s Seattle:
    When the “community youths” mug people downtown the mayor pushes a tax for free community college. When the stabby tweakers get unruly it’s time for a rent/property tax hike.
    When the Mariners can’t win it’s time to ban chewing tobacco(!). And of course when the Cali crime arrives full force, someone like “Elenchos” has a rambling, poorly worded attempt to address some phantasmagoric “racism” that Seattle goes out of its way (at the expense of its residents i might add) to avoid.
    And as i type this, some crazy hobo screams on the sidewalk. Pathetic.

  25. Elenchos,

    If you don’t want to weed your garden, then you will not eat out of it.
    I despise how you put question marks at the end of sentences you
    already know the answer to.

    I’m not Republican or Democrat. I’m common sense.
    I am more liberal than you, and I despise your pretending-to-be-blind pseudo-liberality.

    Of course no politicians will talk common sense, if it is not IN. THEIR. BEST. INTEREST.

    The government is made to do the will of the people, and unfortunately, and despicable
    you are the majority. I can’t wait until you are a victim, or a witness.
    I don’t know if I will be able to resist the urge to spit your same spit in your little argumentative face
    while you are being victimized, and suddenly you need help, and suddenly you see the light, and suddenly
    it’s a whole new ballgame. When you fall off of your bicycle, and you look at me like I’m supposed to do
    something about it, to help you, to be a good Samaritan, I will resist the urge to laugh at you in my my most
    argumentative bratty and snide posture, and walk away.

    Again, ENFORCE THE LAW, POLICE.

    Elenchos, stay out of my garden.

  26. Vote for a clown, expect a circus. I don’t know how many terms Mike O’Brien has served in the Clowncil, but if your District re-elects him, you honestly deserve to be Ground Zero for hobos, tweakers, and thieves.

    ‘Like’ the Safe Seattle and Recall Mike O’Brien pages on FB.

    Join the real resistance!

  27. For the record, I’m sure Mike O’Brien is a nice guy. I’m sure he means well. I very much doubt he sits around with Ksama ‘Eat The Rich’ Sawant and the rest of the SJW clique in some underground lair like Dr. Evil and his henchmen and asks ‘What can we do to destroy Seattle today?’.

    The problem is that they live in a bubble. They’re so enamored by their own SJW rhetoric, they can’t see the forest for the trees. At City Hall, they’re surrounded by a mob of self-dealing ‘poverty pimps’, led by SHARE and LIHI.

    It’s time for a change. Visualize recall. Join the real resistance!

  28. Answer the question. Which hate crimes did they fail to prosecute?

    Also, are you aware that the person who decides what to prosecute is called a “prosecutor”? It’s right there in the name. Mike O’Brien is not a prosecutor. He’s on the city council.

    Tim Burgess was the chair of the public safety committee for most of the time period you are going on about. Why don’t you blame Burgess for anything? Why O’Brien?

    Let’s say your Republican or DINO candidate were to win the next District 6 election. Or you recalled O’Brien (LOL! Good luck!) Somebody who doesn’t “live in a bubble.” What exactly do you think they would do differently? Issue different orders to the chief of police? That’s the mayor’s job. Build more jails? King County builds the jails.

    Why do you think O’Brien is the cause of all your woes? This crime wave? (The crime wave that isn’t real by the way, just saying). Why him and not the mayor? Or Tim Burgess? Or the King County Council? The chief of police, or the KC Sheriff? Or the King County Prosecuting Attorney? There’s so many people who are not Mike O’Brien whose actual jobs have something to do with crime.

    Anyways. Answer the question. Which hate crime was not prosecuted? Were you making stuff up again? Lying? You lie a lot, don’t you? Don’t you? Admit it.

  29. @elenchos

    I just had to break up a fight at ballard commons park 57th and 22nd where a crazy junky lady was assaulting some guy she ended up having to be tazed to let him go (she had him in a headlock holding onto his hair). I had to step in and call the police and she ended up being arrested.

    I can’t even walk my dog and go get coffee without this kind of crap happening. It’s getting old. Ballard used to be a nice place to live. Yes every city and neighborhood has crime but for the most part I didn’t feel the need to be armed while getting coffee or walking my dog like I do now.

    I moved here over a decade ago from Chicago, I know what it looks like when good neighborhoods start going to hell because of bad management by the city and how it starts from petty theft and drug crime to homicides. I hope that Ballard comes back and becomes the area it once was but I see it getting much worse before it gets any better.

    And as far as the commenters saying bye, go ahead and move. Think about this. Many of my other neighbors and friends that live in the area are moving because the crime coupled with the high rents simply doesn’t make sense. That means less money stimulating the ballard neighborhood stores, shops, bars, and restaurants. Sure more people will move in as more and more move out however now you just lost that sense of community that ballard once had. Which I find quite saddening.

  30. The Seattle crime rate today is a third of what it was in 1987. The crime rate in 1992 was double today’s rate. Even as recently as 2005, the rate was 30% higher than today. The reason flim flam men and internet trolls like to cherry pick 2008 as a starting date to claim there is a crime wave is that it happened to be a bit lower then. A bit. But the truth is the crime rate *plummeted* in the 20 years before 2007, and it has been more or less flat ever since. It has gone up and it’s gone down since 2007, but only incrementally, and it always settles back to the same approximate level. That’s what flat means.

