Eric Johnson Perspective: Seattle's social experiment has failed

SEATTLE -- The ongoing drug and crime problems at Third and Pine have been part of our KOMO News extensive Project Seattle coverage.

We heard Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan Thursday talk about keeping people safe, how what happened Wednesday night is unacceptable. How this can't be the new norm.

But if you've been downtown, if you've seen what happens on that Third Avenue corridor, then you know it is the new norm, and has been for some time.

If you saw "Seattle is Dying," if you've seen our "Project Seattle" reports, then you know that the policies of Seattle have changed-- that we no longer hold criminals accountable for criminal activity.

If you've been paying attention, you know that cases don't get filed, cases get dismissed; jail sentences, if they happen at all, are short -- sometimes ridiculously short. And that repeat offenders, like the three suspects from Wednesday night's shooting -- people with 30 or 40 convictions, violent people, addicted people -- are thrown back onto our streets.

And the rest of us are left to hope for the best.

It is a social experiment that has failed.

At KOMO, we have been telling these stories for a long time, over and over, and we will continue to tell them.

Third and Pine is the epicenter of crime in Seattle. It's the heart of criminal behavior. It's the drugs -- it's all about the drugs.

You can go up on the skybridge next to Macy's and look down on the street below and watch drug deal after drug deal go down all day long.

Maybe what happened Wednesday night will change that.

Maybe.

I'll believe it when I see it.