Seattle Is Dying

Eric Johnson of KOMO news, documents the current Homelessness crisis in Seattle parallel to that of Portland, San Francisco, and other western cites. In this documentary Johnson talks with the police of Seattle and their experiences with this "epidemic" of homelessness, and the homeless people of Seattle and their stories, comparing both of them together giving a clear picture to what is the problem, and ways we might be able to fix it.

Johnson references that city officials are saying this is a housing problem, in fact it is a drug and mental health problem, and both police and the homeless confirm this. Showing police video of police officers trying to deal with unruly homeless people, and showing the many drug addicts on the sidewalks.

After going into the database of offenders shows how many of them are arrested and then immediately released, thus giving the perpetrators no reason not to do it again. Due to new laws passed of what one can be arrested for and how long, the database shows how many are repeat offenders, much to the public and police's disdain.

Johnson than goes on to talk to a former popular Sheriff, who was well regarded member of the community, known to stop and help the people in need.
He quit the force after many years, and he states how he left due to his inability to do his job due to laws passed that have restricted the Seattle Police from being able to do there job.

Johnson shows that this is one of the causes in the crime spike we see in Seattle and other west coast cities. He even interviews one of their top repeated offenders on the streets, and he confirms it adding that he loves it. And when residents confront city officials about these problems of robbery and assault, and that the Police need to be allowed to do their jobs and arrest these people, city officials are dismissive, and don't listen to the criticism presented to them of their policies to the dismay of Seattle's residents.

Johnson then compares the crime and police patrolling in the areas where city officials live in, against the policing in the rest of Seattle, showing the favoritism and unequal representation to other parts of Seattle's districts, where crime and public drug use is prevalent.

Eric Johnson's investigative journalism should be commended, he points out a major problem in west coast cities pointing out the underlying problems, and brings faces to a problem not many want to talk about. We need to change how we deal with homelessness and address what it really is, a drug problem. We need to find ways to help these "lost souls," instead of walking past the, ignoring them as they suffer at our feet.

Johnson points out that we need to give them means to be able to come back, instead of living in torment on our streets, showing how other cities have dealt with this problem, and succeeded on reducing the crime and homelessness.