The City of Seattle has become a haven for free drug possession and use. Addicts on the streets, increased homelessness and crime have inspired social media groups and television producers alike to highlight the decline of a great city. Businesses have moved to never return.

But it seems as if now The City of Seattle is moving closer to having a public drug use and possession law actually on the books. For those of us living in the Seattle metro, we wonder if it is too little, too late? Take a look:

Council Bill 120586, failed by a vote of 5 – 4 in June in Full Council. The bill would have made the knowing possession and public use of illegal drugs a gross misdemeanor, effectively codifying the Revised Code of Washington, or RCW 39.34.180. Why did it fail? The feckless Seattle City Council voted the bill down.

Why? Because council members Lisa Herbold and Andrew Lewis wanted to “amend” Mayor Bruce Harrell’s provisions for police action based on whether or not those in possession of drugs on the streets were a “threat of harm to others” or just a “threat of harm to self”. Whatever for? Equity, or something. “Poverty Defense“.

Nonetheless, the law made it out yesterday, and would allow the Seattle city attorney,Ann Davidson, to prosecute people for possessing or using drugs in public.

I know what you’re thinking. “Finally”, right?

Wrong.

This still has to go before the whole council. And, as it stands now, the vote was 4-1, with one dissenting vote from council member, Teresa Mosqueda.

I think that it significantly disadvantages people who face criminal charges under the law.”-Teresa Mosqueda.

If you’re facing criminal charges, you’re already at a disadvantage, Teresa. But, go on:

I am worried that it limits to defendants’ potential defense if the police don’t follow the guidance, guardrails that we set out clearly in this legislation, and they will end up in jail. And as we’ve seen from reports and headlines and public health data, sending people to jail only exacerbates the chances that they will have an overdose or they will die either in jail or when they come out of jail and begin consuming again.”-Teresa Mosqueda

Guardrails. Take a look at some of these guardrails that Seattle PD need to remain within:

-State that diversion and referral services are the preferred response to possession and public drug use while acknowledging that arrests are warranted in some situations.

-Provide guidance on diversion and be consistent with public health- and safety-related guidance from an executive order Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell issued.

-Seek to minimize use of force and incorporate de-escalation and crisis intervention that reflects existing SPD policies.

-Require SPD to report to the city council on data it collects on the racial composition of those who are arrested and diverted to community-based services prior to jail booking or referral for prosecution and those who are booked and referred for prosecution.”-Bill Kaczaraba, MyNorthwest

The bill also states that officers will only arrest if they have “identified additional articulable facts and circumstances warranting arrest.”

In other words, all of this gobbledegook from the Seattle City Council, these “guardrails” will, in effect, make it continuously impossible for SPD to do their jobs. Effectively, legislating the you-know-what out of SPD actually doing their jobs. Mayor Bruce Harrell will call this a “win”, he will say the city is “being cleaned up” as a humblebrag of his leadership, downtown merchants who have still remained may be appeased for a while longer but, let’s be real-not much longer.

If this all seems like insanity, it is because Seattle is the definition of insanity. We have guardrails for police but none for criminals. This is one of the reasons why SPD has seen a dwindling workforce. One Seattle police officer’s resignation was heard across the United States.

In the city of Seattle, drug users’ rights have become more important than the rights of normal citizens, business owners, residents and visitors. There is so much fentanyl in Seattle, a recent University of Washington Study says meth and fentanyl are in the air and on the surfaces of public transit in the city:

Out of the 78 air samples, researchers found fentanyl in a quarter of them. 100% of those air samples had methamphetamine. Out of the 102 surface samples, almost half had detectable fentanyl. 98% of those air samples had methamphetamine.”-Nikki Torres, Fox 13, Seattle

But don’t worry, UW says the air wafting through is not at toxic levels. In fact, it’s “negligible”. Dude, I swear if a Democrat leftard lectures me about flying on a plane maskless during this next “COVID surge”, I will cough right in their face.

And, when the drug dealers and addicts get kicked out of Seattle, they go camp out elsewhere, like Tacoma or Everett or Bellingham,, conveniently close to the Canadian border and where detectives found enough fentanyl to kill the whole damn city last month.

Let’s add onto this heap the two men found dead at a bus stop in Seattle just yesterday, marking 739 people who have died of a fentanyl overdose in King County so far this year.

Another summer of love is over in the Jet City. It makes me sad to see what happened to the great city of Seattle. I have driven through many times and only stopped there last fall to check out U Dub with my son on a college tour. The surrounding neighborhoods around the beautiful campus were sketch and yes, appeared unsafe. I found out the following morning that there was a shooting later that same evening down the street from one of the dorms. This is what the leadership in Seattle have inflicted upon residents and their families. Sadly, some of the very same residents voted for just this. They will trip over the guy in a stupor after he did some blues and just go on with their day, unfazed. They are as desensitized and numb as the junkie with the needle sticking out of her arm and it is tragic.

Why? Because in Seattle-land, liberal posturing and ideology take priority over rational thought. Buzzwords like “inclusion” and “equity” and “de-escalation” and “diversion” trump logic. Criminals are indeed safer than our children. Things may turn around but I’m not holding my breath.

Scratch that. I might hold my breath if I took a ride on Seattle public transportation. Then again, I may just hop in my gas-guzzling vehicle and inch out into the crosswalk on Pike Street just so I can get a passive-aggressive, side-eye from a Seattle liberal who voted for the pile of smoldering dung who sit on the Seattle City Council in the city which he now lives.

Featured image via LioPhotography on Pixabay, cropped, Pixabay license