Comments

115

It's amazing that Mr. Mudede managed to rant for 3 full screens without touching the root cause, which btw is substance abuse (if you ever care). Stop playing the identity politic card, have some balls to face the real problem! (I am also colored, however, the difference between me and Mr. Mudede is that I refuse to fall in to the victmhood mentality)

116

I live in Bellevue and work in SLU. I honestly can't stand downtown Seattle anymore. It's disgusting. Talk about a tale of two cities. I wish the Bellevue city council could run Seattle too. Would make catching a show much more enjoyable.

117

Had my car stolen one night from my apartment parking space in Magnolia. They drove north and dumped it in Lynnwood a few days later. Found a bunch of homeless trash & clothing in it after, door completely smashed/broken.

First time for everything I suppose.

118

Hey, how nice would it be to take politics completely & totally out of the mix when looking at this? It just gets so old....does anyone love the fact that so many people are becoming homeless, regardless of the reason? I haven't watched the documentary but I believe that one of the reasons the general quality of life has gone so downhill is because both our politicians & citizens spend so much damn time spitting back & forth at each other instead of getting off our a** and doing something about whatever it is that needs "fixing". I can't stand big pharma & truly believe we need a complete & total revamp of our ridiculous mental health system. But bitching & whining back & forth about our b.s. political parties (really, what have any of them truly done for YOU lately?) on EVERY SINGLE article/social media site/etc etc etc etc ETC is making us all look like a nation of Neanderthals. Our nation is literally bleeding out right in front of us and instead of doing anything in our power to get the bleeding under control we're like a horde of drunk 4th graders brawling over what the perfect way to fix it might be. Maybe it's time for us to zip it, put our hard earned (literal) pennies where our mouth is and try and be the solution, one citizen at a time, instead of incessantly lapping at the ankles of our BFF's in power of our chosen political party.

119

As long as drugs are illegal, we will continue to live in a violent & dystopian world just like during alcohol prohibition. Drugs will remain impure & keep killing people while cartels, gangsters & dealers shoot it out in an effort to profit from the artificially elevated price of said substances. Addicts will continue spending all their time stealing, prostituting themselves, panhandling & otherwise living circular/meaningless existences in search of $$$ for their next fix.

We can either take our lead from Portugal, the Netherlands, Switzerland & other countries with sane drug laws or we can continue on this path to nowhere. The drug war is an abysmal failure in terms of human cost. Only certain segments stand to profit from it (drug test manufacturers, the DEA, corporations that rely on cheap prison labor, pharma/alcohol/tobacco industries, etc). We've been attacking the supply side for 40+ years; it hasn't worked. It's time to examine why the DEMAND for drugs is so ungodly high in this country. Seattle doesn't exist in a vacuum.

You will never lock up all the drug dealers in the world. Building a wall won't stop those tunnels, airplanes, boats & submarines full of drugs from entering from Mexico or elsewhere. There is no quick fix/magic bullet for this plague of addiction. We must examine the underlying causes & stop treating the poor, homeless & addicted like instant criminals for the disease of addiction.

120

As long as drugs are illegal, we will continue to live in a violent & punitive world just like during alcohol prohibition. Drugs will remain impure & keep killing people while cartels, gangsters & dealers shoot it out in an effort to profit from the artificially elevated price of said substances. Addicts will continue spending all their time stealing, prostituting themselves, panhandling & otherwise living circular/meaningless existences in search of $$$ for their next fix. Rinse, repeat.

We can either take our lead from Portugal, the Netherlands, Switzerland & other countries with sane drug laws or we can continue on this path to nowhere. The drug war is an abysmal failure in terms of human cost. Only certain segments stand to profit from it (drug test manufacturers, the DEA, corporations that rely on cheap prison labor, pharma/alcohol/tobacco industries, etc). We've been attacking the supply side for 40+ years; it hasn't worked. It's time to examine why the DEMAND for drugs is so ungodly high in this country. Seattle doesn't exist in a vacuum.

