Weed and Seed

In December 1992, the Seattle City Council's Public Safety Committee held a series of public hearings and council meetings to address the City's controversial application for federal law enforcement funding through the Weed and Seed community revitalization grant program. Formulated under the George H. W. Bush administration and administered by the United States Department of Justice (DOJ), the program purported to "weed" out drug use and dealing and "seed" affected neighborhoods with economic and social opportunities. This program specifically targeted the Central District neighborhoods of Seattle and proposed heightened police presence, including  Seattle Police Department (SPD) controlled social services to address ongoing disorder and disinvestment.

The War on Drugs was launched under the Nixon Administration. By the time Bush took office in January 1989, the campaign had already doubled the American prison population, with a disproportionate impact on nonwhite individuals and communities. In his first presidential address Bush called drug use "the greatest domestic threat facing our nation today" and vowed to expand increasingly targeted and militarized police programs.

Bush's DOJ formed the Executive Office for Weed and Seed (EOWS) in 1991. The main purpose was to increase community policing and some social services in neighborhoods suffering from institutional disinvestment, poverty, and resulting social disorder. This highly controversial program was resisted by Black communities across the country, including in Seattle where community organizers and citizens feared heightened police presence would reinforce patterns of mistrust, violence, and community division.

Resistance to Weed and Seed in Seattle

When the City of Seattle proposed applying for Weed and Seed funding in the spring of 1992, community coalitions opposing and supporting the program quickly emerged with passionate public campaigns. Local community organizers and national organizations including the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) opposed the heightened law enforcement proposed by the program, fearing it would increase tensions between police and minority residents. The Weed and Seed package was directed specifically at eight neighborhoods in the Central District, home to 26% of the city's Black population. A report produced by the DOJ states that the Central District was selected due to high rates of poverty, ranging from 20%-50%, but added that "the International District was also chosen so that Weed and Seed services would have an impact on Asian populations."

At a public hearing on December 3, 1992, Central District residents and Seattle community members offered conflicting analysis of the project, its cultural underpinnings, and its potential consequences. At a subsequent City Council meeting on December 14, various councilmembers proposed shifting funding from "weeding" crime to "seeding" vital neighborhood programs, while others rejected the measure outright as a continuation of punitive federal drug policies deployed to criminalize Black communities. Despite vocal community dissent at both the public hearing and council meeting, the measure passed by a vote of six to three. The committee passed this measure with a modified funding split, from 80/20 to 50/50 weed to seed dollars. The committee also provided assurance that the City would maintain "ultimate authority" over the program; however, this was not backed by any formal requirements in the legal language of the grant. 

One of the most vocal opponents of the Weed and Seed program was Central District resident, activist, and community organizer Harriett Walden. She and many other residents feared this program would emphasize punitive and violent controls over their neighborhoods and reinforce mistrust between Black communities and the police department. Two years before the program was proposed, Walden had founded Mothers Against Police Harassment to address rampant racism and community mistreatment by the Seattle Police Department in the Central District. Arnett Holloway, president of the Central Area Neighborhood District Council was also a vocal opponent of federal control over local programs.

Impacts of Weed and Seed

Decades of the War on Drugs and related policies such as mandatory minimum sentences, three-strike laws, expansion of the death penalty, militarized policing, and massive prison construction projects resulted in displacement and gentrification of historically Black communities like the Central District. In Washington State, incarceration rates rose drastically, with Black prisoners overrepresented by almost six times, despite making up less than 10% of the total state population. Recent studies found that during the war on drugs, Black residents in Seattle were 2.8 times more likely to be arrested for cannabis possession than their white counterparts – some of whom remain incarcerated to this day despite recreational cannabis use being legalized in 2012.