    You guys have had this explained to you many times but you don’t care. Also, you haven’t lived here very long.

    Answer the question. Which hate crimes did they fail to prosecute? Or admit you made it up. Jesus disapproves of lying. He saw what you did. God saw you lie. The whole internet saw you lie too and the whole internet thinks you’re a joke. Tell the truth for once.

  31. I just looked at the same story on Nextdoor and as usual the same 6 people are claiming this falls squarely on Mike O’Brien’s shoulders.

    Did you know he’s supposed to be there to break-up altercations outside of a closing night-club? No wonder there’s so few qualified candidates for city council when the job is so difficult!

  32. Seattle has the 6th highest property crime *rate* in the US of the top 50 major US cities. Surprising to me is the lowest of the 50 in New York City. (?!) From the Seattle TImes :
    https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/data/no-seattle-doesnt-have-the-nations-highest-rate-of-property-crime/
    Elen Nachos is correct, the crime rate is significantly lower now than in the 1980’s. The difference might be is that everything is in your face now.
    The issue for long time residents here is that Seattle has become unaffordable and you are forced to move mostly for that reason even if Seattle has become something you do not even like anymore. For me it is the suffocating congestion that is making it impossible to go anywhere or do anything without the trip taking longer than the time you spend at the place you went to. Once myself and my wife do not have to work here any longer, there are many other choices where we can live and spend the money we will get selling the house to a nice Chinese cash buyer who will not even live in it. Thank you Jeff Bezos for my now comfortable retirement!

  33. Yeah, usually when somebody starts believing a guy can make the sun rise and set, and make it rain, and make mom and dad get back together, it’s because they have a huge crush on them. Is that it? Are you guys secretly in love with Mike O’Brien?

    He’s but a man, you guys. He’s not all-powerful. Puts his pants on one leg at a time. Can’t levitate. Can’t cause a crime wave with wave of his hand.

    Answer the question, you liars. Admit you made all that up.

  34. You can lower the crime rate by not doing anything about it.

    People are illegally parked all the way from the North to the South of Seattle,
    (speaking of congestion, what about taxpayers right to park in public parking spaces?)
    people are publicly drunken, high, and dealing all over the place.

    The police don’t respond to crime in a timely manner, and
    victims don’t report so that is more reason for low crime statistics.

    If I go and do a drive-by in South Seattle ( I am White) I will get my butt found and kicked
    in, in less than 45 minutes.
    Thugs and their families don’t snitch, so they almost never get caught, so there is more erroneously low crime rate.
    If I go on missions to South Seattle neighborhoods and beat up black people and people of color, and put graffiti on their cars and houses, and steal their property, I will be caught within 45 minutes.
    Seattle has decades-old cold cases of drive-by’s NEVER solved. More erroneously low crime rate.
    If I am a white man and I walk on a bus without paying, with a beer in my hand, and begin harassing other riders, I will be kicked off by the entire bus, not just the driver.
    Not so, if I was a the latest trendy color to be pampered. I can do whatever the heck I want, because I am of color, and everything is the other colors fault! Have you ever ridden the bus? Have you ever been to the Burien Transit Center at night?
    No one does anything about anything!!!! That’s more crime rate erroneously reported as LOWER.
    Same with all of the drug-fueled Vagrants in Ballard.
    If I, as a white man, go to a color festival and begin harassing people of color, and beating them up, I will be arrested, and prosecuted as a HATE CRIMINAL. Not so, if I wanted to go on a mission to Mardi Gras in Seattle to beat up and kill white people. Not so if I am of color, and scream about white people while plunging a knife into a white man’s chest, not even so if I am a lesbian and I decide I don’t want straight guys in or outside of the bar that I work in. Then I am a pampered, trendy, criminal, UN-prosecuted group. This is MISANDRY, and it is popular right now, and DISCRIMINATION is ILLEGAL!!
    If I AS A WHITE MALE decide to wave my hands around in a cops face, start yelling at the cop, get my friends to circle this cop, because this cop has the gall to think he can question my activity, I will get my butt handed to me. Why? because I was obviously brought up in a a lawless, belligerent family, and I have learned that because of my color, I can’t be questioned or even LOOKED AT.

    Ballard, Seattle. Listen. Where did your family come from? When did they get here?
    Ask yourself before you suffer more white guilt. MOST of us white people came hear from great persecution
    and bigotry around the turn of the 20th century. From Europe. Slavery had already been abolished, most of us are of German descent, not slave-owner descent. Blame the red-heads, people of color! At least you’ll have the ethnicity right.

    I am not going to be beholden to people who should have been held back in history class, and who over and over blame white people for their CRIMES.

    Enforce the law, and prosecute crime, and the crime rate will go up.

  35. Well my my my……… I suppose the cops could have knocked on RV doors – every single one of them, they may have even come across a stolen bike or some stupid shit shoplifted from fred meyer, who knows?? One thing they wouldn’t have found tho is the person who murdered this dude, chances are he jumped in his beemer or audi or vw or whatever and got the heck out of there pronto.

