SEATTLE NEWS ARCHIVES & FEATURES

Blame Seattle City Council for criminals on our streets

May 17, 2018, 1:15 PM

road rage, des moines, Everett, homicide rate, federal way, Shoreline...

(MyNorthwest file photo)

(MyNorthwest file photo)

The decisions that are made by our politicians have very real real-life consequences. If you bring in thousands of homeless people from around the country, a small percentage of them are going to be so mentally gone that it does increase the risk for people in this area.

RELATED: Woman raped in Ballard dealership bathroom

Even if it’s 1 percent, if you bring 5,000 homeless people from around the country, that’s 50 people capable of this crime. The homeless population has a greater percentage of people who are criminals.

A local 40-year-old woman went to a local car dealership to get her car serviced at about 7:15 a.m. on Monday morning. She went to get a cup of coffee and went to the bathroom. She heard someone come into the bathroom and start banging on her stall door, forcing it open. The suspect grabbed her by the throat, dragged her from the stall, and raped her.

This is not an indictment of homeless people. It is an indictment of our city council. That police report was written up five or six hours before the head tax vote. Did anyone in power know that a homeless man had raped a woman in Ballard that very morning? Was that kept out of public consciousness between when the report was written and when the head tax vote was taken?

Because yes, I do believe that our city council members are that evil. I do believe that they are willing to put up with collateral damage — occasional rapes and murders — in their pursuit of making this city the U.S. capital of kept homeless. That’s why they don’t mandate drug testing when you get a roof over your head. They only care about protecting people from “the evil rich,” and not the homeless.

For the women on the council, do you think about the consequences of your policy? To the men on the council, do you think about your wives confronting these kind of monsters? This man came from Texas. The word is out — Seattle is the path of least resistance for drug addicts.

The alleged rapist was identified as Chris Teel, a 24-year-old man who moved up here from Texas, where he also had a rap sheet. Teel had an outstanding warrant for breaking into a Magnolia house in August 2016.

In a November 18, 2017 Seattle Times article about the Ballard Nickelsville homeless encampment, the second photo shows a young man down on his luck looking out from between the tiny houses, clearly seeking sympathy. Do you know who is in the photo? Chris Teel — allegedly the same man who would six months later rape a woman in a Ballard bathroom. This guy, who had an outstanding warrant, was suckling at the taxpayer teet in one of these city-sanctioned homeless encampments. He gave his name to a Times reporter, so no doubt the people running the encampments knew his name, and yet they obviously didn’t run his name for warrants because he was still walking free.

Mike O’Brien laughs and smirks when people express their fear about the crime that surrounds the encampments, encampments that his policies have made possible. Now we’ve had at least two brutal rapes/attempted rapes in his district, we’ve had murders in his district, we’ve had a guy doused with gasoline and set on fire in his district. I don’t know how the council members can live with themselves when they see how their policies have turned Seattle into a hellhole. Maybe if we didn’t have the kind of politicians and policies that we have, maybe this guy would have been locked up.

Please follow our Community Guidelines

FILE - Diana McGuire leads her 4-year-old son Noah by the hand across the playground at St. Mary's ...

Associated Press

It’s not just gas and groceries. Childcare costs weigh on some voters before the midterm elections

Like so many Americans, Jenny Escolastico has watched wearily as the cost of living has risen, straining her household budget. But as a mother of two children under 5, she faces added pressure that could shape how she votes in November: childcare costs. Escolastico’s household outside Allentown, Pennsylvania, is relying solely on her husband’s income. […]

1 hour ago

FILE - California Gov. Gavin Newsom speaks about his state budget proposal May 14, 2026, in Sacrame...

Associated Press

California state workers launching 1-day strike over return-to-office mandate, pay and healthcare

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California state workers will launch a one-day strike Wednesday, urging Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration to agree to a new contract that increases workers’ pay, ensures affordable healthcare access and allows more flexibility for remote work. SEIU Local 1000, the largest union for California government workers which represents more than 100,000 employees, […]

2 hours ago

President Donald Trump speaks in the Oval Office of the White House, Tuesday, Oct. 20, 2026, in Was...

Associated Press

A ‘golden age’ vs. ‘we’re working on it’: Trump and Vance give different pitches on the economy

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Bill Clinton famously said he could feel voters’ pain over the economy. But these days, when it comes to questions about high prices, President Donald Trump insists that the pain is his. “They hit me with affordability, and that’s the first time I ever heard the word used,” he complained in […]

2 hours ago

Josh Ramsey, an employee at the Oxford Tobacco Research Station, smokes a cigarette as he carries a...

Associated Press

Whether `stringing’ or `looping,’ tobacco is the tie that binds many North Carolina farm families

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — When Sophie Sunday told her schoolmates she was taking off halfway through the school day, they couldn’t wait to find out why. “`I’m going to loop tobacco at the fair,’” the seventh grader told them. “And they’re, like, `What?’ They don’t have a clue.” To be fair, most people don’t. At […]

2 hours ago

Associated Press

FBI is investigating reports of an ‘incendiary device’ being thrown at an ICE building in Atlanta

ATLANTA (AP) — The FBI is investigating reports of an “incendiary device” being thrown at the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement building in downtown Atlanta on Tuesday night. There were no reports of injuries or significant damage, the FBI said in a statement. “FBI personnel and evidence response technicians are on site collecting evidence,” the […]

2 hours ago

737 MAX 10...

James Lynch

‘Today is historic’: Boeing marks 737 MAX 10 certification milestone in Everett

Boeing leaders, government officials, and elected officials gathered at the company’s Everett facility to mark the certification of the 737 MAX 10.

4 hours ago

Blame Seattle City Council for criminals on our streets