An Open Letter To Bruce Harrell

Dear Bruce,

Fuck you. Fuck you personally, directly, and in particular. Fuck nearly everything you stand for. Fuck your crappy campaign ads to your crappier policies. You are the exact reason that no one wants a democrat. You're basically a republican, except the lite version, not the version that requires a monthly subscription.

Did you just not live here for the last decade? Is that it? Or is it that you are just so disconnected from the people who actually live here? Maybe you just live in the sheltering and warm cave of someone else's asshole. Regardless of the scenario I can't imagine having the out and out audacity that it would take to grow up here, live all your life here, see the impacts of bad policy and worse policing and think, "I know what we need! More police!"

Did you just sleep through 2020? Did you somehow manage to look away while that police force was dealing out violent attacks on the citizens of your city? Did you just miss the tear gas, the flash bangs, the crowd control rounds all being used improperly with direct intention to maim, maul, and permanently disable? If you managed to witness any of that and still decide that what we need is more police, then I know firmly who's side you're on.

Not to mention, with the rent/eviction moratorium ending, you thought two weeks was going to save people? Are you out of your mind? In every ad you ran you said you wanted to do something about the houseless population. I didn't realize that you meant adding to it. You listened to some whiny landlords and decided their passive income was more important than the lives of families. Extending a necessary moratorium in the middle of a pandemic that has no end in sight by two weeks, like anyone who has been out of work that long will be able to catch up with one paycheck is not only disgusting but morally reprehensible.

Speaking of the houseless population in Seattle, you live here, supposedly. You see that most of these people are mentally ill, in crisis, self-medicating. And so instead of offering safe consumption spaces, housing, more urban rest areas, and mental health services you offer… Ah yes, more cops, more prison space, and more sweeps. You might have marketed that as “Taking back our parks” but to people who experience empathy, we know what that means. It means destroying property of the physically and mentally vulnerable so that you can plant a flower and have rich people kiss your feet.

I don’t know what kind of life that you are leading where you feel like compassion and empathy are optional. I don’t know what trauma you’re sitting with that led you, a man of color to embrace the cops and really lean into licking boot, but whatever it was. I’m sorry. I’m sorry for you, and for all the people who will suffer under your expertly polished shoe. If you really want to know why there has been more crime in the last three years, I would like to direct your attention to the nearly 6 million people dead globally, and the companies, many of which are headquartered here, that have been exploiting those still living mercilessly.

Our higher minimum wages are still poverty level. The companies that operate here are enforcing nigh-slavery just to maybe afford a shared bedroom in a house with 10 other people. There is no reason for this, and you, are just perpetuating it. The people most effected are the ones hurt most by your policy. $150 million city deficit will look like pocket change when the people get tired of the underside of your shoe. The more desperate you make people, the more likely it is that they will take dramatic action. If you thought for even a second that the protests in 2020 looked “extreme”, have I got news for you.

Allow me to reiterate. Fuck you, Bruce. Fuck you directly, personally, and in particular.

Sincerely,

A Seattle City Resident Who Still Experiences Empathy.