6 ms·

Supervised consumption sites would go a long way toward fixing the needle problem.

grawprog 7y ago
We have safe injection sites up here in Vancouver, you still find used needles lying around everywhere, depending where you go, only you also find the small saline packs and disposable spoons from the injection sites lying around with the used needles. The police don't really seem to care. I've watched a couple of officers find a small pile of used needles at one of the skytrain stations, they laughed to each other said how they should be cleaning that up, then just left. I know about an hour later, a bunch of school kids take the bus I was waiting for. Calling and reporting it did nothing.
- awakeasleep 7y ago
  Nothing concrete, but often calls to complain make it into a tally or database that can be cited by a politician looking to change things.
  - pnw_hazor 7y ago
    It works both ways. If the city refuses to charge offenders and police refuse to arrest, crime goes down.
  - rdtwo 7y ago
    Seattle PD knows this so they take days to file basic reports. If you wanted to report the somebody broke into your car you could be waiting multiple days for someone to take the report.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
- pnw_hazor 7y ago
  Police just follow the lead of politicians. Seattle Police ignore just about everything except active shooters. Even emergency calls about homeless brandishing knives in broad daylight are ignored. (If someone does get stabbed, the police will show.) Seattle politicians have shown that they have no interest in keeping violent people off the streets, so the police don't waste their time with it.
  - asveikau 7y ago
    > Seattle Police ignore just about everything except active shooters. I've been away from Seattle for a while, so excuse me if it's changed. But I still remember quite well in 2010 when Seattle police gunned down a native american for crossing the street downtown, I think it was off of Howell. That guy used to ask me and my wife for change. His big crime was making a very young officer, I believe a recent arrival from the eastern part of the state, uncomfortable due to his skin color. Shot dead, in the back. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shooting_of_John_T._Williams https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shooting_of_John_T._Williams
    - pnw_hazor 7y ago
      While tragic, the death of JT Williams has nothing to do with the Seattle City Prosecutor and the King County Prosecutor refusing to charge or jail violent homeless junkies. "Police accuse King County prosecutors of declining cases, not charging felons" https://www.kiro7.com/news/tonight-at-5-30-pm-police-accuse-king-county-prosecutors-of-declining-cases-not-charging-felons/946791028 https://www.kiro7.com/news/tonight-at-5-30-pm-police-accuse-...
    - cavisne 7y ago
      Seattle has changed. A few weeks ago someone beat a police officer with a sunroof he'd just ripped of a car (after jumping on the other roofs of cars in traffic). He was released 24 hours later. On a simpler note I saw someone exposing themselves/defecating on a street corner in downtown. Some officers spoke to him but then they left.
- vehementi 7y ago
  The police, of course, do seem to care, and they do care. It sucks that people like you try to get away with pulling one over on those who don't know the situation well enough and have to just trust you.
throwaway827364 7y ago
How? Junkies and other folks who throw needles on the street when there’s a trash can like 5 feet away will actually make appointments to stop at these consumption sites? Who pays for this? The city of Seattle makes a mess because of their extremist policies of not enforcing laws so let’s raise taxes to make up for it?
- allana 7y ago
  Please cite how Seattle's policy of not locking people up to rot in prison is extremist. You had a viable argument right up until that point! Edit: Thanks for the bot downvotes! Going from +2 to -1 in the span of a minute on two separate comments is a bit of a red flag :P
  - EpicEng 7y ago
    Not arressting people for theft is pretty extremist and I can't imagine how that is a good thing for the citizens of Seattle.
    - rdtwo 7y ago
      Clearly you need to check your privilege and share your stuff...
  - paggle 7y ago
    OK, design a punishment that will deter people from stealing. I’m not opposed to caning but for some reason the country refuses to do it.
  - sbierwagen 7y ago
    Adding a comment complaining about being downvoted tends to invite more downvotes from unrelated posters.
    - allana 7y ago
      The timing is just so interesting though! Two of my comments saw 3 downvotes in the span of a minute, the latter of which was much further down than this comment.
downandout 7y ago
Unfortunately, the people that such initiatives are aimed at happen to be junkies. They will consume whenever and wherever they feel like it, just as many of them will steal from the most convenient target when they need more money for a fix. Further, the optics of state-sanctioned drug use sites are pretty bad, even in the most liberal of cities.
m0zg 7y ago
Observation to the contrary: availability of toilets does not fix "shitting on the streets" problem in SF.
- matwood 7y ago
  Availability of toilets barely fixed the problem of urinating and defecating on the floor of the restroom in an office I used to work.
diogenescynic 7y ago
No it wouldn’t. They wouldn’t use them. Junkies reuse needles they find on the ground because they don’t care... they aren’t going to go to a specific place to wait in line to shoot up.

