Support WA candidates who will cut crime, drugs and homelessness. But that’s just a start
Even if you keep pouring more gas and oil into that 1970s station wagon, eventually it’s going to strand you somewhere. And when you’re on the side of the road with a steaming engine and shredded belts, more gas won’t get it running. You need a new car.
When you’re voting for state legislative candidates in a few weeks, remember that, and understand too that many of our state’s basic services — such as K-12 schools, mental health systems and foster care — are 20th-century models that we keep pouring more money into when what we need to do is build 21st-century programs.
Rebuilding 20th-century systems is hard work that can tick off a lot of well-funded interest groups, so governors and legislators typically just pour more gas in the aging station wagon, hoping it won’t break down while they’re driving.
But it is breaking down. You see it in our parks, on street corners and along our highways. Just stare through the cracked windshield at these crime statistics.
The last two years have been the deadliest in Tacoma since the late 1980s and early 1990s — during the height of the crack cocaine epidemic and the gang wars that put the city in the national news. Assaults, property crimes, vandalism and arson have all increased. Across Pierce County, car thefts have skyrocketed. According to data culled from the FBI’s uniform crime reports, total crime in Tacoma is 171% of the national average.
Some legislative candidates look at this situation and rightly point out that the state legislature and the state Supreme Court have hobbled police officers and all but legalized the public use of hard drugs. If elected, they promise to pass legislation that will permit police to pursue criminals and laws that will criminalize the possession of hard drugs. They are promising to restore order, and we should support that, for without order there can be no justice.
But order does not produce justice. And instilling order without rebuilding 20th-century service systems would be just as negligent as gassing up the aging station wagon. That’s what we’ve been doing. Pouring more gas into that station wagon will not take us where we need to go.
Despite the state spending billions more on our current K-12 system, too many of our ninth graders still do not graduate from high school and too many of those who do lack the skills needed to secure a family wage job. Too many kids in rural districts and districts with low property values do not get the same education as kids in rich districts. Students in foster care are less likely to start ninth grade on track to graduate, and throughout high school struggle with math and English language arts proficiency. The state’s Office of Financial Management’s report on education outcomes admits, “The systems that support students in foster care have not yet been able to adequately support students to achieve educational outcomes on par with their peers.” Mental Health America ranks Washington state’s mental health system among the bottom third of US states. For youth mental health, Washington is ranked 39th out of 50 states.
Combine these program failures with acceptance of camping in public spaces when alternative shelter exists and acceptance of hard-drug possession and you’ll get the chilling crime stats we see today.
Beyond personal violations and financial losses, rising crime rates undermine democracy. That’s because providing for safe communities is one of government’s most basic functions, and when government can’t deliver it our confidence in democratically elected leaders and systems wanes. Voters desperate to feel secure downtown or in parks, who want to go to sleep not worrying about their car or garage being broken into, will trade liberty for security; they will support candidates who are comfortable with tactics such as random searches and roadblocks, tactics that can instill order, but at the expense of justice and eventually democracy.
When voting this November, I encourage you to support candidates who will fix unfortunate legislation that has inhibited police from responding to crimes and kept them from chasing criminals, and candidates who will seek legislative solutions to a court decision that has facilitated the public use of hard drugs. Those are needed short-term steps. But look for the candidate who wants to go beyond instilling order and will also create a more just community.
Building that more just community requires trading in our 1970s station wagon for a hybrid SUV; it requires a ground-up rebuild of 20th-century systems that are failing too many people, especially the young in our community. I hope you can find that candidate on your 2022 ballot, and if not, let’s find one to run in 2024.
We need such candidates to restore security to our streets, parks and homes and to build the foundation of a more just community.
We need them to reaffirm representative government works.
Bill Bryant, who served on the Seattle Port Commission from 2008-16, ran against Jay Inslee as the Republican nominee in Washington’s 2016 governor’s race. He is chairman of the company BCI. Since the late 1980’s he has been appointed by U.S. Democratic and Republican administrations to advise on our nation’s trade policy. He is a founding board member of the Nisqually River Foundation, and was appointed by Gov. Chris Gregoire to serve on the Puget Sound Partnership’s Eco-Systems Board.
This story was originally published October 6, 2022 at 5:00 AM.