Seattle's Troubled (public) Toilets

KOMO TV (Seattle) ^ | 11/2/06 | Liz Rocca

[Semi Civil Servant]

Just two years ago, some city council members celebrated when the toilets hit the streets.

They were flush with pride.

[hosepipe]

Obviously the Seattle Police could care less..
But then, it IS Seattle.. maybe the meth is cooked up by Cops the precinct house..

[Mark was here]

Unintended circumstances form the lanes to the road to hell.

Only a crack head would of expected the crack heads to take care of it.

[VeniVidiVici]

Neither will (Councilman) Richard Conlin, even though he chairs the committee that is in charge of the toilets.

Democrats are failures while in charge of toilets too.

[Ghost of Philip Marlowe]

Those of us Seattlites who objected to this expensive social experiment objected on both these grounds (the absurd price and that they would be used for drugs and prostitution).

The arrogant Leftist Sea$$holes told us we were wrong, we didn't know what we were talking about, and jammed it through.

Just like the Monorail.

Damn glad I'm out of that Leftist hellhole. Incidentally, when they pushed this, they stated one reason for pursuing it: to give the homeless a place to relieve themselves so they wouldn't do so on public sidewalks (because of course there was no other possible way to prevent this). Tourists and residents had nothing to do with it. Based on this article, people are still relieving themselves on the sidewalks.

[yevgenie]

One solution: daily hydrant flushing ... maybe hourly ... autmoatically if there is 'suspicious behavior'

[kublia khan]

Count me among "the glad NOT to be a crack smoke expert".

[D-Chivas]

Every city council member ought to be forced to go potty in one of these things on a daily basis.

[caisson71]

Washingtonians east of the Cascades want to shove the northwestern tip of Washington state into Canada.

[llevrok]

Washingtonians east of the Cascades want to shove the northwestern tip of Washington state into Canada.

Refined a little : I-5 corridor 10 miles either side from Olympia through Bellingham goes to Canada.

We get Alberta in exchange.

[caisson71]

That's about what my friend in Spokane says.

[Uncle Miltie]

Seattle Refugee checking in, living the clean life in Fargo, ND. Y'all can just suck eggs and die out there (Freepers excluded, of course.)

[razorback-bert]

An actual toilet in Seattle.

[top 2 toe red]

As a local, I, too, strongly objected to these toilets...and I think these city Council members should be FORCED to stand guard at these toilets 24/7.

Perhaps we could kill two birds with one stone then...not only would their toilet sentinel shifts maybe reduce the criminal use of these toilets...but, it would also keep these city council idiots preoccupied and unable to keep saddling the taxpayers with more of their harebrained ideas.

Believe me, these toilets are far from the only crap they have subjected our city to.

[2Jedismom]

to give the homeless a place to relieve themselves so they wouldn't do so on public sidewalks

I often wonder if many street people are alcoholics and if so, perhaps they're suffering from Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome. This is caused by years of consistent alcohol abuse and if they have it, and if they don't have anyone to take care of them or institutionalize them, then they hit the street. Then it really doesn't matter if there is a bathroom right next to them, they don't have the sense to even pull down their pants a lot of times.

[HardStarboard]

>>>From the Land of Hopeless Idealists <<<

Tell me about it. I live there!!

You could get a pretty hefty number of Porta-Potties serviced for $6,500,000.

And now more money after bad for security cameras and better lighting. What - so the folks at City Hall will have some funny movies to watch on their coffee breaks?

Our Mayor: ""As long as we have them, we've got to try and keep them safe" said Mayor Greg Nickels. "

Hell, mayor. Instead of building little-bitty crack houses all over the city, why not build one big one and send in the drug police. ooh, I'm sorry. That would be defined as discrimination and profiling.

Nothing wrong with Seattle that couldn't be cured by about 300,000 conservatives migrating here.

[Joan Kerrey]

And people gathering inside the toilet, so many sometimes, it's hard for the doors to close.

It should be obvious that there are several problems here.
1. the toilets are too small and need to be remodeled to accommodate more people to keep the lines outside smaller

2. The toilets are encouraging the drug trade and should be relocted to safer areas in the city.

I suggest perhaps across the street from residences of the clowns who voted for them.

[BADROTOFINGER]

WA State Ping...JFK

[radiohead]

I looked at the video. The friggin' police wouldn't look at the reporter's tapes??? What are the police afraid of?

What was really funny was the sign reminding people only 1 at a time. Yeah, right. The meth heads seem to be really paying attention.

I'm moving to the wilds of Iowa in about 8 weeks. I love the beauty of the pacific NW, but I'll be glad to be out of Seattle.

[TheErnFormerlyKnownAsBig]

Obviously the Seattle Police could care less..

You don't have a clue as to what's going on.

Let me give you some insight. I could "stake out" a public toilet and hassle all these crack users. "Bust" them for more than one person inside (don't even think it's a city ordinance so enforcement is not an option). They migrate to an residential area which generates even more complaints. That's a winning solution.

Here is another scenario. I see two people go into the toilet, breaking the rule. I kick in the door of a toilet and find two people smoking crack. I get into a fight with one who doesn't want to go to jail. I get both into custody.

The non-resistant one get's released from the pct. with charges requested. The fighter gets booked for Investigation of VUCSA (felony drug possession) and Investigation of Assault (fighting with me).

Since, even though he/she hit me, I did not require a trip to the hospital and did not miss work, the prosecutor will not file felony assault charges. It will be reduced to misdemeanor assault.

The prosecutor then drops the drug felony because two persons were in the toilet and the defense will be "it was the other person's drugs"

Now I've done a complete felony packet worth of paperwork and a Use of Force packet(2 hours minimum), taken one clown to jail, after having to take him to Harborview Hospital for drug tox screening and possible treatment of injuries from the fight (let's be generous and say this only takes 4 hours).

I then have to deal with a pissed off command staff and city councilmembers. I broke an expensive toilet and someone is going to have to pay for it moneywise and political-wise.

I also leave the good citizens to wait hours for an officer to handle their 911 calls because me and another officer have been busy on this for 8 man hours.

And let's not forget the local ACLU gearing up to sue me and the city for civil rights violations. After all I broke in on someone going to the bathroom!!!

Yeah, I'd want that duty.

And no, I'm not too lazy to do my job. I do my job. My job is not to waste govt. money chasing after crimes that won't be prosecuted when other calls are holding.

That's life. But it's easier to say the cops don't care. I've had formal investigations into my actions for "handcuffing a suspect" so don't tell me the stuff I've listed can't happen.