Downtown pleas for safety fall on deaf ears
After last year’s deadly downtown rush hour shooting, residents and business owners pleaded with city leaders to increase crime prevention. A year later SPD barely has enough officers for patrols and neighbors feel they’re on their own. Downtown resident Leslie Buker speaks for many in her letter to the Mayor and Council this week wondering if it will take another tragedy to get them to address rampant crime in this neighborhood.
Hello City Council Members and Mayor Durkan,
I've written to you twice recently regarding dangerous and frightening interactions I've had in and around my home on 3rd Ave between Pike and Pine Streets. On February 22nd, two people sleeping against my building’s front door violently slammed it shut in my face several times and threatened me when I tried to leave my apartment building at 6 am.
On March 3rd, a group of men rushed past my newspaper delivery person and into my building at 1:35 am. Security cameras show they spent several hours coming and going, letting other people into the building, wandering our halls and doing drugs in our elevator and stairs. That same day at 9 pm, several gunshots rang out randomly at 2nd and Pine.
On March 9th at 11 am, several people "bum rushed" my mail delivery person and forced their way into my building. Several of us called 911 and waited for police as one of the intruders sat in our lobby, blocking the front door so no one could enter or leave.
On March 13th, I was sitting at my desk and heard someone shouting. I looked up to find a man standing on the roof of the vacant building across the alley looking directly into my bedroom and living room windows waving his arms and screaming to get my attention. He then climbed into the vacant building via a utility hatch on the roof and began smashing windows from the inside out.
Finally, just this morning March 15th, a set of four tents appeared around the corner from my front door, at 3rd and Pine. When I walked by, the middle tent had three men sitting in the opening. One sharpening a stick with a large knife. The message was clear: keep walking.
When I've shared these stories with you recently, I've asked what you're doing to address the skyrocketing crime downtown and where are the police?
I’ve yet to get a response and now I have just one, simple question: It's going to be ok, right?
I'm not going to get stabbed or shot or stuck with a needle on my way to the grocery store? I'm not going to wake up in the middle of the night to find an intruder inside my home? My neighbors aren't going to be assaulted? And the mentally ill and addicted people who have come to rely on the drugs readily available in these tents aren't going to die of overdoses or exposure or disease while we watch, they’re just going to suffer a little more?
Really, truly, it's going to be ok, right?
Follow up: Other than an automatic message, she received no response.
