YMCA outreach workers help with Torchlight Parade security
Jul 29, 2011, 9:31 AM | Updated: Oct 10, 2012, 7:28 am
With gang violence increasing in the Seattle area, organizers of Saturday night’s Seafair Torchlight Parade have brought in some specialists to help keep keep things safe.
Seattle Police will be aided by a dozen paid YMCA outreach workers, who will join the crowds watching the floats.
Aquil Basheer, of Los Angeles, trained the workers in violence intervention techniques.
“You have to have the ability of people on the street intervening to stop the violence,” Basheer told KING 5M.
One of his trainees, Johnny Walker, says he thinks the outreach workers will keep gang violence at Torchlight under control.
“If they know we’re around, the violence will be prevented, because they know what we do,” Walker says.
The Torchlight Parade starts at 7:30 p.m. in Downtown Seattle on Saturday.
Streets will be closed on Saturday in preparation for the parade. Check out traffic alerts here.
