I wrote this after I attended a meeting of the CID Public Safety Committee. Specifically I’m addressing two justifications offered for the unconstitutional imposition of electronic surveillance on the Chinatown-International District (CID). One excuse cited seniors and over 700 signees in favor. The other was that facial recognition wouldn’t be used.
In 2022, I wrote to protest as the King County Department of Community and Human Services planned to spend $66.5 million to construct a 24/7 homeless shelter that will house more than 500 people in the CID. That fantasy was killed when an army of furious seniors from the CID mounted a fierce opposition.
This was not the only burden of government discrimination that the city and county governments have visited on the hapless CID.
Who will ever forget the totally incompetent failed social experiment the City of Seattle rammed down the throats of Little Saigon and Chinatown—the DESC Navigation Center. We are still reeling from the effects of this disastrous experiment in drug self-injection therapy, a project so loftily experimental in drug treatment that of course no other neighborhood would be worthy of having it—except for Chinatown and Little Saigon. Because we don’t complain, we carry on, our votes don’t matter or even count, our voices are not English-speaking, our faces aren’t Anglo.
But wait, there’s more! Now the City Council and the Mayor have decided the CID gets to, I mean, will have electronic surveillance.
We should be thankful for the latest crumb they deign to dole out to us. So no one will notice that the city has failed the CID, stabbed it in the back and to our face, again, and again, has failed to truly care and help address the root causes of the dysfunctions.
Not only that but the city has just stigmatized and stereotyped our community—again. Chinatown, you know, it’s dangerous so those people need cameras!
If this community and its ‘leaders’ had a healthy, honest relationship with the city, true public safety wouldn’t have to be achieved by relying on playing to the fears of seniors and other marginalized folks. We shouldn’t be collecting data on everyone—not just the bad guys—that could potentially be used against truly marginalized folks to imprison, deport or separate them from their kids by the most nefarious administration in history!
If I were you, you should reject the undemocratic, unconstitutional imposition of authoritarian electronic surveillance by the city, another inhumane experiment on this low income, politically powerless community of immigrants and of color.
This ‘solution’ is just another way of passing the buck on the city’s responsibility for honestly and compassionately helping our community rise above its status as Seattle’s poorest neighborhood.
And hey, standing up for your Constitutional rights is the least you can do as we bear witness to the destruction of democracy in America.
A final suggestion: those pathetic strings of lights above Third Avenue should be transferred and used to delineate the borders of the CID so folks can see and be reassured that we are going to be really camera safe now!
Patty Fong
I can’t wait for the CCTV system to be installed. I believe it is a valuable tool in Crime investigation. The CID needs departed desperately to improve Crime Prevention. Watch the evening news and see how valuable video evidence is when trying to identify criminals caught in the act.
This will be brought down per our Constitutional rights. The preference of a minority will not supercede the will of the majority either by comments received (the comments opposed exceeded those for) or by the Constitution. The CID will NOT become a police surveillance state.