When you are Ready to go You can find "The Way"

March 08, 2015

When you are Ready to go You can find "The Way"

Joseph Dwayne Albert, Beloved Son and Brother and Uncle and Brother-In-Law

1991-2013

Psalms 66

http://www.southseattlebeacon.com/main.asp?SubsectionID=167&ArticleID=89343&SectionID=22

8/16/2013 6:58:00 PM
Cleaning up the U-District
After a fatal shooting and ongoing crime, what can be done for a safer community?

Officer Brian Thomas, who has worked in the University District for 13 years, is part of the Community Police Team. Its goal is to focus on long-term issues in the neighborhood.

The University District’s Ave (University Way Northeast) has been a high-crime area for decades, Officer Brian Thomas said. Photo by Sarah Radmer

By Sarah Radmer

An anonymous Seattle Police Department (SPD) officer hosted an Ask Me Almost Anything (AMAA) post recently on the Seattle subreddit of Reddit, a news, social and entertainment website.

The top question posted to the AMAA (questions are ranked by a system of user-based voting) was from Reddit user “saguaro_arms.” The user asked: “Please, oh, please tell whoever needs to be told to clean up the Jack in the Box area on the Ave. You’d think after the homicide there, things would have quieted down, but it seems not. A bunch of the folks who hang out there have colonized two of the bus shelters and turned them into craps tables. I’ll walk by, and they’ll be dozens of folks waving around handfuls of hundreds.”

The anonymous officer — who posted under the alias GoHawks206 — replied to the comment saying: “That corner has been a problem for many years. I know many very-dedicated officers that do everything they legally can to make it better, but we can only do so much on our end. I know it has been a point of frustration for everyone in the area. They only thing I can recommend is for people to keep calling in 911 complaints.”

The homicide the user mentioned occurred June 29 when Joseph Albert, 22, was fatally stabbed in the torso on University Way Northeast (“The Ave”) and Northeast 50th Street in the Jack in the Box parking lot. The area was covered with candles, flowers and graffiti dedicated to Albert for weeks after his death.

In the larger University District neighborhood, there were a string of armed robberies last fall and winter, often occurring late at night as the bars were closing, according to The Daily, the student newspaper at the University of Washington (UW).

In comparison to the rest of the North Seattle neighborhoods, the U-District ranked highest for homicide, robbery, assault, violent crime and larceny, based on 2012 crime statistics from the SPD on-line crime map. It tied with other North End neighborhoods for rape, car theft, burglary and property crime.

‘A lot of different victims’

Officer Brian Thomas has worked with the SPD for 15 years and has been patrolling with the department’s Community Police Team in the U-District for about 13 years. As a member of the Community Police Team, Thomas works with community groups to discuss long-term issues, like drugs and dealers, vagrancy and graffiti.

The area seemed worse and more violent when he began working here in the late ‘90s and early 2000s, he said. There is an adage that the area has always been a “hotspot” and continues to be today. He hears from community members who are concerned about the area “all the time.”

Thomas points to the transient nature of the area, with students constantly moving in and out to attend the UW, the proximity of young-adult shelters and the strong marketplace for marijuana.

“I’d say 90 to 95 percent of the drug sales we’re seeing out here [are] marijuana-related,” he said.

SPD officers have implemented some changes that have helped, Thomas said. They created “police-only” parking spots, removed shrubs and trees to make the area more visible and worked with the Jack in the Box to remove seating to stop loitering.

“We’re not so interested in getting charges for possessing marijuana or even the sale of it,” Thomas said, noting he didn’t want to speak for all of SPD. “What we’re concerned about is the behavior that comes along with it.... It’s like we’ve got a high-crime area here in the University District. Marijuana may not be our high priority, but in this area we’ll make it a high priority because of the behavior that comes along with it.”

That behavior includes, turf wars among dealers, fights or disturbances, street families who “operate in cliques where you don’t disrespect one another,” as well as people getting propositioned to buy marijuana. Thomas said he also heard from a lot of women who say they get catcalled and harassed.

“There’s a lot of different victims out there,” he said.

One of The Ave’s most recent victims was Joseph Albert. He was buried July 7, and his mother, Coletha Albert, is still awaiting his autopsy results.

“I am tormented by the unknown aspects of my son’s final weeks and what really happened to cause his death,” she said in an e-mail signed “Joseph’s Mom.” “How do I reconcile my adoration for my son and his future with his being murdered in the streets of Seattle at 22 years, 4 months old like an animal?”

The area has gotten better with community collaboration, Thomas said, but he isn’t sure what the answer is to get the area to continue to improve.

“If I knew that, I wouldn’t be doing my job anymore,” he said. “I’d be sitting somewhere in retirement.”

Taking ownership

While Thomas doesn’t know if crime will ever be eliminated from the U-District, he does think the community needs to take ownership of the area. He also wants the City Attorney’s Office to focus on the area and make sure that if the police make an arrest, the person is prosecuted for the crime.

“[The community has] to own it and say, ‘These are our streets. These are our sidewalks. These are our parking lots, and we’re not going to let this go on anymore,’” he said. “The police department has to support that, and the City Attorney’s Office has to support that.”

Steve Rittereiser, commander of the University of Washington Police Department (UWPD) said, while the area does fall outside its jurisdiction, his department does try to assist SPD as needed.

“Our role is to provide preventative patrol,” he said. “If we see things happening, we can react. We work cooperatively.”

The UWPD’s will often provide “roll-bys” to see if there is any criminal activity in the area. Rittereiser said most of the department’s work for the area comes in the form of prevention.

“We want people to use their eyes and their ears and their senses to be aware of what’s going on,” he said. “Victims often aren’t as attentive to what’s going on around them.”

Rittereiser hasn’t heard any complaints about the area, but “that doesn’t mean that there isn’t,” he said, noting those complaints would go to the city.

Sean Le, 24, has worked at Woori Mart, an ethnic grocery store on The Ave, since January. “I’ve seen a lot of crazy stuff happen across the street,” he said. Le doesn’t think the area is a high-crime area yet but could be heading in that direction. With areas like Belltown, Pioneer Square and the International District cleaning up, Le thinks people are coming to the University District because “students are real easy prey for crime.”

Le thinks the dealers are merely an “annoyance” but otherwise pretty harmless.

“I’m not saying those guys are responsible, but they know who’s responsible. And they see what’s going on,” he said. “As much as they’re doing something that’s illegal, they are kind of cleaning up from all of the crazier stuff that’s out there.”

Le thinks people in the area, especially the students, need to “get a little more streetwise.” The students who wear their headphones aren’t paying attention to what’s going on and that makes them, in Le’s opinion, an easy target.

Investing in the neighborhood

University District Chamber of Commerce vice president Andrew McMasters said the chamber is working with the police to keep a record and “just compile information” of crime in the area, “for no other reason than to say we can document what’s happening.”

The area has been a concern for many years, McMasters said.

“We believe [the solution] needs to happen at a higher level from the city,” he said.

McMasters and the chamber are working on the University District Livability Partnership plan. “It’s more of an investment of the people who are here,” McMaster said, citing the long-term neighborhood residents. The plan labels cleanliness and safety as one of its five key principles, with a goal to “identify and mitigate crime and disorder hotspots.” Officer Thomas is part of this “clean and safe” initiative.

“I would like to see more development and more people who are living here that are not just of the transitory nature,” McMasters said. “It’s great neighborhood to live in, and it’s a great neighborhood to shop in.”

Officer Brian Thomas urges community members to call 911 if they see a crime taking place in the area.

To comment on this story, write to CityLivingEditor@nwlink.com.