So, I was walking to my weekly pickup frisbee game around noon yesterday, and as I was passing QFC there were two men with about 20 EMTs tending to them. I stopped to talk with another man at the bus stop about what happened, and two more city police pulled up and began to arrest the men, but I was late for my game and went on my way. Checking the police reports now, the incident has been classified under “Mental Complaint,” and the matter seems to be closed.
All of which, though out of the ordinary, is dreadfully unexciting and usually unworthy of mention, even for something like Wallyhood.
But from what I gathered, the two men were (heavily) intoxicated and one had tripped, fallen face-first into the trash can on the side wall of the bus stop overhang, and had begun bleeding fairly significantly from the mouth and nose. Presumably, this necessitated the EMTs and a small contingent from the local fire department. Nobody, however, wanted to go to the hospital. According to the man I was talking to, this was because it would “blow up somebody’s day,” but I would lay more money meant that the two drunk men knew they didn’t have any sort of insurance and were reluctant to take on that burden. I’m speculating, based that on the fact that they were middle-aged, minority (Native American?), wore not-so-nice clothing, and were drunk early on a Sunday morning, but anyway, that’s my opinion.
In any event, the one man was doing his best to clean the other’s face and both very obviously wanted to go home, but were made uncomfortable by being surrounded by so many first responders. The EMTs, for their part, were also looking like they had nothing to do, and seemed engaged in light conversation with each other. Nobody was really doing anything. Certainly nobody was doing anything wrong.
Then the police came, and the once-calm situation was immediately brought under control. The bleeding man was quickly taken away from his friend, put in handcuffs, and led to the car to be taken downtown. The friend tried to follow, but was roughly shoved back into the wall of Bartell’s by the second police officer, all while the EMTs and firemen looked on awkwardly or studied the ground at their feet. They weren’t visibly upset in the way someone doesn’t get visibly upset when they see something they disagree with for the thousandth time and realize for the thousandth time that they can’t do anything, but it looked to me like they weren’t happy about the treatment of the new prisoners.
Unfortunately, this was when I left. Other than Mental Complaint, I have no idea what happened past this, but I thought about it for the rest of the day and it’s been eating away at me a little bit. I don’t know if the folks who read Wallyhood know anything about this, though for myself I don’t have any interest in starting some crusade against police brutality a la the 99%. But the thing is, as I was walking away, I found myself getting kind of protective of these two bleeding drunk guys who just wanted to go home while they were getting manhandled into a police car. For better or worse, I feel like they’re a part of our neighborhood. So if anybody knows anything, post it in the comments. I’d love to know more about what finally happened.
“For better or worse, I feel like they’re a part of our neighborhood.”
No, I’d say just worse.
it’s nonstop homeless drunky time over here by Malt Liquour Row (50th Street Market / 7-11) can’t believe the increase in belligerent traffic all hours of day and night. I must be on the wrong side of this but I wish they would arrest ’em more often.
More than likely these two are chronic public inebriates and well known to the police. The one that was taken away probably had outstanding warrants. None of this is an excuse for unwarranted rough treatment, just may explain what happened.
WOW! How embarrassing to be a part of a neighborhood that includes the above wallingfordian commentators…..but for better or worse i have to deal with you bozos as a part of my neighborhood too! Bah!
The drunk Native-American guy should be thankful the cops didn’t shoot him.
What katrina said.
NIMBY-ism isn’t becoming for any neighborhood. I was disappointed semi-recently when Wally considered, then axed a mental health clinic (I believe… anyone recall the specifics?) Way to not deal with a problem, ’cause we “aren’t a neighborhood where that would happen”. Sheeit.
Ok, /rant. I know there are good examples here, too!
I’m with Adam and Katrina. It sounds like the police made things worse, not better.
My best regards to Adam for sharing this story, and expressing his sense of humanity for “the least of us”. Many folks believe addiction and its attendant behaviors are freely chosen, that addicts suffer from a weak will and selfish disposition and that consequently, addicts/public inebriates invite and deserve belittlement, cruelty, ostracization and imprisonment.
Those of us who have family members or loved ones who suffer from addiction diseases experience heartbreak on so many levels. Being humane does not cost much and in fact, the police have often been humane and kind to my brother, and
have saved his life more than once.
I would never wish this disease on any family.
