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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Mayor Says City Must Stop The Violence

Spokane Mayor Jack Geraghty, alarmed by the gang-related shootings on West First, declared the city must put a stop to the area’s escalating violence - even if “we have to call in the National Guard on this thing.

“We’re simply not going to allow this activity to happen on the streets of Spokane.”

During Monday’s City Council meeting, Police Chief Terry Mangan detailed the bloody fight over drug turf that unfolded on West First early Friday and Sunday mornings.

On behalf of his colleagues, Geraghty told Mangan, “Whatever resources it takes, we have to apply those resources … If we can’t put 24-hour people there, then there’s got to be a problem.”

Mangan called the mayor’s statement about the National Guard “dramatic,” but said he understood Geraghty’s concerns.

“This is a specific effort to take over the block,” Mangan said. “We will break that attempt.”

The National Guard doesn’t get involved in law enforcement activities unless a state of emergency is declared, Mangan said.

The Police Department has been expecting drug-turf wars along West First for years, he said. The area “gets more police attention than any in town. We have police downtown all the time.”

To curb the violence, Mangan said his department will need more officers or a bigger overtime budget. A specific plan will be drafted during the next few weeks, he said.

“We have to look at additional tactics,” Mangan said. “We have to know how willing the city is to fund extraordinarily heavy patrols.”

Mangan added once this kind of drug war begins, it doesn’t stop without police intervention.

“Stand by for more (gang violence) to come,” he said.

The chief’s report came minutes before a committee from the Washington State Institute for Community Oriented Policing detailed preliminary survey results indicating that Spokane’s community policing effort has reduced fear of crime.

According to the mail-in poll, 28 percent of residents surveyed feared crime in 1995, down from 43 percent in 1992.

Several council members questioned the polling techniques, which will be fine-tuned before final results are released this fall.

, DataTimes