Alki brawl caught on tape

eric August 6, 2007 (10:24 am)

Alki has really turned into a not-so-nice place. I try and avoid it, which is unfortunate, as I spent most of my youth at the beach.

While the city worries about the Kyoto accord and rummaging through people’s garbage to find recyclables, the viaduct is crumbling and the cops apparently aren’t patrolling Alki on a summer night???

It’s time to get back to providing the basic services of local government.

Peter F. August 6, 2007 (11:12 am)

One would think that nice weather would bring out nice people to Alki, but no. Thugs, gangbangers and pseudo-gangbangers all come out to enjoy the weather, too; they’re well within their rights to do so.

What they don’t have the right to do is make Alki (or any other area for that matter) an unsafe to place to take an evening stroll.

One possible solution could be to close off all but local traffic to Alki on weekend days and nightsÃ¢â‚¬â€at least until the problem lessens. Naturally, this would not please Alki business owners, but it might force them to put more pressure on the city to start having a greater police presence and enforcement.

Alki is the most beautiful place in Seattle to take an nice evening stroll. It’s sad and disgusting that few knuckleheads are trying to ruin that for the rest of us.

Kmac August 6, 2007 (11:14 am)

I don’t understand why the police aren’t patrolling Alki Ave at 2am when the bars close. At least Thursday – Sunday nights. They come at 1130pm, when the park closes, and use very loud speakers to announce from inside their cars that the park is closed and everyone needs to go home. Then they leave. When the bars close at 2am, loud patrons hit the streets and hang out for an hour or two. We’ve started calling the police, but the normal Sunday night groupies are listening to a scanner. The last time I called, I heard guys on the street saying it was time to leave because the police had been called. Sure enough, they turned of the loud music and fled. Oh, this was between 3-330am on a Sunday night/Monday morning. I realize living where I do that I have to put up with a certain amount of noise, but yelling and loud music from 2-330am is just ridiculous. And we’ve called the police enough that they should realize a pattern developing.

Jiggers August 6, 2007 (11:16 am)

It just sickens me to see that Alki has reached this point. When I moved here over ten years ago, Alki was the main reason I moved to WS. These thugs have no respect for Alki’s residents or to themselves. Bars on Alki better watch out because they will be looked at and put on the that list of “Dangerous Hangouts” started up by Nickels and Kerlikowski. You do not want it to reach that point, but I’m afraid it will. Also, do Alki Beach residents have like a group of people who meet up regularly and bring up important issues at hand and present them to the city? If you want something done, you need to organize and get the city to install more police on the weekends and warn bars about overserving already drunk idiots.

Frank August 6, 2007 (11:46 am)

The absence of Police Officers from Alki Beach recently might have something to do with Nickles pledge to boost the amount of Officers in Downtown after the recent sapt of shootings. He increased the number of officers to over 100, but what he didn’t realize is that by doing that, he decreased the amount of officers that are available to patrol other areas of the city.

This mayor and members of the city council have to have the fear of the people put back in them. They are ignoring the four basic functions of a city govenment – Safety, Infrascture, Transportation and Education. They say they don’t have the money to hire more Police Officers yet they seem to have $9.9 Million to conduct two MORE studies of viaduct replacements. They have money to spend on a “hotel” for drunks to sleep and drink in, but can’t find the money to repair roads. He backs a measure to raise property taxes to get $260 Million for bike paths that will benefit olny 6%, at most, of commuters. The list is too long and depressing as what this mayor has done to go into here.

Next year is our chance to remove this ineffective mayor. Who knows, you might see this “Frank” saying these same things in a bid to unseat Gerg “it’s your” Nickles “not mine.”

Frank

Eddie August 6, 2007 (12:28 pm)

I’d be surprised if even a small percentage of the “troublemakers” are even old enough to be bar patrons. My take is that a large if not overwhelming portion of the loud, posturing, fighting and drinking folk at the beach later in the evening are punk-a** kids and not patronizing the business establishments at the beach.

I’m tired of seeing that kind of trouble all blamed on the bars at the beach. The bottles people are fighting with didn’t come from beach establishments!

Tonya August 6, 2007 (1:12 pm)

I am new to the area and love living here. What I don’t understand is why the lack of police presence and their lack of responsiveness is accepted?

kb August 6, 2007 (3:21 pm)

is it just me, or was it shocking that the video wasn’t edited so you wouldn’t hear the name/address of the people videotaping/calling the police??

WSRESIDENT August 6, 2007 (3:48 pm)

KB – yes, I was shocked as well. I would NOT willingly put my face, name and address on local TV for all to see that I caught a “crime” on video tape. that’s just asking for problems – for YOU!

