Illustration by Jennifer Daydreamer

Guest Column by Jennifer Daydreamer

Editor’s Note: On January 22, 2019, the Seattle downtown core was rocked by a mass shooting. Part of the heart of downtown Seattle is Third Avenue and Pine Street, one of the most congested downtown areas in any American city and long known as a hub for crime. This incident underscores the dysfunction at City Hall and how Seattle city leaders have long struggled to understand and address crime. Seattle cartoonist and writer Jennifer Daydreamer speaks out on the challenging situation Seattle citizens must face.

Seattle mass shooting crime scene. The Seattle Times.

SEATTLE: THIS IS HOW TO PROTEST THE CRIME

We have a real crime problem in Seattle. Who are the superheroes that have emerged to champion public safety? The business community. The Downtown Business Association commissioned the 2019 System Failure Report, held an impromptu 1.24.20 downtown safety rally, and, most recently, signed a petition letter to Seattle and King County leadership, pleading for safety reform. This should give one pause. Can you feel the topsy-turvy of a non government entity – businesses – doing our government’s job of protecting the people? Something is terribly wrong.

What has our council, mayor and governor been doing in response to crime? They give speeches! It’s always the same one, too. Their speeches consist of feel good solutions that appeal to their voter base. They never have the courage to say that the law is not being enforced and if it were, it would reduce the crime on the streets dramatically. Now, why would their voter base not want safety? The short answer is that the hard Left is keen on bridging the economic divide. An example of this is the focus on free bus rides, library fees waived and free winter rent (to be paid back, if the landlord can collect it). Do you hear our leaders talk with the same passion on the need to stop people from getting stabbed, gunned, punched, pushed and robbed? No.

In case you have been asleep like Sleeping Beauty the last decade, the speech our leaders give is this: “We have to build more housing, have alternatives to incarceration, offer drug rehabilitation programs and mental health assistance.” All of that is very good. Well planned, thoughtful alternatives are important. The problem is, given the track record of our government’s inability to create such entities, I don’t think these ambitions will become reality for another twenty years, if ever. When politicians offer up nonsensical solutions to the immediate need of public safety, it’s a way of denying the crime.

I recognize the Emperor’s New Clothes when I see it. Make no mistake, the crime is real. The majority of you in Seattle know this; you’re experiencing crime and reading and watching the news. At its core level, law and order is gold; it’s been melted down and is slipping through your civic fingers. I recommend KOMO television’s 1.27.2020 Town Hall, Downtown Seattle Violence: Enough is Enough. Attorney Scott Lindsay describes the City’s approach to public safety as “The appearance of gross negligence.”

When you hold a large protest, it tells our politicians that this is a voting public. Allow me to describe to you my dream rally. Have a simple rally, centrally located in downtown. Chants can be yelled for ten minutes such as ‘Enough Is Enough!’ and ‘We Want Safety and We Want It Now!’ The twist is, in any part of downtown, business owners only have to step outside their building to the sidewalk, to join in the chanting. Isn’t it cool that business is strategically located to have a protest that stretches to both ends of downtown? Anyone can join in, employees, passersbys, all people. I really believe there are enough people affected by crime that many will join in. Yet, this can be peaceful. There’s no need to spill onto the streets and block traffic. Police can join in for a change instead of having to keep the peace. Businesses won’t break their own windows. Everyone yells during his or her break and then back to work. Efficient! 

Maybe I’m dreaming too big, to say this, but the protest can be spectacular and stretch “across the land” from business to business, residence to residence, person to person; to Belltown to Beacon Hill to Capitol Hill, all the way to Alki Beach to Ballard to Fremont to the U District…you get the picture.

We are in a kingdom, a fiefdom! It’s time to awaken! Although I use fairy tales as metaphors, I am not naïve. I know I am preaching to the choir out there in the Emerald City. Seattle, you know the crime is real.

Let your voices soar, loud and clear.

Jennifer Daydreamer