[SEATTLE] – (MTN) Seattle Parks supported by the Seattle Police Department completed a homeless sweep of Denny Park on Wednesday. City officials put notices up of the impending sweep several days ago, when the park had approximately 70 tent encampments. By early this morning, approximately 15 tents remained as Seattle police and parks crew, some wearing hazmat suits, gathered inside the park around 8 AM.
At 8:45 AM officials started to secure the park, while some of the remaining unhomed residents packed belongings or started to move to grassy areas just outside the park. Activists and mutual aid arrived, with some shouting at and heckling Seattle Police officers, drawing two squads of bicycle officers. Others associated with mutual aid brought replacement tents, hand warmers, heaters, and propane, while others helped pack belongings and load them into awaiting cars and vans.
[Best_Wordpress_Gallery id=”33″ gal_title=”Denny Park Homeless Sweep”]
City officials claim that the number of calls and complaints around Denny Park was increasing, as justification for the sweep. The city initially touted success in finding housing and hotel rooms for many of the people initially in the park, but further probing indicated that for most, March 15, will find them back out on the street.
People we spoke with across the political spectrum, including an SPD officer, expressed frustration with city leadership and the temporary nature of solutions offered. There was strong agreement that permanent housing solutions and medical care were needed. The city and the organizations they support largely focus on temporary housing and short-term programs, while long-term care and housing remain grossly underfunded. One man who claimed to be a business owner got into a shouting match with an activist, threatened him, and then drove around the block to confront the group. After a tense exchange we spoke of frustration, but only offered a solution of shipping the unhomed to Yakima to, “pick apples and cherries.”
Seattle officials did appear to apply a lighter touch during this sweep. For some people residing in the park, employees helped them move belongings to be picked up and relocated and waited while others packed belongings. One Seattle Police officer engaged in what could be described as constructive dialog with activists, despite little common ground being found. In contrast to a more community-oriented approach, in other areas of the park, city workers dumped the belongings of tents onto the ground and then gathered them up as trash, making no effort to review or catalog personal belongings.
The city of Seattle through public and private investment spends $1 billion a year in the battle against homelessness. Despite almost $85,000 per unhomed person available annually, Seattle has made little progress on solving the crisis. City officials swept Cal Anderson Park on December 18, 2020, only to have some people move to Miller Playfields and others move to Pioneer Square. Cal Anderson Park doesn’t have a significant homeless presence while business owners in Pioneer Square are complaining about a spike in encampments.
City officials state Denny Park will be closed for months for repair and rehabilitation. However as night fell, the yellow security tape had been torn down in many areas and area residents were ignoring the park closed signs.
Our live webcast from the Seattle Anarchist Jurisdiction
The show from January 4, 2021, featured David Obelcz and our co-host Jennifer Smith.
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350,000 Americans have died
77,500 Americans died in December 2020
150,000 Americans projected to die in January 2021
U.K. and Scotland go on Level IV lockdown as the variant spreads unabated and the South African variant arrives in the nation
Sir John Bell expresses concern that current vaccinations will not work against the South African COVID-19 mutation
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Our live webcast from the Seattle Anarchist Jurisdiction
The show from December 31, 2020, featured guest host, Jennifer Smith. This special edition of Malcontentment Happy Hour was a countdown of the top five stories we covered in 2020.
COVID-19 predictions from March 2020
May 30, 2020, George Floyd protests in Seattle
Seattle CHOP – May 30 to July 4
Seattle Labor Day March and our CCO gets doxxed
Political fallout in Seattle from 2020
We also had four runner-ups.
Life is stranger than fiction – Yakkity Yak and the Portland Police Department
Matthew, the religious protester who was everywhere in 2020
[SEATTLE] (Malcontent News) – At 7:34 AM on Friday, the LRAD announcements started that the unhomed and activists had 15 minutes to leave Cal Anderson Park. At day’s end, all that remained were 24 arrests, 32 clear trashbags of personal belongings, and at the most, 12 people place into semi-permanent or permanent housing. As darkness and cold rain fell over the park, SPD officers sat in cruisers parked on the ballfields with the park ironically barricaded by yellow tape.
