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F EBRUARY 20, 2013
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V OLUME XXXV, N O . 20
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C HALLENGING P EOPLE TO S HAPE A B ETTER F UTURE N OW
RESOURCES
Court
Violence
Penalties
Legislature considers
more charges for
courthouse assaults
PHOTO BY SUSAN FRIED
By Gene Johnson
The Associated Press
Tone’ Armstrong tries her hand at assembling an airplane part at the Boeing table during a Youth Education, Career
& Resource Fair on Feb. 15, at the Rainier Community Center. Dozens of employers, colleges and other resources
were represented at the event.
New Home in the Central District
Ernestine Anderson Place offers a new lease on life for the houseless
By Elliot Suhr
Special To The Skanner
News
F
or homeless veterans and
senior citizens looking for
a second chance, Seattle’s
Ernestine Anderson Place offers
a new lease on life and a place
to call their own.
The facility, which opened its
doors Feb. 8, is a newly built
low-income housing develop-
ment in Seattle’s Central Dis-
trict. It will provide permanent
housing for 60 homeless indi-
viduals, age 55 and older, who
have some type of mental dis-
ability or substance abuse issue.
Residents will have their own
bed, bathroom and kitchen.
The building, located at 2010
S. Jackson St., is dedicated to
Ernestine Anderson, a jazz icon
who grew up in the Central Dis-
trict. “She was not only a great
musician, but she also opened
up her home to hundreds of peo-
ple that were homeless, that
needed a place to stay,” says
Zena Dodson, area manager for
the Low Income Housing Insti-
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tute, a Seattle nonprofit that was
instrumental in developing the
facility.
As of now the building is still
vacant, but Dodson hopes to fill
it by the end of April. For the
chronically homeless — who
have spent years or even
decades on the street — Ernes-
tine Anderson Place will be a
dramatic change from the
makeshift, temporary arrange-
ments they’ve dealt with to sur-
vive.
“It’s going to be such a great
honor to see them when they
come in and they see that they
have a bed and it’s not a cot. It’s
a twin-sized bed. With covers,”
says Dodson.
Homelessness in King County
is on the rise. However, many
day centers for homeless people
in the area are facing funding
cuts. Without crucial resources,
some of the most vulnerable
members of the homeless popu-
lations—the elderly—could be
affected. The Low Income
Housing Institute hopes to slow
the upward trend by offering
SEATTLE (AP) — It’s already a felony
to attack judges, court employees and coun-
ty clerks doing their jobs in Washington
State.
Now lawmakers want to make it a felony
to assault anyone else at a courthouse, too.
Recognizing that many people who visit
courthouses are stressed out or scared,
Republicans and Democrats in Olympia
have introduced bills in the House and Sen-
ate that would automatically elevate charges
of fourth-degree assault — a gross misde-
meanor, punishable by up to a year in jail —
to third-degree assault, a felony punishable
by up to 5 years in prison, when an attack
happens at a courthouse.
The measures would also give judges the
option of imposing extra time behind bars
for more serious assaults.
``Courthouses by their very nature are
dangerous places,’’ Attorney General Bob
Ferguson testified during a hearing in the
House last week. ``We believe all citizens
should have equal protection as they access
our courts — victims, witnesses, jurors and
family members.’’
Two cases in Washington state in the past
year highlight how volatile people can be
when they’re in the courthouse, Ferguson
said. Last March, a man shot a Grays Har-
bor County sheriff’s deputy with her own
weapon at the courthouse in Montesano,
then stabbed a judge who tried to save her.
And last month, a man assaulted a plain-
clothes police detective at a courthouse in
Kent after the detective asked him to stop
intimidating witnesses.
Posting signs warning people that they
could face enhanced penalties for an assault
could help deter courthouse violence, Fer-
guson argued.
Though courthouse attacks remain rare, he
referenced a report by a Minnesota-based
company that provides court security con-
See HOME on page 3
See COURT on page 3
Rappers Launch New Photo Show
Geo named Artist-in-Residence for Town Hall Seattle
By Simon Thwaits
Special To The Skanner News
Y
ou may have heard Geo’s music as
half of the Seattle-based hip-hop
group Blue Scholars, but now he’s
also working in photography for the “Rap-
pers W/ Cameras” project and is the artist-
in-residence at Town Hall Seattle.
Geo is short for Geologic and his full
name, George Quibuyen, but he is also
known as Prometheus Brown.
Another local rapper, Thig Nat (real name
Gathigi Gishuru), of The Physics, founded
the project with Quibuyen, which includes
both a photoblog at rapperswithcameras.
tumblr.com and the publication of photo
zines with the same title.
“It goes back to when The Physics had a
studio in the old OK Hotel,” Quibuyen told
me over the phone, talking about when Blue
Scholars were working on some songs with
The Physics. “During that process Thig and
I would always bring cameras around.”
They also took in the First Thursday Seat-
tle Art Walk in Pioneer Square and took
inspiration from how music and visual art
were happening at the same time. Eventual-
See GEO on page 3