Seattle is fine *PERIOD*

I live in Seattle and visit Portland fairly often. Let me be absolutely clear: there’s no reason whatsoever to send the National Guard to either city.

I walk the streets of downtown Seattle daily, and sometimes late at night and in the early morning hours and I’ve never felt unsafe or witnessed this so-called “out-of-control crime” people keep screaming about. Yes, we have problems like any major city: homelessness, drug use, theft, vandalism, occasional assaults etc., but that doesn’t make it a war zone, and it sure as hell doesn’t justify military deployment.

The reality is that crime is down, but I swear to God it’s like some folks around here are seriously terrified of their own shadows. They see a homeless person sleeping on the street, or someone tagging a wall, or someone strung out or having a mental health crisis in public and they act like the city’s collapsing. That’s a logical fallacy: “I saw something bad once, therefore it’s happening everywhere.” It’s the same thinking we used to hear during COVID, “I don’t see a line at the hospital in my neighborhood, so COVID must be fake.”

Seattle isn’t “burning.” It’s functioning. It’s imperfect. It’s alive. And if it takes me filming my walks throughout downtown to prove that, then fine, I’ll do it. But the real problem isn’t crime. It’s hysteria and propaganda.