According to Sgt. Randy Huserik, Seattle Police Public Information Officer, Seattle Police’s role on Friday was “to provide security for Seattle Parks Department employees.” During the 17 minutes between the first LRAD announcement to vacate the park and officers moving in, SPD declared a tent with resources for the unhomed was available on Broadway Avenue. When people went to the location, no tent or city employees were present.
In the minutes after the sweep, Malcontent News cameras walked through the cleared encampment and found no one checking belongings. At 8:59 AM, a convoy of city vehicles and garbage trucks arrived. Eleven minutes later, park employees started moving through the shattered compound. Ninety minutes after that, dump trucks and backhoes were pulverizing belongings and tents. The city should have saved items, including undamaged plastic furniture, tables, and bicycles, that witnesses saw thrown away. City officials indicated that 32 clear plastic bags of personal belongings were available to be claimed by their owners.
According to KOMO, a local ABC affiliate, 51 people who were unhomed at Cal Anderson Park were “referred” to possible housing solutions in the days leading to the raid. In the same report, the city stated eight received referrals to tiny homes or hotels, 6 to youth or young adult shelters, 32 more to hotels, and one went back to Olympia. The city could not provide information on the other three placement referrals. At the most, 12 received referrals for semi-permanent or permanent housing or secured their own solution based on that information. Youth and young adult shelters only provide temporary placement. Hotel vouchers aren’t permanent placements and typically last only for days. The disposition of the person who went back to Olympia is unknown.
The reality, as has been the case after other homeless sweeps, most of those removed will be back on the streets in the weeks to come. In another report on KOMO last night, the station asked their viewers if they thought the homeless would return to Cal Anderson Park. Ninety-five percent responded, “yes.”
[SEATTLE] (Malcontent News) – Seattle Police Department, supported by King County Sheriff, executed a homeless sweep of Cal Anderson Park this morning, arresting 21. As the first glint of daylight appeared over cold and wet Cal Anderson, Seattle Police arrived at 7:34 AM. Using an LRAD, SPD made multiple announcements that people within the park had 15 minutes to vacate or face potential arrest. By early afternoon the park was clear, and Seattle Parks was well on its way to removing the encampment.
Activists had built a network of barricades over the weekend and steadily reinforced them over the week. On Wednesday, Seattle Police had planned to do a sweep but at the last minute changed direction. Later in the morning, Ada Yeager filed a temporary restraining order request with the federal court, looking to block the sweep. On Wednesday afternoon, activists took over an empty home on Denny, close to the northeast corner of Cal Anderson. On Thursday afternoon, U.S. District Judge Richard Jones denied the TRO.
[Best_Wordpress_Gallery id=”13″ gal_title=”Cal Anderson Park Homeless Sweep – December 18″]
Overnight on Thursday, there were two attacks on the homeless encampment. A person threw an explosive device at a parked vehicle in an incident described as a targeted attack. Seattle Police described the incident as arson. There were multiple reports of either fireworks or a flaming arrow shot into the encampment, with no reported injuries.
Seattle police describe the fire bombing of a car as arson.
On Friday morning, black-clad protesters again started to gather in anticipation of the sweep. Seattle Police made multiple announcements for people to vacate the park or face arrest and stated a tent was available on Broadway Avenue for the unhomed to get support and information. At 7:52 AM, SPD moved in from multiple directions, with bike officers coming from the north and combined resources from the south. Simultaneous, a SWAT team raided the abandoned house on Denny.
Many expected strong resistance from the contingent of protesters and the estimated 30 to 50 homeless within the encampment. An opposition that never materialized. Seattle Police swept through quickly, tearing through the barricades on three sides. By 8:25 AM, the park was mostly quiet, beyond the King County Sheriff Department helicopter overhead.
In Thursday’s court hearing, city officials assured the federal court it had a plan for gathering and returning personal property after the sweep, per the Seattle Times. City representatives indicated they would only throw-away items that were damaged, wet, or soiled. Judge Jones expressed concern, indicating accurately that in December, everything is wet in Seattle. At 9:10 AM, a convoy of vehicles arrived, including multiple garbage trucks. It soon became apparent as workers tore down tents without doing any documentation that nothing would be spared.