  36. @Elenchos
    1) Long phone wait times means many crimes not involving assault and/or weapons go unreported. Police data is cooked here, just like any other data (looking at you, Silicon Valley vultures). Property crime is shrugged off. Adjusted for unreported incidents we’re probably top 3 not #6.
    2) Downtown Seattle IS a nonstop “PoC on white” hate crime. The “Children of Wakanda” mug commuters and sometimes shoot bystanders. Wake up. Nobody buys your astro turf social justice crap. The cops can’t even speak openly about the reality of the situation without some insane reprisals by commies like you or the Sawant clique. People are fleeing Cali because of this very same crap you inflict on your NEIGHBORS.

  37. Elenchos, you’re goddam right Mike O’Brien’s to blame for this crap. He personally intervened to stop the police from stopping a particularly awful encampment form being set up at N# 58th and 5th ave NE by I-5. He was actually delighted that the campers had ‘found a safe neighborhood to move into.” Since early March, the people who live right across the street from there have been subjected to car prowls, trespassing, threats and intimidation, defecation on their property, open drug use, a massive bike chop shop, and on and on. And in the last few weeks it’s gotten much larger and much worse.

    So don’t fucking tell me that MOB’s not to blame for this when he went out of his way to make it happen. He should go and beg forgiveness from everyone one of those people he imposed that camp on. And I pray to god those people find a way to send some of those creeps to go camp in front of his house. He absolutely deserves it. if he’s fine with making others live with this right across the street, he needs to suffer too.

  38. @Hashtag Whataboutme

    Sorry dude but 80% of the homeless people causing shit in Ballard are white and don’t get arrested / prosecuted. Your poor is me cause I’m white argument doesn’t hold water.

  39. My comments weren’t about Ballard, but since you live there, then you can have them. Due to racist hateful belligerent mouthy coddled bigots, I already know what the city race percentage is. I’m fully aware that this article is about a shooting, but my comments were about the comments. Anyway dude, pride is ugly and no-one wants to see it, so this foot worshipping session is over for me. First time commented, last time. Maybe I’ll see you in person, where water is not innuendo bro dude sorry.

  40. @Hashtag: You really should read your comments before posting. Like actually read them out loud. You’re clearly trying to establish some kind of train of thought, but failing. Not that a more coherent comment from you is going to make a difference, but at least you’ll get whatever bizarre point across that you’re trying to make.

  41. @Durkan-istan
    People here have higher expectations for tiny restaurants on yelp than they do for a city that mismanages billions of dollars in resources.

    I could not agree with that statement more. It is truly demented and insane.

  42. Truth,
    Why do you want to know what my point is?
    I don’t understand! Why are people jumping all over me?
    Love, Hashtag Whataboutme

  43. @Anne: (1) He states facts, with no source citations, (2) he openly skews the data to match his agenda (then shames some non-existent boogeyman for skewing the official data), (3) he makes sensationalist claims that roving bands of thugs (non-white of course) are perpetually mugging and/or killing white people downtown and that you are racist if you disagree and then (4) closes his comment by calling everyone a commie and blaming everyone and everything but himself for the present situation.

    Is that really what you’re agreeing with?

    1. @truth

      No, that is not what I was agreeing with. I agreed with the idea that people have skewed priorities and are supportive/OK with the way our city mismanages homelessness/drug addiction problems.

  44. I would not want to die in the way this man did. I have sympathy for him. I hope they find the people who did this and put them in jail, so that our society can be safe. It’s not like the movies, getting shot with a gun, I’m sure. I know someone who lives in Chihuahua, and she told me she is not afraid of gangs, because she stays away from recreational chemicals. It increases her chances of survival. I wish that I had married someone like that, by the way.

  45. @Hashtag: I really don’t care what your point is. But it’s clear that you are struggling articulating some kind of coherent thought. Just giving you some advice.

    Love,
    Truth
    XOXOXO

  46. I didn’t say anything about groups, and yes, people of all colors are victimized – but if the attackers are nonwhite and the victims are white then *presto* “not a hate crime”. How does that work? Somebody robbing you violently while screaming racial epithets iS A HATE CRIME even if the rainbow brigade pretends otherwise.

    As to the stats, look at the assaults and robberies on the SPD crime map, or ask any who spends lots of time in Pioneer Square. And yes, for the record most run-ins I’ve have with aggressive types have been with white guys but NOT ALWAYS. Get over yourselves. My list was mostly about white tweakers. Nobody wants Seattle to become the world’s most expensive trailer park but here we are, Geniuses.

  47. Truth,
    If you don’t care what my point is, why are you giving me advice/ harassing me?
    You should talk to me as if you you were talking to me in person, or don’t talk to me. I simply just don’t understand why you are all over me.
    Sincerely,
    Hashish Whataboutme

  48. Mike Obrien’s encampment along NE 58th Street & 5th Ave NE by I-5 looks absolutely awful. I drove by there last week and saw some structures being built with pallets, plywood, and other debris. How can construction be allowed to proceed without the proper building permits issued by the city and periodic visits by building inspectors to ensure that the construction projects follow the city code. I am fairly confident that they do not pass city code, because some of the material being used does!’t meet UL requirements (electrical) or fire safety standards. I did not see any storm water berms to protect runoff from the construction site getting into the storm water drains. I also noticed that the folks there are not sorting their curbside recyclables into the proper bins for curbside pickup. Will the city be issuing fines for failure to sort recyclables from food waste and other wastes?