Todd in Westwood August 6, 2007 (4:36 pm)

Eddie, true, most if not all bars do a very good job of making sure that bottles/drinks are not making it out of the club. It is surely people bringing their own to the beach. just that fact means the melee is under age kids.

Doug August 6, 2007 (4:38 pm)

I’ve always wondered why Seattle Police don’t designate 3 cars in the Southwest Precinct to constantly patrol potential problem areas.

Assign one to Alki, one to Delridge, and one to the Junction around California. A lot of this thug nonsense would stop with a non-stop police presence. Neighbors should demand this.

The House August 6, 2007 (5:08 pm)

And people got mad at me last year when I said Alki Beach was turning ghetto….

Andre August 6, 2007 (5:57 pm)

I think SPD should also deploy undercover officers during the night hours. This way they would have a better chance to actually catch these idiots when they cut loose and take them in (without evidence no conviction). I think patrols alone would not really solve the problem at the root.

Andre August 6, 2007 (5:57 pm)

I think SPD should also deploy undercover officers during the night hours. This way they would have a better chance to actually catch these idiots when they cut loose and take them in (without evidence no conviction). I think patrols alone would not really solve the problem at the root.

sass August 6, 2007 (6:11 pm)

what I don’t get – why are there bars along Alki that are even allowed to stay open until 2am?
I really don’t see the point – it’s a beach community full of residents, not some bar strip.

Jiggers August 6, 2007 (6:17 pm)

Why not have bicycle cops patrol Alki?

Aidan Hadley August 6, 2007 (11:10 pm)

Apparently the Seattle Police Department is in the process of installing a new computerized crime tracking system (they are calling it the “Spider” system) which is similar to the Compstat system used by the NYPD. This will allow them to better track incidents and crime trends to reallocate resources.

June August 7, 2007 (1:27 am)

on sunday nite around 11pm the cops were spotlighting & yelling (the beach is closed, get out of the park NOW!) at innocent people walking near the bathhouse. it would have been nice if they had a megaphone and calmy spoke that due to the crime at the beach, that we should leave the area- rather than ‘enforcing the rules’. no one knew why the cops weere yelling and glaring at people just talking and walking. there weere lots of people in the picnic shelters – drinking and the cops didnt even bother telling them to leave–the cops need to go undercover and be there sitting on the beach side facing the street rather than in the starbucks,from 1am to 3:30am- let the residents walk on the beach-side in peace- !!!

Jiggers August 7, 2007 (2:35 am)

So a computerized system deters crime and not physical police presence? wtf!!!

herongrrrl August 7, 2007 (7:15 am)

So, who’s hosting the “Night Out” party at Alki tonight? If the residents want to take back the beach, then do it! Some years ago the Broadway area responded to increasing crime by creating its own citizen safety patrols, like a larger Block Watch program. Their visible presence made a difference. It should be clear by now that SPD is unable to fix this on their own, so maybe doing something more than just complaining about it is in order, no?

s August 7, 2007 (8:25 am)

Jiggers, it’s about “reallocating resources.” I assume this means that the computer will tell the cops where crime is the greatest problem, and where to send more cops. Though I don’t quite get why the cops need a computer to tell them this…

Jiggers August 7, 2007 (10:26 am)

Thugs aren’t afraid of a computer. What they need to be scared of are cops wearing blue uniforms either on patrol with their bikes or in their blue cars. Once they see cops cruisng the area, they will think twice. But if you don’t get it into their minds, they will do as they please.

Pamela August 9, 2007 (2:41 pm)

One problem is that the cops don’t patrol regularly. They don’t know the residents. They treat everyone they come in contact with as their enemy, which is mainly the residents and law-abiding people since the cops are pretty much only around during the day time and right at 11:30 when the park closes. So, the residents get harassed and threatened and the thugs and hoodlums get free run of the place.

Kathleen August 9, 2007 (7:16 pm)

Hate to say it, but Alki has always been a trouble maker magnet. Why do you think the parking is as goofy as it is? Crowd control. I took my kids to the beach there 22 years ago, and as I was packing the stroller down the stairs, I looked over and a guy had rubber tubing wrapped around his arm and was injecting himself with heroin? coke? who knows what. And that was in the middle of the day.

Jason May 18, 2008 (4:52 pm)

I know this post is old, but I was visiting Seattle recently and we went to Alki Beach. There was so many [undesirable] people there. I felt frightened for my safety. People everywhere were stoned or drunk. I don’t ever want to go back there again. Which is a shame because the city views are fantastic. Nobody should have to take a nice evening stroll along the water and have to put up with all those hot mess, low class, absolute worst examples of human evolution.