Danny Vega died after a street robbery half a mile from the attack on Nhan ThaiIs crime going unreported in parts of Seattle?
By Linda Byron
January 4, 2012 at 11:04 p.m.
Updated Wednesday, January 4 at 11:04 p.m.
KING5.com
SEATTLE -- A South Seattle man who was the victim of a violent robbery reaches out to his neighbors and makes a startling discovery. A discovery that raises questions about whether Seattle's crime rate could be higher than statistics reveal in some parts of the city.
37-year-old Nhan Thai says he's committed to staying in the vibrant Rainier Valley neighborhood he's called home for five years.
"I'm not going to let what happened drive me out of here," said Thai.
But Thai's commitment is being tested daily.
"I think about dark spots, lights, noises, voices I hear. who walks where," said Thai.
Thai remembers the September night that changed how he sees his community. He was walking home from the the Othello light rail station
"I was literally ten steps away from the house. And I felt a hit on my right face and another hit on the back of my neck and on my lower back, and so as I was falling forward I felt hands grabbing my jacket and my bag," said Thai.
Two months later, not far from where Thai was attacked, another man was grabbed from behind, robbed and beaten. His name was Danny Vega, and he died.
"I was angry...when I heard about Danny Vega's story I was angry," said Thai.
The robberies continued and Thai found himself becoming someone he'd never expected--a community activist.
He kept hearing crime was down in Seattle--robberies had fallen three percent in 2011--but it sure didn't feel that way.
Thai started visiting his neighbors, they had a lot to say, and soon he realized he was doing his own crime survey.
Thai knocked on 49 doors. 32 people were home. How many of them had been victims of a crime since moving to the neighborhood? All but three.
Many victims told Thai they'd never reported the crimes to police.
"It happens to them so often that after 2 or 3 times they stopped reporting because they didn't see any progress," said Thai.
Thai's survey was clearly unscientific, but it does raise the question--is crime going unreported in the south end?
"I'm aware that this has been an issue...I don't think it's the rule. I think it's the exception," said Captain Mike Nolan of the Seattle Police Department.
Police are sending out emphasis patrols since the robberies. And they're regulars at the crime prevention meetings and so is Thai.
"I never feel hopeless in anything. You know, there's things that happen in our lives that we just have to deal with. And not doing anything--is not--it's not an option," said Thai.
Where some feel hopeless when they've been victimized, Thai feels energized.
"I've never felt hopeless. Doing nothing is not an option," said Thai.
Seattle Police say they are making progress. In just the past two weeks, they've arrested ten men, five of them juveniles, for robberies and burglaries in the south end.
[Thanks to my man in Seattle, BR, for this story.
Related stories at WEJB/NSU:
“Seattle: Blacks Account for 7.7% of Residents, Yet They Seem to Have Taken the Entire City Prisoner” (Nhan Thai and the Danny Vega Murder!);
“De-Policing in America’s Cities: Erasing the ‘Thin Blue Line’” (Seattle is where the de-policing story began.);
“‘Disappearing’ Urban Crime”;
“The Great Chicago Memorial Day Gang Attack Cover-Up”;
“Cognitive Dissonance in Chicago: Last Weekend, 20 People were Shot and 5 Killed of All Ages and in All Situations, Yet Crime is Dropping Like a Rock!”;
“Chicago: Murders Exploded in January, While Overall Crime Died”;
“Detroit: New Crime Stats Fail Smell Test; How Could Crime Go Down 7% Overall Last Quarter, While Homicides Went Up 31%?”;
“Detroit: Murder Up 12%, but “Serious” Crime is Down; Broken Windows Policing is on the Way”; and
“Re-Victimization and ‘Disappearing’ Scandals: Dallas PD Revolutionizes Crime-Fighting Through Wholesale Stashing, ‘Unfounding,’ & Ignoring Complaints.”;
WEJB/NSU’s Seattle file:
“De-Policing in America’s Cities: Erasing the ‘Thin Blue Line’” ;
“Why is James Paroline Dead?”;
“Three Race Murders in Seattle”;
“Race Hustler Alert at Wikipedia! Someone Has been Making Mischief Regarding Maurice Clemmons’ Lakewood Massacre”;
“Seattle: Diversity Trainers Wage War on Policing”;
“Ex-Cons May Gain Affirmative Action Status in Madhouse Seattle”;
“Seattle's Meanest Streets (Updated!)”;
“Seattle Cop Rails Against Affirmative Action Policing”;
“Seattle: Baby-Faced ‘Tuba Man’ Killer, Billy Chambers, Strikes Again”;
“Stone Killer Billy Chambers, Who Murdered Seattle’s Beloved ‘Tuba Man,’ Edward McMichael, is Undercharged Yet Again in His Newest Alleged Crime”;
“War on Competent, White, Male, King County, WA Prosecutor James Konat Continues Apace: NAACP Demands His Dismissal, and He is Removed from Two Murder Cases”;
“Is It Possible for Blacks to Have a Good Time Without Bloodshed? Seattle Reader Asks if ‘Bite of Seattle’ Festival Could Become Blood of Seattle”;
“A Riot in San Francisco, with More to Come! Cop Shoots Innocent Black Honor Student (from Seattle), Kenneth Wade Harding, 19, in the Back; the Brothers are (as Always) on War Footing”;
“Seattle Blacks Believe That They Can Resist Arrest, and Aid and Abet Those Resisting Arrest with Impunity Against White Policemen…”;
“Billy Chambers, Racist Killer of Seattle’s Beloved ‘Tuba Man,’ Edward McMichael, Pleads Guilty, Gets Minimal Sentence, in Attempted Murder of Witness”;
“One of Tuba Man’s Killers Goes to the Big House, but for a Mere 22 Months for Attempted Murder”;
“For Alleged Reporter Levi Pulkinnen at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, There are No Black Murderers of Whites, Only ‘Accused’ Ones”;
“AOL/Huffington Post and AP Manage the Black Air Jordan Riots Story”;
“Seattle: Since Blacks Support Black Criminals, City Needs Surveillance Cameras Everywhere”;
“Seattle: Nameless, Faceless, Raceless Suspect Arrested for Murder of Faceless, Raceless Victim in Belltown”;
“Belltown Murder: Still Raceless and Faceless in Seattle”;
“Cause and Effect? Seattle Reader Writes on Military Academy Diversity and Rape, and the Seattle Air Jordan Riots”;
“Seattle’s Good Nazis Watch Racist Black Mob Attack Couple for 4 Minutes, Without So Much as Calling 911; Racist Blacks Perform for Bus Cameras”;
“Seattle: The Raymel J. Curry Story”;
“WA Wants to Solve Crime by ‘Disappearing’ Videos; ‘Security’ Wants to Watch; Violent, Career Felon, Aiesha Stewart-Baker, 15, Wants Ghetto Lottery”; and
“Seattle: Blacks Account for 7.7% of Residents, Yet They Seem to Have Taken the Entire City Prisoner.”]
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