Recently, some individuals have characterized those protesting the Olympia Downtown Alliance’s (ODA) downtown patrols as “bullies”, “thugs”, and even “terrorists.” This is baseless and irresponsible. The OPD and Pacific Coast Security, the company contracted by ODA, both confirmed that the Safe Sleep Campaign consisted solely of unarmed, chanting youths: nonviolent demonstrations protected by the First Amendment. Real bullying is hiring enforcers to roust people from shelter in midwinter.

Sidewalk, Community Youth Services, Just Housing, The Family Support Center, Interfaith Works, many communities of faith, and countless individual Olympians keep our neighbors alive with their limited time and means. Wherever this work is done, this loud minority of business owners is absent and silent. Even the budgetless Olympia Solidarity Network provides more aid than the ODA.

Seeing the ODA’s sweeps or the restraining order against the city by four “John Does”, (apparently the only “threatening” anonymity is youth wearing handkerchiefs) consider how those resources could combat the brutal austerity bleeding our city into the streets. Instead they are wasted on lawyers and rent-a-cops obstructing even the most rudimentary mitigation strategies.

Click to resize

Ironically, their lost business and our lost housing have the same source: rent and utilities skyrocketing while incomes stagnate. As long as every penny we earn is consumed in basic survival, we all suffer. Bullying our unhoused neighbors into lethal invisibility only exacerbates our insecurity.

We who struggle to aid our community implore them, for all our sake: please stop threatening everyone with more problems, and join us in building solutions.