Attaching Tent City 4 to convict was unfair | Letter

Published 3:13 pm Wednesday, October 30, 2013

An article linking the Tent City 4 community to a man recently convicted of a crime committed last fall in Tacoma left out important information.

For less than two weeks last fall, the person recently convicted was a resident of Tent City 4. However, the crime in Pierce County occurred before his stay with us.

Per standard procedure, the moment he appeared we did a warrant and sex offender check on him with the King County Sheriff’s Office. The check came back clean. This is because he hadn’t been charged with a crime when he came to the camp.

Left out of your report was that the King County Sheriff’s Office can keep track of the warrant and sex offender checks Tent City 4 calls in. When a warrant was issued for this man several days later, police already knew where to find him – at Tent City 4.

It was our system of warrant and sex offender checks that caused him to be speedily located and arrested. No one in the neighborhood where we were staying was harmed by this fellow. The crime happened before he came to camp, in another county.

Tent City 4 has always been a very safe place for both its residents and its neighbors. We have a warrant and sex offender checking system that works and this case proved it again. Attaching our name to one of the thousands of arrests made in King County without highlighting this fact just wasn’t fair.

Patricia Hurley, Tent City 4 resident