Comments

1

Not sure how to square this:

"The amount of money we will spend on hiring more officers to patrol 'hot spots,' on prosecutors to file those cases, on public defenders to defend them, on judges to hear them would be so much better spent on housing people and meeting their needs,"

With this:

"According to SPD’s latest annual crime report, last year officers were most often dispatched to Rainier Valley Square in South Seattle, the Target downtown, Harborview Medical Center, Westwood Village in West Seattle, DESC Hobson Place, supportive housing in the Judkins Park neighborhood, and Addison Apartments in Pioneer Square."

If providing public housing reduces crime, why are public housing developments among the most frequent locations for criminal activity?

3

It has never worked.

Didn't work in the 1980s.
Didn't work in the 1990s.
Didn't work in the 2000s.
Didn't work in the 2010s.
Didn't work in the 2020s.
Still doesn't work.

And seeing 12 police cars harassing people who appeared to be profiled for possibly being homeless in the South Lake Union neighborhood on Sunday ... that doesn't work either.

4

(also saw them in the Belltown and Westlake mall area but you always see cop cars harassing homeless people there)

5

This guy was housed and he still hit some lady in the back of the head with a baseball bat for no reason. https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/law-justice/seattle-man-charged-with-assault-accused-of-hitting-a-woman-with-baseball-bat-in-belltown/

These things don't have to be mutually exclusive. You can continue to work to house people and when people act like assholes they should be held accountable.

6

What is wrong with holding criminals responsible for their actions?

8

@3&@4: I think you're appearing overemphatic to justify your narrative. I suggest a dash of nuance.

16

Oh Hannah, stressful to report such human failings over & over.

18

Maybe Harrell isn't "tough on crime" and you clowns just branded him as such?
Maybe he is a reasonable person who thinks some people belong in jail, others maybe can get a second chance?
Does that seem reasonable, or totally unfair and "tough"?
I see how this term is going to play-out, you giving Harrell the damned if he do, damned if he don't treatment because petty and jelly.
Y'all suck...

19

Well... I suppose we could do nothing. Or make excuses as to why these folks are simply misunderstood, victims, somehow not responsible for their misdeeds/behavior... or some other such nonsenses...

Oh, wait that is what we have done for the past 8 years.

The consequences of this failed "do nothing policy" is pretty evident.

20

Downtown along 3rd, as well as outside Target, is already looking much better. I advise Little Saigon to maybe give it some more time. There are not enough social workers and they don't get paid enough, so all that is just performative talk that will lead to nothing.

21

Why do we need police? I thought we had an army of social workers ready and able to handle these sorts of things. Wasn't that the promise made when we defunded SPD?

LOL

22

SPD was not defunded.

23

@16 were there too many direct quotes from City officials, lawyers and spokespeople? Was it too much to get quotes from community activists who are on their feet in the neighborhood? Was there too much data?

24

@21 Exactly.... That was the promise. An army of social workers, untested, with no history of success, no planning or direction would be unleashed and all our social ills would be resolved.

It was right out of the play book for ...$15 now, that was supposed to lift everybody out of poverty and provide a living wage for all. Now a person working for $15/hour can't even get an apartment let alone a Big Mac. (Hamburgers are now approaching $20..with fries of course)

25

SO many Strawmen that the above comment is flammable. Not to mention utterly filled with bovine excrement.

So I guess we go back to $7.25 an hour and somehow the circle of the market will finally work after 30 years! but we don't have to because the $15 an hour min wage hike did help Seattle's working people significantly. Not only is unemployment low at 3.3% despite the pandemic it was even LOWER pre-pandemic immediately following the wage hike.

By your logic cities in low min wage Red states would have lower poverty rates. This should come as no surprise to you - they do not.

Seattle's poverty rate is 10.26% (and falling) as compared to low min wage Red State cities like Dallas ($7.25 an hour) which is a whopping 21.8%. Georgia's min wage is $5.15 its poverty rate is about 17%.

Also: Dicks Drive in Hamburger costs $2.10. A dicks Deluxe costs $4.50.
A Red Mill Hamburger costs $5.50.
A Big Mac in Seattle costs about $6.40.

That's whole lot of Hamburger options for less than $20.

Perhaps you are referring to Donald Trump's infamous "Hamberder?" Perhaps those are more expensive? He is a billionaire (so he says) after all.

27

@25... It seems you haven't been out lately....perhaps you didn't notice all the homeless folks, a city riddled with crime, a downtown which is simply abandoned.

I guess the point was -$15 Now was supposed to lift everybody out of poverty and provide a living wage for all. Everybody could afford their rent, food...etc.

Where is your Messiah Now....? (The Mythical $15 Now God)


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