You will never lock up all the drug dealers in the world. Building a wall won't stop those tunnels, airplanes, boats & submarines full of dope from entering from Mexico or elsewhere. There is no quick fix/magic bullet for this plague of addiction. We must examine the underlying causes & stop treating the poor, homeless & addicted like instant criminals for the disease of addiction.

121

^Oops, double post. Can't delete. Sorry.

122

120
121

Great Post and well-worth (even unintentional) repeating.

We Americans do so LOVE The Punishment, it just feels really Good
to lock people up for shit we're not currently involved in/getting caught doing.

Addiction is a Disease and we're NEVER gonna police our way out of it.
But we COULD Legalize our way out of it.

It's fucking Pragmatic.

123

From 120 to122 - What amazingly relevant responses. Thank you.

So what about the addiction called “greed”. Could we have treatment centers for those afflicted? This has caused so much suffering for millions/billions. People have been turned into economic refugees and have lost their homes and/or live from paycheck to paycheck. Threats and attacks have been made to many people over their lands, resources such as oil etc.Those in power never have enough and they squeeze us dry. Everyday.

When the banks stole homes and jobs they weren’t stopped and put in jail/treatment. When our environment was/is poisoned by the very wealthy they weren’t disarmed and the means of production taken away. If it happened it was rare and only because we fought back. People weren’t paid when Trump held the last national emergency. Workers and their families suffered and many others. Trump and his administration had no consequences.

The city government pretty well punishes unsheltered people by using the police to sweep their encampments without decent options offered. They want poor people to disappear anyhow/somehow immediately and does not recognize each person’s right to survive as provided by the International Human Rights Laws.

People asked for a porta potty and a dumpster to dispose of their garbage. Instead the police were sent and the tents were taken down and their items thrown away. The campsite was well away from public view and hindering no one.

25 - 30 people have died outside so far this year so that makes approximately 300 deaths since an emergency was declared.

Millions have been spent by the city of seattle to HARASS poor persons NOT to help them and to treat them decently and to truly discover their needs and work on humanitarian solutions. The prisons are full of poor people. If they had money they would not be there.

Lose your job, get ill, have an accident, can cause economic disaster for many people who are not well off materially. Many have no family or little to sustain them.

Under capitalism the real robbers and looters are going free. How long are we willing to put up with this?

124

Thanks, Ivy! and likewise.

The Lust for Money club has enshrined into Law their feelings about the whole INSANE situation: Greed is GOOD / Greed is GOD.

An Outstanding article from Crosscut:

"6 reasons why KOMO's take on homelessness is the wrong one," by Catherine Hinrichse, March 20, 2019

"The KOMO special, by reporter Eric Johnson, definitely appeals to the “I don’t want to have to look at homelessness” viewer. It’s a call to punish, rather than help, people in need, and it seeks to divide them into “the real homeless” (or the “deserving poor”) and all the others. It’s all the more disappointing given Johnson’s reputation as a journalist.

Yes, we also need to focus on public safety and public health; we should be able to walk around our thriving city without harm. Small business owners should be able to operate in a climate that allows them to flourish. Police should be able to do their job of protecting the public. Kids should be able to play in parks free of needles.

But at a time when our region needs to come together on solutions, KOMO’s program is a drastic, distorted and divisive step backwards.

The program consistently dehumanizes people who are homeless, gratuitously and needlessly showing faces of those experiencing traumatic mental-health or medical crises in public, calling them “wretched souls,” “living like animals” in “filth and degradation.” It’s unconscionable.

Language like this causes a physiological reaction that inhibits our humane response to people who are homeless. Johnson says he doesn’t seek to demonize people, yet he actually refers to one person as “consumed by demons.”

Lots more:

https://crosscut.com/2019/03/6-reasons-why-komos-take-homelessness-wrong-one

125

I only have one thing to say. You’re either part of the problem, or part of the solution. Take a look at the epidemic in Vancouver B.C. Canada. It doesn’t matter what city it’s affecting, it’s how the powers that be handle the epidemic. Mental health, justice systems and lack of affordable housing are to blame for this problem everywhere..

