KOMO News’ Report Shows the Failure of Seattle’s Liberal Policies

Last weekend, KOMO News broadcast it its latest documentary on the failure of liberalism in Seattle, “The Fight for the Soul of Seattle,” in which reporter/writer Eric Johnson proclaims that “Seattle no longer feels the need to stop anyone, from doing anything, for any reason, at any time.

The 90-minute report is a follow-up to the award winning “Seattle is Dying” special which nearly two years ago was the first major local news story on the failures of Seattle’s liberal leaders to solve (or even slow) the city’s homelessness, drug, and crime problems.

KOMO’s latest report examines a wide array of issues in which Seattle’s liberal leadership has further failed the city, which was once considered the most livable city in the country.  Seattle councilmembers, who campaigned on pledges to increase police funding, then took selfies of themselves during out-of-control riots in which police officers were being violently attacked, and then proceeded to vote numerous times to slash the police department’s budget. Businesses closing due to the rampant crimes. Prosecutors who are unwilling to prosecute repeat criminals. A drug crisis which is killing hundreds and placing thousands on to the streets to live extremely cruel lives.  As former King County Superior Court Judge Ed McKenna stated, “You have a giant social experiment that is going on in Seattle. It doesn’t take a scientist to see the experiment is failing.”

President of the Downtown Seattle Association Jon Scholes (and a former Democrat campaign staffer) summed up the failure of liberal Seattle to help those who are homeless when he stated, “We are five, six, years into the state of emergency of homelessness in the city, and we see that we are going in the wrong direction.”

Yet, despite the obvious failures of this experiment – using taxpayer money to fund it – Seattle’s liberal establishment continues to propose even more radical public non-safety ideas which will likely result in more crimes, more drug use, and more homelessness.  For example, Councilmember Lisa Herbold has proposed to establish a new layer of legal defense for (and thus setting free) those who commit crimes due to drug addiction, poverty, or mental illness. The council has also defunded the navigation teams which were responsible for cleaning up homeless encampments.  Scott Lindsay stated this action will cause “many deaths over the course of 2021” and the “council will have blood on its hands.”

Johnson ended the report by stating, “The city and county prosecutors don’t prosecute, and the judges don’t dare step out of line. And the tents persist, and the drugs are rampant, and the businesses just give up.  And the city council ‘reimagines’ and wings it through a sloppy little revolution that has brought the best city in America to its knees.”

Liberal Seattle politicians appear to be more concerned with pushing a failed political philosophy than solving the problems the philosophy has made worse. Sadly, as government continues to grow and become more powerful as the result of liberal policies, more people are added to those who are currently living a cruel and painful existence on Seattle’s streets.