The AAHM&CC asks all readers to pause for a moment of silence here to uplift and acknowledge the two victims shot, one of them fatally, late on the night of Tuesday, February 9th, in the Urban League occupied/controlled parking lot of our Museum by the employee of “Coast Property Management” (hired by the Urban League and approved by the City of Seattle *), as well that employee himself–who was then shot and killed by the SPD later the same night. We send strength, power and love to the families and all affected by this tragedy.
In particular, we ask that readers send good thoughts and donations to the family of our late beloved sister Anais Nin Valencia, killed for no reason at the age of 23.
The murder of Anais Nin Valencia could have been prevented.
Her killer, the 45-year-old violently unstable Coast Property Management employee Greg Taylor, was clearly in desperate need of mental health treatment and counseling, which he should have received. His volatility, mental illness, and propensity to threaten others with a loaded gun were all a matter of public record, of which Coast Property Management, The Urban League and the City—via its police department—were all aware.
In the meantime, while he should have been receiving treatment, he should not have been placed in the de-facto position of wielding armed authority in the name of a property management scheme. Yet, the fact is that he was maintained in a unique and opaque position of employment by at least two successive management companies—both hired by the Urban League and approved by the City of Seattle.
The AAHM&CC continues to stand for the implementation of the publicly documented and officially designated use of the former Coleman School premises, firmly established by the City of Seattle itself since February of 1994, as is clearly demonstrated in the 45-page report of the MAYOR’S AFRICAN AMERICAN HERITAGE MUSEUM AND CULTURAL CENTER COMMITTEE, which you can view here!
We also continue to stand on our mutually signed and sealed Purchase and Sale Agreement which has made our organization the rightful owner of the building since January of 1998, which you can view here. This agreement has never been terminated by any foreclosure process, and is still as valid as the day it was signed, despite the habitual tendency of white power structures to break their treaties.
Contrary to what is often said about us, we are not an encampment. We are present in furtherance of these official public documents.
In contrast to us, The Urban League, its subsidiary flag-independent ground-floor “tenant” organization, and its corrupt supporters within city and county government have been willfully and illegally obstructing this good public project with force and violence since June 4th, 1998, occupying the building for profiteering objectives contrary to its authentic designated use.
These obstructionists have set up a racketeering operation inside the building, whereby unauthorized entities are falsely representing themselves as the building’s owners to individuals in search of residential housing, and are illegally charging such individuals monetary “rent” to unsafely and uncomfortably inhabit a building that is neither intended for residential use nor owned by the organized criminals collecting this “rent”. These gangsters further enrich themselves by intercepting as much public taxpayer HUD money as they can in the name of the building, but spending as little of it as possible on either real functional housing or urban development.
Gregory Taylor was one of the individuals whom these racketeers were taking advantage of in this way—both as a “tenant” and an “employee”—which exacerbated his already unstable mental condition instead of treating it.
The AAHM&CC has been trying to work with the City to implement the plan identified by the Mayor’s African American Heritage Museum And Cultural Center Committee since 1994. Even without the City’s help, we would by now have long ago implemented this plan on our own had we not been interrupted by the City’s force and violence in 1998.
The plan we’re being prevented from implementing has abundant flexibility to host mental health treatment programs on the old Coleman School Property (the true name of which is, of course, that African American Heritage Museum & Cultural Center). Daybreak Star Indian Cultural Center and El Centro De La Raza have begun to explore such necessary programs at their facilities, while the Asian Counseling and Referral Service, for its part, has established and consolidated such services.
Had Gregory Taylor received proper mental health treatment in an uncorrupt setting, he most likely would not have committed this homicidal act, and therefore also would not have then fired a gun in the direction of the police, who (hopefully) would therefore also not have killed him. Anais Nin Valencia and Gregory Taylor would both still be alive.
For these reasons, as well as many others, the blood of both Anais Nin Valencia and Gregory Taylor is upon the hands of the City of Seattle, Coast Property Management and the Urban League.
It is time for those entities to step aside and finally allow the people of both the Central Area and Seattle/MLKing County’s greater Africatown metropolitan area to construct their African American Heritage Museum and Cultural Center with this critical piece of land and infrastructure.
-AAHM&CC
*Citation: Part II, Section 15 of King County Records document number 20061211000013, an illegal covenant entered into between the Urban League and the City of Seattle on December 7th, 2006 to run the building as an apartment complex instead of a Museum, page 18 of which purports to give the City decision making authority over the operation while simultaneously denying that the City has any responsibility for the operation.
The African American Heritage Museum & Cultural Center 