By Erica C. Barnett
FOX 13 anchor Han Kim interviewed Wilson last night at an event sponsored by City Club Seattle, hitting the mayor repeatedly with bad-faith questions such as “why should we increase the sales tax for transit when so many bus seat are empty” and “why is eating out still expensive when you said you would lower the cost of pizza?”
Kim even posed a couple of questions Wilson has answered ad infinitum at this point: Why did she dismiss the idea that rich people will leave Seattle over the statewide high-earners’ income tax (a story that made international news , thanks largely to nonstop, breathless coverage by right-wing local news outlets in Seattle) and is she still boycotting Starbucks (shortly after the election, Wilson appeared at a workers’ rally and said people shouldn’t buy from the anti-union company)?
Wilson did say she bought a disgusting-sounding “blueberry muffin” coffee drink the other day when she went to the Pike Place Market Starbucks to talk to workers about their labor concerns—hardly breaking news. but now we know.
I live-posted the entire event on Bluesky, including questions from a parade of angry audience members who wanted to know why homelessness and crime haven’t been fixed and seem to have gotten worse. Wilson had some nuanced responses to these perennial rhetorical questions, but she also seemed a bit frustrated with her interrogators, who interrupted her repeatedly mid-answer in a way that—I AM JUST SAYING—I never saw the public address former mayor Bruce Harrell.
Kim also spent several minutes demanding that Wilson respond to comments by former reality TV star and current LA mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt, who claimed recently that a third of LA’s homeless population was “bused in from other states” by “body brokers” and would move 1,200 miles north to Seattle once he cracks down on their ability to access social services. Pratt also wants to force people with addiction into 72-hour mental health holds, which he referred to as “mandatory rehab.” None of this is worth dignifying.
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With the World Cup games just a few days away (and City Councilmember Bob Kettle insisting that the mayor had no right to place a “pause” on the new cameras under the camera expansion legislation the council adopted last year), Wilson was asked again about what circumstances would constitute a “credible threat,” which she has said would trigger the city to turn on cameras already installed in the stadium district.
“A credible threat is if we get information, as our law enforcement agencies often do, that someone has the intention to cause harm to people or property… and it is believable that they might be able to carry it out. That is a credible threat for us,” Wilson said.
The mayor also noted that to the extent that surveillance cameras are useful, it’s generally to provide evidence after a crime has been committed, not to stop crimes in progress. And she pointed out, as PubliCola has, that there are already many city-operated and private surveillance cameras around the stadiums.
Camera proponents have generally been more interested in anecdotes than quantitative data. Last year, Kettle opposed an amendment to the police surveillance plan that would have required an analysis to determine whether the cameras were accomplishing their stated goals before any additional expansions. The council approved new cameras just two weeks after the first set was installed.
How is it bad faith to question the need for DOUBLING the transit sales tax when many Metro buses are routinely underutilized.
72 hour mental health holds for drug abusers? That sounds BRILLIANT. But sorry Spencer, buddy, I was calling for that years ago.
Drug addicts and unbridled taxation are currently destroying the city you claim to love, Erica.
That idiot in LA has nothing to do with Seattle. Also? He will not win. He has no chance.
Did anyone ask her what she is doing about the ongoing pimp shoot-outs in the Aurora Ave corridor neighborhood?
Yes, they did. And in one of the most telling exchanges a citizen who was in the middle of the mess and deals with crime daily on Highway 99 asked her if she had watched the videos of the shootouts. She said she had not. Nor has she appeared in person to talk with citizens at any of the meetings. For virtually every question about progress or lack of it on important issues she deflected responsibility for her absence or lack of progress (or claims of imminent progress) to “her team.”
The Publicola coverage does its best to trivialize the questions asked in what I found to be a very hard hitting forum. There is the implication here that interrupting the mayor’s non-answers, or being emotional is somehow just disrespectful. For the Black mother, requesting that security cameras be turned on, and who felt used by Katie Wilson, who met repeatedly with families in the South and Central Seattle and pretended concern for the loss of their children to violence, emotion and impatience seems completely appropriate.
What is missed when those opposed to the cameras say “they never stop crime they only occasionally catch people after the crime,” is the fact that a great deal of crime is committed by repeat offenders. If those offenders are caught, there is some likelihood (if they are actually trued and sentenced) that they will not repeat their crimes.
When citizens are living in a culture of gangs and retribution it is not safe to go to police with information. Cameras may be the only way that someone is caught. As for the nonsense of waiting for a credible threat during the games? What exactly do people expect to happen to attendance at FIFA if the mayor announces that there is a credible threat and so she is turning on the cameras?
Please stop…Using hysteria to force cameras everywhere is not rational. There was supposedly a “trial run” to see if this is something we want. None was performed. Bruce wanted to ram it down our throats. Money is involved. LOTS of it.
Cities across the nation are suing to remove the cameras and plate readers. They have been systematically abused by local law enforcement agencies. Federal law enforcement has as well of course.
The truth is this…MAGA types use ANY issue to troll Katie. They want her gone. Rachelle Savage installed.
“What exactly do people expect to happen to attendance at FIFA if the mayor announces that there is a credible threat and so she is turning on the cameras?”
If the city is aware of a credible threat for goodness’ sake they need to disclose it so people can make their own decisions, not hide it for the sake of ticket sales!
bums me out that so much attention is being paid to cameras (yes vs no vs maybe) when the proposed sales tax hike should be setting off alarm bells for everyone, even her supporters.
I Make less than 1K a month. We got to do something. Bruce sabotaged the budget plain and simple. We have to survive until that budget ends and Katie’s starts.