Belltown shootings soar under Seattle’s soft-on-crime policies

Residents in Belltown are increasingly frustrated as the neighborhood grapples with a spike in violence that feels disturbingly familiar.

According to the Seattle Police Department, total crime has surged by 32 percent this year, while shootings have surged by a staggering 42 percent. The most recent flashpoint was a Friday evening shooting near 1st Avenue where a 24‑year‑old man was wounded in the hand during what police describe as an attempted robbery. The suspect remains at large.

Local residents, understandably alarmed, complain that the crime wave is increasingly defining their neighborhood. One resident told KING 5 that daily life now includes the sight of drug deals in broad daylight—on Second Avenue and Battery Street at around 12:30 p.m.—a moment many witness repeatedly.

This isn’t new for Belltown

This isn’t a new storyline, but a worsening script.

Property owners and longtime residents are seeing their neighborhood’s safety erode, and with it, their confidence in city leadership. Belltown, once a lively, walkable urban enclave, now feels more like front-row seats to a steady slide in public order. Mayor Bruce Harrell and Councilmember Bob Kettle are nowhere to be found.

Calls are mounting for Seattle’s mayor and city council to enforce law and order, step up enforcement, and ensure police have what they need—not what activists demand—to keep neighborhoods secure.

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