During the raid, witnesses reported seeing Seattle Police destroying food, clothing, and medical supplies at mutual aid tents set up on 11th Ave, and breaking glass could be heard. There appeared to be no effort to document or collect any personal belongings by officials. By late morning, another convoy of heavy construction equipment arrived. Backhoes started chewed through tents, sleeping materials, furniture, and bikes, tossing them into the back of awaiting dump trucks.
Questions have arisen about police conduct, with a citizen video provided to Malcontent News. In the video, SPD placed an individual in a chokehold during an arrest. In the video, citizens plead with SPD to stopping choking the suspect. Despite Seattle Police claiming there was a tent with resources for the unhomed on Broadway Ave, no tent or representative was there. In talking to the incident PIO, they indicated they did not know what resources were available.
#SPD puts a person in a chokehold during an arrest on the edge of Cal Anderson Park – then put their knee on the person's neck
Through public and private investment, the city of Seattle spends over $1 billion a year on homelessness. Despite a decade long effort, Seattle now has the third-largest homeless population in the United States.
There is no Batman, Commissioner Gordon, or Harvey Dent, but Seattle is full of Jokers
Radalyn King drove her Nissan Sentra at speeds up to 80 MPH on the city streets. She closed her eyes and laughing crashed her car into the sidewalk, killing two and injuring two others. She then tried to run away from the wreck, where citizens held her until the police showed up. Laughing and drugged out of her mind, King was arrested.
Jonathan James Wilson, who had multiple arrests for violence and assault, grabbed a woman in broad daylight as she walked to work and declared, “Do you want to go over the edge?” The 270-pound Wilson tried to throw her 40 feet to her death until a passerby intervened.
Charged in 2018 for another assault, Wilson was walking a free man in March of 2019. Prosecutors didn’t file their case against Wilson for the 2018 incident until October 2019.
In February 2019, a report indicated that 100 offenders in Seattle had been in and out of the criminal justice system for thousands of cases combined. By November 2019, 90 of the 100 in the February report had reoffended. Most are still on the street as I type this.
David James, a business owner in Pioneer Square, struggling with crime and filth to keep his business running, confronted two homeless people throwing their trash into the street this November. Beaten to the point of needing hospitalization, no one intervened from the public to stop the daytime assault. When police arrived by bicycle, and the assailant ran, they told him, “He’s a drug addict on the street, and whoever decides if charges are pressed probably won’t press charges, so there’s no reason to bring him in.”
On August 2, 2019, Michael Caballero, homeless, assaulted four women in Pioneer Square as they were trying to walk to Second Avenue as part of the monthly art walk.
Downtown grocery store Uwajimaya filed 261 complaints with the city of Seattle for criminal theft in 2018. Of those 261 cases, 11 resulted in guilty pleas or pretrial diversion.
In September, Bartell’s announced they are closing their Third Avenue location because there have been so many assaults on their staff, and the police do – nothing.
The King County Courthouse has become so unsafe, and there have been so many assaults, officials closed the Third Street entrance. Well closed to all but the disabled, which will still have to run the gauntlet.
Seattle made a choice
In November, the people of Seattle had a chance to make their voices heard at the polls. They said in a loud voice, “we want more of the same.”
We want more human feces and urine on the streets.
We want more random attacks and violence.
We want more used needles in our parks and playgrounds.
We want more assaults and thefts.
We want more store closures.
We want more derelict RVs illegally parked and dumping their human waste and gray water on the streets and down the storm sewers.
Merry Christmas! Shitter was full!
Never mind the mail theft, car break-ins, home burglary, porch pirates, and bike theft. Take heart Seattle, things were worse in 1987 so don’t you dare complain about the situation today. Why, did you know that car theft was worse 15 years ago? All of this is fun with statistics as many citizens don’t even bother to file criminal reports anymore. There is no point. It will be hours before the police show up, if at all. Why should they? The city and county won’t prosecute the cases anyway.
While this happens, officials in Seattle would like to remind you:
You can’t wash your car in the driveway; it’s terrible for the environment – dumping your gray water and crap in the street not so much
You better not park your car in a spot for more than the allotted time you paid for, but you can park your RV where you like for basically as long as you want
If you’re a business or property owner, you’ll be fined if you don’t clean up the feces, urine, needles, and graffiti on and around your buildings – it’s your problem
All of this is happening while ordinary citizens have watched their rent skyrocket, their property taxes spiral out of control, their car tabs increase exponentially, their wages stagnate, and Millennial tech bros take over the city. Seattle is the same city that, while ignoring the crime on our streets, was inspecting the trash of citizens looking for recyclables.