126

I'm so fed up with paying out the a** in property taxes for owning a home in Seattle when the homeless and the crackheads have prime tent set up real estate at their disposal... What is even sadder is that Seattle police can't even do their job to help regulate this problem because of all the scrutiny they have received. If you are a serious criminal, homeless, crack head, etc you have more rights than the rest of us tax payers and that is beyond fucking ridiculous.

127

I had visitor from California last week and they were like "What is up with the all the tents and trash in Seattle?!". It's embarrassing to take guests to downtown Seattle now. I think I'll just stay on the Eastside now just like that business owner who moved her boutique to Bellevue.

128

I solved the problem of dealing with the panhandlers and druggies by moving to Bellevue. Don't know why, but they don't come here. I guess because there are no open-air drug markets. More than half the people in my apartment complex are immigrants...never a problem. People are polite and mind their business. Little to no trash on the streets, safe to walk, no car prowls. I can live without the view of the Space Needle.

129

@ 122

How would legalizing drugs solve the drug problem? This is a sincere question - I understand it would keep people out of prison, but how would it get them off drugs? If the Seattle police aren't allowed to do much policing of the homeless/drug addicts, doesn't that make drugs legal already, at least to some extent? It doesn't seem to have helped.

Addiction is a Disease and we're NEVER gonna police our way out of it.
But we COULD Legalize our way out of it.

It's fucking Pragmatic.

130

Blame the homeless. Or the Mexicans. Or the transgendered. Or the refugees. Or the Muslims. Just don't blame the wealthy and powerful!

131

129

"but how would it [legalizing (perhaps all) drugs] get them off drugs?"

There's tonnes of peeps who deal with their alcohol or heroin or pot addictions (or habits or whichever) who still live productive lives -- legalization wouldn't necessarily get everyone off drugs.

Sending people to prison/jail, instead of giving them treatment, is a Fool's Errand. Which we're happy to do, in spite of decades of continued, unsurprising, shite results.

Here are some brief excerpts of an old-yet-still-relevant report from the Cato Institiute:

"Drug Legalization, Criminalization, and Harm Reduction" by David Boaz, from June 16, 1999

"The long federal experiment in prohibition of marijuana, cocaine, heroin, and other drugs has given us unprecedented crime and corruption combined with a manifest failure to stop the use of drugs or reduce their availability to children.

Our capital city, Washington, D.C., has become known as the “murder capital” even though it is the most heavily policed city in the United States.

Make no mistake about it, the annual carnage that stands behind America’s still outrageously high murder rates has nothing to do with the mind-altering effects of a marijuana cigarette or a crack pipe. It is instead one of the grim and bitter consequences of an ideological crusade whose proponents will not yet admit defeat."

https://www.cato.org/congressional-testimony/drug-legalization-criminalization-harm-reduction

See also:

"Portugal’s radical drugs policy is working. Why hasn’t the world copied it?"

https://www.theguardian.com/news/2017/dec/05/portugals-radical-drugs-policy-is-working-why-hasnt-the-world-copied-it

There's LOTS more out there...

132

@123: “The city government pretty well punishes unsheltered people by using the police to sweep their encampments without decent options offered.”

You know perfectly well that when a camp is swept, all of the inhabitants are offered shelter, but few take it. That is because drugs — and the trading of stolen property for drugs — are not allowed in our city’s shelters. We can offer treatment, but no treatment can work unless the addict wants to get clean. We’ve tolerated these filthy, crime-ridden, disease-prone encampments, and in return, we have obtained huge numbers of addicts, living in squalid conditions, stealing to feed their addictions.

Every camp needs to be swept, every time. The campers who want treatment can get it when they enter our shelters; the addicts who are happy with their addicted, thieving lifestyles can go kill themselves elsewhere.

If this documentary has but one good result, it was to move away from talking about “the homeless,” and get us talking about our population of addicts. That alone has contributed more constructively to our civic dialing than has every post on this topic here at The Stranger. Good work, KOMO!

134

133

One needn't get Out much to read the Writing on the Wall, Mellow Muffy.
Ya just gotta READ it.

