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Crime a problem, or not?
Of all the issues surrounding Tent City 4 the biggest is that of crime. SHARE and the Churches stand tall and proclaim in front of the media and lawmakers that "There has never been a problem with Tent City". They say it so often, and the media reports what they say verbatim, that many people actually believe that to be the case.
Tracking the crime is a difficult thing to do. Bothell made it a point to track contacts associated with Tent City, but unless they have contact with the suspect often they have no way of knowing if a crime was associated with Tent City or not.
Retail stores see an increase in "suspicious activity" ranging from shoplifting, panhandling, loitering, and people returning items that had been donated to the camp in order to get money. Seldom do these cause a police contact and as such wouldn't be tracked. Merchants see a multitude of effects that do not ever get reported. Decreases in certain types of customers, increases in beer sales, shoplifting of drugs used to make meth, all of which coincide with the camp locating in their area.
Homeowners see mail theft, items missing from their yard, car prowls, beer bottles and drug paraphernalia left in their bushes or on their patios and porches. Often the police are not contacted, and if they are they do not have a suspect in custody, so the incident would never be associated with Tent City.
The community knows however that it is as these incidents increase when the camp is in the area and decline after it leaves. Is it Tent City residents? Is it camp "rejects"? Is it an organized crime ring hitting the areas Tent City is in to defer the blame?
There is a significant amount of crime inside tent city. Campers steal from one another, use drugs and alcohol, and have other problems. SHARE deals with this internally to prevent there being docume
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King County Sheriff reports increase in crime
Despite claims to the contrary crime in Finn Hill has increased during Tent City 4's stay just as it did in Bothell and Woodinville.
As reported by the King County Sheriff's office - For the period of Nov. 20 to Feb. 10 vrs the same period in 2003:
Residential burglaries up 300%
Auto theft up 100%
Assault, fourth degree up 60%
Vandalism up 50%
Mail theft and other types of crime that were not documented by the King County Sheriff were also significant in the area.
Area business's have also seen increases in crimes ranging from shoplifting to armed robbery.
read more...
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Finn Hill reports of crime
Residents of the Finn Hill area reported rampant mail theft (Christmas Cards, and the cash that may be in them, being the prime target), littering in ditches showing drug and alcohol use, car prowls, and many other problems. Due to the remote location and lack of city police (Finn Hill is in Unincorporated King County) calls to 911 to report these crimes resulted in calls being routed to other agencies at King County and little documentation.
Businesses surrounding the Finn Hill area reported huge increases in shoplifting. A major target being cold medicines used to manufacture meth. Losses were so great that one major chain had to pull the drugs from the shelves during the rest of the stay.
Interesting enough all these problems stopped in this area after TC4 relocated to Kirkland and the following year saw no such increases during the same time frame.
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Woodinville Police Activity up during TC4 stay
As reported by the Woodinville Police Department crime during the period TC4 stayed on City Land versus the same period the year before:
Robbery - Increased 300%
Sex Offense - 2 incidents (none the previous year)
Controlled Substance - Increased 100%
Burglary - Increased 269% (Commercial went from 12 to 34)
Auto Theft/Attempts - Increased 61% (From 16 - 26)
Suspicious Activity - Increased 19%
Hit and Run - Increased 42%
It should also be noted that a Tent City resident hot wired a bulldozer and leveled the Barber Shop that was awaiting asbestos removal.
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30 day snapshot of crime in Bothell
Since early June 2004:
June 19: At least one camp resident was ejected for causing a disturbance. A married couple were involved. The wife was wanted on a felony escape warrant. The original charge against her was for forgery. She was booked into the King County Jail.
June 24: Tent City 4 security ejected two residents, one for being disruptive and the other for being under the influence of alcohol. Bothell police arrested the second person for drunken driving.
June 26: A Bothell police officer heard a scream from the camp and discovered that a man had allegedly tried to slap and choke his pregnant wife. The man was arrested.
July 1: Four camp residents were kicked out. One person was wanted on a felony warrant for escaping from community custody, which was because of a drug-possession conviction.
July 5: A male camp resident reportedly picked on an African American man at Tent City 4. The man claimed to be a white supremacist and Ku Klux Klan member and used a racial epithet in front of Bothell police. Camp security kicked the man out.
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Breakdown of crime data by Care4schools
Here’s what was found for the ENTIRE City of Bothell: 07/15 – 07/21—476 Total Contacts
07/08 – 07/14—497 Total Contacts
07/01 – 07/07—558 Total Contacts
06/24 – 06/30—513 Total Contacts
06/17 – 06/23—494 Total Contacts
06/10 – 06/16—512 Total Contacts
06/03 – 06/09—468 Total Contacts
05/27 – 06/02—468 Total Contacts NOTE: A contact can range anywhere from a simple verbal communication with someone all the way to an actual arrest. Nonetheless, it’s an incident worthy enough for an officer to document Now… When I picked up my last batch of Police Reports, on Thursday 7/15, I was informed that there were 101 TC4 contacts since they arrived. Since I did not have access to the first 10 days I’ve taken and averaged the weekly and daily numbers. Thus, I estimate 492 contacts for the week of 5/20 – 6/2 and another 210 contacts for the first 3 days of their encampment. Overall the total up to last Thursday comes to approximately 4,635 contacts for the entire City of Bothell. Now, take the 101 TC4-specific contacts as of 7/15, that comes to 2% of all contacts during this time frame have been TC4 contacts. Now, factor in that the 2000 census ( http://bothell.areaconnect.com/statistics.htm ) claiming there are a total of 30,150 people living in the City of Bothell, TC4 residents represent a whopping .3 of 1 percent of the population, yet have accounted for 2% of all contacts within the City in this time period.
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