The Central District was 75% Black in the 1970s and remains only 15% Black today. While in 1970, prior to the War on Drugs, half of all Black families in Seattle owned homes, that rate has continued to fall, reaching a low of 28% today. The Weed and Seed policy ultimately failed to make long-term positive changes in the lives of Central District residents, and displacement, mass incarceration, and gentrification contributed to economic and spatial displacement in the historically Black Central District over the past fifty years.

Testimony

Community Voices

Harriett Walden - Mothers Against Police Harassment/ Mothers for Police Accountability (listen to audio)
My name is Harriett Walden. I live in the targeted area. I have been a member of that community for 17 years. I would like to state one fact, that we had drugs in our community too back in 1990. The community got rid of the drugs without money. We did it ourselves. We did it ourselves. We redesigned the park so they could not sell drugs in the park, we did it. We didn't call in law enforcement, we did it. That’s how we did it back in the day, we did it. We didn't call any police to do it for us.

I am also speaking here representing Trace [?] Women United, and I am a member also of the Puget Sound Coalition for Police Accountability. We continue to demand that these, uh, Weed and Seed, which is a federally funded program, this program is really just a program that will continue to deny people their civil rights. The other thing is that we did not - we demand that money coming to the city to fund Weed and Seed be returned to the city, like it should be, under the social program, without the carrot and stick, and that's the approach that is being used right now.

Weed and Seed continues to be a racist and a repressive program. It does not, it does not make a difference because we have a Democrat in the White House. I'd like to remind all you Democrats that it was the Democrats in charge of the cities for the last 50 years. And I know we have to remember that. This is been Democrats all this time in charge of the cities. The gentrification of the Central Area will continue, especially under the weeding that Weed and Seed is implementing.

People who will pay, who will be able to afford homes in the Central Area after the weeding is done, it will not be African American people because the property value will go up. So they won't be able to live where they are right now. The other thing, too, is that an implementation of Weed and Seed continues to create a two-tiered justice system. Law enforcement will continue to come harder on people of color than the people who are bringing the drugs into the community. And the other thing too that is really important that the mayor promised that he would come back to the community for a public hearing. He promised that at Providence, and he's not done that. He's met with groups of people  in his office, but he has not come back to the community, and that was one of the things that that he promised. And the other thing, too, is that we have continued to call for a civilian review board with subpoena power, and we continue to call for community-controlled policing. [applause]

And there is a difference between community-controlled policing and the community policing that has been implemented now in Seattle. And we need to explain to the community what is the difference, and that is a big difference, in community-controlled policing. And we'd like to see that implemented in Seattle. [cheering and applause]

Omari Salisbury - Garfield High School senior (listen to audio)
My name is Omari Salisbury. My address is 2902 South Jackson. I'm a senior at Garfield High School; I also live in the targeted area. First of all, I want to comment, the mayor's statement - we'll implement Weed and Seed, we have a Democrat in the White House. But it was a Democratic Congress that passed Weed and Seed.

Last time I was here, I challenged all you guys. I said, you know, when was the last time you were out? This was back in April. What was the last time you were out in the neighborhood? And what's happened? We've come here again for the same hearing, where have you been at? Have you come out and talked to us? You know everybody in here is old. I mean, not to offend anybody, but you don't know what it's like. I go to, I'm still in high school, you know. I mean they talk about fear, fear of walking the streets of the CD, I've been walking the streets of the CD since I was five years old. You know, me and my mom work in our garden all the time.

I don't know where their fear is coming from. But before you pass Weed and Seed, before you condemn the youth, before you send these people up, you know, there's a lot of potential in these people, you know, and not everybody - you see somebody hanging out, maybe on a corner or maybe in a gang. Not every person in a gang is bad.