When the police make an arrest, it isn’t their job to explain the reason to bystanders. And if someone interferes in any way, the police response can seem harsh–but a swift and forceful response is necessary. Try to think about it from the perspective of the officers: They have a very dangerous job. They need to protect the public and themselves, while dealing with public opinion (including the opinions of the mayor and the city council) that seeks to hamper their ability to enforce laws.
I would not give this incident a second thought unless someone comes forward with evidence that an injustice occurred.
Thank you for thinking about this and for sharing it with the neighborhood. I’m new here and I appreciate all the words from every part of Wallingford. Hope these two are okay.
On a completely separate note, where can I find out more information about the Frisbee game you mention at the beginning of your posting?
Peace.
I don’t have any interest in starting some crusade against police brutality a la the 99%
but then you compose a blog posting where you don’t have the facts and tell one side of the story (what you gather happened) and make assumptions on what happened and reasoning of certain actions.
if you had completely stinking drunk bums outside your house all day everyday, pissing in your yard, throwing cans in your yard, screaming, accosting your kids etc I suspect your view would be dramatically different. those of us unfortunate enough to live right next to current AIA border have incredibly high concentrations of local homeless drunks, imported homeless drunks (thanks Share!) and other fans of 6 beers in one can of $1.29 malt beverage. I’ve gone from bleeding heart liberal to angry nimby, only took 7 years. don’t give ’em $$ whatever you do, food is fine, your $$ is literally pissed on your neighbors house.
Aw, w (#12) that’s soooo insensitive of you! You really should be more tolerant of those who are just “down on their luck” (because simple bad luck why they’re in that situation, right?)
In fact, being tolerant of them is not enough: you should celebrate the diversity they bring to the neighborhood. next time you see a bum puking on the sidewalk, give ’em a smile, and offer him your sleeve to wipe his mouth on.
When you see one peeing in the bushes at Meridian playground, offer words of encouragement, like, “Good Aim!”
And when you see 20 EMT’s tending to one whose passed out or hurt due to getting themselves plastered, say “Thank you for doing your part to provide jobs for emergency personnel!”
Lastly, be sure to give the next one you see a hug, and welcome him into your home. I’m sure you little act of kindness will help them turn their life right around…..
“…make assumptions on what happened and reasoning of certain actions.”
I agree with neighbor that it’s counter-productive to post a blog on such loosely drawn assumptions.
To me, it sounded like Adam was just looking for more information so he could better understand what he saw.
I agree with Jack (#13) And feel compassion for walkinroun. Everyone should read that post and think about it.
I appreciate Adam’s observations, and thank him for writing.
That is disturbing to see. I usually try to offer food the folks who are in the area. And I ask them what THEY might like. What kind of soup they like and don’t like. You should see the amazement and happiness on their face when they are treated like a PERSON, who is an individual. ANd not invisible. It must be so terrible to be homeless and cold, to not be able to take a hot shower, to worry about finding a bathroom. My heart aches for those less fortunate. RE addiction? REad walkinroun’s email again.
I walked by and stopped and watched. The two men were very drunk. Then the police arrived and the officers tried to figure out what happened. The Indian with the bloody face tried to walk away and an officer yelled “HEY” and made him turn around. I left but while there I saw no police brutality. The two Indians looked really inebriated. When an officer arrives how does he know what is before him? The drunkards could be armed with guns, knives, rocks and/or broken glass.
First of all, there are a bunch of you who don’t have to deal with these drunks every day in other parts of Wallingford, like my area, up near the 50th Street Market/7-11 area, which, as another poster mentioned, is absolutely Malt Liquor Row. Yeah, I’m sorry they suffer from these addictions, but their other actions are severely objectionable. If any of you would like to welcome them into your homes and out of my yard, please do. Secondly, Adam, the reason they don’t want to be arrested is because they will then be taken to the drunk tank to dry out which means no more drinking for a while. Everything was fine until that stupid AIA boundary was put into place on its east side at Latona, then the drunks started migrating to our area. I’m surprised there were so many first responders considering it was only two guys.
Last Saturday, I went outside to human feces all over the sidewalk. Across the street, at the bus shelter, there were malt liquor cans everywhere. My guess is that after a night of drinking, someone had a bad stomach and relieved themselves all over the sidewalk. That said, it is hard not to feel resentful of what goes on between the freeway and 7-11. I am a very compassionate person, but I have had to deal with this dynamic for many years and I am losing patience. Cleaning up feces did not help their cause.
