17-year old Ballard High School student charged with Greewood murder & robbery (Seattle: health insurance, low crime)

[Powder4life]

Finially I am a parent

probably the second saddest part of this horrific story. Smh.. at the race baiting, troll on.

[gy90]

Shooter is being charged as an adult with 1st Degree Murder.

Teen charged with murder of man on Greenwood street | The Today File | Seattle Times

I reckon this will probably plead out to 2nd Degree or possibly voluntary manslaughter if some mitigating factors come out. While the shooter did go back and shoot the victim after their initial confrontation, I'm not so sure that rises to 1st Degree unless it comes out later that he spent some time planning this beforehand.

[gy90]

Originally Posted by Powder4life

probably the second saddest part of this horrific story. Smh.. at the race baiting, troll on.

LOL. I mentioned race once in my initial post. The focus of my opinion has been about parental responsibility for their children's actions. Just cruise by some of the wealthier schools in the Seattle area and you'll see absentee white parents.

[mkarch]

This was pretty disturbing. Greenwood Fred Meyer is where I do most of my grocery shopping and my wife knows the deceased man's wife. We'll see if there's anything we can do to help. The only good thing in this is the police very likely have the right suspect locked up.

[dicecobb]

gy90, I'm Negro and appreciate your racial insight and honesty. It's one of the reasons why I left Seattle. We're barely 8% of the population but constantly in the local news for bad stuff. So a good law abiding Negro like myself is now perceived as a threat among peers. The intentional avoidance I got was sickening - like when I enter a place/area everyone's 3rd eye locks on me but the other 2 avoid me like the plague. It's the most racist sh*t I have experienced in any major city. Y'all lame Seattle racists aren't slick!

[Yakscsd]

Originally Posted by gy90

LOL. I mentioned race once in my initial post. The focus of my opinion has been about parental responsibility for their children's actions. Just cruise by some of the wealthier schools in the Seattle area and you'll see absentee white parents.

Yeah I'm amazed at the allegations of race baiting and everyone acting like they are so smart and above that. I call Bull****. Race was a factor, because this young man had a different life than a white boy. Even given the exact same opportunities, he was looked at differently when walking down the street. He felt the gentle tug that white women put on their handbag when he saw them. His being black shaped him. Did it make him more likely to pull the trigger? I don't know, but simply stating "oh that's race baiting and i wont be caught up in it" is absurd. The new racism of the 21st century is passive and subtle. The days of outrageous differentiation and abuse are mostly gone, but not forgotten. Until this country acknowledges that it is largely a racist country, we will always hide from race discussions and we will get nowhere. But hey, at least we are polite.

[BellevueNative]

OP, is there a reason why you came to this forum to post about this one news story exclusively? As opposed to the Seattle Times, for instance?

[beautifulseattlehomes]

There is a one hour memory walk to honor Mr. Peterson's life this Sunday at 8pm at the Green Bean coffee house on 85th.

I don't know if this is the right or wrong place to post about this. I have seen other posts along the same lines here before. Maybe OP really wants a community discussion with a variety of viewpoints represented.

Here is what I think! We live in a crazy gun culture and one should always assume in an altercation or attempted robbery that the other person is armed. Give up whatever you have!

Mr Peterson was out strolling his same evening constitutional that he had many many times before with no reason to believe or think that this one would be any different.

I think Seattle folks sometimes innocently think that this is a safe city and it is in comparison with a Chicago, but the truth is, it is still a city and we all have to be street smart and city wise. I lock my doors and bolt my windows and do not walk on dark streets at night. I look around as I drive up to my home and don't get out of the car until I do a once over of my surroundings. I don't run around Green Lake at night and always get escorted to my car by one or more friends when I am out in the evening...maybe the NYC/DC girl in me is to hyper focused on this but I know what it is like to be the victim of crime in a city. Maybe it's because I'm a woman and women need to be vigilant about their safety. Who knows.

I feel heartbroken for Mr Peterson and his family....there is no greater sociological reasoning to be had for what happened to him except that we all need to ask why it is so bloody easy for a 17 year old to get their hands on a semiautomatic pistol!

[angelenogirl]

Originally Posted by dicecobb

gy90, I'm Negro and appreciate your racial insight and honesty. It's one of the reasons why I left Seattle. We're barely 8% of the population but constantly in the local news for bad stuff. So a good law abiding Negro like myself is now perceived as a threat among peers. The intentional avoidance I got was sickening - like when I enter a place/area everyone's 3rd eye locks on me but the other 2 avoid me like the plague. It's the most racist sh*t I have experienced in any major city. Y'all lame Seattle racists aren't slick!

What I find odd is the difference between word and action here in Seattle. A lot of people I talk to refer to their love of the cultural diversity here as if they're reading from a script (and bend over backward to not appear racist), but I think some might be uncomfortable if their schools looked like schools I attended on the Westside of Los Angeles. When I point out the overwhelming whiteness of this city people tend to get offended. But it's just math.

When I was growing up my classrooms were equal parts black, white, Asian, Latino, other - and no one felt a need to point it out or "celebrate" it. It just...was. You were just as likely to find a black dude in his Body Glove ditching school to go surf as you were to find an Asian kid rapping. Segregation, if any, was subtle and based on whether your parents were in the business (movie, TV or music) and how close you lived to the ocean. Everyone was mixed together and I never felt any tension. I appreciate now that I grew up very differently. Of course, the lack of Internet and 24/7 stimulation-provocation probably helped tremendously. I can't imagine trying to mature my prefrontal cortex in the age of the hate machine. Peer pressure has to be harder when it comes wrapped in a three-page comment thread.

I think kids today across the board value things more than they value people (and family). Murder over a phone, suing your parents for "child support" even though you're a spoiled 18-year-old party girl. What happened? Is it parents? Family structure? Media? Kids are in serious crisis and people are still talking about actions after the fact more than motivation beforehand.

[dicecobb]

angelenogirl, you're awesome.