"... what they want is clear: More than half of the written comments from people surveyed expressed a desire to have an unarmed behavioral health professional available to respond to emergencies."

no need to Defund the Po-po
let 'em man up to the Covid
they seem so Unafraid of
and let Attrition take its
manifest Destiny/toll

And: "... have an
unarmed behavioral
health professional avail-
able to respond to emergencies."

how Hard
can it Be?

@3 that’s just a crime of poverty so no need for an investigation. Thank you fior donation.

This post did a great job obscuring what the results of the survey actually said, largely because it doesn't fit The Stranger's preferred narrative. The very first key finding? "Residents want a well-staffed King County Sheriff’s Office to address slow response times and increase the amount of police presence they see in their neighborhoods."

What else does The Stranger write? "For starters, more than a third of respondents told the survey authors that they’ve avoided calling 911 during an emergency, largely out of fear for the safety of the person who needed help if a cop showed up."

What does the survey actually say? "More than a third of respondents (36.71 percent) reported not calling 911 during an emergency. The most common reasons (in order of frequency) included:
1. A belief that law enforcement would not respond.
2. A belief that a police response should be avoided because the situation included
a person with mental health issues and or was BIPOC."

The top response to this question illustrates what anybody who has actually lived in these urban unincorporated islands knows: the King County Sheriff's Office is grossly understaffed and takes forever to get there when you call. So people give up and don't call because they don't think anybody will come. But is that what the Stranger says the survey says? Of course not -- they just lie about it.

The survey actually asks directly on p.25 if people think King County should invest in an alternative non-police response. The answer? 45.07% agree or strongly agree. 50.96% disagree or strongly disagree. The title of this post is "Rigorous Survey Finds King County Wants Police Alternatives," when on that question the majority says they don't!

It is fascinating -- yet at this point depressingly unsurprising -- to watch The Stranger model itself after Fox News and constantly lie to its readers.

This seems like something out of The Onion . Are people actually buying this?

Well, as it is often said, I can create a survey and get any answer you want.

But that aside, if might be interesting to see when the survey was done...during the peak or aftermath of BLM.... what might a current survey say.... such as one perhaps conducted today.

Clearly, the population of Seattle doesn't seem to on board with this "survey".

The horrific consequences of the current experiment of sending in "social workers" and "defunding the police" are plain to everyone, save the author of this slog.

As the Mayor of San Francisco said, its time to quit pretending social workers are going to solve these problems.

@6 just murdered Casey’s coverage of this survey. Casey, retract.

@6 — Thanks for pointing me to the language about those who didn’t call 911, and why they didn’t. I barely made it to the end of that sentence in Casey’s story before I smelled BS. In the words of @10: Casey, retract.

I stand reproved and must thank @6 for their able assistance....

Well, as it is often said, I can create a survey and get any answer you want......AND THE STRANGER WILL SPIN IT ANY WAY THEY WANT.

At least it's not cop spin @13, where they make stuff up 100 percent.

@6, @10, @11, @12, @13, @15:

Not only was the majority's rejection of police alternatives a direct contradiction to the title of this post, but the verbiage which explained why alternatives to policing got a majority negative response was also illuminating, and therefore ignored by the Stranger. From p. 24:

"Should King County Invest in an alternative non-police response? Approximately 45 percent of respondents reported a level of agreement with KC investing in an alternative, non- police, or other community-trained, unarmed crisis response to emergency (911) calls.

"When looking at how respondents within the 50.96 percent who reported a level of disagreement answered the same question, it appears that several are worried that investment in an alternative response would mean a divestment in the KCSO but also support investing in an alternative response."

So, talk of defunding the police actually reduces support for police alternatives! Little wonder the Stranger had to twist the survey results into outright lies. There's literally no evidence the Stranger's favored positions hold any significant public support at all.

I live in KCSO jurisdiction and...nah, this ain't it.
My block would tend to agree with me, and before you get all huffy-puffy about rAcIsM there's like 5 white people houses on my street out of maybe...70 houses?
We like KCSO because they got the shit-head druggy house off our street. Now our women-folk are free to walk to the public transport stop without being verbally assaulted by losers hanging out in their front yard all day with nothing better to do but holler at women much more successful and, now, far less imprisoned than they. We don't have to deal with stolen cars ditched up and down the street by persons perusing the druggy house, because why take the bus when you can just steal someone's car and leave it full of trash wherever you feel like it?
Literally nobody around here has said, "hey, I wish there was an alternative to dealing with this bullshit."

“The public transport stop?”

“White people houses?”

“Women-folk?”

“Perusing the druggy house?”

Gonna go ahead and call you a liar.

@18 sorry you didn't like my syntax?

Is it possible that the 11% who don't think the cops use an appropriate mount of force think that the cops are using too MUCH force?

@5: I don't think vehicle or catalytic converter thefts are being committed by the homeless. That takes some skill, tools, a vehicle, a backup driver and lookout (usually armed). And some means to fence the stolen property. All in all, much more organized than the average hobo who grabs a bottle of Jack Daniels and tries to sell it in front of his third avenue tent.

@1: "an unarmed behavioral health professional available" I can't wait for the implementation. I'd like to see the applications for the positions with the county government. Keep in mind that intervening in domestic disturbances and other emotion-fired conflicts is one of the most dangerous type of call that law enforcement take. And the most likely to get them killed.

@21 - The hobo camp population obviously has no problem with finding the tools to crack every bike lock known to man. Not to mention the guys living in Farleyville on Northlake who were LITERALLY running a chop shop cutting up cars on the side of the road. Basically, these are not your father's hobos.