The man was most likely taken to the ER, as there is no drunk tank in this region. The ER is the dumping ground for all of our public drunks brought in by the police and EMS. The police allways take drunks to the ER first, for medical clearance, as they are very wary of being sued if the drunk hurts themselves in jail. As these folks rarely have health insurance, you can imagine how much more taxpayers are paying for this, versus a drunk tank, or letting them go “home” to sleep it off. Another way for the police to get people off the streets for our “public safety”, is to detain them for a mental health evaluation, as in “Mental Complaint”, again at great cost to all taxpayers.
Being married to an ER doc, and knowing lots of EMS folk, this a daily, if not hourly occurance all over our country. People wonder why our health care costs so much, we are all ready paying for the uninsured, in the most expensive way.
Our, he had warrants!
To all who want this blog to be a traditional newspaper: it isn’t, doesn’t pretend to be and doesn’t aspire to be. Neighbors sharing their subjective experiences and their opinions about them are not merely allowed, they’re the point.
I think Adam did a great job of describing what he saw and making clear when he was expressing his assumptions / opinions versus reporting facts. Yep, his intent wasn’t to start a crusade, it was to start a discussion. Mission accomplished, I’d say.
FWIW, Adam wrote this post as an e-mail to me and asked if it would be worth writing an article around it. I suggested that he post it essentially verbatim as he wrote it to me: complete with the uncertainty, self-questioning and ambivalence that he felt. That’s part of the story. Nothing is black and white.
If you are brown you are screwed and as far as police (brutality), yea they have a hard job but they knew that going in. Being publically intoxicated and spewing body fluids is also disgusting. In my opinion if as a society we looked at the underlying issues of alcohol abuse, social inequity, and dealt with these concerns there would be less disharmony in the world.
Personally I find people to be the most unkind during the holiday season, it seems like its all about “self” and not about others. If you see an injustice speak up for the voiceless, don’t do it for gain, do it because you know it is the right thing to do.
The above is just all my own opinion (s) of course.
@21:
The “mission statement” above is clear. I am sending this post in advance of its 2 year anniversary after comparing the above with the inaugural post in 2009.
I think I understand why some of your readers, me included especially, thought Wallyhood might be a horse of a different color in the already thriving “community-built” Wallingford community. After finally asking a younger person to explain to me in great detail what a blog is it is easier to pick arenas of interest, appreciate cited facts from experts (such as KCMetro’s Jack Whisner did regarding proposed changes to bus service). When information informs the opinionfest — such as Municipal Code as it applies to some of these threads, what agency is in charge of say, SHARE or, say, the Seattle School District, and that Muncipal Code has regulations stipulated for everything to what planting strips look like to what can be served at open gatherings at businesses such as Art Walks or Open Houses — it seems to me that energy could be aimed at working to change or modify existing paradigms. Here is the initial post from 2009:
Welcome to Wallyhood
Wallyhood
Sun, January 11, 2009 at 5:29 pm
Welcome to Wallyhood.org, the neighborhood blog for Wallingford, Seattle. Fair game for the blog include neighborhood events, business openings and closings, police blotter reports, resident profiles, found objects, and pretty much anything relevant to that little area East of Stone Way, West of I-5, South of 60th and North of the Lake that we call home. Story ideas may come from the Wallingford Community Council, Wallingford Chamber of Commerce, Weaving Wallingford, neighborhood gossips, meddling kids and the occasional snake oil salesman.
We’ll be encouraging neighborhood cooperation, such as a backyard produce swap day, and encouraging information sharing, such as a maps of street art, sidewalk fruit trees, and garage sales.
If you’ve got a tip or an idea or are interested in being a regular contributor, e-mail me at jordan (at) hive-mind.com. See you soon!<<
ps Congratulations!
If you really are this bothered by the actions of the police when they deal with people who are uncooprative, and could pose a threat to the safety and overall well being of themselves or others, you need to follow a police officer around for a day or two. Speaking as someone who’s been attacked by a unprovoked stranger because they were under the influence of a controled substance, the police were acting in the best interest of the community.
It is nice that you see the best in people but there are others out there who have less honerable intentions, and they don’t have a warning stamped across their forehead. To ensure public safety to the best of their abilities, police have to hope for the best and prepare for the worst.
..This is all aside from the possibility that a failure by the police to ensure that the injured man reiceved proper medical attention at a time when he may have been suffering from significantly impaired judgement and was perhaps unable to act in his own own best interest could get the police in legal trouble as well.
Hey Adam,
Since your original post was asking what happened that day I can tell you what I saw from my point of view.