  49. This is my neighborhood. A neighborhood where 16 years ago you never saw the police because there was no need.
    I don’t know why this area of the city is apparently deemed to be one of the places where this can happen, instead of making sure it doesn’t.
    Walk by there all the time.

  50. @Hashtag: Just friendly advice, take it or leave it. Although, you appear to be triggered by it.

    @Sockpuppet:I didn’t say anything about groups, and yes, people of all colors are victimized…

    I’d say go reread your comment, but you won’t, so I’ll post it here for you:

    Downtown Seattle IS a nonstop “PoC on white” hate crime. The “Children of Wakanda” mug commuters and sometimes shoot bystanders.

    Sounds like you DID say something about some (made up?) group and you very clearly stated that only white people are victimized. So not only do you post false facts, but you blatantly lie about previous comments that are permanently here for all to see. This is the proof of your mental illness that I keep telling you to get treated.

    Somebody robbing you violently while screaming racial epithets iS A HATE CRIME even if the rainbow brigade pretends otherwise.

    Yeah, that’s a hate crime, I don’t think anyone would disagree with that, unless that attacker is mentally ill. Can you point to specific cases where this happens or are you just setting up your next straw man fallacy?

  51. Back in 2002, 16 years ago, Seattle had over 80 crimes per 1,000 people. Today it’s a bit over 60, so a 25% decline.

    There were 8,200 car thefts in 2002, when the population was only 570,000. In 2017 there were 4,128 cars stolen in Seattle, with a population grown past 700,000. Things have gotten so much better than 2002. Half as many car thefts after a 22% population increase! And yes, the rate of car ownership has dipped a *little* in the last couple hears. A couple points. But for most of the years from 2002 to 2015, the number of cars per capita was steadily increasing, all the while that car thefts were plummeting.

    How can it feel so much worse when it’s actually gotten better? What’s really changed? You. You changed.

    You got 16 years older. As people age, they become nostalgic. Their minds trick them into thinking things were better in the past. The further into the past you go, the more your mind erases bad memories and burnishes good memories. It’s nature’s way of keeping us from getting too depressed, thinking about every single terrible thing we ever experienced. Those add up after a few decades and they can really bum you out if you don’t put them out of your mind. But nostalgia can also turn you into a conservative crank.

    The real cause of the “crime wave”? Senility. Old age. It’s bad but it can’t hurt you if you realize its there. See nostalgia for what it is and you can understand why everyone keeps telling you that you sound like a crazy person. Senility is tricking you into thinking things were grand back in 2002. It’s a trick. Don’t fall for it.

  52. Let me whisper in your ear, the hobo activity around the King County court house has gotten so bad, the county wants to build a new facility featuring better security. Check out the King 5 TV stories about the hundreds of assaults on Third Ave. Feeing nostalgic for law and order.

    1. @Clyde WTF kind of solution is that?! Haha my god… when will people in Seattle start addressing the causes of the problem and stop trying (in some very strange ways) to cure the symptoms?!

      How about – instead of building a NEW facility (and wasting however much money on that) we just start enforcing laws on that block? There are emergency vehicles there every single day. There is a lot of money being wasted in how that situation is handled, but more importantly, the situation there is getting worse, and worse… and worse.

      I take the bus to/from the courthouse, so I am there every day (twice). It is an open air crack market/default public bathroom. And yes, I know no one thinks the problems are getting worse, but it’s a very different scene than it was even 2 years ago.

  53. @Anne
    There is no “problem” anywhere unless decreed by the CC or the Mayor. Then it is a crisis which requires animmediate tax increase whereupon all the blame is placed on “patriarchy, capitalism, men, colonialism, etc” until such time as the voters eagerly pull levers in favor. Rinse, repeat. Helps to work in every aspect of race, sex, Trump, etc so that it is tied to national politics and everyone can get their ego involved in the very expensive (non)solution. Namaste!

    @Truth
    “Give me $5, you f**king cracker!”
    Yes, anyone who has heard this directed at themselves or others after failing to pay the hobo tax please raise hands. Bonus points if you were followed, or god forbid, chased or assaulted then robbed.

  54. Our former mayor declared that single family residences are inherently racist. Others on the city council likely hold similar views, which might help to explain why Mike Obrien wants more encampments to proliferate in residential neighborhoods. He is a strong supporter of the encampment at 5th Ave NE near the freeway, but not of the homeowners living in the area.

    The reason why Seattle is visibly decaying, is because the rules for paying parking tickets, littering, construction permits, sorting recyclables, sorting yard wastes and many others do not apply to everyone. So if only one segment of Seattle’s population is subject to enforcement of these rules, the other segment of the population will not follow these rules. Other cities in the greater Puget Sound apply the rules in a more even-handed manner, and as a result, their cities do not resemble Tijuana.

