Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson reportedly built a wall to mitigate violent crime in her city.
Seattle built barriers along Aurora Avenue in response to shootings and sex trafficking in the area, The Seattle Times reported Thursday. The new effort began amid backlash from locals over the mayor’s crime policies.
“Oftentimes it requires that we ask a survivor to come and do one of the hardest things in their life, to come into a courtroom and sit across the table on the witness stand from the person who caused them irreparable harm,” King County senior deputy prosecutor Alexandra Voorhees reportedly said. “[The average age of those entering] commercial sex work is between 12 and 15 years old.”
“I’m so tired of the B.S.,” car repair shop owner Adam Elhaj said after an arsonist torched three cars at his shop last April, according to The Seattle Times. He also reportedly said “[suspects] get out the next day” even after being arrested.
There were seven reported shootings in the area last April and eight the following month, The Seattle Times reported May 29. Police reportedly said many such shootings are tied to the sex trade. Residents responded by placing planters along several side streets that May, while Wilson discussed looking for more permanent solutions.
The city later replaced those planters with concrete traffic barriers — a solution that received mixed responses from local business owners, according to The Seattle Times.
“You can’t drive in a straight line anywhere anymore,” Rich’s Custom Upholstery owner Moe Pilgrim reportedly said. Meanwhile, Greenwood Radiator Services owner Ron Linson reportedly said that one customer recently asked concerning crime in the area, “Should I wear a bulletproof vest?”
Wilson has been under fire for her handling of public safety and homelessness, Fox 13 Seattle reported June 3.
“I’ll say people come into homelessness from all kinds of different directions. And people who are struggling with substance use disorder, drug addiction, everyone has their individual situation and what works for one person doesn’t always work for another. And that is part of why it’s really important that we have a variety of shelter options, and that we have a variety of service models,” Wilson told Fox in the interview.
The self-described socialist mayor recently announced plans to add 1,000 new homeless shelter beds by the year’s end, the DCNF reported May 29. Her homelessness advisor resigned that same morning.
“We are talking about doing a quick assessment of what it would look like to more permanently block off certain streets, but they need to study emergency access, we need to be able to get emergency vehicles into the neighborhood. So that is what’s going on, and so we’re going to have more information very soon, and we also have emphasis patrols that SPD is doing right now, greater presence, we’re stepping up the Gun Violence Reduction Unit in the area,” she reportedly told Fox when asked about Aurora Avenue’s apparent rise in human trafficking and prostitution.
“These are the immediate fixes, no illusion that things like this are solving the longer term problem, but we are trying to take immediate action to improve conditions in the neighborhood because it’s unacceptable,” she added.
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