Global Courant 2023-05-05 22:08:17
Residents of an increasingly crime-ridden Seattle neighborhood are speaking out and pleading with their local government to address the problem while quelling pressure to pay the police.
“I care deeply about this place,” says Alysson Holt, an associate at Vixen Collection Boutique and Spa in Seattle’s Magnolia neighborhood. told KOMO News about the recent spate of burglaries in the area. “I’m very angry. I’m sad. I want to see change. There are no consequences.”
Holt told the outlet that the boutique was recently broken into for the second time, and Courean Napolitano, the owner of Vixen Collection, said police officers took hours to respond, but pointed out she doesn’t blame them due to the current staffing crisis in the store. department.
“I want to say that your experiment of trying to save the police money has failed miserably. We pay taxes here and, in my case, we support my community in a big way. We are not supported in any way,” Napolitano said.
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A property manager closes the windows of a beauty salon that closed permanently on Third Avenue in downtown Seattle on Thursday, March 24, 2022. (David Ryder/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Seattle recently reversed course and increased funding for the police force for the first time since the funding cut in 2020, which was followed by a rise in crime with a 24% increase in homicides, 30% in motor vehicle thefts and 4% in total crime last year.
In addition, Seattle’s police force fell to a 30-year low last year, as officers left the department “in droves,” largely because of police defunding and demonization, the president of the Washington State Fraternal Order of Police told reporters last fall. to Fox News.
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Seattle homeless camp. (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images)
Deb Bluestein, owner of Modele’s Home Furnishings in the neighborhood where boarded-up storefronts are becoming commonplace, told the outlet that “there’s a sense” in the community that “nothing will get done” and “that nothing will happen.”
“Our leaders, please help small business.”
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The Space Needle and Mount Rainier can be seen on the Seattle skyline. (Reuters/Chris Helgren)
Fox News Digital reached out to the office of Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell for comment and did not immediately receive a response.
Andrew Mark Miller is a writer at Fox News. Find him on Twitter @andymarkmiller and email tips to [email protected].
