Finding Illumination in the News We Cover: A Year in Review 2023

by Phil Manzano

The Emerald will be observing a team-wide wellness pause from Dec. 18 to Jan. 2, and most publishing will be on hiatus, with the exceptions of four pieces, of which this is one, wherein editors look back at 2023 and some of the work that made the Emerald shine.

As the News editor at the South Seattle Emerald, I've been asked to reflect on events of the last year. When I look back at the year, a few weeks in summer still haunt me, a horrible stretch of gun violence punctuated by home invasion attacks on Asian American residents in Beacon Hill and other areas.

"Dozens and dozens" of shots at the Rainier Beach Safeway parking lot Friday night, July 28, sent community workers — who labor to stem violence and foster community — scrambling for safety. Five were injured, but none fatally. Only three weeks later, three people were killed and six wounded when gunfire broke out at the Rainier Hookah Lounge, one of the victims a close relative of a staff member of King County Councilmember Girmay Zahilay. A spate of home invasions and assaults on Asians in Beacon Hill and South King County went viral with doorbell videos of the attacks.

As a resident of Rainier Beach, the shootings and assaults felt personal, extremely disturbing, and like all crime, sparked fear and distrust, isolation, confusion, and feelings of helplessness. The media (news and entertainment industries) play a role in how crime is perceived, and its ubiquitous nature and reportage makes it feel like crime is everywhere, all the time. The issue of gun violence and crime also reverberated loudly in the City Council District 2 race and other council races in November's election. It is understandable that many simply want more police presence and more incarceration as a way to deal with the problem.

At the Emerald we wrestle with the ideas and nuances of reporting on violence in the community as part of our larger community news coverage. We don't want to ignore it, but we don't want to buy into the sensational. And for sure we don't want to cover it in a way that leaves the impression this is representative of the South End. This violence doesn't represent who these communities are, and it doesn't define them. It's also grievously wrong: Community violence isn't a South End problem. It's a citywide, regional, and national issue.

I know this isn't a typical year-in-review retrospective, but how can the Emerald (and the community) move beyond the shock and resignation that confronts us when encountering violence in the community?

In Laurence Gonzales' book Deep Survival, he tells the story of an experienced outdoorsman who got lost in the woods and "wood shock" set in after three nights of panicked and desperate attempts to find his way out. He was on the edge of death when he realized he was lost and had no way out. So he made a fire, built a shelter, took care of himself, and a passing helicopter saw his blue parka and directed rescuers to him.

It may seem odd to apply the lessons of survival here, but the issue of crime and public safety has been disorienting and frustrating. Sometimes we feel lost. Yet in this community, there have been people and organizations building fires to warm and illuminate before and after the shock of gun violence erupts and building shelters or spaces to foster conversation, meet people's needs, and offer programs and resources that push back against fear and isolation. They are and have been looking at the violence of the summer differently, and it's their voices I want to revisit at the end of this year and into the next.

"We can't move forward until we acknowledge the tragedy and the trauma that's happened in our space," said Marty Jackson, when members of Safe Passage reopened a month after the Rainier Beach Safeway shooting. "However, I'm not focusing on that (the shooting) today, y'all. We're not focusing on the obvious.

"We have heard over and over again on every single channel about this shooting. But there has not been one, anything, mentioned prior to, about this community healing space activation that has been happening for the last three years. Nobody even knew we existed in this space, except for our partners, who have been a support."

In response to gun violence, the Boys & Girls Clubs of King County's SE Network SafetyNet Program, which Jackson leads, and other community groups mobilized Safe Passage on Friday nights at the Safeway in 2020. Since then, no violence had broken out at the parking lot until that July evening.

What hasn't been obvious is that community leaders, government, small businesses, and law enforcement have been at work to develop strategies and programs to address community violence.

"I want to emphasize one of the things that Marty said earlier, which is, it feels like the darkness gets a lot of attention, but the light doesn't," said Zahilay, about community members organizing, developing strategies for preventing violence, and then implementing that strategy for the last several years.

"And one of the strategies that they said is, 'We're gonna put our bodies on the line to protect everybody else.' That's the light: We're gonna put our bodies on the line to protect everybody else. Twelve shootings in 2020. For three years, no shootings in this parking lot.

"And that's the light. That's the light that we need to pay attention to. Because imagine how they feel. When after three years of success, one incident makes it feel like all their work is upended. Imagine what that feels like. You're putting yourself between people and bullets for three years. And one incident, gets all the attention, gets all the resources. That's a problem."

It is a problem because it obscures two things: that there are bona fide, community-based crime prevention programs that work; that there are a myriad of people who are organizing and building community in large, formal organizational contexts; that there are folks who are organizing and connecting on a street-by-street and block-by-block level, whether it's picking up litter, or organizing a block party, or a work party, or just making sure they check up on their next-door neighbor when the weather gets bad.

When you get involved in what's going on in your neighborhood and efforts here, you'll discover how diverse and rich a community exists in the South End. Imagine replacing "dozens and dozens" of shots at the Rainier Beach Safeway with dozens and dozens of people who come to visit and support the work of Safe Passage or other nonprofit organizations in South Seattle.

"It takes everybody who is a part of this community, to heal this community," Jackson said.

In 2024 at the Emerald, we're seeking to bring more light to those kinds of stories, stories that show the community mobilizing and working together to illuminate the beauty of the South End and tackle issues affecting the community. I would also be remiss if I didn't add that our work covering the news is done in community with a team of editors, along with a team of wonderful writers and photographers, including Lauryn Bray, Ari Robin McKenna, Alex Garland, Amanda Sorell, Tobias Coughlin-Bogue, Luna Reyna, Ronnie Estoque, and Susan Fried.

Here are a few examples of our work this year that reflect community involvement:

📸 Featured Image: Phil Manzano listening and reporting on Safe Passage's return to the Rainier Beach Safeway. (Photo: Susan Fried)