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Fentanyl pills found in Renton. (DEA Photo)
In recent blog entries I’ve explained that Renton is working on its own drug ordinance, and several Renton leaders have no confidence the State will find its way through this issue.
As if to illustrate the difficulties that the Legislature faces in developing a drug law, the King County executive’s office sent King-County-based State Legislators a letter on May 9th arguing with virtually every point made by the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs in their May 4th letter. The County Executive’s letter, signed by Michael White, King County State Relations Director, didn’t even try to find common ground on anything with our State’s law enforcement leaders, except for one minor point on public use.
Here’s are some lines from the introduction of the County Executive’s letter:
“That said, law enforcement’s expertise is just that: law enforcement.”.
…”In contrast, King County has the expertise and knowledge of what it takes to treat people suffering from substance use disorder at every stage of their disease as well as enforcing laws and housing detained people.”
….”As a result, we have significant concerns–outlined below–with many of the requests made by the law enforcement associations and urge you to reject their inclusion in the final Blake legislation.”
With over 1000 overdose deaths in King County last year, over 40,000 estimated homeless in King County (many suffering from drug addiction), a crime wave sweeping the County, and the County being sued for inmates dying in county jails that are inadequately staffed, it’s bold for anyone in King County Government to claim they have all the expertise and knowledge needed to solve these problems. Many will say that this statement illustrates why King County can’t seem to solve these problems. Recognizing we don’t know everything is a mark of intelligence; thinking we do is a path to failure.
Even the opening statement that law enforcement’s expertise is just “law enforcement” demonstrates ignorance of the thousands of lives police officers save every year of those suffering from addiction, by administration of NARCAN and other first aid, and by connecting people experiencing homelessness with emergency services.
Occasionally the letter makes some fair points, but the tone of dismissing every concern and idea of law enforcement leadership ruins any hope of making meaningful progress with this letter. For example, near the conclusion they offer this final dig, which is essentially a straw-man argument since the police are not trying to run treatment programs:
“However, to strengthen the likelihood of successful engagement in treatment, we strongly encourage the Legislature to first prioritize programs that are led by community and expert treatment providers rather than law enforcement.”
One of the worst results of the King County Executive intentionally picking a fight with the Sheriffs and Police Chiefs, is that by doing so he is picking another fight with numerous Mayors in King County. In most of the 39 cities in King County, including Renton, the Mayors work in partnership with their police chiefs. Mayors are already reacting to the Executive’s letter, and I suspect we’ll hear more from them soon.
The Executive’s letter claims three times to be “evidenced-based,” but the wide-spread evidence of the County’s performance-to-date does not instill confidence, and they have made no effort to use “evidence-based” collaborative problem solving techniques to bring City, County, and law enforcement leaders together to solve our County’s chronic problems.
Here is the full letter from King County Executive Dow Constantine’s office.
I’m not saying we need to elect someone like Trump, but we need to be hyper careful on who we elect. Sadly, Dow was the sane choice. Joe Nguyen was basically a communist.
Well, if it isn’t the old guard, struggling to make sense of a progressive approach to drug policy. It’s almost as if they can’t fathom that the King County Executive’s office might actually know a thing or two about treating substance use disorders.
You see, Renton’s leaders may be busy crafting their own drug ordinance, but let’s not forget who this law is most likely to affect – our BIPOC communities.
Is it so outrageous to think that maybe, just maybe, law enforcement isn’t the be-all and end-all solution to our drug crisis?
But hey, why listen to the people who are on the ground, working tirelessly to support those in need, when we can just keep doing what we’ve always done, right? Because that’s worked out so well for us in the past.
Ah, progress. It can be such a bitter pill to swallow for those who would rather stick to their old, worn-out playbooks.
1000 deaths a year is “progressive”?
Speaking of “working tirelessly”, did you know that the King County Regional Homelessness Authority offers it’s employees unlimited paid vacation?
And our own councilmember Ed Prince sits on their board? And I bet he’s going to get a lot of endorsements from their workers for his reelection.
We’re only on the board for the good things! Please don’t hold us accountable!
Hey SUMMERBOI
Are you Carmen Rivera? Or one of her brainwashed little friends? You sound like one of her minions.
How’s the past two years been working with your free for all with no consequences?
Thousands of BIPOC people suffer and dieing on the streets in their shit covered clothes not enough?
All those BIPOC and white people (not that you care) zombies swaying in the wind not enough?
