In the Aug. 1 editorial accompanying the important front-page article, “After a raft of drug activity, a neighborhood fights back,” the newspaper states, “Vashon is not a hotbed of meth-use and heroin addiction.” It went on to characterize the meth- and heroin-using and dealing population as a “small group.”

How does one know these things? Are these statements based on published facts or personal perception?

Were the relevant crime statistics for Vashon to be obtained and our rates compared to the rates of the county as a whole and were these findings to be published in the The Beachcomber, we Islanders would gain much-needed perspective on the scope of our problem and an important tool for dialogue and informed action.

I hope that can happen soon, especially as this community negotiates the probability of reduced policing in its future.

— Dan Houston