We have safe injection sites up here in Vancouver, you still find used needles lying around everywhere, depending where you go, only you also find the small saline packs and disposable spoons from the injection sites lying around with the used needles. The police don't really seem to care. I've watched a couple of officers find a small pile of used needles at one of the skytrain stations, they laughed to each other said how they should be cleaning that up, then just left. I know about an hour later, a bunch of school kids take the bus I was waiting for. Calling and reporting it did nothing.

awakeasleep 7y ago
Nothing concrete, but often calls to complain make it into a tally or database that can be cited by a politician looking to change things.
- pnw_hazor 7y ago
  It works both ways. If the city refuses to charge offenders and police refuse to arrest, crime goes down.
- rdtwo 7y ago
  Seattle PD knows this so they take days to file basic reports. If you wanted to report the somebody broke into your car you could be waiting multiple days for someone to take the report.
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
pnw_hazor 7y ago
Police just follow the lead of politicians. Seattle Police ignore just about everything except active shooters. Even emergency calls about homeless brandishing knives in broad daylight are ignored. (If someone does get stabbed, the police will show.) Seattle politicians have shown that they have no interest in keeping violent people off the streets, so the police don't waste their time with it.
- asveikau 7y ago
  > Seattle Police ignore just about everything except active shooters. I've been away from Seattle for a while, so excuse me if it's changed. But I still remember quite well in 2010 when Seattle police gunned down a native american for crossing the street downtown, I think it was off of Howell. That guy used to ask me and my wife for change. His big crime was making a very young officer, I believe a recent arrival from the eastern part of the state, uncomfortable due to his skin color. Shot dead, in the back. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shooting_of_John_T._Williams https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shooting_of_John_T._Williams
  - pnw_hazor 7y ago
    While tragic, the death of JT Williams has nothing to do with the Seattle City Prosecutor and the King County Prosecutor refusing to charge or jail violent homeless junkies. "Police accuse King County prosecutors of declining cases, not charging felons" https://www.kiro7.com/news/tonight-at-5-30-pm-police-accuse-king-county-prosecutors-of-declining-cases-not-charging-felons/946791028 https://www.kiro7.com/news/tonight-at-5-30-pm-police-accuse-...
  - cavisne 7y ago
    Seattle has changed. A few weeks ago someone beat a police officer with a sunroof he'd just ripped of a car (after jumping on the other roofs of cars in traffic). He was released 24 hours later. On a simpler note I saw someone exposing themselves/defecating on a street corner in downtown. Some officers spoke to him but then they left.
vehementi 7y ago
The police, of course, do seem to care, and they do care. It sucks that people like you try to get away with pulling one over on those who don't know the situation well enough and have to just trust you.

throwaway827364 7y ago

How? Junkies and other folks who throw needles on the street when there’s a trash can like 5 feet away will actually make appointments to stop at these consumption sites? Who pays for this? The city of Seattle makes a mess because of their extremist policies of not enforcing laws so let’s raise taxes to make up for it?

allana 7y ago
Please cite how Seattle's policy of not locking people up to rot in prison is extremist. You had a viable argument right up until that point! Edit: Thanks for the bot downvotes! Going from +2 to -1 in the span of a minute on two separate comments is a bit of a red flag :P
- EpicEng 7y ago
  Not arressting people for theft is pretty extremist and I can't imagine how that is a good thing for the citizens of Seattle.
  - rdtwo 7y ago
    Clearly you need to check your privilege and share your stuff...
- paggle 7y ago
  OK, design a punishment that will deter people from stealing. I’m not opposed to caning but for some reason the country refuses to do it.
- sbierwagen 7y ago
  Adding a comment complaining about being downvoted tends to invite more downvotes from unrelated posters.
  - allana 7y ago
    The timing is just so interesting though! Two of my comments saw 3 downvotes in the span of a minute, the latter of which was much further down than this comment.

downandout 7y ago

Unfortunately, the people that such initiatives are aimed at happen to be junkies. They will consume whenever and wherever they feel like it, just as many of them will steal from the most convenient target when they need more money for a fix. Further, the optics of state-sanctioned drug use sites are pretty bad, even in the most liberal of cities.

m0zg 7y ago

Observation to the contrary: availability of toilets does not fix "shitting on the streets" problem in SF.

matwood 7y ago
Availability of toilets barely fixed the problem of urinating and defecating on the floor of the restroom in an office I used to work.

diogenescynic 7y ago

No it wouldn’t. They wouldn’t use them. Junkies reuse needles they find on the ground because they don’t care... they aren’t going to go to a specific place to wait in line to shoot up.