By reporter Steven Smalley
They?ve had enough.
About 350 residents of Queen Anne, Ballard, North Seattle and Magnolia neighborhoods gathered at the Magnolia United Church of Christ last night for a standing-room only meeting to address criminal activities surrounding illegal RVs parked on streets around town. Surveys and raised hands indicated most attendees were victims of one crime or several attributed to the inhabitants of the vehicles. This was not a happy crowd.
The Neighborhood Safety Alliance, a nascent community organization headed by Magnolia resident Cindy Pierce, set the agenda and led the meeting with others in her group. It took a concerted effort to keep a lid on the crowd that was told at the outset it was not allowed to participate. The order to remain silent didn?t sit well with many in the audience, as indicated by the occasional shouted outburst.
Police, city officials, politicians, and one spokesperson from each neighborhood were the only ones who spoke at the podium.
?Using drugs, manufacturing drugs, causing property crime, auto theft, car prowls, burglaries, packages stolen off of porches, stolen bicycles …,? Cindy Pierce enumerated a long list of alleged crimes by inhabitants of illegal RVs. ?I think most of the people in the RVs are criminals. I don?t know who [the criminals] are, and I don?t know where they came from, but they?re here. We?ve got to get rid of them.?
A few homeless advocates in attendance likened the vitriol assigned to illegal RVs to an attack on the homeless.
?We are absolutely not against the homeless at all. We are a compassionate group of individuals who believe they are people who need our help,? said Pierce. ?Believe me, we?ll be the first ones who will be at their side. We are just not going to deal with illegal RV parking, drugs, garbage, needles, and meth labs.?
Assistant Chief of Police Steve Wilske spoke on behalf of the department. He said Seattle officers have their hands tied in regard to the RV problem because police need to operate within the bounds of the constitution and probable cause. He emphatically stated there were no orders to maintain a ?hands-off? approach to the RVs. Wilske said all instructions to officers go through him, and no one was ever given to stay clear of RVs.
Police have a difficult time witnessing crime committed by inhabitants of illegal RVs. Even parking laws are easy to circumvent if the vehicle is moved every 72 hours, according to Pierce.
?I say we change the law. We simply not allow RVs on our city streets, just like Shoreline did,? she says. ?We?ll compromise for those truly down and out. There should be a place for them to go. We?re for that. The Safety Alliance is no longer going to put up with a city that just does what it wants. People are tired of it. We can?t afford to bring people in from all over the country to ?Free-attle.?
As the meeting continued, some in the audience indicated vocal disapproval in the absence of the mayor. Scott Lindsay, Special Assistant on Police Reform and Public Safety, and others from the administration, did their part to assure attendees all was being done to address the RV dilemma.
Seattle City Council member Mike O?Brien faced a hostile crowd and spoke numerous times. He indicated ? to much disapproval from the audience ? his want for the city to provide housing, toilets, and other facilities to assist the homeless.
?Homelessness is not a crime,? he said.
Shouts from the audience demanding he address crime and not homelessness, met with more conversation about the need to give the homeless more infrastructure, which in turn resulted in more derision from attendees. At times it nearly turned ugly.
One politician who spoke and received a warmer reaction was Seattle City Council member, Sally Bagshaw. Her remarks more equally mirrored the feelings of the crowd. Her support for ridding the community of criminal elements present in RVs was met with genuine support.
?I?m pleased to hear from Sally Bagshaw,? Pierce said. ?She gets it. She understands we need to take the RVs off the street, separating the truly homeless from the criminals.?
In closing, a spokesperson for The Neighborhood Safety Alliance summed it up.
?Public safety demands that our elected officials take immediate action,? she said. ?It has been declared a crisis. We demand emergency action to make us all feel safe again. We want the mayor to stop this epic and flagrant disregard of the law.?
The crowd erupted in cheers.
Pierce says the next meeting, soon to be announced, will allow the community at-large to have its say. The venue, as yet to be chosen, will have a larger capacity.