Scott says:

I hope Henry Louis Gates isn't planning on moving to Phinney Ridge anytime soon.

We should start calling the cops on other cops. People: if you see two cops in a car doing nothing, that is suspicious. They are either waiting to buy drugs or they are waiting for "Bohemian Rhapsody" to end. Either way, get on the horn and dial 911!

Posted On: Tuesday, Jul. 21 2009 @ 3:33PM

Observant says:

Try living in a place where you can't spend an afternoon or evening in your own yard without people pulling up outside your house shooting up, getting blow jobs etc. and see how that changes your feelings about this.

And as for "the Drug War's panicky neighbors might have to face a few awkward interactions at the next backyard barbecue. "
If there are problems with drugs/prostitution/ etc. in your neighborhood, talk with your neighbors so they can keep an eye out for suspicious activity too.

Don't be too shy to call 911, or your local precinct when you see suspicious activity. Criminals won't stay where they are noticed, unless folks ignore them and let them go about their business.

Posted On: Thursday, Jul. 23 2009 @ 12:36PM

cma319 says:

The article is making huge generalizations from what was a very specific situation. No one's calling the cops on someone having an NPR "driveway moment" or a couple teenagers making out. I live on Phinney Ridge too,
a couple blocks from Aurora, and we see a lot of illegal activity where the perpetrators come up off Aurora into the neighorhood where they think no one is lookign. We've had prostitutes, drug deals, and a ton of home break ins and car thefts. So yeah we're going to call the cops if we see suspicious activity in front of our house!

Posted On: Thursday, Jul. 23 2009 @ 1:03PM

roe says:

Hey becareful, dont go to burger king get food then go park in you favorite spot to eat, you could be harrassed. Give me a break. Its going to get to a point in this country where you cant wipe your nose without someone thinking your a coke head or something. Freedom? Ya right.

Posted On: Friday, Jul. 24 2009 @ 1:09PM

think again says:

All of the problems associated with drugs are artificial consequences of prohibition. The gangs need not exist, the violence and thefts need not occur, the "land of the free" needn't imprison it's own citizens at a rate that's five times the world average. We can end it at any time and convert our drug users back into normal, peaceful, productive citizens.

Before the Harrison Narcotics Tax Act of 1914 (which banned cocaine, heroin and morphine), narcotics could be purchased in any grocery store, no questions asked. America had approximately the number of addicts (per capita) as we do now, but being a drug addict in those days was a much different proposition than it is today. Before prohibition, drug addicts were indistinguishable from the rest of society. They held jobs, raised families and lived otherwise normal lives.

One example is Dr. William Stewart Halsted. Considered the "father of modern surgery," Halstead was addicted to morphine for thirty years. He simply maintained his habit and went about his highly productive life, and no one knew he was an addict. In 1914, America's peaceful, discreet addict population was converted overnight into the living dead. Everyone is "addicted" to food; try to imagine what would happen if food were suddenly outlawed. The price of food would skyrocket to the point where no one could afford it on normal incomes, so people would turn to theft to support their stomachs. Previously civilized human beings would rapidly revert to an animal-like mindset, and the acquisition of food would dominate our every waking thought. Normal rules about morality would take a back seat to the necessity of survival.

This is the nightmare that America imposed on its addicts in 1914, in fact an addict's craving for drugs is even stronger than his hunger for food. Before long, previously peaceful drug users became desperate, lost their jobs and possessions and began stealing to finance their habits. It was at this point that the link began to form in the public's mind between drug use and crime. Drug addicts were no longer viewed as just being people with an unenviable medical condition, they were instead seen as evil, immoral, vampiric.

For the past ten years in Switzerland they have been providing addicts with prescriptions for heroin so that they can maintain their habit for a reasonable price. The program has gotten drug use off the streets, has stopped drug-related property crime, has put street dealers out of business, has allowed addicts to find employment and resume living normal lives (which they have done with great success) and has dramatically reduced the number of new addictions. The approach works splendidly, but apparently Americans prefer to be awash in organized crime, to incarcerate our countrymen at a rate never before known in human history, to sacrifice our constitutional freedoms and to enjoy a murder rate that's twice what it should be.

Drug use per se is not much of a problem. Like tobacco use, narcotics are extremely addictive and very bad for the individual's health, but that's it. The whole issue need not involve the rest of society. A common misconception is that drug users get "crazy" while high, when in reality they only get crazy while in withdrawal. They get so used to the drug's effects that they don't even feel it and can function rather normally. If we simply let them have their drug of choice, withdrawal will be avoided, and society will have no further problems with its addicts. Plus, the gangs and cartels that currently supply addicts will disappear overnight.

Drug addiction is a medical problem; dealing with a medical problem with laws and police is one of the dumbest things this country has ever done, rivaled only by slavery and segregation. Some people think that treatment is the answer, but anyone who has ever experienced nicotine or narcotic addiction knows that coerced treatment is a waste of time and money. The only way anyone ever beats an addiction is through inner resolve and determination. If other people are trying to force an addict to quit, it will never work because their resolve is coming from without. The appropriate way to treat heroin addiction is with maintenance doses of heroin. Eventually, like cigarette smokers, many addicts become fed up with their drug, build up inner resolve, and successfully quit. Some do not, some even die from it, but that's their problem and no one else's.