TWO quick Clues (and my sincerest Apologies for hiding them In Plain Sight):

"Here are some brief excerpts of an old-yet-still-relevant report from the Cato Institiute:"
and
"Drug Legalization, Criminalization, and Harm Reduction" by David Boaz, from June 16, 1999

"Our capital city, Washington, D.C., has become known as the “murder capital” even though it is the most heavily policed city in the United States."

P.S. Your Hair is fucking AWESOME.
Is it Real?

135

And whilst we're on the Subject, what did you think
of this part (from that same [admittedly-now-ancient] comment)?

"Make no mistake about it, the annual carnage that stands behind America’s still outrageously high murder rates has nothing to do with the mind-altering effects of a marijuana cigarette or a crack pipe. It is instead one of the grim and bitter consequences of an ideological crusade whose proponents will not yet admit defeat."

How many more Lives MUST be Sacrificed in their never-ending Denials of Reality?
We COULD End, MOST of this, tomorrow -- IF the Neocons / Punishizers'd just get the fuck out of the Way...

136

@ #2 and #61: Car prowls are just a right-wing myth? Then why was my 1988 Toyota Pickup stolen from my liberal ass right in front of my home two weeks ago! Why would a junkie steal an old, beat-up pickup? I don't know...you'll have to ask the person who stole it (and who then left a bag of 28-gauge syringes behind the passenger seat).

You're demanding proof? I've got some for you: SPD incident #: 19-70196.

And #86, no, I'm not some filthy rich techie with no right to complain. I am a low-income student working my way through school...who uses his truck for a living! If the SPD hadn't found my truck I would be desolate right now. Especially after having my bicycle stolen earlier this year...

137

opp...I meant #5 writing in response to #2. I regret the error.

138

https://crosscut.com/2019/03/man-used-proof-seattle-dying-tells-his-story?utm_source=crosscut-facebook&utm_medium=social&fbclid=IwAR09VRqLaeLWo58WzDKyNLSvAF1Q6PqPHbn3RjXhVHQiauuOY9uMsgQsvyw

139

Taxes in America are the lowest they've ever been, perhaps not on Seattle homeowners, who are getting screwed over because this state REFUSES to implement a state sales tax. All these morons coming in from out of the city don't realize their homeless are shipped here from THEIR rural and suburban areas.

KOMO has shown itself to be the enemy of the city of Seattle with this broadcast, PERIOD.

These white haired property developers, and inheritor landlords are the REAL ENEMY!

WA State is a joke compared to the most civilized nations and I don't blame the city council for not making it their problem. The business owners can STEP UP AND HIRE THEIR OWN SECURITY AND CLEANERS if they don't want to pay the taxes it takes to live in a society!

140

Clearly, I mean INCOME tax. BOZOS gets to pay NO STATE INCOME TAX, along with the Gates' who are actually in favor of the tax. Unbelieveable how unenlightened the right wing is in this nation and state. Before long, their power will implode for good.

141

We had this same problem in NYC in the 70s & 80s, my brother was one of those who thanks to a program like the one in Rhode Island was able to turn his life around. I had to take my son out of that drug infested city and leave a good career, my entire family behind just so my son would not grow up in that environment. There is hope and Seattle Is Dying outlined the solutions. The Revolving Door for repeat offenders needs to be locked.

142

Clearly the solution is sending all of the unsightlies and dangerous to prison until thete are no more. Police should be able to round up anyone that fits our new city council's criteria and send them away to lockup. We will even find a way to make thepoor pay until they are all locked up or working to pay to lock them up. Then we can have our beautiful city.

143

It appears the Stranger missed an essential moment in the program where it was brought to light that Seattle’s governing authorities have made the homelessness problem as it stands currently into a housing problem rather than dealing with what it is at the root - a drug addiction problem. The doc mentions that out of work truckers do not set up camp in tent cities. Nobody who is responsibly seeking employment or housing chooses this lifestyle. One woman on the street cites 100% of the people she has met living in tents are users and/or dealers. Stop trying to find a moral high ground by reframing this issue as a prosperity issue. That’s an obvious veneer; the heart of it is an addiction problem. The Stranger gets zero points for contributing nothing of substance to this conversation, as I have come to expect.


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