Ed note: A Bellevue friend mentioned this video to me and was amazed why I would tolerate the drug related homelessness in Seattle. I was a bit defensive but after watching the video and reading John Carlon’s take, Seattle badly needs some changes both in law enforcement and addiction intervention. Do you agree?
From Crosscut by John Carlson: If Eric Johnson’s recent KOMO news special on drugs and homelessness had gotten it wrong — bad info; distorted portrayals of people, places and events; out-of-context interviews — the city’s political establishment would have pounced on him. After all, it supposedly revealed an out-of-touch mayor, a clueless Councilmember Mike O’Brien, and an obtuse City Attorney Pete Holmes appearing impervious to any connection between the proliferation of property and other drug-related crimes and refusing to prosecute the same.
But that is not happening. In an era where it’s hard to draw a mass audience for anything, it seems that virtually everyone in the country has seen all or at least parts of the KOMO special Seattle is Dying. Far more people have watched it online than on the tube. The chairman of Mary’s Place told me recently, “It’s all anybody’s been talking about.” The Oregonian wrote about how it mirrors a reality that many people complain about in Portland. A business friend told me over coffee earlier this week that a friend from Californiasent him a copy of the show. It aired intact in San Antonio. I have lived here for well over half a century, have been involved in news media for over 30 years and don’t recall a television news special provoking such an ongoing, sustained conversation as this one.
Now we’re seeing some pushback, in the form of a much-discussed Crosscut essay by Catherine Hinrichsen, project director at Seattle University’s Project on Family Homelessness. Meanwhile, hundreds of other Seattle progressives reassure each other that the piece was little more than propaganda dictated or influenced by KOMO’s parent company, Sinclair Broadcast Group.
This certainly is something to take a look at, but I suggest that people who watch it also read Director Timothy Harris’s opinion piece in the March 20-26 issue of Real Change, and look into the work of Operation Nightwatch to combat homelessness. One big question to which there are some answers – does homelessness come before addiction or the other way around. KOMO and Operation Nightwatch come down on different sides on this.
Appalling. City Council members over the last decade should be ashamed.
Enforcing the “little things” (misdemeanors) can prevent some of the “big things”.
The police need to be given the authority to enforce the law and the city attorneys need to be filing a lot more cases. Mandatory inpatient drug treatment and/or jail. Seattle needs to stop being a users haven.