By Steve Pomper
Here is yet another report from the insane asylum otherwise known as the Seattle City Council headed by its chief lunatic, socialist Kshama Sawant. It’s no secret I am not a big fan of Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan either. About a decade ago, when she was the U.S. Attorney for Washington, she was a part of the DOJ hit squad that placed a bogus consent decree on the Seattle Police Department (SPD), which, in part, has led to the political turmoil we’re seeing in America’s streets today. However, I believe in giving credit where it’s due.
The Seattle PI recently reported that Mayor Durkan plans to veto the Seattle City Council’s budget proposal to defund the SPD. This is good. But before I lavish too much praise on Her Honor, according to P.J. Media, Durkan maintains “she still wants to cut their budget. Just, not by as much as city council wants to.”
The SPD has been dangerously understaffed for decades. The budget should be increased, to bring on more officers, not decreased. Just last year, Council Member Lisa Herbold promised to increase SPD staffing by 200 officers. At the same meeting, Council Members Dan Strauss and Andrew Lewis also spoke in favor of increasing police staffing and spoke glowingly of the city’s police officers. What’s happened since then? Nothing, locally, but a single incident that occurred in Minneapolis proved too much of a crisis to let it go to waste.
When the city council initiated the defunding discussion, the media reported the council had a veto-proof majority in favor of defunding the cops and would vote to override any mayoral veto. But lately there have been some murky grumblings that some city council members may be vacillating. The reality of their reelection prospects likely smacking them in their once-smug faces.
The PI also reported, “Durkan said she remained committed to working together with the council to reimagine public safety in the city.” By the way, are you as sick of these euphemisms as much I am? The push to “reimagine” or “re-envision” or “re-confabulate” policing or public safety is annoying. At least, the radicals calling for defunding or abolishing are saying what they mean.
These anti-cop folks continue to try to fix something that isn’t broken. This is not to say that police departments shouldn’t always strive to improve. But I reject the premise there is systemic police brutality or racism. The statistics and studies simply do not endorse that warped view.
And what has happened over the past decade, as activists try to fix what is not broken? They break it even more. The cop-haters seem to have this belief that just because they don’t like how police work is done, or sometimes has to be done, that it’s wrong. Sorry folks, sometimes police work just ain’t that pretty to look at. That’s the reality.
What has their attempt to “fix” law enforcement gotten Seattle residents, so far? Well, KOMO News recently told the story of businessowners fleeing downtown. Seattle E-Bike owner, Brian Nordwall, told KOMO, “It’s open season on pretty much everybody. It was getting grimmer and grimmer and grimmer.”
So, he’s pulling up stakes and moving his store to West Seattle. Mr. Nordwall compared downtown Seattle to Tombstone, Arizona. He said, “There is no law and order. There is no civil authority and everybody knows it.” He’s right. But it’s no accident. The fault lies directly with a city government that has more respect for lawbreakers than for laws or those who enforce them.
And Mr. Nordwall is not the only one. The owner of Beyond Threads, Christina Dioguardi, has operated her business in downtown Seattle for over 20 years. Unfortunately, Ms. Dioguardi may be looking for help from the people responsible for the decline. She told KOMO, “she’s seen the violence grow and hopes city leaders can help make a difference.”
The city leaders are not confronting the result of some destructive outside force; they are confronting the results of their own negligence. If they truly want to make a difference, they should resign.
Ms. Dioguardi likely expresses the views of lots of Seattle business owners when she says, “This has nothing to do with politics; this just has to do with the survival of our city.” Sadly, Ms. Dioguardi is wrong. This has everything to do with politics, and if Seattleites don’t get rid of these politicians, the destruction of a once growing and thriving city will be complete.
With a bit over four months left in 2020, crimes committed by criminals using guns is up 55 percent, and the city has already reached the number of murders that occurred in the city in all of 2019.
Similar to Mayor Durkan’s quest to “reimagine” public safety, Deputy Chief Adrian Diaz, who will be acting as interim police chief, also seems to concede law enforcement must artificially change.
Commenting on the terrible state of downtown, responsible for forcing businesses out, DC Diaz said, “he plans on meeting with protest groups and other organizations to try and figure out how to re-envision police while trying to keep gun crimes down.” “Re-envision?” I wish the interim chief well, but please, let’s all stop with the politically correct euphemisms for diminishing the police department.
And are these protest groups or riot groups with whom he’ll meet? Guess we’ll just have to wait to see by what acronyms those groups and organizations are known. At any rate, kneeling at the altar of those who want to destroy good, effective policing is not the way to enhance policing. Haven’t we seen enough of the proof of that these last several months?
Continuing to break the police—even if at a slower rate—will not fix the police.
Every time police leaders use a phrase like “reimagine” public safety, it is a concession to the radical forces calling for the defunding or abolition of the police. It’s just a tamer word intended to cajole cooperation. The last thing the police need is any more leaders who use leftist language that conveys the police are the problem rather than the solution.