You probably remember Seattle as one of America’s safest cities. But when its politicians began coddling criminals and persecuting police, despite residents’ protests, things predictably went bad. As reported by Dan Frosch and Zusha Elinson in The Wall Street Journal, Seattle is enduring a surge in crime. They write:
Dr. Deepika Nehra knew the only way to save the man on her operating table dying of a gunshot wound was to slice open his abdomen.
Nights like this have become routine at Harborview Medical Center, where this once-peaceful city’s mounting toll of shootings has played out again and again during the past year.
When the 39-year-old trauma surgeon tried to cut into the man’s midsection to stanch the bleeding, a brick of scar tissue blocked her way. It was from a previous gunshot wound. Unable to break through it quickly enough, she couldn’t stop the bleeding.
Long one of America’s safest cities, Seattle had 612 shootings and shots-fired incidents last year, nearly double its average before the pandemic. The city has just experienced its two worst years for homicides since the 1990s, when murder rates were at all-time highs. Gunfire has erupted all across surrounding King County, not just in neighborhoods plagued by violence.
“I stood by his side as he died and reflected on how needless his death was,” Dr. Nehra said. “The increase in gun-related injuries that we are seeing at Harborview and in Seattle is both palpable and just simply tragic. It will not let up.”
Dan Satterberg, the top county prosecutor, recently filed murder charges against a 14-year-old alleged to have randomly gunned down one man in January and another in October. In over 30 years as a prosecutor, he said, he couldn’t recall charging a person so young with two killings.
Seattle is one of many U.S. cities, from Los Angeles to Chicago to New York, that have seen shootings and killings jump since the onset of the pandemic. Several cities, including Albuquerque, Philadelphia and Portland, Ore., endured their deadliest year ever in 2021.
Officials around the country are struggling to understand why. They point to a range of factors such as the social and institutional chaos wrought by the pandemic, which stalled efforts by community groups that steer young people away from crime. Officials also cite fallout from the sweeping protests over police killings, which led to a push to defund the police and a pullback by officers. Such protests were especially persistent in Seattle, where demonstrators took over a section of the Capitol Hill neighborhood for weeks in 2020.
Action Line: Democrats in big blue blob cities unleashed the forces of chaos on their residents by encouraging the rioting and looting of 2020 and 2021. If you live under the yoke of politicians like these, it’s time to look for a better America. Your Survival Guy calls the states looking at their residents like valued customers, like Florida, Super States. Those looking at their residents like a piggy bank from which to withdraw money, like California, are the Escape States. If you are serious about making the move from an Escape State to a Super State, but can’t get going on your goal, I can help. Click here to subscribe to my free monthly Survive & Thrive letter, and I’ll help you break inertia and achieve your goal of freedom. But only if you’re serious.