BIPOC (and white) brains fried and dying on those chemicals you want them to freely ingest without consequences not enough for you?
Progressive enough for you?
Those 1000 deaths compassionate enough yet?
Wait!! How about our gov use our tax dollars to buy them brand new phones so they can call their dealer?
And let them all ride the metro smoking fentanyl next to the elderly and children.
I know! Let’s have King County use our tax dollars to buy and build brand new apartments that our homeless veterans and grandparents can’t even get and give them to your poor sad addicts for free. No worries about the fact that the buildings will have to be torn down once they light them on fire smoking their drugs!
Wouldn’t want the BIPOC community to miss out on those goodies!
Don’t you progressives believe in the new Green Deal too? 40,000 addicts pooping and leaving needles and tons of garbage in our streets,parks, lakes, rivers, streams and woods show that they and you and your friends (BIPOC or not) really don’t give a crap about our environment at all.
Have you gone and asked them all to pretty please quit using drugs?
Dow Constantine is an ignorant narcissist who thinks he’s cured homelessness and crime.
He is dangerously naive thinking jails closed down by his demand is smart idea.
If you think he has all the answers to ending addiction, you are just as dangerously niave
“let’s not forget who this law is most likely to affect – our BIPOC communities”
REALLY? BOO HOO!!
Although,thats not possible when there’s only about 3% (or some small percent) BIPOC addicts and the remaining are mostly white
In closing, Dow Constantine sucks
Also his statement “That said, law enforcement’s expertise is just that: law enforcement” is 100%
Gold star for our King County executive for recognizing our officer’s ARE experts when it comes to laws!!!
One section of the letter came across as something that someone who is codependant might say about a loved one:
“Harm reduction definition:
To ensure that people who use drugs can access treatment and stop using drugs when they are ready, we must reduce the harms of current drug use—people who die from drug overdose will never have an opportunity to access substance use disorder treatment and stop using drugs. Therefore, it is essential to focus on reducing the harm associated with drug use right now without a requirement that harm-reduction strategies directly end the illegal use of drugs. The Legislature should not adopt WASPC’s proposed amendment to the definition of “harm reduction program.”
While there is compassion in these words, and it is important to be empathetic, there is also a lot of enabling, which drug and alcohol counselors will warn will hurt rather than help.
It makes one wonder whether some of our institutions are in fact becoming codependent. To avoid codependancy the message needs to be to “because we care about you, you need to stop using drugs now. Tell us how can we help you stop.”
“stop using drugs when they are ready”
A functioning civilization has to have behavior standards, and it’s not so far of a reach to say that don’t-take-so-many-drugs-that-you-go-insane is a good standard.
Hence, they need to stop using drugs because WE are ready.
King County and Dow Constantine, have shown with history that they are only worried about themselves and spending other people’s money.
I voted for Dow, and I feel like he’s let us down. We need everyone to work together to fix our problems, not fight each other. But Dow’s office is acting like they’ve done a great job, while we’re seeing more people dying from overdoses, more folks without homes, and more crime. It’s like they’re ignoring what’s really going on. It feels like they’ve broken our trust. They gotta stop acting like they know it all, and start working with everyone else to fight drug abuse in our town.
Greg
We have some cleanup in the upcoming Renton council election:
Kim Kahn Van specifically endorsed an abolish and defund the police candidate for local office, didn’t stand up for Renton when Seattle moved their homeless problem onto us, and recently has told the Renton Reporter that she has a “fear of law enforcement.”
Ryan McIrvin needs to develop a spine and stand up for Renton. He signed a letter rebutting our Mayor and the rest of the council and their desire to get crime under control by fixing the Blake Decisions. As if everything is going just fine now.
Ed Prince has shown constant bad leadership as our representative on the Sound Transit board and the King County Regional Homelessness board. He voted to give up Renton’s fair share of Sound Transit infrastructure funding, and has been complicit in King County moving Seattle’s homeless into Renton for Seattle’s benefit.
We also need to clean house in our representation in the House and Senate.
David Hackney, Steve Bergquist and especially Bob Hasegawa have all decided that they’d rather represent the extreme leftists in Seattle than the blue-collar citizens of Renton.
The each supported keeping the police from perusing criminals, supported keeping drugs decriminalized and in David’s case, even supported lowering the sentencing guidelines for drive by shootings.
