While local law enforcement agencies are still investigating, credible reports from witnesses indicate the shooting was gang-related. If that’s true, this latest shooting follows a troubling trend in Seattle and its near suburbs.

Chairman Jim Walsh made the following remarks: “The violence caused by criminal street gangs follows a harsh logic. Criminal street gangs make money by managing illegal activities in the communities that they exploit. The most common of these crimes are the sale of illegal drugs, prostitution and human trafficking (sometimes connected to prostitution, sometimes not). Criminal street gangs respond violently to rival groups—or upstarts within their own groups—who try to compete.

These aren’t new problems. Most of the largest cities in the U.S. have passed local ordinances and developed sophisticated law-enforcement teams to fight criminal street gangs. And to protect law-abiding people.

Not Seattle. While people are being killed after midnight on Rainier Avenue South, Seattle’s mayor and city council refuse to enact common-sense ordinances against the knowing possession and use of drugs like fentanyl, heroin and methamphetamine. The mayor and city council turn dysfunctional blind eyes toward the prostitution and human trafficking that thrive in their jurisdiction. Their doddering allows crime to grow like a virus throughout the city.”

In the wake of Sunday morning’s shootings, Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell released a public statement that meandered around vague platitudes about “a holistic approach to this ongoing challenge” and “partnering with legislators at the state level to advance enhanced gun safety legislation and end state preemption over firearms….” Weak stuff.

Chairman Jim Walsh continued: “Further impairing the gun rights of law-abiding people does nothing to deter criminal street gangs. The City of Seattle needs to stop wasting time and take decisive action to protect its citizens and residents. Specifically, the mayor and city council must:

• Stop delaying and enact ordinances prohibiting the knowing possession and use of drugs like fentanyl, heroin, methamphetamine, etc.
• Acknowledge that prostitution and human trafficking are major problems in Seattle—real risks to the personal safety of law-abiding citizens—and enact more effective ordinances to limit these criminal activities.
• Put aside “diversity, equity and inclusion” programs that have crippled the Seattle Police Department’s ability to hire enough officers to patrol the City’s streets effectively.
• Direct the Seattle Police Department to fill its ranks more quickly—and open hiring to experienced law-enforcement officers from all around the state who were terminated because of Jay Inslee’s various “emergency” COVID mandates.
• Direct the Seattle City Attorney to prosecute crimes that the King County Prosecutor cannot or will not prosecute effectively.

No more blathering about “holistic” approaches. Seattle’s mayor and city council need to protect law-abiding people.”