Elsewhere in the program, Douglas asked Councilmembers if they had any regrets about 2009. Councilmember Tim Burgess replied, “I was really disappointed that we did not do a better job of explaining why the bag fee was a very important step forward in our environmental protection work that Seattle has, in many ways, led the nation on. I also regret probably speaking out too soon before I was ready about downtown street crime problems and panhandling and not then being able to adequately back up what I was advocating for. But after the first of the year, we’ll re-launch that effort.”

The Mayor pledged $9 million for the effort. So has it made a difference? What do teenagers whose lives have been directly impacted by violence think? SEATTLE CHANNEL, Town Hall and CityClub have created a unique, interactive event to look at the City’s Youth Violence Prevention Initiative. In one room, we’re putting together young people who know violence first-hand on the streets, a former gang member, Seattle City Councilmember and longtime youth mentor Bruce Harrell, an officer from the Seattle Police Department’s Gang Unit and the City’s Youth Violence Prevention Initiative Director Mariko Lockhart. SEATTLE CHANNEL’s dynamic public affairs host C.R. Douglas will lead the lively discussion. Viewers can watch this program live on SEATTLE CHANNEL and participate in the discussion by using special tools on our website.

What do we want from you? First, be sure to tune in, Tuesday, November 10, 7:00-8:30 p.m. Second, participate in the forum on-line during its broadcast at www.seattlechannel.org. Third, fill out CityClub’s survey on youth violence right now!

SEATTLE CHANNEL will broadcast and stream City government events responding to the crime such as the Mayoral press conferences, briefings by the Seattle Police Department, and the Council’s tribute to Officer Brenton. Videos of these news events will be available for on-demand viewing on our website as soon as we are able to post them.

Nickels was responding to a question from host C.R. Douglas about the Drug Market Initiative —a program designed by John Jay College of Criminal Justice Professor David Kennedy to reduce drug crime and recently tried out by the Seattle Police Department. The Initiative features an “intervention” in the lives of drug offenders by community leaders, police, family members and loved ones. The drug offenders are told that they can be arrested and sent to prison, but instead are given a second chance to get into treatment for their addiction. If they reoffend instead of getting treatment, they are immediately arrested and prosecuted to the full extent of the law.

In commenting on the Initiative, the mayor took the opportunity to sketch out his larger views of the war on drugs. Nickels says, “It has given us the highest per capita prison population of any country on earth. We’ve turned into criminals people whose primary problem is addiction. We ought to be dealing with it as a public-health problem. We probably need to have the criminal sanctions as a backup to get people into treatment to get them help, but to focus on it primarily as a public-safety problem has been a colossal mistake.” He also talks about the reason that his administration is trying out the Drug Market Initiative. “This is an attempt to try to get people incentivized to try and get this help and to get off of those drugs so they are not having to commit other crimes to feed that habit,” he says.

Three years ago, Seattle Police Department Detective Denise “Cookie” Bouldin was looking for an activity that could be used to prevent youth violence in the Rainier Valley. “I was going to do a basketball game with the kids playing the officers,” recalls Bouldin. The kids, however, were unenthusiastic about her idea. So she asked them for other suggestions, figuring they would say a pool party or a barbeque. Much to her surprise, the children suggested a chess tournament. She was reluctant but agreed. She picked the Rainier Beach library as the site for her tournament since that neighborhood had been wracked by violence.

Now Officer Cookie’s Chess Club is a huge ongoing success. Kids, parents and volunteers fill the library on Saturdays to play chess and learn non-violence. Detective Boudlin says, “I teach anti-violence to the kids showing them different ways that they can deal with situations and I relate them all to the chessboard. On the chessboard you have to look at all your surroundings. You have to look at protecting your king and taking one step at a time to see where you are going to go. What they have learned is that, in chess, one mistake can cause your king to tumble—as in real life, one mistake can cause your life to tumble. So the kids are learning consequences—consequences of your actions.”

Detective Bouldin says that chess is also building the children’s self esteem. She always asks the children why they haven’t played chess before. A common answer is that they weren’t smart enough. After some basic instruction, they discover that they are smart enough to play chess. Bouldin says, “Those same kids are coming up to me and saying, ‘Officer Cookie…I’m smart, I can play chess. I love this game. Thank you for having chess.’ That makes me so happy.”