“OK, Boomer – whatever.”
I’m not a Boomer, I’m Gen X, and we’re completely out of fucks to give. We hate Millennials with the same fury that we hate Boomers. Here is an idea, quit bitching about your student loans, quit bragging about how woke you are and move out of our Goddamn basements. But I digress, back to the topic at hand.
Just like in Gotham, the frustrated citizens of Seattle lift their eyes skyward and wait for Batman to appear. Is that the Amazon logo I see upon the clouds? Na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-BEZOSMAN!
No, that’s not Bezosman, or Batman, or even Phoenix Jones. That’s the Amazon cloud you see, and the ever-spreading tentacles of Amazon, which is akin to Walmart, Microsoft, Kroger, Google, Netflix, and Apple, rolled into one big happy smiling logo of domination. Forget Boeing, 50 years from now robots will assemble rocketships for Blue Origin.
Meanwhile, at Bezos manor, Amazon plays let’s pretend to deal with the problems they have contributed to (not caused, a significant difference) with feel-good headline-grabbing projects like building a homeless shelter in their headquarters. They care! That’s why they put that shelter in such a high visibility location and cranked up the public relations machine. See what we’re doing? We’re helping solve the problem. Funny, I have never seen a Ronald McDonald house at an actual McDonalds.
While Amazon security watches the sidewalks of South Lake Union, Belltown, downtown, and Pioneer Square are a hotbed of unchecked crime. Not our problem, our rent-a-cop contract security team paid a non-living wage have our offices and employees covered. Don’t feel safe walking to your Tesla after your 13 hour day at AWS in the Kumo building? We can escort you to our clean garages that don’t smell of urine.
The reality is Bezos’s altruism is about as fragile as his South Lake Union glass testicles. He’s too busy counting thousand-dollar bills and sending e-mails with the subject line of, “What’s This,” to wrap himself in AWS super-science to save Gotham.
“Alexa, deploy the Amazon rappelling cable.”
“OK. now playing My Testimony by Rapper Able.”
“No Alexa, deploy Amazon rappelling cable.”
“OK, adding coax cable to your Amazon shopping list.”
“Alexa, you killed me………………………..”
“I’m sorry, I didn’t quite get that. Did you say Alexa, splat?”
In Gotham, Carmine Falcone doesn’t operate with impunity, but the Joker and his minions do
Still, that isn’t the real problem. The real challenge lies in the prosecutor offices of King County and Gotham.
Over 50% of criminal cases referred to the Seattle City prosecutor’s office go untried. The police are so frustrated that they’ve all but given up. Who can blame them when they arrest a person and bring them to jail, and then the same officer arrests the same person during the same shift in the same store. Mayor Durkin is so tone-deaf that she expresses surprise. Well, when you’re the mayor of Gotham, you don’t have to deal with the criminal element like ordinary citizens. The situation is even worse at King County, where 18% of cases referred to the office go to trial. So if you’re homeless in Seattle, what incentive do you have to remotely follow the law? Scratch that. Remotely follow common decency? You can commit felonies at will and the police are powerless. Now tax-paying citizens that contribute to society, you better follow the law.
Carmen Best is not Commissioner Gordon.
Pete Holmes is not Harvey Dent.
Jeff Bezos is not Bruce Wayne.
However, Seattle is Gotham, and the Joker is running wild.
A billion dollars a year up in smoke
Don’t worry, good citizens of Gotham; your city leaders have a plan! If we add a few more taxes, we can get more money for housing and the homeless. A city that has taken hundreds of millions in tax dollars for the “homeless” for years with nothing to show for it.
According to the Puget Sound Business Journal, approximately $1 billion with a “b” is spent every year on homelessness in Seattle. That comes out to about $100,000 per homeless person, per year. Do the math. If we just build tiny homes and give the homeless a place to live, all will be solved. That idea turned into a complete disaster and has been all but abandoned. From the Licton Springs “low-barrier” tiny home village to the broken promises of three mayors to build thousands of units with the money, Gotham keeps collecting your dollars with nothing to show for it.