    We are foolish to vote for more emergency tax increases that do not solve the problems we are facing, and for policies created by local elected officials who accuse us of being racists simply because we own a house.

  55. @Special Ed
    Meanwhile:
    http://mynorthwest.com/966793/king-county-courthouse-dangerous/

    “King County Councilmember Pete von Reichbauer told KIRO Radio’s Dori Monson that the prominent government building, located on Third Avenue just off the touristy Pioneer Square, is the worst spot in the city for violent behavior.

    “The courthouse should be the center of civilization for a county, but there is no more dangerous part of the city of Seattle or King County than the area between the Seattle City Hall and the King County Courthouse during the daytime,” von Reichbauer said.

    Last summer, a homeless man brandishing a pair of scissors tried to attack King County Sheriff John Urquhart right outside of the courthouse.”

    Their solution? They want to build a new facility, not address the crime! Classic Seattle.

  56. @Anne:

    And yes, I know no one thinks the problems are getting worse…

    Um what? I don’t think you’ll find a single person that would disagree that the problem is getting worse. It’s clear that you like to make vast assumptions of everyone’s opinion in this City so you can then pretend to be smugly superior to everyone.

    1. @Truth

      Just scroll up a little bit and see what Elenchos has to say about that. I do not feel smug or superior, I just get frustrated with the mentality that things are better than in X year, so we are doing great! Does it really matter if homelessness/property crime are better/worse than they were X years ago? We seem to have a problem with both those things currently.

      I can’t really generalize about what everyone’s opinion about anything is in Seattle. Whatever it is, it’s pretty weird. Basing that on the officials we elect D:

  57. “And yes, I know no one thinks the problems are getting worse…”

    So one person equals everyone? Go to your basement and take some more opioids.

  58. @Truth

    There is no need to “make assumptions about about your (or Elenchos’) opinions of Seattle”. You have repeatedly dismissed assertions of decline in public safety in Ballard, just like Elenchos claims that things in Seattle are “better than ever!”

    It’s a lie that flies in face of of the daily experiences of everyone I interact with personally and professionally.

    There is a crisis, sadly a largely manufactured one, that now “requires” more spending/taxation. Our City Council pats themselves on the back for the number of PoC’s we elect (which does not mirror our city’s demographics, btw) and our 2 successive openly gay mayors, but the actual MANAGEMENT of the city is horrendous. This about-face you’re attempting is characteristic of a stance bankrupt of integrity and lacking any real connection to facts or consideration of your neighbor’s experiences. We all know Seattle will always be super liberal, but you guys need to get a grip and start cleaning house or risk turning this city into a historic case of ineptitude and corruption.

    Really, I want to help you guys escape this Dante-esque level of self inflicted humiliation, even if I disagree with many of your principles.

    1. @Truth

      You got it! I did make an assumption that there are other people who have similar opinions to Elenchos. I probably won’t take any opioids about it though because my level of hysteria on this topic is pretty low. Instead I think I will just have a laugh about how bothered you got by this statement:

      “And yes, I know no one thinks the problems are getting worse…”

  59. @Sockpuppet: Look, I know that when you’re beaten, you revert to some bizarre mental state where your only recourse is to impersonate those that beat you. But if you’re going to impersonate me and then attempt to shame your impersonation of me, at least wait more than two minutes. The timestamps are right there for all to see and it just furthers the evidence of your mental illness and the fact that you have exactly zero to contribute to a discussion.

    Maybe go comment on the Seattle Times echo chamber circle jerk with all the other tiny handed, mentally deranged sockpuppets like yourself? I hear there was an article about how Seattle’s bicycle infrastructure has fallen behind Vancouver’s. Going to be some angry “the war on cars is real!!!!11” commenters on that one!

    @Anne: While the last “Truth” comment is obviously by our resident, mentally deranged Sockpuppet, it’s not completely wrong, drug use aside. The problem is that you and Sockpuppet are insinuating that quality of life is a black and white scenario: either things are perfect or things are absolutely dystopian. 99% of Ballard and Seattle acknowledge that things aren’t perfect, but we still live in a great neighborhood, in a great city, in a fantastic state. There is not some grand conspiracy by the Council to make the homeless and drug situation worse. I believe they are in a scenario that hasn’t been seen since the Great Depression era and they are struggling to figure out what to do without pissing off their constituents (do note that the Great Depression took massive national undertakings and lots of money to solve and that’s likely what will need to happen here to solve the issue; you can only mitigate at the local level).

    Also, what I feel Elenchos is trying to convey is that we are not doing horrible and we are definitely not at rock bottom, again what Sockpuppet is constantly trying to claim about his “beloved” neighborhood for some reason. I don’t think Elenchos has said that Seattle is perfect, in any way (nobody else for that matter). They then post stats to back up that claim.

  60. One of the bizarre things is how a post about a shooting outside a bar at closing time leads to so much talk of homelessness and “hobo activity”. As if there were any connection between these two things. There is a housing crisis, but it is not a crime crisis. They are two completely different things.

    So when you prove that crime has been flat for 12 years, you hear “But so much hobo activity around the courthouse!”