Some people just, they need somebody to reach out to. They don't have a family, so they see the gang as just a family. Just because they're in a gang doesn't mean that they're evil, that they killed somebody. Not everybody in a gang sells drugs. Maybe some of them are looking for family, somebody to reach out to. But when was the last time you have walked the streets of the Central Area? When was the last time you talked to people like me? You don't know how feels to be out there and be harassed by the police. You don't get that by the police. You don't visit us. You don't see what happens. [extended applause and cheering]

The gentleman over here talked from the community council where they're talking about, we should trust the police. We're coming from 400 years of mistrust of the police and you expect us to trust them overnight? It's just not going to happen. I tell you one more time before you roll out Weed and Seed, come out to the Central Area, come to Garfield High School, come to the homes of people who are affected. I bet you most of them would tell you, we don't want Weed and Seed. Thank you. [applause and cheering]

Neil Fox - National Lawyers Guild (listen to audio)
Good evening, my name is Neil Fox. I live at 201 17th Avenue East. I'm a lawyer; I work for the National Lawyers Guild. I'm here tonight to reaffirm the opposition of the Seattle chapter of the National Lawyers Guild to the Weed and Seed program. I have been before this committee before, and I have talked at those times about how the Weed and Seed program is at its very core a racist program and how the program will lead to the erosion of civil liberties.

Unknown: Amen.

Very little has changed. What you have done is you have put some window dressing on it, you add some euphemisms, you changed, as Mr. Alexander said, some words that say that you're not required to have federal control. That doesn't mean that you won't be cooperating very closely with federal authorities. Very little of substance has changed.

You say that there's a new administration coming to power in Washington DC that will bring a changed perspective in federal law enforcement policies. If you believe that, I'll sell you the Brooklyn Bridge. There is very little in Clinton's performance as governor of Arkansas, or in his campaign for president, that shows to me or people in this community that that man is deeply committed to civil liberties. There's very little about Governor Clinton's performance as governor of Arkansas that shows that he's going to reverse the decade-long trend of the erosion of our civil liberties, that he's going to do anything to curb the absolute police power that police have been getting for the past ten years.

There's little in the practices of the Arkansas police enforcement agencies that we'd need to have any confidence that Clinton is going to do anything different than what Bush has done. You can call it community policing, you call it seeding. It comes down to the same thing: more police officers in our neighborhoods, less local control, less community control, more erosion of our civil liberties, more people in prison, more prisons being built.

What we need to do is to end that. We need to stop programs like Weed and Seed, stop prison construction, start with civilian review boards that are wanted by the community. Start with citizen involvement in police policies and start looking at creative ways of turning things around rather than the same old, tired, let's lock them up throw away the key solutions. Thank you. [applause and cheering]

Roberto Maestas - Director, El Centro de la Raza (listen to audio)
Chairwoman Pageler, distinguished members of the city council, buenas noches brothers and sisters all. My address is 3903 27th Avenue South, a block off of Martin Luther King Way.

My name is Roberto Maestas. I am the executive director of El Centro de la Raza and a member of the National Board of the Rainbow Coalition. I have lived in the Georgetown, Beacon Hill, Rainier Valley [areas] of Seattle for 38 years and I've seen a tragedy unfolding before my very eyes.

My two youngest daughters have been intimidated and threatened on their way home from school, six blocks away, to buy drugs, to be misled, to sell drugs, and similar kinds of activities. However, there are some very beautiful things that we can point to that mean there is a change in the wind. I have testified before this council many times in the last 20 years, and this is the first time a majority of the council will be present and they are all women. And that is a very beautiful sign of the times. [applause]

And I am sure that all of you - because I know all of you relatively well, I also know the other four members, and I also know Mayor Norm Rice quite well - that if you could tomorrow, you would change the prison system, you would change the economic structures in Rainier Valley and the CD, and you would eliminate racism, and I think you are all adamantly appalled by it.

Unfortunately, you do not have the power to cure all the ills that have been created by our history. So, history throws them into a very difficult dilemma, at the same time that we must reconstruct, and re-guide, and re-heal, and rebuild our people, our children, our nation. We have to save them, if from each other.

