By Kiara Doyal, The Seattle Medium
Youth violence is a major concern in the Greater Seattle area, and often these incidents impact more than the perpetrators and the victims. Unfortunately, this is the case as it relates to the Dolls and Gents Drill Team and Drumline, which was informed on Thursday, July 25, that they will not be able to participate in the 2024 Seafair Torchlight Parade, scheduled for this Saturday, July 27. This decision was based upon alleged assumptions and speculations by the Seafair organization that the group may have been or could be the target of youth violence.
Last Sunday, July 21, 2024, at the Seafair-sanctioned Chinatown-International District Parade, three young teens were arrested for bringing fully automatic guns to the crowded event and causing panic. A family of a murder victim, recently killed in Auburn, was marching in the parade in honor of their son, who was a former member of Dolls and Gents, when they noticed the three suspects whom they believed were connected to the murder of their son and feared for their safety. Although no shots were fired at the parade, the incident did receive significant media attention.
As a result of being guilty by association, the drill team — a local African American drill team that has been around for 19 years and is the largest community drill team in Washington State — was removed from this year’s Torchlight Parade. According to officials with the drill team, they were removed from the parade lineup because Seafair has reasons to believe that the organization may be a target for violence due to their relationship with their former member who was killed in Auburn.
“We don’t know that to be true,” says a spokesperson speaking on behalf of the Dolls and Gents Drill Team, who wished to remain anonymous. “This team has been a part of the community for 19, almost 20 years, and has not had any incidents. Don’t you think they [Seafair] would say let’s have a conversation with them, let’s see if we feel like they are actually a target, how do we protect them, and what can we do to work together to have a plan so that these kids can still participate in this event?”
Unfortunately, officials with The Dolls and Gents claim that the original message to them from a Seafair official about their removal indicated that part of the reason was because they were “gang-affiliated.”
“We were told by Seafair that we were being targeted and they [Seafair] were concerned because [they believe that] we were gang-affiliated,” said the spokesperson, who disputes the claim of the team being affiliated with a gang and claims that statement was later retracted by another Seafair official. “If they thought that there was a threat to our organization then that is what they should have told us on Monday when they first received this information.”
“The event that happened at the Seafair Chinatown Parade where there were several teens that were arrested, they [Seafair] are somehow trying to connect us or say that we are a target, but they never reached out to us when they started to have these conversations on Monday, the day after the Chinatown incident,” added the spokesperson. “Unfortunately, we are being tied into things that we shouldn’t be tied into.”
According to Eric Corning, President and CEO of Seafair, Seafair had board members at the Chinatown parade who had been watching and covering the ongoing news coverage about the young teens that had the automatic weapons at that event, and the organization has been in close conversation with the Seattle Police Department and a number of other agencies about how this incident could affect the Torchlight Parade from public safety perspective.
“We have been speaking with various agencies, our board has met multiple times this week to talk about what we are going to do, and in the end, we elected to remove the Dolls and Gents from the parade lineup as a means of being able to not only protect the public but protect them in a better way,” says Corning.
The Dolls and Gents Drill Team members feel that the decision made by Seafair was unfair and unreasonable, considering the team was a part of the Chinatown Parade and feared for their safety just like everyone else.
“Our team was running on Sunday just like everybody else. They [Seafair] never even talked to us to say, hey this is what is going on, this is what we are thinking, how do you guys feel about this, nothing,” says the Dolls and Gents spokesperson.
One of the disappointing points of concern for the Dolls and Gents is that they were not told until Thursday, July 25, just two days before the Torchlight Parade that they would not be able to participate in the parade, despite the fact that Seafair officials began having conversations about the issue on Monday, July 22. Seafair has offered to allow the team to participate in another special events, despite their reasoning for the team’s initial removal from the Torchlight Parade.
“Seafair said they can get us special events,” says the Dolls and Gents spokesperson. “But, if we are a target like you are claiming, why would you want us to perform at any other events? And, if you think we are a target, why would you really not work to keep us safe? We are the marketing of your [Seafair] parade, we are on all the marketing, we are on all of the commercials, but we have been told we can’t participate.”
“They [Dolls and Gents] were informed within an hour of when the decision was made,” says Corning. “We as a board have been talking about it all week long and we wanted to have as much information from our sources to be able to make the best decision that we could.”
“The final decision had come down last night and within an hour or so is when we spoke with them. And speaking with them they felt like it happened days before but that is not true, it is us trying to make the best decision for the parade overall,” he added.
A spokesperson on behalf of the Dolls and Gents believes that the removal of the Drill team from the Torchlight parade is a bigger picture that needs to be addressed and made aware to the community.
“I did tell them [Seafair], that if we were a white organization, you would have reached out right away. But because we are a Black organization you are just going to tell us what your final decision is, and this is not the first time that this has happened with Seafair,” says the Dolls and Gents spokesperson. “They get intel and then they decide without talking to us or hearing our side of the story. We have no side of the story because we have nothing to do with those three kids.”
With public safety being a main priority in the city of Seattle, Corning feels that the removal of the Dolls and Gents from the Torchlight Parade will provide a safer environment for the city and for everyone attending this year’s parade.
“We feel that having this one year that we remove the Dolls and Gents from the parade is safer for everyone involved, especially because there is a lot of unknowns between what happened in Chinatown and what is happening at Torchlight, and we want to do all that we can to be able to make the parade the safest place that it can be,” says Corning.
Editor’s Note: As of the posting of this story, the Dolls and Gents Drill Team and Drumline is still hoping that officials from Seafair reverse their decision and allow them to participate in this year’s parade. Some community members have started an online petition: Let the Dolls & Gents Perform in Torchlight.