    It’s true people on the streets are victims of crime at unconscionable rates. But I know none of you comfortable white dudes is here uncomplaining about that. You’re promoting the false belief that people on the streets are the cause of crime and that people in houses are the victims of all this supposed crime. False.

    Your car is half as likely to be stolen as it was 20 years ago and every time the subject of encampments comes up you guys start wailing about your poor defenseless car being victimized. That’s crazy. Well, if not crazy, than kind of senile. Perfect example of how nostalgia can delude you.

    Also a perfect example of online trolls who will flat out lie because they want homelessness criminalized. They think they’re entitled to the privileges of living in a gated community. You’re not, guys. You don’t live in a gated community because you can’t afford it. That’s not Mike O’Brien’s fault. It’s your fault.

    Most people in Seattle have a pretty good understanding of these facts. That’s why nobody who wants to criminalize homelessness can get elected to anything. That’s why that guy who tried to get elected city attorney on the false claim that FBI data proved Seattle has a higher crime rate than similar cities got trounced. Crushed. Embarrassing loss, the kind that you don’t recover from.

    Most voters look around and don’t see a crime wave. Yes, they see a homelessness crisis and a housing shortage, but they aren’t even considering electing anybody who would sic the police on homeless people as a solution to anything. They keep electing people by crushing margins whose goal is to find a way to help homeless people.

    You can call me names if you want but you need to face facts. You’ve been saying the same thing for years and you’ve been failing for years. It’s not working. Learn from failure and find a reality-based approach, and maybe a few voters might start listening to you.

  61. @Elenchos
    Nobody called you names. This sjw victim routine it tiresome, and even if you get insulted it’s a comment thread. Also, you’re still wrong. Property crime stats are flat because nobody reports it anymore because – now breathe deeply and think hard here – everyone is busy working their tails off to afford to live here. We don’t have hours to spend on the phone then talk to an indifferent police officer.

    And, once again, if you owned or operated a brick-and-mortar in the city you would know first hand how much worse things are now. The food truck vendors have issued a statement because THEY ARE GETTING PILLAGED by your precious hobos. Feel free to peruse the other articles on this site. It’s been covered.

    I’m just going to assume you haven’t traveled abroad to cities of comparable size on the same latitude as Seattle. They do not have Tijuana-level favelas and tweaker idiots wandering around acting with impunity. It’s clear you’re accustomed to a level of scuzz that some of us find disgusting and often hazardous. You’re “gated communities” comment is a pretty clear indicator that you have the usual, social justice brainwashed, low expectations for neighborhoods. That’s ok. As much as I know your way of thinking has helped turn this city downwards, I would still come to your aid or help you change a flat tire. That isn’t something you can count in many places. Just out of curiosity, why are living in Ballard. White Center, Burien, Tukwila are all perfectly safe, right?

    “But I know none of you comfortable white dudes is here uncomplaining about that. ”

    Hmmm. Elenchos, racist much? Why are you speculating on our race, much less commenting on it.

  62. Wow.

    Reading all these comments I almost forgot that Budda Baker’s brother was shot and killed. Currently the suspect is still at large.

    And surprisingly there is absolutely no evidence of this murder having anything to do with: Population Increase, Higher Rents/Property Taxes, Homelessness, Meth, South End Thugs, Race/Hate Crimes, Mike O’Brien, the Rainbow Brigade, Wakanda, Burien Transit Center, Jeff Besos or China buying houses in Seattle for the price of tea.

    RIP Robert Baker

    I hope the perpetrator(s) of this crime is found and prosecuted.

    Nothing like the sensationalism of National News actually hitting home to make people live in fear and lash out at ther neighbors. I have not seen a single comment say what can we do to improve our neighborhood or feel safer. Only what other people need to do or what they think other people are doing or getting away with. The entire comment thread is disgraceful.

  63. “Property crime stats are flat because nobody reports it anymore because [blah blah blah]”

    Ever here of Hitchens Razor? That which can be asserted without evidence can be dismissed without evidence. You make up a phony crime wave, and when anybody asks for proof, you claim everyone’s too busy to report it. Evidence? None. Except everyone works long hours. The unemployment rate is only like 3.9% or 3.5%, I’ll give you that. Except… isn’t rock-bottom unemployment a sign of a booming economy? Do cities getting eaten alive by crime have economies this good? Shouldn’t crime be lowering property values? Every indicator points in the exact opposite direction.

    “if you owned or operated a brick-and-mortar in the city you would know first hand how much worse things are now”

    Then why is the retail vacancy rate so low? Why the deluge of new restaurants opening? Where are the empty storefronts? The Economist tells me that in 2005 Seattle had fewer than 0.5 food trucks per 100,000 people. By 2017 that number had skyrocketed to over 3 per 100,000. Same article tells me Seattle leads the nation in restaurant growth. Have we talked about $15 per hour yet? The growth rate of foot trucks is 7.9%, four times as fast as restaurant growth. But the foot truck vendors are “getting pillaged”.

    You know, even the team that’s up by 20 at halftime still tries to play the ref. It’s just how the game is played.

    “Feel free to peruse the other articles on this site. It’s been covered.”

