Street musician murdered by punks

[Dame]

It wouldn't be forced labour if they were mearly confined to a geographic space with sufficient natural resources to subsist if they got off their buts and did so. 

[Atash Hagmahani]

Lots of hand-wringing, crocodile tears...

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2008982285_webtubaman03m.html

The Garfield student admitted, Satterberg said, to delivering one unprovoked punch to McMichael's head, knocking down the Tuba Man. Others in the mob kicked McMichael as he lay in the fetal position and rifled through his pockets, according to police reports.

Satterberg said he believes the Garfield teen "thought he ought to do something to show off" because he was not directly involved in robbing the two North Seattle teens.

The Garfield teen is an honors student with a stable home life, according to James Kelly, president of the Urban League of Metropolitan Seattle. The boy is a member of the league's Urban Scholars program at Garfield.

The mob ran when police arrived. Officers were able to arrest two suspects, the Cleveland students, at the scene. They later arrested the Garfield student.

The three were released from King County Juvenile Detention Center in February under the conditions they wear electronic-monitoring devices.

The Garfield student faces a maximum of 36 weeks in prison--or in other words 9 months--for what I would call assault and battery.

Part of the problem in a situation like this is something called "the diffusion of responsibility". I think that most people have some sense of responsibility when acting alone, but dramatically less when acting as a group. It was not 1, 2, or 3 juveniles who attacked Ed McMichael, but, according to witnesses, around 10. There were a total of 30 acting aggressively to passersby, and some subset of these who attacked two teenagers just before the fatal attack.

But police could find no eyewitnesses to the crime except for the teens themselves.

The only reason that anything happened at all, is because a man witnessed the incident from his apartment and tried to rescue the victim...plus the teenagers who were attacked escaped to safety and called the police. But you need to put this into perspective: that intersection is in a densely-populated and well-traveled neighborhood. Even at midnight there would be passersby on both sidewalk and street. This is comparable to a crime happening on Times Square and they can't find any witnesses.

It's because none were ever sought.

The other problem is sorting them out. Again, there were so many attackers engaged in a variety of mischief, that it would be difficult for witnesses to sort out who did what.

In a "civil unrest" situation, you will be totally on your own. The police might put in an appearance just for appearances sake, but they won't protect you.

[Atash Hagmahani]

After the media reported that tuba-man's killers faced up to 72 weeks in prison (less than 2 years), it turns out the sentence was actually 90 days. This fact came out in the aftermath of the discovery that one of them just robbed another young man after beating him up with some accomplices, in order to get his MP3 player.

http://www.king5.com/news/local/Teen-Tuba-Man-killer-charged-with-robbery-90108062.html

According to probable cause documents, Seattle Police say on Jan. 22, the suspect approached a 17-year-old boy at the Garfield Teen Life Center at 428 23rd Avenue and asked for $5. The victim said he didn't have the money and then went inside the center.

A few minutes later, the victim says the suspect approached him again, this time accompanied by four juvenile males. The suspect again asked for five dollars. When the victim said he didn't have the money, the group checked his pockets. One of them allegedly said "It feels like you have an iPod or something in your pocket." The group then left.

A couple minutes later, police say the victim went outside and was approached and surrounded by the group. "One of them went into (the victim's) pocket and took his MP3 player," wrote Det. Mikel W. Rideaux. "Someone else then punched (the victim) in the mouth and another person took his wallet."

The group that attacked the victim then ran into the Teen Life Center. Police say they left the center after a staff member advised the victim to report the incident.

The suspect was reportedly taken into custody Wednesday morning in the 2700 block of Yesler Way. He will be arraigned Thursday morning in King County Juvenile Court.

KING 5 News typically does not name juvenile suspects unless they are charged as adults. King County Prosecutor's Office spokesman Dan Donohoe tells Seattlepi.com that he doesn't believe there's a basis for prosecuting the teen as an adult in this case.

Second-degree robbery in juvenile court carries a range of 15 to 36 weeks. Prosecutors plan to ask for more jail time, and a juvenile court judge has the jurisdiction to hold a child until he or she is 21 years old, said prosecutors.

WOOOOP! WOOOOP! Deceptive insinuation alert! They insinuated that they'd receive over a year in prison for manslaughter, but they didn't!

The actual sentence is more likely to be in the 15 to 36 week range. There will be a lot of hand-wringing over how "society" failed the perpetrator...and they will wait long enough for public indignation (and there is considerable in this case) to subside, the way they often do in these situations, and time waiting for trial will be applied to the sentence, so he will be released almost instantly.

Second degree robbery, but what about assault?! The story said that the victim had been punched in the mouth! At least one of the purp's (preferably, the one who did it) should be held accountable for that.

I think one of the failures here is due to some people's mental model of how the world works. Welfare does not prevent crime. Note that the criminals ran into the Teen Life Center.

(I'm glad that one of the employees there had the sense to tell the victim to call the police, but I would be even more impressed if he had the brains and balls to discretely call himself, if he were aware of what had happened.

The situation reminds me of one when I was in college, when I told someone who was aggressively harassing one of the employees where I worked, while I was the lead in charge, to leave the premises. He blew up at me, and told me I'd be sorry. Next thing I know, I'm being interviewed by campus police who read me the riot act).

[Atash Hagmahani]

I just re-read my earlier posts. Good grief, there is a trail of numerous crimes and numerous victims here. It didn't start with tuba-man, it started with some teenagers who had been attacked by the mob that formed after a teen dance sponsored by a welfare agency. Something tells me it will not end with the latest teen-age robbery and assault victim.

Also, contrary to the report I just posted, which had stated that the purps HAD to be tried as juveniles due to "lack of previous criminal records", rumor in the aftermath of the most recent attack claims that this is not true, but rather, the purp in the current attack has a significant rap sheet.

Anybody who's been following this story must realize what's been going on. 

[Atash Hagmahani]

Just re-read some of my earlier posts in preparation to post the latest. Yes, another one of the purpetrators has committed yet more crimes. This one actually did some time, "about 72 weeks" (sic).

Contrary to what I posted earlier, I do remember what tuba man was playing shortly before the attack that killed him. He was playing "Waltzing Mathilda". For some reason I had difficulty at the time connecting the street musician and the report of the murder. There are (were?) a lot of street musicians here. It was my daughter who first made the connection. The two events happened within the space of a few days.

Yet another robbery, and an accomplice to car theft (not charged...it is almost impossible to get arrests much less convictions and sentences for car theft here, hence the sky-high rate of car theft):

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2012453148_tubaman27m.html

This weekend, King County prosecutors found probable cause to hold the 17-year-old and one of his alleged accomplices in the robbery, another 17-year-old boy. A female suspect, Malikah Kaashif, 18, was booked into the King County Jail. Monday; her bail was set at $15,000, according to jail records. She has not been charged.
...
The 17-year-old who pleaded guilty to a manslaughter charge in McMichael's death allegedly brandished a gun while robbing a man of $200 around 5:50 a.m. Saturday in downtown Seattle, according to a Seattle police report. The gun looked like a "small Derringer" pistol but turned out to be a cigarette lighter, the report says.

The victim called 911 and said he was robbed at gunpoint near Third Avenue and Union Street, the report says. Based on the suspect descriptions he provided, officers found the three young people about five minutes later a few blocks away, at Sixth Avenue and Seneca Street. The victim was brought to the scene and identified the three suspects, the report says.

Two $100 bills were found on the suspects, along with 23.3 grams of marijuana, the report says.