Posted on 07/12/2019 5:51:30 PM PDT by simpson96
Seattle is grappling with a crisis of what is sometimes called "visible homelessness" — people who live in the street and struggle with mental illness or drug addiction.
It's a population that often commits small crimes, such as disorderly conduct or shoplifting to pay for drugs. And public frustration is growing.
Some accuse a reform-oriented local criminal justice system of becoming too tolerant.
These critics point to examples such as a man with mental illness who was arrested in March for trying to throw a woman off a bridge. It turned out he'd already been arrested three times in the previous three months for random attacks on strangers and throwing a computer terminal at the library.
He didn't face serious criminal penalties for those previous incidents, in part, because of his mental health status.
In April, body cameras on the Seattle police officers captured an encounter with a man who had claimed a downtown alleyway and was chasing people away with a drain pipe. It took nearly two hours of negotiations involving more than a dozen police officers to safely subdue him.
Public frustration with the "visible homeless" found its voice in a recent hourlong special called "Seattle is Dying," by ABC affiliate KOMO-TV. It focuses on the debris of tent camps near downtown and the behaviors of people with mental illness and drug use.
The video refers to "lost souls who wander the streets, untethered to home, or family, or reality" and city residents who feel compassion, "but who no longer feel safe."
The video was criticized for being melodramatic and exaggerating the problem, but it struck a nerve and has become part of the city's political discussion. Candidates for local office are now routinely asked whether they think Seattle is indeed "dying."
Even a judge weighed in. At
(Excerpt) Read more at eastbaytimes.com ...
They commit disorderly conduct to pay for drugs? Say what?
Your link leads to a picture, not the article.
https://www.kuow.org/stories/seattle-faces-backlash-after-easing-up-on-punishing-crimes-involving-mental-illness
As Michael Savage wrote, liberalism is a mental disorder. And they don’t get any liberaler than Seattle.
You mean like the guy who stabbed 3 people in broad daylight in front of Nordstrom the other day, that "small crime"??
Most of Blue America’s cities are dying.
Yeah, assaulting my wife a couple of years ago was a “small crime.”
At this point, I support compassionate euthanasia for these folks.
Add-in Portland, San Fransicko, and many, many, many more cities run by demonKKKrats, are also dying. Socialism/communism/fascism/marxism just doesn’t work.
The more homelessness, lawlessness, crime, rock-bottom test scores in the schools, potholes in the streets, etc. etc., the more the populace clamors for them to fix it.
Which leads to zillion-dollar "acts" and "initiatives" and "omnibus bills" that the voters approve of, which leads to more taxation and more revenue flowing to the idiots who allowed this to happen and who will contniue to allow this to happen, which will lead to more clamoring for more fixes which will cost zillions more, and the cycle continues.
And the average voter simply doesn't see the pattern.
This is rich; the snowflakes at NPR exposing liberal judicial system created problems in a liberal governing district run by socialist democrats loved by another bunch of snowflakes. How are they going to manage to blame this on Trump?
2 hours and a dozen police officers. Waste of taxpayer money.
My family stays in Seattle the week end before Christmas to see the decorated stores and enjoy all the Christmas hub bub. We’ve been doing this for more than 25 years.
Seattle has become such a pit. I got spat upon last year and we three all had tales of human poop on the sidewalks.
We are giving this year a pass. It’s just no fun and, at time, dangerous.
Our lost revenue to retail, hotels and restaurants? Pretty big.
If visible homelessness is no OK is making them invisible OK because it seems to be OK as long as the libs can’t see them.
This experiment in trying to mainstream the mentally ill by not allowing them to be hospitalized indefinitely in mental institutions has been working out *so* well. And legalizing drugs to create even more mental illness is a fantastic idea. I can’t wait to see the left’s next brilliant idea.
Why is Seattle dying? Lawlessness!
Nobody seems to see the tie between taking drugs and resulting mental illness/permanent brain damage.
Oh, plenty of people see it, I’m sure. But the “if it feels good, do it” mentality tends to sweep the bad side of drugs under the rug.
Exactly. I believe a lot of the crazy is due to drug abuse.
Some of the drug abuse may be an attempt to soothe the crazy as well.
What came first, the chicken or the egg? There is no way to get empirical evidence together.
Harshly punish drug abuse, public intoxication, drug sales, and possession.
Conservatorships with safeguards for the truly crazy, including involuntary confinement to mental hospitals.
That’s my policy! Persevero 2020!
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