Reading you comment, that reminds me…. all three of them endorsed candidates that called for defunding the police as well.
Not only do we need to vote, we need better candidates to vote for. Having to chose between Dow and Joe Nguyen was like choosing between constipation and explosive diarrhea.
You conservatives need to give it a rest. It’s time you started being positive instead of negative.
As soon as you leftists stop working to criminalize normal people and normalize criminals
Not wanting my child strung out on drugs makes me a conservative? Thanks for letting me know.
It’s about finding solutions that work for everyone, including BIPOC communities and not just WT people.
Our murder rate is basically doubled. You call that a solution? Two people die from overdoses in King County every day. You call that a solution? Keep in mind, you crazy liberal types have had political power from the state level all the way down, so no fair blaming regular liberals or conservatives.
It’s also good to point out that Valerie, Ruth and James are awesome and vote for the best for our community. They all have different viewpoints but they put the people of Renton first in how they make decisions.
But that’s only three out of seven. Just sayin’.
“Seattle moved their homelessness problem on us” doesn’t solve anything and is counterfactual in the first place.
Homelessness has been festering as a problem throughout King County for more than two decades. Not facing up to that fact, or its actual causes could prolong and exacerbate the problem in Renton.
It seems to me that it is far too late for Renton to continuing to polish its image in such a way. Don’t forget that denial is also a well-known barrier to addressing a great many social issues.
Thanks for the comment Mark. I didn’t notice my article or any of the commenters say “Seattle moved their homeless problem on us,” but maybe I missed it. Renton has done an enormous amount of work to ease homelessness in our region, and if other cities including Seattle had been keeping up with our progress on new housing and our preservation of “missing-middle” housing the region would be in better shape. Here is a recent story I did on this topic. https://www.randycorman.com/?p=14799
I respectfully disagree.
The economy, drug use, and expensive housing situation in Renton causes it’s own homelessness problem. And Renton itself is able to move people into homes via is own services and non-profits. From what I can tell, we did a good job, and we should continue to do a good job by providing jobs and home opportunities.
But that was before Dow and the King County Homelessness Authority decided to use Renton as a way of alleviating the problems caused by Seattle’s drug use, expensive housing, and lack of police enforcement of laws.
As far as I can tell, at no point did the King County Homelessness Authority invite Renton’s homeless to the services they started in Renton. Instead they bussed people in from Seattle.
I’m not saying that we shouldn’t take people in. But you’ll notice that Mercer Island, Laurelhurst, and Medina are not taking anybody.
It’s ok to stand up to those that want us to take more than our fair share of burden.
Dow doesn’t seam to care about anybody but his self! An ongoing thing from cramming the Red Lion down Renton’s throat wich was a failure and now a building that needs to be destroyed! Then the extended stay that put 30 families out do to a set fire, There shoving Seattles problem people to Renton and Federal Way. Not to say anything about the asphalt plant on the Renton Maple Valley Highway across from the Cedar River! Not a man to trust!
We also have a mess in the Comfort Inn. They’re brining in people from Seattle then kicking them out into Renton after a few days. There’s rumors that Dow is going to do it again in a different part of Renton.
We should listen to Carmen Rivera, a criminal justice professor at Seattle University. She’s on our Renton City Council and has written a lot about this subject.
Here’s some of the things Carmen Rivera said:
“We are demanding to abolish and defund the police … and it catches people’s attention. It makes people ask why, and it gets people’s blood boiling. I don’t believe we need to reframe it. I think people need to understand it and understand for what it is. When I say defund the police, I don’t want overfunding of police departments anymore in my city. I don’t.”
“Police are upset because their “feelings” are hurt.
That they’re no longer seen as the “heroes”…
They’re going to get emotional.
They’re going to get in their “feelings”, right?
But then you put them in SWAT uniform and you tell them to go “protect and serve”, “enforce the law” and order in that same mindset, in this culture that’s not working effectively.”
“Because everything for me comes down to politics and money. ”
“I would like to see the end of prisons before I see the end of police, and study and see what happens, what the results are. ”
“I’m really hoping that my criminal justice colleagues, who have been really abrasive to the defund of the police movement and have been opposed to it, will use this as an opportunity to start new research and look into what it looks like to defund the police and how it can be successful.”
“Everything is political. That’s something I’ve learned. Everything is political, and I think, you know, especially when it’s election season, you want to say whatever your constituents want to hear.”