Seattle residents build barricades to combat rising crime wave
Fox News senior national correspondent William La Jeunesse reports on Seattle residents taking safety into their own hands, building homemade barricades from metal and dirt to block streets. This action comes amidst a surge in shootings, prostitution, and gang-related activities, with residents criticizing Democrat Mayor Katie Wilson and defunded police for a lack of effective response to the escalating crime wave in their community.
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Seattle democratic socialist Mayor Katie Wilson is being mocked online over the “irony” of residents in the blue-run city erecting barrier walls in a desperate attempt to stop out-of-control shootings.
Just months after Wilson took office in Seattle, terrified residents in the city’s Aurora Avenue corridor decided to take matters into their own hands to address near-nightly shootings believed to be connected to criminal turf wars, prostitution and illegal trafficking. After weeks of gang-related shootings and high-speed car chases, some residents spent Memorial Day weekend blocking off their own streets using metal planters, dirt, gravel, logs and chunks of concrete. The barricades were set up to block at least three streets leading into the neighborhood.
Though such artifices could incur fines, one resident named Peter Orr told KTVB 7, “It’s either this, or bullets in my neighbor’s houses.”
News of the neighborhood barricades in Seattle has garnered scorn for Wilson’s policies online.
TERRIFIED RESIDENTS IN CRIME-PLAGUED BLUE CITY THROW UP GIANT BARRICADES TO STOP CHAOS
Seattle socialist mayor, Katie Wilson, is taking criticism following residents of one neighborhood erecting makeshift walls in an effort to staunch rampant shootings. (David Ryder/Reuters; Fox 13 Seattle)
Among these was conservative commentator Paul Szypula, who wrote on X, “The Irony is Undeniable.”
“When progressive policies result in neighborhoods literally barricading themselves off… that says everything,” he wrote, adding, “What should Seattle leaders be doing so residents don’t feel forced to do this?”
Popular conservative account Libs of TikTok mocked, “Seattle residents are now building WALLS on their blocks to keep out criminals.”
Commentator Eric Daugherty posted, “Furious blue city residents in Seattle are now building their OWN BARRICADES to BLOCK streets because shootings are so high Omg. This is MADNESS.”
Residents near Seattle’s Aurora Avenue erected makeshift barricades after repeated shootings and rising gun violence in the neighborhood. (Fox 13 Seattle)
“The socialist mayor is IGNORING IT,” he added. “BLUE CITIES ARE COOKED!”
Constitutional analyst Jonathan Turley wrote, “Nothing says socialism more than citizen barricades.”
Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson’s staff abruptly ended an interview with a local news reporter last week after he pressed her on rising gun violence and surveillance cameras in the city after a recent shooting. (David Ryder/Reuters)
He mocked, “In this case, Les Miserables are seeking to protect their property. After electing a mayor who once called for the defunding of police, Seattle neighborhoods are reverting to self-help measures.”
Wilson, who was sworn into office this January, wrote in a 2020 opinion piece about the defund the police effort that “there’s never been a better time to try.”
In the piece, Wilson posited “there’s a strong argument for simply disbanding police departments and starting over,” reasoning that “institutional culture change is hard.”
“Leaving aside debates on the left about whether police abolition is possible under capitalism, or at all, let’s stick with the current movement demand of cutting the SPD [Seattle Police Department] budget by half. That’s a lot of officers. It may sound alarming, until you realize that U.S. police perform numerous functions for which armed personnel, trained for violent conflict, are unnecessary or unsuited — and often, unsurprisingly, cause harm,” she wrote.
The Space Needle stands among downtown buildings in Seattle, Washington. (Al Drago/Getty Images)
As mayor, however, Wilson has not moved to cut the police by half. She has responded to recent shootings by launching a “multi-pronged gun violence strategy,” in which she convened a panel of experts to help the city reduce retaliatory shootings, address youth violence and coordinate efforts between police, schools and community groups.
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Wilson has paused expansion of the city’s CCTV surveillance and license plate reader programs pending a privacy audit, while maintaining existing police camera systems in high-crime areas, including the Aurora Avenue corridor.
Fox News Digital reached out to Wilson for comment.
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Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: moxie.foxnews.com
