11 Replies to "West Seattle Crime Watch: 2nd Highland Park attack suspect jailed"

• Silly Goose October 12, 2010 (1:17 pm)

  That is great news, can I come to the cell and urinate on him, hit him with my belt and burn him with cigaretts? As I believe he deserves all of this and more, and hopefully if he gets some prison time he will learn the real meaning of fear!!!

• As-If October 12, 2010 (3:29 pm)

  So….I guess “I’ll slit your throat if you don’t stop screaming, dragged up a staircase, burned with cigarettes, broken nose, threats to ‘cap’ him, beaten repeatedly for 4 hours, urinated on him, among other things,” all falls into a simple malicious harassment charge? Malicious harassment? That sounds like a parking ticket, or maybe what you give a protester who is yelling to loud at someone crossing a picket line. And what about the racial remarks? Shouldn’t CNN be covering this story of prejudice? I mean it sounds as if this story is from the deep south in the 1960’s. Oh yeah….wrong color…so I guess it is not the same. I’m just glad they are behind bars. DON’T LET THEM OUT!
  I am thankful though, to the Seattle Police Department for staying on this case, and WSB for keeping us informed. Lets just hope they don’t get out tonight on bail of $27.00 and some change.

  • WSB October 12, 2010 (4:02 pm)

    Sorry, I was in the middle of a faster answer on that and got distracted by something else that came in. Yes, malicious harassment = “hate crime.” Here’s the statute:
    http://apps.leg.wa.gov/rcw/default.aspx?cite=9A.36.080
    .
    It also seemed interesting at the time the charges were filed last month that it was robbery and not assault. But if you look into the RCW (Revised Code of Washington) again, you see that the charge includes the “bodily harm”:
    .
    http://apps.leg.wa.gov/rcw/default.aspx?cite=9A.56.200

• sarelly October 12, 2010 (3:46 pm)

  How is the victim doing? Somehow “malicious harassment” (as if there were any other kind) sounds less violent than “assault.” I guess that’s what they call a hate crime? Or is this a lesser charge? (Malicious harassment sounds like what a mean sister does – teasing, hair-pulling, cutting holes in favorite clothing, hanging up on friends – minor compared to a couple of guys tying someone up, and beating him and burning him with cigarettes for four hours.)I hope the people who did this are kept off the street.

• CandrewB October 12, 2010 (3:56 pm)

  According to the Times, malicious harassment is the state’s hate crime law.

• As-If October 12, 2010 (4:47 pm)

  Malicious harassment=hate crime. Thanks CandrewB and WSB for doing my homework. I feel better now. I’ll try not to be so cynical next time.
  “I just wanted to thank everybody who made this day necessary.” (Yogi B.)

• Ex-Westwood Resident October 12, 2010 (5:15 pm)

  How many months did it take to FINALLY get charges filed?
  How much discussion was there to add the “Hate Crime” statute to it?
  If this had been white on black or asian crime the resulting out cry and expidancy of charges would have made heads spin.
  But because it was Black/Asain on White crime the process of charges wasn’t so important.
  They can cry all they want about building an air tight case, but just look at the opposite side of the color spectrum.
  James Bible, the NAACP, The Urban League, Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson would have been DEMANDING an arrest and any delay would have been atributed to the racist cops and DAs.
  But because the victim was white there was no “Champion” of civil rights/race relations in his corner. Just his father and those of us who are ignored when the face of reverse discrimination appears.
  But then according to the Seattle School Districts definition of racism, only minorities can be victims of race discrimnination

• waterworld October 12, 2010 (10:33 pm)

  Ex-Westwood: The attack was on May 25 and on the same day, I think, the officers swabbed blood from the suspects’ hands. On June 4, a detective met with the victim; the victim ID’d the suspects in a photo montage and the officer collected a cheek swab. A few days later, that swab was sent off to the crime lab for DNA testing and comparison to the stuff collected from the suspects’ hands. On September 8, the crime lab delivered the test results confirming that the DNA on the suspect’s hand matched the victim.

  At some point between September 8 and September 21, SPD wrapped up the investigation and submitted it to the King County Prosecutor’s Office. By the 21st, less than two weeks after the DNA results came back, the charges were filed and one of the defendants was in custody.

  Considering the timing, I find it hard to believe that what was going on was a lot of hand-wringing about whether to charge a hate crime. Nor do I think anyone was “ignoring” the rights of the victim; rather, I see it as a case of the officers making sure they had the strongest possible case. If the suspects had been arrested and taken into custody in late May, they would have been entitled to a trial date before the DNA tests were even complete. That would have been potentially a much greater disservice to the victim and to justice, in my view.

• Ex-Westwood Resident October 13, 2010 (5:18 am)

  Oh I understand all that, and I would rather see the case FULLY investigated and the correct charges filed.
  I’m not knocking the Police, Prosecuter or labs here.
  What I am saying that if this had been white on (pick your ethnicity) crime; the media, activists, politicos…etc, would have kept this on the front pages screaming for an arrest, hate-crime charges and trial to filed IMMEDITATELY.
  The unbalanced reporting, coverage and concern of “our” media, elected officials, civil rights groups is what is wrong here.
  Remember the Twana Brawley case in NYC? Sharpton went head hunting and the media went with him willingly. Then the story broke that she made it up. Sharpton, his gang of activists and the media have NEVER completely apologized to the officers that were accused of the crime. The media just dropped the coverage in hope that it would just go away and Sharpton, to this day insists that just because that was case was not true it happens every day in America.
  Yes, racism is alive in the USA, but what is TOTALLY ignored is the BLATANT discrimation that [i]some[/i] minorities practice against whites.
  Black (or any other minority) on white crime gets far less coverage in the media and by civil rights groups than the reverse. It seems that EVERY white on minority crime is automatically assumed to be a hate crime by the politicos, media and civil rights groups.

• sarelly October 13, 2010 (12:29 pm)

  “Malicious harassment” is a Class C felony according to the above links, while “first degree robbery” is a Class A (more serious) felony. “Bodily harm” is included under the charge of first degree robbery, however. Thanks for the links, WSB.

• waterworld October 13, 2010 (12:33 pm)

  I’m not sure I agree with you about the unbalanced coverage, but I totally accept that it can appear that way. I really don’t have a strong opinion on that issue.

  The only thing I’d add to all this is that part of the problem with the Tawana Brawley case and others like it is that the authorities react and respond to the media pressure. I think we all are better served when police and prosecutors take the time to investigate crimes carefully, even if it means delay and an unhappy public. It’s even more important when there are few witnesses and the allegations are very serious. There are good reasons for law enforcement officers and prosecutors to not simply rely on the victim’s statements: the victim may not remember accurately, may identify the wrong person, may exaggerate intentionally, or may even be making it all up (like the recent acid-attack case in Vancouver). The only way to weed out the Tawana Brawley’s of the world (by which I mean people who falsely report being the victim of a crime), is to investigate carefully before making arrests and charging crimes.

Sorry, comment time is over.