It's so tragically ironic that when people are confronted with the crime and misery caused by prohibition, their response is call the very people responsible for it (the police and the government) to ask them to get even tougher on "drugs." The government invariably obliges their request, which of course only exacerbates the problems, which prompts even more calls for more drug war, which causes still further drug-related problems, etc. Drugs are not making their neighborhoods dangerous, drug prohibition is doing that with their own enthusiastic cooperation. In addition to mutilating their civil liberties and betraying the most foundational ideals of American democracy, people who think that calling the cops is an appropriate response to a car full of people waiting to buy drugs in front of their house almost comically fail to grasp that they are only pouring gas on the fire. If they really want to "clean up" their neighborhoods, they should demand an end to the oppressive, utopian, un-Constitutional policies of prohibition. A new era of public safety and peace awaits this country, all it has to do is decide to stop attacking itself.

Posted On: Friday, Jul. 24 2009 @ 1:29PM

Anonymous says:

wasn`t this style going on in nazi germany. Is this what this country is turning into? Anyboby with half a brain and can read would know that all this drug hype is just that.Alcohol and tobacco kill 95% more americans than any other drug and we fiddle while the constitution burns. Get off your morality kick and wakeup before its to late.

Posted On: Saturday, Jul. 25 2009 @ 4:40AM

Erica Jorgensen says:

Dear Damon,

It's an utter myth that Phinney is a safe neighborhood. I live down the street from the man you mention in your post, and I'm damn thankful he called the cops to report this activity. Since the city's efforts to clean up the strip of Aurora Ave. south of the zoo, the riff-raff has moved into our neighborhood from the there, as well as from the Greenwood area to the north.

Our house was robbed 3 years ago, in broad daylight. The responding officer said it was likely a meth addict (they came through a very narrow open window), and that Greenwood is the most heavily concentrated part of Seattle when it comes to crime, second only to the U-District. Phinney is essentially stuck in a crime sandwich.

Here's a bit of what we're putting up with in Phinney: A call girl used to live around the corner from me; a mentally ill man 3 blocks away, who happens to have more than 20 rifles in his basement, called police, falsely reporting that he had killed an officer (last I heard, the guns were still there, as the police had no cause to remove them as nobody was directly threatened, but the altercation led them to contact family members, who tried to get him back on his medication); there was a melee in late June with an estimated 500 people at the Masonic hall, with 20 police cruisers responding, during which shots may have been fired (some news outlets, you would have found if you'd done much research before posting your article, called this a riot); a bar up the street was robbed at gunpoint during business hours; a number of violent muggings were taking place 2 summers ago after last call between 65th and 80th Streets, and one victim had her face smashed to the ground, and another had his pants nearly ripped off him as the perpetrators tried to get his iPod; a 17-year-old was arrested last week after a high-speed chase in a stolen car, and was found to have a gun (this in broad daylight); another bar was robbed at closing, with the employee stabbed in the neck; and, last but not least, a man was beaten and left for dead. There were a several violent muggings on Greenwood between Red Mill and Diva a few summers ago, but they suddenly stopped after a few teens were called into questioning for graffiti (though there wasn't evidence to support charging them for the muggings; they sneakily approached victims from behind, after last call, and knocked them to the ground.) Oh, and Rising Stars, a kids' clothing and toy shop, had a strong-arm robbery on a Tuesday morning.

PhinneyWood.com is doing a terrific job of raising awareness of these crimes.

There are a lot of little kids on our street (and at Rising Stars, on any given day!) Calling the police's non-emergency number gets you NOWHERE (I think in the last 3 years, I've called 20 times, only to have an officer pick up twice, and there's no answering machine). So 911 is the alternative if you want anything done.

Seattle police are staffed at the same levels as they were in 1967. There are a whole lot more crime in the city now, due to sheer population growth, not to mention the recession.

In a neighborhood meeting 3 years ago, a representative from the police dept. came to the Phinney Neighborhood Center to discuss the apparently rising crime activity. A former Seattle Times reporter confronted him with the apparent discrepancies between the SPD's crime statistics and anecdotal evidence from around the neighborhood. The LA Times recently revealed their city's crime statistics were dramatically inaccurate. So people keep moving to the neighborhood, thinking all is well. It's certainly NOT. Don't make fun of us for calling the police.

Posted On: Saturday, Jul. 25 2009 @ 9:05AM

Kevin Magovney says:

Can't anyone in America solve thier own problems? Why do we need to police to solve our problems. Get up off your own two feet and take care of the problem yourself. Its getting to the point in America where everybody is a "snitch". We cannot do anything anymore without offending someone.

Posted On: Saturday, Jul. 25 2009 @ 3:08PM