Seattle has stopped charging people for personal drug possession(washingtonpost.com)
washingtonpost.com
Seattle has stopped charging people for personal drug possession
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/public-safety/no-charges-for-personal-drug-possession-seattles-bold-gamble-to-bring-peace-after-the-war-on-drugs/2019/06/11/69a7bb46-7285-11e9-9f06-5fc2ee80027a_story.html
334 comments
I lean heavily towards giving people the freedom to do what they want, but in 'private' and without burdening public life of others. If people want to light up or shoot up, so be it. But I think a community must have ways to discourage or push people out of the public sphere who practice unwelcome and unsocial behavior. The gov't fully feeding, clothing, and sheltering large groups of addicts is impractical and unviable in most/all places.
Seattle is a city that has made a lot of bad decisions. It is suffering from rampant drug abuse, property crime, and gross mismanagement under the current city council, which seems obsessed with following an ideologically-motivated progressive agenda instead of common-sense good governance.
The policy of not enforcing laws, not prosecuting (either certain crimes or certain cohorts of offenders) has caused the city's problems. There are two sets of laws - one is for law-abiding tax-paying residents who are just trying to live their lives without disruption, and the other is for everyone else, who somehow are seen as victims through a twisted social-justice lens, instead of malicious actors. The law-abiding tax-paying residents should not have to give up their public spaces, safety, property, or contribute more taxes in order to accommodate the huge rise of permanently-homeless service-refusing people that want nomadic or drug-centric lifestyles.
Those people do not contribute to society and are making society worse for those who do want to contribute. And yes, there has to be a consequence for that, in order to deter such behavior and lifestyles and not attract an influx of them into the city. This article does not make real the frustration experienced by most residents of Seattle, as it has deteriorated towards SF 2.0 in these last 4 years.
The policy of not enforcing laws, not prosecuting (either certain crimes or certain cohorts of offenders) has caused the city's problems. There are two sets of laws - one is for law-abiding tax-paying residents who are just trying to live their lives without disruption, and the other is for everyone else, who somehow are seen as victims through a twisted social-justice lens, instead of malicious actors. The law-abiding tax-paying residents should not have to give up their public spaces, safety, property, or contribute more taxes in order to accommodate the huge rise of permanently-homeless service-refusing people that want nomadic or drug-centric lifestyles.
Those people do not contribute to society and are making society worse for those who do want to contribute. And yes, there has to be a consequence for that, in order to deter such behavior and lifestyles and not attract an influx of them into the city. This article does not make real the frustration experienced by most residents of Seattle, as it has deteriorated towards SF 2.0 in these last 4 years.
People are conflating 'drug decriminalization' with other policies. I'm agnostic on other homeless policies, but strongly support decriminalizing possession. You can be for more social services for the homeless, or, more law-and-order and advocate for more cops on the beat to stop car camping, burglary, etc. All while agreeing that spending thousands on incarceration just for possession is a poor use of societal resources.
I'd advocate for a) outlawing public drug usage (the same way alcohol is legal but public consumption is not). And b) an officer on the scene can still confiscate illegal drugs- motivating addicts/homeless to be discreet and low-key. Both of these will help prevent public spaces from becoming a free-for-all, while not wasting valuable money on arresting an addict for the 20th time
I'd advocate for a) outlawing public drug usage (the same way alcohol is legal but public consumption is not). And b) an officer on the scene can still confiscate illegal drugs- motivating addicts/homeless to be discreet and low-key. Both of these will help prevent public spaces from becoming a free-for-all, while not wasting valuable money on arresting an addict for the 20th time
Just finished watching Seattle is Dying. I don't understand why so many American cities suffer so much from drug problems. Everywhere in the world you will find homeless people, but outside of the US I haven't seen anywhere so many drug addicts. Is it all those depressing suburbs with shitty education and people who are bored to death with their life? Is it lack of support from family?
I don't get it.
I feel that's the root of the problem and where the US should invest heavily.
I feel that's the root of the problem and where the US should invest heavily.
What a depressing thread.
In one corner, we have people that are absolutely exhausted of the current state of affairs. The trash, the needles in parks, human feces, the tents ... etc. They want someone to do something about it, but it's not clear at all what that something really is or who would do it. If it were clear, we wouldn't be arguing about it. There are real costs to a draconian reversion to hardcore enforcement. People will get hurt, unnecessarily.