Unfortunately, the weakest are preyed upon by the strongest at any expense. Those of us who 20 years ago took over a building, we were no strangers to police abuse. We are part of the generation that was victimized when the police went outside the law. We know that the only thing that can keep the police in check is community organizations and community relationships. We strongly support Weed and Seed because we know we can make it work. Thank you very much. [mixed applause and booing]

City Council Voices

Councilmember Cheryl Chow (listen to audio)
I will be voting for the program. There were a number of issues for me personally that I needed to sift through. We heard at the public safety public hearing a number of issues, very valid issues - issues that dealt with past fears, with past history of federal government coming into local jurisdictions. I think we had a rocky start when the Weed and Seed program was first introduced.

That is moot at this point. I think the executive as well as Ms. Pageler leading the charge and pushing the executive branch to re-look at it, re-massage it, redefined what is in front of us today, and I thank Ms. Pageler for that. I believe that we are, you know, and I don't want to sound corny, but I believe that we are at a new point in our society, and especially Seattle, where we can define what public safety is. I have been very clear as an individual voice stating what public safety is for Seattle.

And public safety can no longer be an approach which is just law enforcement. Public safety, which states very clearly in our resolution and in the amendment in the ordinance, has redefined public safety as also being preventive, looking at the long-term impact, and getting the people and community involved in what is being spent and how it's being spent.

I realize that there are still going to be concerns. There will be people who will question, and that is healthy. It is now up to the city council, the mayor, the police department to work with the community, to say that in Seattle, public safety is not just law enforcement. Public safety is preventive. Public safety is treatment. Public safety is providing support systems and outreach systems so that we can break out of a vicious cycle.

As a former principal of a school, I dealt with issues like this, where a small percentage of outsiders could ruin it for a positive climate for many kids in schools. I walked the streets in the Central Area with the neighbors who have been on the corners every weekend, along with Ms. Pageler, for over 13 weeks, taking back their neighborhood. There was blatant drug dealing, but the people that live there, the people that have talked with many of us here, have said we don't just want cops on our corner. We also want programs, we want prevention, but we have to get rid of the crisis first.

We cannot send our children to school or to the store without fearing crime, without fearing violence. But we're willing to come out every night and walk the streets. All we're asking is for city government to be there with us, not only at night, but during the day and during the weekend, for our kids and for our seniors. I think Ms. Pageler has done an outstanding job getting this message to the Public Safety Committee, to the chief of police, to the mayor.

And that is why the money that we are shifting will specifically go to the Public Safety Committee under the jurisdiction and leadership of Ms. Pageler to make sure that when we deal with this issue, it's not just law enforcement, but it's human services and it's preventive treatment.

Councilmember Jane Noland (listen to audio)
I think we all know how the votes are going to go, and most of us are going to have made a decision, but I think it's incumbent on us to explain our decision today to the public. Let me say that I deeply believe that the mayor and all of us up here are well intentioned. This is a program that has gone awry, but I am sure that every one of my colleagues wishes that we could do some of the things that Margaret and Jim talked about, and Cheryl, that we could make things better quickly, and emphasize long term human services programs rather than short term police programs.

But that's not really the issue today, I don't think. This program has been divisive from day one, it should have been dropped months ago, and it would have saved us all a lot of pain and heartache. [whistles in background]

But the mayor didn't drop it, and I believe that the mayor didn't drop it because he was told, as many of us were told, by the U.S. attorney a number of months ago, that one million dollars the first year was simply the tip of the iceberg, and we could expect 12 or 13 million dollars the following year, mostly for human services, and more in the ensuing years.

This, of course, was when there was an expectation that President Bush would still be president. We know that there is no 12 or 13 million dollars next year or the year after for Weed and Seed. We know that that has been vetoed, we know that the administration will change, we know that President Clinton is not going to pursue Weed and Seed in its present form, and will develop his own, hopefully far more humane in concept programs in the future. And we also know that the City of Seattle will apply for and will get its share, hopefully, of the funds that will be forthcoming for human services.

