User:HumanxAnthro/sandbox/Seattle is Dying

Seattle is Dying is a piece by Eric Johnson for KOMO 4.

Summary
Eric Johnson describes Seattle as "a beautiful jewel" that has been turned into a "post-apocalyptic landscape" by those that "addict our children." He reports of homeless people polluting parks and neighborhoods, and unsanitary conditions rot "being allowed to fester."

Only one homeless person is interviewed, a meth addict who, within four years, was criminally charged 34 times for instances of assault and attempted rape: "The system has exalted me. I'm having a blast. It's just so much fun!"

The report cites a report by former City Attorney candidate Scott Lindsay, "System Failure", which suggested the issues of homelessness, criminality, and drug addiction were all connected.

Johnson blames "idiots" on the City Council for the problem; he argues throwing tax money at the problem made the issue worse, citing a 2017 Puget Sound Business Journal study that concluded Seattle spent more than a billion dollars per year, indirectly and directly, on it. A KOMO executive producer, Matt Markovich, is quoted: "I don't know one person who's gotten treatment and gotten off the street."

Johnson claims the public is outraged and could likely cause a political revolution; footage of an "orchestrated mob scene at a Ballard community meeting last year" and disruption of a Kshama Sawant-led tax rally at Amazon led by construction workers is used to visual this. He interviews one angry Seattle resident, City Council candidate Ari Hoffman, who posted stories about the remains of a beheaded individual on an encampment on the social media group Safe Seattle.

The solution, according to Johnson, is more enforcement on the activities of homeless people. A police officer anonymously interviewed for the piece: "Lock them up. People come here because it's called Freattle."

Reception
Seattle is Dying is not the first instance of the exploitation of the public's fear of poverty, crime, and the other, as it dates back to 1970s with literature like the New York City Council for Public Safety's 1975 pamphlet "Welcome to Fear City", which warned visitors to stay out of New York City due to in an increase an crime.

Many claims are not true to professionally-run studies and surveys, such as:
 * involuntary treatment and having higher enforcement on the homeless issue being a solution. Many studies concluded that force treatment is ineffective and crimes on poverty harms places
 * the cop's "Freattle" claim: In a 2018 survey of 900 homeless King County, 87% admitted they became homeless while in the area, and only 3% claimed they came to the county looking for services.