The Center Square YT: State Investigation Targets Community Cleanup Efforts in Seattle

Does this harm the people we're all trying to help when you slow down an agency that's out there on the ground? Not just picking up hypodermic needles and paraphernalia of all kinds. I mean, it's not just fentanyl foil, but cookers used Narcan cartridges, vials of Narcan, tourniquets, used alcohol pad wipes, bloody gauze strips, poop, barf, urine-filled bottles that lay strewn all over our shared spaces, and somehow I'm in trouble because somebody claimed that I improperly picked these up. And that is an egregious overreach. The state should have looked at this as a much bigger lens and went, let's see, one employee, bunch of volunteers, kind of has an activist vibe to the organization. Maybe this isn't a tree we need to bark at. Look, I'm all about safety, proper separation of needles and foil, gloves, pinchers, vests, masks, goggles, whatever anybody wants to wear. Volunteer by definition means by choice. So those folks out there doing this work, do it on their own and we have waivers. But as an employee, I understand we have labor and industries to report to, I think. I'm not even sure a one-employee organization has to do anything. But I certainly don't have disciplinary records on hand for me to file them or my hepatitis shot protocol or the woman investigating me said, well, I need to walk around your office and your operation. I go, well, that would be the park. And you're more than welcome to come out to the park and step on foil and needles and Narcan and poop with me.