    MyBallard gets a lot of hits out of sensationalizing crime. I would note the big difference: in the 80s and 90s, local TV news boosted their ratings with grisly multiple homicides. MyBallard’s bread and butter is tire slashings, dog poop on lawns.

    Why are you assuming I live in Ballard? Why are you assuming anything about me? Am I your problem? Not at all. Your problem is the 60% of District 6 voters who re-elected Mike O’Brien. Or the 74.95% — let’s just call it an even 75% — of city wide voters who rejected Scott Lindsay’s flawed argument that Seattle crime is higher than comparable cities.

    Maybe the reason 3 out of 4 voters have no time for this kind of argument is that they see right through the kind of nonsense behind sniffing “racist much” when someone points out that white privilege exists. When you talk about “a level of scuzz that some of us find disgusting and often hazardous,” your problem isn’t me or whatever you imagine is wrong with me. Wherever I live and whatever countries I’ve traveled to. Nothing about me is standing in your way.

    Your problem is the “some of us” part of what you said. The exact quantity of that “some”. A guy campaigned on precisely the platform you’re claiming: crime. And that guy, Scott Lindsay, only got “some” of Seattle to believe any of it. One fourth. The only ray of — kind of hope — you guys had was Tim Burgess, the only person in government who even *kind of* had any sympathy for this phony crime wave hysteria. This phony terror of tweakers. And Burgess has had it. Even he, who in no way supported the false claims you guys make but at least wanted clear sidewalks, realized the rest of the city wants none of it. None.

    If the kind of put-downs and slurs and dismissive remarks you make about me — “social justice brainwashed” and “racist” and provincial — are because I don’t buy the phony crime wave hysteria (it’s a symptom of senility, by the way), then that’s your opinion of 75% of Seattle. How does that feel? You walk down the street, you go into a theater or a store, and 75% of your fellow citizens disgust you. SJWs all! So lonely you must be.

    Go ahead and sneer at me. Your Mike O’Brien recall is going down in flames as you waste your time repeating failed arguments on local blogs. Nobody who thinks like you stands a chance of getting a city council seat next election. Or mayor, or city attorney.

    Get some new material. It’s not working. The voters know the facts. If you want more police or more jails or whatever it is, that’s fine. It’s fine. You can ask for that. Maybe we need that. But make an argument based on facts. Reality.

  64. I’m as angered by MOB’s ruinous policies as the next guy (he promotes policies that incentivize displacement and gentrification while claiming to be a champion of the poor. What a joke!). Despite my dislike of MOB, I don’t see a connection between his role as a Seattle CM and this tragic shooting. The shooting victim had only been released from a seven year prison stint (for armed robbery) in 2016; also most murders are committed by people known to victims. These facts suggest that someone from the victim’s past is likely responsible for his shooting, not some unhomed or RV-dwelling local.

  65. Ballard does not have to be a haven for bums and criminals.
    Our city council has made it that way, and they continue pushing it down that path as fast as they can.
    And enough of our neighbors support them that we haven’t been able to stop them, much less fix the problem.
    And it is fixable.
    So it is getting worse, and will continue to worsen until our neighbors wake up.
    I have a kid, and I’m not waiting. We’re leaving.
    Goodbye Ballard.

  66. I look at faces in Ballard and I know some of them are @truth, @Elenchos, @Ballard Response Team, and other “Trolls, and I just detest them. I don’t know where they are or who they are, but I know that I have way more enemies then I thought. People with grimey little argumentative mouths, that sound like a thesaurus read in alphabetical order, trying to impress people with their mouths. I just truly hate them. I hope there will come a day when they can no longer hide, when it is written on their foreheads, “I am an enemy, I love to foul things up, look how I can make words!”
    I think of Christmas, or Thanksgiving, and I know these people will be the first to be nice on a official nice day, and will be the first to look good, glad handing and smiling, the first to sit at the appropriate table in the elementary school lunchroom.

    My comments were about the comments, and yes they were about homelessness, Ballard, drugs, parking, discrimination, and coddling of hateful mouthy lazy bigots.

    I’m not any of that, and I’m not coddling them or feeling guilty that they don’t have enough money to get on the bus because they spent it on beer/meth, or feeling sorry for them that they have no other life to live but crime, and enslaving girls into meth/heroin,crack and prostitution, and gloating, laughing about it openly and loudly because their slaves are white girls.

    I am not stupid, and I am not an A-Hole, but I don’t want to live anywhere near 1,000 of them, and I don’t know who they are, but they are on here commenting. They make me sick with their lies and childish provocations.

  67. I think you’re the one lying. You’re clearly making up these phony stories of “black on white hate crime”. You can’t even name one single case of this ever happening. Not one. Your only evidence is — somehow! — the lack of evidence.

    “That which can be asserted without evidence can be dismissed without evidence.” True as ever.

    You sound like a racist white supremacist with paranoid fantasies. You make false claims, and when your false claims are dismantled before your eyes, you fume and rage. No matter how angry you claim to be, your false claims are still false. Truth isn’t something that comes into existence just because you’re an emotional wreck.

    Either cite one example, or admit you made it up.

