If you use drugs openly on the streets of Seattle, police will no longer arrest you.
That’s the new directive, according to the activist group We Heart Seattle, which said it obtained an internal Seattle Police Department (SPD) email instructing officers to stop making arrests for public drug use and possession. Instead, officers will refer people to the LEAD pre-arrest diversion program. I reached out to SPD and the mayor’s office over the weekend. No confirmation. But no denial either. And Mike Solan, head of the Seattle Police Officers Guild, confirmed it’s true. He uses a harsh term for this approach: suicidal empathy.
We’ve tried this before…