The judges and court staff at Seattle’s King County Courthouse have been fighting to get something done about the disgusting conditions around the outside door. Homeless people left excrement and urine around the door — a stench that is deterring jurors and others from coming into the building. Judges have asked for the city to take action and clean up the unsanitary conditions with a simple power washing and better policing. That would seem a no brainer but objections were heard from city council members, including one who reportedly said that the use of hoses might be racially insensitive or traumatic.
Judges asked for the emptying of trash cans and removal of homeless tents near the building. One of the most curious objections came from Council member Larry Gossett who reportedly “said he didn’t like the idea of power-washing the sidewalks because it brought back images of the use of hoses against civil-rights activists.”
That would seem to bar any power washing of government buildings.
The controversy however raises another more compelling issue. If the judges are correct and staff and jurors fear coming to the building, such fears can have a distortive effect on cases and judgments. Jurors who are fearful of being attacked at a courthouse may be more inclined or responsive to prosecutorial arguments. Many prosecutors emphasize law-and-order themes in cases are that more likely to resonate with jurors who must run a gauntlet to enter the courthouse.
Nothing at all about this from my usual news sources. You sure that this isn’t just Faux Neuz?
Sometimes justice is done!
Being the socially & racially sensitive types, they should be excited about being able to share the stench with the homeless, the junkie, and the vagrant!!
Time for the comfortably isolated progressives to get their noses dirty;)
Put in sprinkler systems and use them on a regular schedule.
Sprinkler systems are not designed move matter around.
Maybe the right one hasn’t been designed yet.
Classic blue-state tax-dollars at work, NOT!
The locals call the place: Poop Court.
Larry Gossett is a member of the King County Council, not the Seattle City Council. It’s possible that this hasn’t been attended to because of a jurisdictional interface between the Sheriff’s department (responsible for court security) and the Seattle police (responsible for order maintenance in the city).
Gossett seems like a stupid old man who was once a stupid young man.