Belltown Violence

The recent events in Belltown, one of Seattle's more notable entertainment and condo districts, cry out for a response. Muggings, stabbings, car prowls, and criminal shootings are all part of the same package of "things none of us like happening in our neighborhoods or anywhere near us".

At the same time, the *obvious* solutions have either been tried or are temporary sops that while they may provide some temporary relief (assigning 20-30 more uniformed Seattle Police officers to the area on the graveyard shift may *move* the problem - but eventually those officers will need to be re-assigned and the trouble returns), fail to address the underlying problem.

A failure to recognize a glaring demonstration of the Law of Unintended Consequences.

After Prohibition ended, for some reason some particularly clever soul came to the conclusion that bar owners couldn't be trusted to decide their own operating hours and mandated closure of every single bar in the state at the same time, 2 a.m. ...

Now, whatever benefits might be seen from this, a demonstrable result is that between 1:30 a.m. and 2:30 a.m. we consistently see an increase in criminal activity as folks depart (or are ejected from) en mass from various bars and venues with hormones and alcohol intertwined in a toxic mix of varying intensity leading to diminished judgment skills and combined with lessened inhibitions.

More bluntly, by tossing all those varyingly inebriated folks out onto the streets in response to a mandated closing hour in one great push we not only create an opportunity for the ejected to be stupid (occasionally criminally) amongst themselves - but we serve up those very people on a silver platter to every predator in the region at a prearranged time and place.

When we have a whole bunch of bars and entertainment venues in a relatively compact area (BellTown) it only enhances the effect.

This mix doesn't precisely improve local living conditions for residents of BellTown. It's not good for bars or entertainment venues either, in that if it's scary to visit an area, the number of paying customers diminishes as a new less-scary hot-spot pops up. And finally, it's not precisely a help in marketing the safety and urbanity of a City.

Just perhaps, as part of the solution, we can *consider* at the level of the State Legislature whether the mandatory 2 a.m. closing time really provides the citizens of Washington with benefits sufficient to outweigh its' costs in blood and tears.