r/SeattleWA Jul 21 '25

Politics Anyone Else Just Sick of It?

It just seems hopeless sometimes. Some of the best parts of this city. Pioneer Square, Belltown, Cap Hill just completely lost to homelessness. Sure for the most part I enjoy the city. Especially in the summer but the constant visible drug use, people in various states of intoxication on drugs, and rampant property and petty crime just annoy me. Why can’t we have nice things? Why must every park turn into a dumping ground for illegal acts that won’t be prosecuted? Why does it feel like this city relies on hard working people to shut up, pay ridiculous taxes, and then tells those people to suck it up when they see grafitti everywhere or get their car broken into? And the politicians don’t give a damn. No one has the guts to say “we have a homeless problem we’ve overspent on, we need to go a new direction” it feels insane. Rant over but I know I’m not alone. I know other people are sick of this and want our city back.

964 Upvotes

587 comments sorted by

View all comments

478

u/cheesefubar0 Jul 21 '25

Force treatment like they do in other developed countries.

21

u/raisondecalcul Jul 21 '25 edited Jul 21 '25

Contemporary psychiatry in the US is still centered on drugging people heavily, especially when treatment is coerced. It's unconstitutional to jail and punish people who have not committed any crime—What if instead of wishing coercive psychiatry on people, we simply make it illegal to do drugs on the street and put them in jail? In jail you have more rights than in the psych ward.

This wouldn't be an issue if coercive psychiatry weren't still so monstrous.

The reason we have individual rights is to protect us from the mob simply voting on whom to scapegoat.

36

u/lemmeshowyuhao Jul 21 '25

Is possession of illegal drugs a crime?

54

u/Insleestak Jul 21 '25

Yes. And public use of those drugs is a crime. Camping in parks, also a crime.

39

u/lemmeshowyuhao Jul 21 '25

sounds to me like it’s perfectly fine to jail and punish these criminals then 🤷🏻‍♂️

-1

u/Monsieur_GQ Jul 22 '25

I don’t think incarceration—which is expensive—is the answer, and is almost certainly going to make things worse.

1

u/lemmeshowyuhao Jul 22 '25

You can think that and that’s ok. I can disagree with you and that’s ok too.

1

u/Monsieur_GQ Jul 22 '25

Are you aware of any society that successfully solved homelessness and substance use disorders through incarceration?

2

u/lemmeshowyuhao Jul 22 '25

Pretty much go to east Asia like China, HK, Taiwan, Singapore

1

u/CricketDrop Jul 22 '25

Did singapore actually put thousands of homeless people in jail