The Raid on Whitechapel’s Cribs
Under orders from the police chief, officers descended on a Seattle district known as 'Whitechapel,' arresting twenty-two women for maintaining 'houses of ill fame' in a surprise morning crackdown.
Whitechapel was raided yesterday by the police under orders from Chief Jackson, and twenty-two women were arrested upon charges of maintaining houses of ill fame. More arrests would have been made, but the women took alarm and fled from their lodgings. Chief Jackson has declared that women shall not occupy any of the cribs in that part of the city. No attempt was made at raiding the lodging houses of Whitechapel, and last night many of the women took refuge in them. It is understood that the chief only intends enforcing the law with reference to the occupancy of the cribs. The raid was quite unexpected. About 11 o'clock yesterday morning, Chief Jackson visited Mayor Ronald in his office and after half an hour's consultation returned to police headquarters and gave orders for the raiding of the Whitechapel cribs. At 12 o'clock Lieutenant Hanna and Officer Birdsall swooped down on Whitechapel and arrested twenty-two women; of that number seven were Japanese, thirteen were French, one was English and two were Negroes. All of the women gave bail in the sum of $26 each except the two colored prisoners, who were, therefore, sent to jail.
“Chief Jackson has declared that women shall not occupy any of the cribs in that part of the city.”
The 'Whitechapel' district of 1890s Seattle—a name evocative of the era's anxieties—highlights the long history of municipal efforts to legislate vice and displace marginalized communities. Today's debates over policing, homelessness, and zoning in the urban core echo these historic attempts to 'clean up' districts through selective enforcement.
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