SEATTLE NEWS ARCHIVES & FEATURES

Dori: Man who attacked 91-year-old on Market Street part of city’s ‘Human Roulette’

Jun 13, 2019, 4:54 PM | Updated: 5:11 pm

Market Street...

In this court-redacted photo, it can be seen that the 91-year-old woman's arm was fractured in the attack on Market Street. (KIRO 7 TV)

(KIRO 7 TV)

I’ve talked many times about “growing up on the mean streets of Ballard.” That’s, of course, a joke because it was a lovely neighborhood when I was a kid. Market Street, full of little mom-n-pop shops, was right out of Mayberry from “Andy Griffith.”

We all know what has become of Ballard, Seattle, and the rest of the region due to our politics. We have enabled this to be a magnet destination for drug addicts and street criminals.

What happened in Ballard, on Market Street, on June 3, is a nauseating example of how far things have fallen.

According to KIRO 7 TV, a 91-year-old woman was walking into a store on Market Street when a 23-year-old guy, Adrian Curtis Parks, ran into the store screaming and violently threw her to the ground, fracturing her elbow. That’s a tough injury when you’re 91 — you don’t heal as easily at that age.

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The suspect had allegedly already been yelling at people, hitting things with a shovel. He had shoved another woman to the ground. He was outside the library shirtless and sweating, apparently in a drug frenzy. He allegedly ran inside the library and wiped himself down with a magazine.

Here’s the rest of the story. Again, my thanks to KIRO 7 TV.

Exactly two months before this attack on Market Street, this same criminal could have been locked up by the city attorney, but they let him walk. He is another example of the catch-and-release policy by Pete Holmes at the city level and Dan Satterberg at the county level. They are letting these recidivist criminals go, just waiting to see whose life they will blow up next.

It’s like we have prosecutors and city attorneys who are playing “Human Roulette.” We’ll just let criminals walk and see if they do something more serious.

In the incident they had him on a couple of months earlier, Parks had been on a roof in West Seattle, apparently trying to break into buildings. He had a 12-inch serrated blade down his pants. Oh, and he had a warrant.

Now I would think, in a normal, logical society, when you have an armed burglar with a warrant, you’d be able to lock them up for a decent amount of time. But no — he was held for just a few days.

They let him go. They let this guy walk so that a couple of months later, he could slam a 91-year-old woman to the ground on Market Street.

It really makes me wonder, how do these city attorneys and prosecutors live with the knowledge that they’ve allowed these crimes around here? I could not do that. My guilt complex would be so overwhelming if I knew that a 91-year-old woman was seriously injured and I could’ve done something about it.

It’s a political criminal culture that they’ve cultivated very carefully. They could put a stop to it, but it wouldn’t be progressive. We’d feel bad if we cracked down on drug criminals on the streets. We have to show them mercy.

Here’s a thought I’m just tossing out there — why don’t you show some mercy to senior citizens who are just trying to live their lives? How about showing some mercy to the law-abiding, taxpaying citizens instead of giving in to this overwhelming liberal guilt that has led you to decide that laws don’t apply and we should cultivate as much drug crime as possible?

This is another example of how our so-called leaders should be absolutely ashamed of themselves. But, it’s tough to be ashamed when you have absolutely no shame.

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Dori: Man who attacked 91-year-old on Market Street part of city’s ‘Human Roulette’