Dispatch from the Seattle/King County Crime Scene

 

The business members of the Downtown Seattle Association have noticed that there are many “repeat offenders” who always seem to engage in criminal activities very shortly after being released from jail.  Recently, they got proof.

A study just found that “90 of 100 repeat offenders from February” have re-offended and been booked into jail in the nine months since. The response from the city government? New programs.

Sigh … they will never learn. And the atmosphere in Downtown Seattle will continue to deteriorate, as repeat criminals continue to be released from jail after short stays, and offend again … and again … and again.

Published in Policing
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  1. Al French, Count of Clackamas Moderator
    Al French, Count of Clackamas
    @AlFrench

    Could be San Francisco, where under the new DA they won’t go to jail in the first place..

    • #1
  2. James Lileks Contributor
    James Lileks
    @jameslileks

    The problem starts with calling them “criminals,” which stigmatizes people and defines them by their actions. They are “justice-system-involved persons.” If the “new programs” – why the scare quotes? – address the systemic inequity that causes dispossessed unsheltered impulse-control-adverse people to find meaning and purpose in life, isn’t that a good thing?

    And if they don’t work, aren’t we the better for knowing that these programs are ineffective, which frees us up to explore more? And more? And more? And more?

    • #2
  3. Jon1979 Inactive
    Jon1979
    @Jon1979

    Way back in December of 1992, 60 Minutes aired a segment on “The Wild Man of 96th Street” on the violent homeless man who was terrorizing people on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. What made this interesting was:

    — This was the Upper West Side of Manhattan, which outside of some selected areas of San Francisco, Cambridge, Mass and the NW quadrant of Washington, D.C., could be the most hopelessly stident conglomeration of upper-middle class and rich progressives in America;

    — CBS was airing a national story on what at other times would simply have been a neighborhood problem. Which likely meant either someone high up at  60 Minutes or CBS News was suffering through the action of the Wild Man, or knew a lot of people who were;

    — CBS was doing this during the David Dinkins administration, and showing how the ideological beliefs of the people in charge were ignoring the problem.

    Eleven months later, city voters elected Rudy Giuliani mayor, and that’s pretty much the point Seattle’s going to have to get to — they don’t have the clout or proximity to get their problems on 60 Minutes, but that segment airing in 1992 was a sign that enough well-placed progressives in New York City had finally had enough, and wanted to tell the rest of the country they’d had enough of progressive policies lowering their quality of life. And that was even if it made the city’s first African-American mayor look bad to the nation.

    Until enough Seattle progressives reach that tipping point, they’re just going to keep voting for the same type of progressive politicians, even if they think electing different progressive politicians is going to solve the problem.

    • #3
  4. RushBabe49 Thatcher
    RushBabe49
    @RushBabe49

    And then New Yorkers elected Bil DeBlasio.  Twice.  They never learn either.

    • #4
  5. Jon1979 Inactive
    Jon1979
    @Jon1979

    RushBabe49 (View Comment):

    And then New Yorkers elected Bil DeBlasio. Twice. They never learn either.

    The progressives who were around in 1993 forgot why they elected Giuliani, or 20 years down the line there were too many new progressive voters in the city who weren’t there for the awfulness of the early 1990s (or the entire 1966-93 period).

    But the hardest of the hard-core progs, like de Blaiso, who stuck with Dinkins in ’93 have been trying to prove since then that Rudy and his police chief, Bill Bratton, had nothing to do with the drop in crime — it was simply the Boomers aging out of their violent years and the drop in crack cocaine abuse that lowered the crime and murder rates. The fact that Bloomberg, who continued and expanded on Giuliani’s anti-crime efforts, now sees fit to denounce himself for doing that shows that the angry progs have won the battle within the Democratic Party for now, and we’re into a new cycle, where as with the period from the mid-1960s to the mid-90s, the only way it’s going to change is for things to get so bad, enough progressives in the major cities can no longer deny there’s a problem, and deny to themselves that the policies pushed by the politicians they’ve supported is causing the problem.

    • #5
  6. Stad Coolidge
    Stad
    @Stad

    RushBabe49: The business members of the Downtown Seattle Association . . .

    There are still businesses downtown?

    • #6
  7. colleenb Member
    colleenb
    @colleenb

    RushBabe49 (View Comment):

    And then New Yorkers elected Bil DeBlasio. Twice. They never learn either.

    And the majority in Virginia just voted in Commonwealth Attorneys who will do the same thing. The one for Fairfax County has already said he will not prosecute any crimes in schools. The gang members will have a field day. The only plus is that neither one of them were actual children of cop killers and left-wing radicals (as far as I know).

    • #7
  8. Stad Coolidge
    Stad
    @Stad

    colleenb (View Comment):
    The one for Fairfax County has already said he will not prosecute any crimes in schools.

    Sounds like private schools might pop up there and start bringing in students of fearful parents . . .

    • #8
  9. colleenb Member
    colleenb
    @colleenb

    Stad (View Comment):

    colleenb (View Comment):
    The one for Fairfax County has already said he will not prosecute any crimes in schools.

    Sounds like private schools might pop up there and start bringing in students of fearful parents . . .

    Because we are such a wealthy area, there are already a lot of private schools and home schooling but parents should be able to send their kids to public school without worrying about them being attacked by MS-13, etc. And, of course, VA voted these people in after witnessing the horrific rapes and other attacks in Montgomery Co in MD. Sigh.

    • #9
  10. colleenb Member
    colleenb
    @colleenb

    Stad (View Comment):

    colleenb (View Comment):
    The one for Fairfax County has already said he will not prosecute any crimes in schools.

    Sounds like private schools might pop up there and start bringing in students of fearful parents . . .

    Because we are such a wealthy area, there are already a lot of private schools and home schooling. But I think parents should be able to send their kids to public school without worrying about them being attacked by MS-13, etc. And, of course, VA voted these people in after witnessing the horrific rapes and other attacks in Montgomery Co in MD. Sigh.

    • #10
  11. Stad Coolidge
    Stad
    @Stad

    colleenb (View Comment):
    And, of course, VA voted these people in after witnessing the horrific rapes and other attacks in Montgomery Co in MD. Sigh.

    I’m no longer shocked by the stupidity of voters . . .

    • #11
  12. GrannyDude Member
    GrannyDude
    @GrannyDude

    James Lileks (View Comment):

    The problem starts with calling them “criminals,” which stigmatizes people and defines them by their actions. They are “justice-system-involved persons.” If the “new programs” – why the scare quotes? – address the systemic inequity that causes dispossessed unsheltered impulse-control-adverse people to find meaning and purpose in life, isn’t that a good thing?

    And if they don’t work, aren’t we the better for knowing that these programs are ineffective, which frees us up to explore more? And more? And more? And more?

    That’s it.   J-SIPS wouldn’t be J-SIPS if it weren’t for systemic inequity, racism, homophobia, islamophobia and misogyny (SIRHIM) and stingy might-as-well-be MAGA governments (MAWB-MAGAGs) that refuse to fund “new programs” those  DUICAs wouldn’t be shooting up and shooting out as the spirit moves. 

    • #12
  13. RushBabe49 Thatcher
    RushBabe49
    @RushBabe49

    And a new story today.  City and Police announced holiday “emphasis patrols”. Some businesses in areas not chosen are unhappy.

    • #13
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