Maybe if we build a few more bike lanes, take away more parking spots, permit millions of more square feet of office space with no corresponding housing plan, we can make it better. Let us squeeze the local business owners more by taking away more parking spaces, increase the taxes, and hold them accountable for the crime going on outside their doors.
Why, in another few years, we can gentrify out the small mom and pop restaurants and businesses in the name of progress. What a perfect utopia Gotham will be of major chain stores and restaurants, Amazon office buildings, Amazon Go stores, Amazon book stores, and Starbucks. The Amazon employees can step over the piles of shit and dodge the needles, that contractors can clean up in the overnight hours. Well, that is until Amazon itself has had enough and leaves Seattle an empty shell.
There are more important legal matters to deal with in Gotham
Also remember, Gotham’s leaders are busy at the moment protecting Washington state from I-976. We have money, lawyers, and resources for that in King County and Seattle. Amazingly we don’t have money or resources to keep repeat criminals off the street. I feel so…safe. So well represented.
In September of 2019, KIRO reported, after filing a freedom of information act filing with King County Metro, that over 230 Metro drivers have been assaulted. In June of 2019, a homeless man threatened to blow up a Metro bus and shoot the driver. The man was arrested, charged with harassment, and released from jail. It should come as no surprise to anyone they were arrested again, for possession of a stolen firearm. Take the bus Seattle! It’s faster, it’s safe, and it’s good for the environment. Just don’t sit in the urine covered seat and don’t make eye contact with the person shooting up heroin.
As far as representing the interests of King County as a whole, I’m sure the residents of Skykomish are excited about the express bus lines and light rail coming to their community. Oh wait, they’re still waiting for Route 2 to be less of a death trap.
Now someone will get pedantic and points out Route 2 is a WADOT issue – no kidding, thanks, and I do understand that. It’s called an analogy. It doesn’t change the fact people on the edges of King County are getting ass-raped on car tabs and taxes to support transit they will never use or derive benefit. Thanks for your money, suckers.
Now someone will get upset because I used the term ass-rape, and taxes don’t equate to being ass-raped, and I shouldn’t minimize rape by using the term.
Stop being so sensitive, Seattle!
Executive Dow Constantine has our best interests in mind focusing resources on blocking the will of the voters. Anyone complaining isn’t aware of the real problems Seattle is facing! Cars are evil. That’s the real thing we need protection from, the Tesla and Prius death machines! Derelict RVs by the thousands are, of course, OK. We have to think about the needs of everyone. Except when the will of the people goes against what ironically named King County wants.
No, Batman is not coming to save Gotham. The Joker has taken over, and I guess I should ask myself, “Why so serious?”
I should just put on a happy face!
Tech bros will continue to spike rents and housing pricing. The city will collect more hundreds of millions for homelessness and have no accountability. Criminals will continue to attack law-abiding citizens who have no recourse. Our streets will be covered in more feces, urine, and used needles, and eventually, a Hep A epidemic will come during the summer months. Emergency services will continue to be afraid to respond to aid calls without police and support. Police will have their hands tied because prosecutors will continue to do nothing.
It is a madhouse.
The Joker approves.
Dark clouds hang over the Emerald City
I may not live in Seattle. I may not have a voting voice in the new Gotham, but I can vote with my wallet. I can also vote for our King County officials. I’ve reached my breaking point, and be put on notice leaders of Seattle and King County, I am not the only one. I am ending my affiliation with the Democratic Party. As part of the exhausted middle, I can make that much of a stand. Be advised Dow Constantine and Dan Satterberg, the good people of King County have had enough. We may not be able to save Gotham, but at least we can try and save King county.
Oh, and if you’re reading my statement of ending my affiliation with the Democratic Party as I’m now a Republican, you’re incredibly wrong. The party of Lincoln is a moribund, perverse, corrupt shell of itself. The leader is a wannabe dictator, a criminal, a huckster, and the GOP leadership enables him. No, I’m joining the growing ranks of Independent voters who feel abandoned by both political parties.
You’re not woke Gotham, you’re sound asleep
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