Another one of those popular mass shootings happened on July 28, at a “community event” in Seattle. As reported, “dozens of rounds were fired into the temporary tents and tables set up by the SE Network, the parent organization of Safe Passage.” It seems to have been a targeted shooting. “Members of a group that for years has been fighting poverty and gun violence in Seattle’s Rainier Valley were among five people shot.” Police know there were two shooters. They say they are looking for them but don’t even know who to look for or where to start. Besides, there aren’t enough cops to go around actually looking. Anarchy has everyone sleepless in Seattle.
Community event a target
Every Friday night, there’s a pop-up “community outreach event” which feeds and coddles some of the neighborhood criminals in Seattle, Washington. The rest of the week, the parking lot of a strip mall, anchored by a Safeway and a liquor store, is a hang out spot.
The place is known for attracting local hoodlums, thieves and drug peddlers, several lawsuits state. Police know all about it but they’re far too outnumbered to do anything about any actual criminal activity. The city created a task force to “focus” on gun violence but that simply means watching it happen.
Police and community members agree that the weekly outreach events are a “magnet for crime.” Two members of the group were shot, along with three innocent bystanders “while gathered around a cluster of small blue tents erected by the group in the parking lot of the Rainier Beach Safeway.”
Two of the victims of a mass shooting near Seattle are staff members with the Boys and Girls Club and were attending a “Community Healing Space Activation,” which offers hot meals and resources to communities affected by violence. https://t.co/gZXz4KCJOy
— Shannon Watts (@shannonrwatts) July 30, 2023
They’ve been doing this for three years now and instead of curbing the violence they appear to be enabling it. The Boys and Girls Clubs of King County has been paying for it by sponsoring Safe Passage.
The teams “provide hot meals and resources to community members and create a safe space for grieving, healing, and connection.” That’s intended to be a “response” to drug and gang related violence. No arrests have been made and none are expected. Two of the victims are on the road to recovery.
“A 24-year-old woman and a 25-year-old man” were initially listed in critical condition. Now they’re satisfactory and expected to be released for home recovery. The rest had less serious injuries.
A history of violence
The reason why the community outreach team picked that parking lot in the first place is because it’s known as an open air drug market and general gathering spot for all the neighborhood lowlifes.
The owner of the property prefers to pay lawyers to defend him in court from the lawsuits rather than hire on site security to protect “business invitees” on his property. The police aren’t about to go in there and clean the place up because the gangsters are better armed and more numerous than they are. Police keep seizing guns and the criminals keep stealing more.
Two of the lawsuits against the property owner were filed by “the family of a bystander who was killed there during a shooting in 2020.” They claim the “shopping center’s parking lot has a history of violence, and police have repeatedly warned the owners about crime on the property.”
Video recorded by #Seattle Police dash cam on July 23 shows violent street occupiers attacking police & forcing them back. Later there was a mass shooting at the street racing gathering. H/T @jasonrantz: pic.twitter.com/aDi8tTkBCG
— Andy Ngô 🏳️🌈 (@MrAndyNgo) July 27, 2023
The place has become a social hub of the criminal community. “The Safeway and a liquor store next door attract milling crowds, particularly on weekend evenings, and over the years the parking lot has been witness to ‘scores of crimes, including assaults, shootings, murders, prowls, robberies, theft and intoxication,‘ the lawsuits allege.”
The boys and girls club aren’t real thrilled about the latest mass shooting. They really frown on that. “It is particularly devastating that this act of violence is in direct contrast to the purpose and mission of this space,” she said. Their “warriors put their lives on the line every day to ensure that the members of our community are safe.”
Fellow activist Otis Ames adds, They’ve been working to help “disrupt gun violence for years. This is supposed to be a safe space, and people in this community know that and appreciate it.” It doesn’t seem like such a safe space.