  68. loudmouthed pretend-blind bigot. Nazi-collaborator. Cite that Dennis the Menace. Ugly complex. Belligerent incorrigible. You and I don’t like your face. I stand here and see and report your Nazi salute. I would like to see you and your “friends” given the medicine that your same stupid populations gave to the fascists and collaborators after the war. Don’t EVER ask me to change your tire. Real life will surprise you, disgusting troll.

  69. @Hashtag: You come on a neighborhood blog, crap all over our neighborhood, make sensationalist claims that our neighborhood and city are going to hell (with no proof to boot), attack and impersonate people…but somehow YOU’RE the victim here?

    But it doesn’t stop there, nope, you’re going to act all manly and get TOUGH ON THE HOMELESS™ to solve the problem, so you’re also a hero to boot!

  70. @elenchos @truth

    You are fully aware that you are a Bigot Sympathizer.
    Not only do you submit with your right arm, you submit with your mind, piece
    of garbage.

  71. Yes, yes, you’re angry. So, so angry. But are you going to man up and answer the question? Have the courage to admit nobody is getting away with black on white hate crimes. You made it up, didn’t you?

  72. @elenchos @truth

    If you want my comment on the hate crime situation in the United States, I can do that:
    African-Americans are extremely more likely to commit violent crime, as of 2018.
    And I mean WAAAAAAAY more likely, statistically.
    This is because of the culture of coddling them, and politicians fearing to make them
    riot, or be angry.
    African-Americans have so many programs, funding, housing, and schooling handed to them
    simply because they are African-Americans. This is bigotry.
    They and their belligerent parents train them to grab, and take, and walk away laughing.
    They and your excuses for themselves are, “White People make me do it.”
    I would liken it to be more like an obese person that has a whole homicidal Obese Culture
    backing her up, making the excuse for her belligerence and hatred for beautiful people
    A Reason to poke every thin person’s eyes out, so that no one will be able to see that they are obese.

    I posit that those belligerent bigots, and you, their cultural backup look at yourselves in thew mirror in the morning, don’t like what you see, and go about your day taking your ugliness out on others.

    Define beautiful. What makes a flower beautiful?
    Define ugly. What makes a hammerhead shark ugly? What makes a pug ugly? What makes an angry
    barking, unclean DOG ugly, as a matter of fact?
    Beauty and ugliness are things we live with, but can’t define why we like them or hate them.
    It is up to ugly people to decide who’s fault it is that they are ugly, and to decide what they want to do with
    what they have been given.
    It is not White people’s fault. If you and they really believed it was you would attack people in person, and you would attack people that were big or small, powerful or not powerful, armed or unarmed. You wouldn’t just pick on nice white people minding their own business.
    now that’s a Punk, Bigot Sympathizer.
    The State will never help us in a culture of trolls like you, because that is the way The State works, that’s the way everything works. Carrying a camera around 24 hours a day will, though, in court. (unfortunately, and those are all things that YOU have caused. You have caused nice, law-abiding people to surveill themselves for their own safety’s sake, 24 hours a day. YOU little troll brats, have caused young children to kill themselves online.
    You talk politics like if it was wrong, then they (the state) would agree and stop these things from being this way.
    Haven’t you seen those pictures of Ukrainian Jewish girls and their brothers, and their mothers, on way to school, or shopping, being beaten to death and lynched by mobs of “ordinary people?”
    The State didn’t help them. The State encouraged it, The media encouraged it, and YOU trolls came out to play cowboys and Indians, And YOU showed your face. And YOU were hung.
    In my mind you are a murderer.

  73. Simon, I keep asking you to cite one single example of anybody getting away with black on white hate crime in Seattle, and instead you post long screeds denouncing the inferiority of black people. Your argument consists of saying white people are better than black people, because… because why? Because you say so. Because you believe it really really hard.

    So you believe really really hard in white supremacy. You’re a white supremacist This is why Slog keeps deleting your comments, Simon.

    The basic point of all this is that Safe Seattle is a hate group, and its members are Trumpers and Tea Partiers and a few old school Republicans. They are motivated by racism, and by scapegoating of anybody they don’t identify with. The reason their candidates, Catherine Wheatbrook, Scott Lindsay, Harley Lever, and their ilk, keep failing spectacularly is that they fail to fool anybody. They’re trying to sell right-wing Republican lunacy to people who find everything about wingnut Republicans disgusting.

    They deny all of this, just like they deny their lies about crime, lies about city policy, lies about our elected officials, lies about drugs, lies about homeless people, lies about minorities, and even lies about things they actually said on video tape in front of a huge crowd not three days ago. Classic Donald Trump. Just say you didn’t say what you said.

    Anybody holds their feet to the fire about all these lies, and they bury themselves. They can’t help but reveal that they are white supremacists who want to live under a strongman police state.

    I don’t post here as a public service. Nobody in Seattle needs me to explain anything to them so they know not to vote for white supremacists. Nobody is going to vote for hate buffoons. I just enjoy watching you clowns make fools of yourselves. I enjoy it when I ask you to answer a simple question, and instead you try to bully me into silence, hoping you can scare me or harass me enough to leave you alone. And you’re too dumb to figure out it doesn’t work.

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