Seattle used to be one of America's crown jewels.
Now it's a cautionary tale.
And woke Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson was fuming after Duck Dynasty stars dropped this damning fact.
Al and Jase Robertson witnessed Seattle's transformation firsthand
Al and Jase Robertson from Duck Dynasty just said what everyone's been thinking about Seattle and San Francisco.
During a recent episode of their podcast Unashamed with the Robertson Family, the brothers didn't pull punches when discussing how leftist leadership turned these once-beautiful cities into dangerous zones.
"I went to Seattle for the first time to go on a cruise out of Alaska," Al told listeners.
"It's a beautiful city. I was right on the water with great restaurants, and we're like, 'Man, what a beautiful city these people have created here.'"
That was years ago.
Al's description of what happened next should make every American furious.
"The next year we went, it had lost a little luster. There were a few more things going on in the streets that weren't great. By the end of the fifth year, we were afraid to walk the streets of Seattle."
He wasn't exaggerating.
Al and his wife Lisa stopped leaving their hotel in downtown Seattle — the tourist district where visitors should feel safest.
Jase jumped in with the bigger picture everyone needs to understand.
"You see that in every city and area that tries this. When you worship and serve the creation rather than seeing creation as something we cultivate, something we steward, something we exercise dominion over, and you flip that script, the end result is always a death word."
The Robertson brothers' comments hit Seattle right as Mayor Katie Wilson faced massive backlash over her approach to drug enforcement.
Wilson, a self-described democratic socialist who just took office, immediately sparked controversy when an internal police email revealed her administration directed officers to divert all drug possession and public use cases away from prosecution.
Seattle Police Chief Shon Barnes sent the memo to officers on January 1.
"Effective immediately, all charges related to drug possession and/or drug use will be diverted from prosecution to the LEAD program," the chief wrote.
The Seattle Police Officers Guild torched the policy.
Guild President Mike Solan called Wilson's approach "naive and ignorant" and warned it would lead to "more death and societal decay."
"This embodies an enormous flaw in those in our community who think that meeting people where they are who are in the throes of addiction, is the correct path to lift them up," Solan stated.
"This is wrong and is commonly referred to as 'Suicidal Empathy.'"
Wilson denied any policy change despite the chief's "effective immediately" directive.
"You'll know when I announce a policy change, because I'll announce a policy change," Wilson told reporters.
Andrea Suarez from the nonprofit We Heart Seattle had a message for the mayor.
"This is enablement of the worst kind, and people will die at a faster rate by allowing them to openly use illicit and lethal narcotics on our sidewalks, in our parks, under our bridges," Suarez said.
The pattern destroying West Coast cities
What Al Robertson described watching happen to Seattle over just five years isn't unique.
San Francisco, Portland, and Los Angeles followed the exact same script.
Research from the National Interest shows homelessness declined 14.6% nationwide over the past decade while simultaneously exploding in these West Coast cities.
The reason isn't housing costs like radical leftists claim.
King County's own data shows only 6% of Seattle's homeless cited rent increases as their primary cause.
Instead, they pointed to addiction, mental illness, domestic violence, and family breakdown.
Cities like Houston, Tampa, Chicago, and Phoenix saw homelessness decrease despite rising housing costs.
The difference? Those cities didn't adopt permissive policies on public camping, open drug use, and property crime.
Christopher Rufo identified four groups destroying Seattle in City Journal: radical leftists pushing housing-first dogma, enablers demanding unlimited compassion, the multi-billion dollar nonprofit industry profiting from homelessness, and advocates treating addiction as a lifestyle choice rather than a crisis.
Together they diverted hundreds of millions of dollars toward programs that enable addiction rather than break it.
Seattle even admits the "magnet effect" is real.
15.4% of the city's homeless moved there specifically "to access homeless services," and another 9.5% came "for legal marijuana."
More than half of Seattle's homeless came from outside city limits.
Jase Robertson got it exactly right when he said these policies create "a trash dump that is shrinking."
That's what happens when city leaders worship compassion without consequences instead of stewarding their communities under actual principles that work.
Wilson wants diversion programs without arrest powers.
She's eliminating the one tool that forces addicts to make a different choice — the threat of jail time that clears the fog long enough to accept help.
Seattle tried this exact approach from 2021 to 2023 after the State v. Blake decision struck down drug possession laws.
The results were visible everywhere — tent cities, open drug use, record overdose deaths.
Mayor Bruce Harrell reversed course in 2023 and restored enforcement.
Now Wilson's reversing the reversal.
Sources:
- Ashley Hume, "'Duck Dynasty' stars call Seattle, San Francisco 'unlivable' under 'woke' leadership," Fox News, January 12, 2026.
- Charlie Harger, "Harger: Seattle is ending arrests for public drug use as Katie Wilson takes over," KIRO Newsradio, January 5, 2026.
- Christopher Rufo, "Seattle, Under Siege," City Journal, March 23, 2023.
- "Crisis: Why Are Liberal West Coast Cities Plagued By Homelessness?" National Interest, November 25, 2024.
- Luke Duecy, "'I'll announce a policy change': Seattle mayor responds to backlash over apparent drug arrest stance," MyNorthwest, January 5, 2026.
