Sick of drug deals taking place on their block, a group of local residents in Seattle’s Pioneer Square neighbourhood has decided to videotape the relevant offenders and plan to forward the footage to the City Council. They would like more police to patrol the area, and for longer. Once police are called in the pushers and buyers scatter but then return later once police have gone.
Residents of the Harbor Lofts, a block of artists’ lofts opened in 1998 and funded by the City’s Office of Housing as part of a renovation of the local area, have placed an advertisement in the The Stranger, a local paper, with a mock-welcome from the Mayor Greg Nickels and Gil Kerlikowske Police Chief to “Fortson Square’s Open-Air Drug Market”. This “welcome” message also greets passers-by in the form of a banner outside the Harbor Lofts building.
The police, accused of not doing enough when being contacted by residents, responded through spokeswoman Sgt. Deanna Nollette:
“We’ve made hundreds, if not thousands, of arrests. But we recognize that we can’t arrest our way out of this situation. It’s a much bigger societal problem. We need to be looking at sentencing and courts and social services.”
As for those being filmed, the initial reaction was, unsurprisingly, negative. According to Katie Comer, who works for the Pioneer Square Community Association:
“The first day some of the people (being videotaped) got quiet belligerent, yelling stuff and threats.”
As for subsequently?
“But now it’s like they’ve gotten used to it. This morning, they were right out there making deals like we weren’t there.
Time will tell whether more police or a new look at “sentencing and courts and social services” will be more effective.
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