In the other, we have people that seem completely convinced that enforcing any kind of norms against anti-social behavior - indeed, outright dangerous behavior - is simply an extension of the War on Drugs, and further criminalizes marginalized people by cycling them through a prison system that seems equally uninterested in actually solving the problem. And there are real costs here, too. People are getting hurt continually by repeat offenders, and by the other social costs of living where parts of the city are unclean or unsafe, or both.
I've lived in Seattle since 2011 (with a 29 month cumulative absence for a deployment and then for school), and I think it's just absolutely nuts to think that decriminalizing usage has done anything but make this problem worse. I understand the impulse behind it. I really do. But we can't keep trying to convince ourselves that this is "working", unless "working" is really "condition people to think that this is the new norm". Obviously, I guess I sit in the first corner. There's no real middle ground between these two cohorts, as far as I can tell. One group sees the other's concerns as reactionary or uncompassionate, and the other see's the first group's compassion as naive and even a deep enabling of the problem.
For me, I don't want to live in a city like this. That's maybe the only middle ground that exists between the two groups - neither want this. But my sense is that we're at a true impasse here, and that, and I'm just being realistic given the political arrangement here in Seattle, we're going to keep doing "more of this", whatever "this" is. The second camp has clearly captured city leadership, and decriminalization, lax or no enforcement of existing laws, and a general apathy (or maybe it's faith) about the situation will guide policy. We'll become the next SF, and then wake up one day wondering "how did this happen"?
In one corner, we have people that are absolutely exhausted of the current state of affairs. The trash, the needles in parks, human feces, the tents ... etc. They want someone to do something about it, but it's not clear at all what that something really is or who would do it. If it were clear, we wouldn't be arguing about it. There are real costs to a draconian reversion to hardcore enforcement. People will get hurt, unnecessarily.
In the other, we have people that seem completely convinced that enforcing any kind of norms against anti-social behavior - indeed, outright dangerous behavior - is simply an extension of the War on Drugs, and further criminalizes marginalized people by cycling them through a prison system that seems equally uninterested in actually solving the problem. And there are real costs here, too. People are getting hurt continually by repeat offenders, and by the other social costs of living where parts of the city are unclean or unsafe, or both.
I've lived in Seattle since 2011 (with a 29 month cumulative absence for a deployment and then for school), and I think it's just absolutely nuts to think that decriminalizing usage has done anything but make this problem worse. I understand the impulse behind it. I really do. But we can't keep trying to convince ourselves that this is "working", unless "working" is really "condition people to think that this is the new norm". Obviously, I guess I sit in the first corner. There's no real middle ground between these two cohorts, as far as I can tell. One group sees the other's concerns as reactionary or uncompassionate, and the other see's the first group's compassion as naive and even a deep enabling of the problem.
For me, I don't want to live in a city like this. That's maybe the only middle ground that exists between the two groups - neither want this. But my sense is that we're at a true impasse here, and that, and I'm just being realistic given the political arrangement here in Seattle, we're going to keep doing "more of this", whatever "this" is. The second camp has clearly captured city leadership, and decriminalization, lax or no enforcement of existing laws, and a general apathy (or maybe it's faith) about the situation will guide policy. We'll become the next SF, and then wake up one day wondering "how did this happen"?
These experiments tend to work at reducing secondary crimes etc.
However, they also are usually unpopular at the same time, leading to a backlash and a drug clampdown again. It's the drug policy circle of life.
However, they also are usually unpopular at the same time, leading to a backlash and a drug clampdown again. It's the drug policy circle of life.
No matter the merits of the case to be made for this specific policy, the state of Seattle isn't one of the highlights.
To clarify: there are all sorts of factors at play in Seattle's troubles, my point is that if you believe a the policy "we should stop charging people for personal drug use", "just look at Seattle!" isn't going to be convincing to most of the country.
To clarify: there are all sorts of factors at play in Seattle's troubles, my point is that if you believe a the policy "we should stop charging people for personal drug use", "just look at Seattle!" isn't going to be convincing to most of the country.
All those comments to the tune of "those bums are bums because they are addicted" ... they make me so sad.
Can anyone not see it's the other way around? Really?
Can anyone not see it's the other way around? Really?
There is an overwhelming sense that Seattle has done too much to encourage homelessness (particularly with the expansion of policies like this one). "Tent City" has spread so far that it's getting into the suburbs and from a residents perspective it's getting far worse not better. I have routinely seen people shooting up and smoking glass pipes (not marijuana) in broad daylight in the Downtown and Pioneer Square areas. There's shouting, theft, property crime at all hours of the night near my apartment (Though strangely compared to SF I know very few people who have had their cars broken into).
Regardless of the tone of this article, Seattle is not a model to follow, it's a cautionary tale.