I was waiting to check out at the QFC but they were having computer problems at the time so many of us were waiting in line for their system to reboot. The two gentleman were standing at the corner talking. It was obvious they were hanging out together and I’m assuming we’re both brought to the same dance by whatever they were on. This was so far from a physical altercation it wasn’t even funny. It looked like 2 friends messing with each other but was in fact two men so under the influence they couldn’t hurt a flea. After they stopped both sat down and were talking as friends again before the fire truck pulled up (first to scene), the the EMT (second), followed by the police. The one man who was injured fell into the concrete barrier and hit his face because he was messed up on his own accord and not because he was punched. It was actually a sad comedy of errors to watch and both appeared to be waiting for the bus at the time. The EMT I believe understood the situation was not a medical emergency. I left before the police took action.
I’ll leave the opinions to the arm chair quarterbacks who were not present.
Congratulations Wallyhood! We love your blog and wouldn’t change a thing. Wallyhood helps create a sense of community and although I may not agree with all of the contributors, I enjoy reading their posts and listening to different points of view.
We live on MLR and fortunately (knock on wood) we haven’t had any problems with anyone. I wholly sympathize with our neighbors who are having negative experiences. It’s easier to be tolerant and forgiving when it’s not happening in your backyard.
Danielle, your points about the police are spot on. I worked for the KCSO for 18 years and the Officers and Detectives I worked with were honest and hard working people. It’s a dangerous and often a thankless job.
Lisa, I think you are right about the ‘drunk tank’ and the reason why the individual may have resisted getting into the patrol car. Dave, I asked my friend who is a Corrections Officer at KCDAD (KC JAIL) and she said if the suspect is under arrest, they stay at the jail unless they are declined by the Jail’s medical staff. They may stay in booking a while to sleep and sober up. If someone is having withdrawals, they will put them in the medical drunk tank. They sleep on the floor because of the possibility of seizures, their vitals are checked several times a day and once they are cleared my medical they will go to general population. If the jail medical declines them, then they will go to HMC. It’s a different story if the person isn’t under arrest…then what Dave said.
Just wanted to clarify, there is a ‘drunk tank’ of sorts at the KCDAD…
Further clarification: health care services in the adult jail facilities in King County (King County Correctional Facility downtown and the Maleng Regional Justice Center in Kent) are provided by the Public Health Department. The ‘drunk tank’ is actually group housing units (occasionally includes individual cells for individuals who cannot be housed with others due to hallucinations and behavioral instability; there are group units for men and women) in the jail infirmary that is staffed 24/7 by an RN with ARNP and MD staffing seven days a week, and medical monitoring of alcohol (and often other substance) withdrawal is accompanied by prescription medications to manage the alcohol withdrawal syndrome.
While it’s impossible to know for sure the legal status of the two men described in the blog post, it is not uncommon in jail health to hear that people avoid going to seek medical care in part because of outstanding warrants (often for ‘failure to appear’ for trial after being released on personal recognizance or low bond amounts). So it’s possible that the men above did not want anyone called for this reason.
It’s also true that addiction is a horrible disease, for the addict and for people in relationship with the addict (family, friends, partners, etc.). Part of why it can be so horrible is that addicts can act in ways that are harmful to others, including abusively and violently. One of the hallmarks of addiction, as opposed to physical dependency, is use of a drug (or behavior) despite adverse consequences, which can include loss of normal human relationships…not many people want to be around people who defecate on sidewalks; certainly not many people want to be around someone who is threatening or otherwise violent.
Addicts are not ‘bad people’ because they do these things in addiction; I have seen many addicts who recover and become wonderful examples of service to others. On the other hand, addiction is not an ‘excuse’ for horrible behaviors, either, and many addicts who have recovered point to the consequences of their addiction (including jail time, prison time and other losses) as part of the reason they ultimately became willing to look for something better than the misery that is addiction.
It could be that the injury, the arrest, and other circumstances of the episode described in the blog post lead one or both of the men involved to want to change. If not, at least there is medical treatment available both in and outside of jail to help with the acute injuries and possible withdrawal.
And while WA is seemingly unwilling to tax itself to help pay for outpatient chemical dependency and mental health services (effectively criminalizing mental illness, in many cases), I remain hopeful and inspired by the people who provide help for people in seemingly hopeless circumstances. Not offering excuses or platitudes, but speaking from their own experience, speaking honestly and with respect, helping and encouraging but not carrying. Thanks to Wallyhood for a chance to share on a situation that many have seen a version of in the neighborhood.