So why are we doing this today? This is not an issue of money at this point. A million dollars over 18 months, 660,000 dollars for a year, sounds like a lot of money, but in a budget from a general fund of a half a billion dollars, it is not enough money to do this. I believe that we are talking about symbols, as others have said. If we wanted these programs so badly, we do have money in our emergency fund, we could do them locally.

If we wanted them so badly, we have money in our cumulative reserve fund. There are a number of ways we can fund these completely locally, if it werethe programs that were so important. The mayor cut 1.5 million dollars out of our budget for public safety. We could have said no to that and kept the local police funding in here, but we didn't do any of that.

And now this has become a symbol of government authority over a very divided community. And let there be no mistake about this, this is directed not towards the entire city - this isn't a citywide program, as was the drug loitering program, which everyone ultimately voted on. This is a program that really is pointed towards one specific community, and that community is, at best, deeply divided about wanting it.

Had we said, neighborhoods, apply for this; those that really want it, we will nominate you - we would not be here today in this argument. But we did not do that. We said, Central Area, this is going to be targeted to you. And the Central Area I think very clearly said to us, we do not want it, thank you very much. [loud applause and whistles]

And we are not listening, unfortunately, today. And yet all of us up here, and the mayor, want the same thing, and that is for a healthy Central Area that works together. I would suggest to you that enacting this program today is not going to forward that goal. And when we talk about the long-term impact on a community, this is a long-term impact that I fear we will remember for quite awhile. [supportive applause and whistles]

Listen to the full meetings in Digital Collections:

Resources

Legislation

  • Ordinance 116508: relating to the Police Department and Department of Housing and Human Services authorizing execution of an agreement with the United States Department of Justice for the Weed and Seed neighborhood revitalization grant agreement (1992)
  • Ordinance 116477: authorizing a grant agreement with the State of Washington Department of Community Development for a Multi-jurisdictional Prosecution Task Force (1992)
  • Ordinance 116506: relating to the Police Department, ratifying acquisition of real property as the result of a forfeiture proceeding and authorizing the sale thereof (1992)
  • Resolution 28654: relating to the acceptance of the United States Department of Justice Neighborhoods Revitalization Grant under the Weed and Seed Program, affirming local control and establishing conditions for implementation of the grant (1992)
  • Ordinance 119527: relating to the Police Department; authorizing the execution of agreements for financial assistance for continuation of the Weed and Seed Program in the East Precinct (1999)
  • Resolution 30146: authorizing the submission of a grant application for financial assistance under the Weed and Seed Program (2000)
  • Ordinance 120317: relating to the Weed & Seed Program in Central Seattle (2001)
  • Resolution 30308: authorizing the submission of a grant application to the United States Department of Justice, Executive Office for Weed and Seed (2001)
  • Resolution 32015: regarding the impact of Seattle’s Urban Renewal program in displacing Black community members from the Central Area (2021)

SMA Resources

  • Beyond the Badge, Episode #34: Good Neighbors / Community Policing Academy, Weed and Seed / OPA (Item 6370)
  • City of Seattle Weed and Seed Program / seed activity report, 1993 (Document 9132)
  • Seattle Weed & Seed / report to the community, 2006 (Document 8726)
  • Seattle's weed and seed program / final evaluation report, 1997 (Document 7198)
  • National evaluation of Weed and Seed / Seattle case study / research report, 1999 (Document 6417)
  • Proposal for continuation of Department of Justice Seattle weed & seed program / reclaiming America's neighborhoods, 1994 (Document 2761)
  • Census 1990 Central District profile, 1993 (Document 14730)

Other Resources

Municipal Archives, City Clerk

Sarah Shipley, Interim City Archivist
Address: 600 Fourth Avenue, Third Floor, Seattle, WA, 98104
Mailing Address: PO Box 94728, Seattle, WA, 98124-4728
Phone: (206) 684-8353
archives@seattle.gov

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