I was shocked when on Saturday March 16th at 8 p.m., ABC-affiliate KOMO News 4 broadcasted “Seattle is Dying.” News anchor Eric Johnson hosted this 60-minute breath of fresh air, shown with no commercial interruptions. The shockwaves are still reverberating throughout Seattle today—especially at city hall.
KOMO News 4 gave Seattle a necessary look in the mirror. This city full of natural and manmade beauty is imploding. Without even an inference of partisan politics (unlike me), Johnson demonstrates how the social justice warrior, virtue signalers in this city are clinging to failed leftist policies. He shows how Seattle’s political leaders combine a constant flow of criticism and scapegoating cops with enacting policies that act like Kryptonite on the city’s police officers, preventing them from enforcing the law.
Johnson shows that even when officers enforce the law, Seattle City Attorney Pete Holmes refuses to prosecute even chronic offenders. I recently read Seattle City Auditor David G. Jones has decided the problem is the city’s “homeless” need more bathrooms. Someone should let him know Seattle tried “homeless toilets” back in 2004. It was a colossal failure and costly fiasco. I remember it well.
Most important, “Seattle is Dying” verifies the city doesn’t have a “homeless” problem; Seattle has a drug problem, which has generated an increased crime problem. The leftists just employ the term “homeless” to convey an often undeserved victimhood. Many of these people are predators, not victims. During the show, Johnson interviews several vagrants. One “frequent-flier” (prolific criminal) admits he’s added stealing to his résumé of criminal activities. He steals to support his heroin habit. He’s not the only one. Just ask people living near where city officials will not allow the cops to do their jobs.
You can see one homeless camp literally set up behind a city sign that warned, “No Camping.” No kidding!
A graphic showed Seattle is suffering more street crime than any other major city in America except for San Francisco. San Francisco also has an extreme drug/street crime/incivility crisis for many of the same political reasons.
Recently, the Seattle Fire Department responded to homeless campfires set above an area with buried gas lines. There was a tent fire adjacent Interstate-5 under the downtown convention center. And a “homeless” man with a history of mental issues attempted to throw a female pedestrian he didn’t know off a freeway overpass in downtown Seattle. Those are examples from only the past couple of days.
The show was also unique in that it was able to obtain comments from police officers against whom, normally, the city would viciously retaliate if they spoke out—even off duty. Johnson managed to distribute surveys in which police officers gave a raw account of the true nature of the crisis. The prevailing consensus: The city won’t let us enforce the law.
“Seattle is Dying” shows us two things: calling a drug crisis a “homeless” crisis doesn’t change the reality it is a drug/crime crisis. And mainstream people on both sides of the political aisle are sick of fake news and starving for real news.
KOMO News’ Facebook (FB) page has exploded with comments and accolades for showing this overdue, true look at a crisis brought on and exacerbated by failed policies. Hopefully, it will also raise another truth for the city’s voters: if you keep electing these kinds of people for the city council, you’re destined to keep getting this kind of result. I think they call it insanity.
After the show aired, my comment on FB brought more responses by far than any other I’ve made, and it keeps growing. The comment: “As a cop who retired from the SPD 10 years earlier than I would have because the city would not allow me to do my job, I have to commend Eric Johnson and KOMO for this outstanding project: ‘Seattle is Dying.’ What an important and courageous production. Congratulations! Things were horrible when I retired, and they’ve only gotten worse since. This is an understatement, but it’s from the heart: Thank You!”
So far, the comments and “likes” number 743 in only a few days, with the vast majority positive.
Mayor Jenny Durkan’s flaccid response shows a cluelessness and ideological clinginess that staggers the lucid mind. She whined that the special broadcast focused on the “homeless” crisis and not other aspects of Seattle that are “booming.”
Isn’t that a little like filing a complaint about a nasty pothole on your street, and the city responds saying, “Hey, your sidewalks are great, and there are plenty of other streets with no potholes.” So what? You’re talking about the pothole on your street, not your sidewalks or other streets. Eric Johnson was talking about the extreme “homeless” drug/crime crisis in downtown and in many Seattleites’ neighborhoods.
