Four months after the Seattle City Council passed legislation aimed at addressing gun violence and sexual exploitation on Aurora Avenue, a shooting near the infamous corridor is calling into question the enforcement of the ordinance.
On Saturday, video captured an SUV pinning and the driver firing several gun shots towards another vehicle. At the time of this posting, no arrests or injuries were reported by Seattle Police.
Neighbors like Andrew Steelsmith say the video shows the brazen nature of criminal activity in their neighborhood.
“They’re obvious about it, they’re untouchable they don’t care any videos of shootings any videos of they’re chasing women into the middle of Aurora, it’s all notoriety for them,” Steelsmith said.
In his posting, Steelsmith questioned whether the new law passed in September has been enforced by SPD.
“The level of open and ongoing gun violence—which was the impetus for the commercial sexual exploitation legislation I sponsored—happening in our city is unacceptable,” said Cathy Moore, the city council member representing District 5 that includes Aurora Avenue.
Ordinance 127086, aimed to combat commercial sexual exploitation, has three parts. One instructs law enforcement to compassionately work with sex workers, who Moore sees as victims of sex trafficking, to connect them with diversion programs and services to help them out of their situation. Another makes the “promotion of prostitution loitering” illegal, which aims to go after the people controlling sex workers. Moore says both parts require extensive training for police officers, and the latter piece being novel to any law enforcement entity in the nation. She expects the training to be ready by the beginning of next year.
The third reinstates the “prostitution loitering” ordinance that was repealed in 2019 that largely targets the people who purchase services from sex workers.
The reinstatement of the prostitution loitering was a piece of the law police specifically asked for, Moore says.
“I’m very troubled that our patrol officers don’t even know that the council has their back, they have been asking for this tool to be reinstated ever since it was repealed. We’ve done that, yet they’re unaware that it’s a tool available to them.”
For Steelsmith, he understands the intention to protect some of the people who are working in the sex trade, but hopes the people exploiting them will start to feel consequences.
“I understand that for someone who is, for instance, a prostitute. That’s more sensitive, it probably involves training,” he said, “It’s been months at this point so this is something that we need to figure out.”
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