By Steve Pomper
Many Democrats, especially at the activist and party level, have demonstrated they have an insatiable appetite for power. King County, Washington’s shady (Democrat) County Executive Dow Constantine, is calling for current elected Sheriff Mitzi Johanknecht, not a right-winger, to end her tenure early and retire. This despite he’ll be selecting the next appointed sheriff in early 2022.
What’s her crime according to Constantine? According to The Seattle Times, Sheriff Johanknecht dared to stand behind her deputies involved in a controversial shooting of a 20-year-old. Yes, that’s what it takes these days to get canceled in woke jurisdictions. A sheriff backing her troops should be seen as admirable, but not to these folks. Anyone who strays off the social justice reservation is to be targeted and canceled.
In the dubious election year of 2020, the voters of King County apparently saw fit to alter the county charter to make the sheriff an appointed rather than elected position. The position was changed from appointed to elected in 1996. The next sheriff will be nominated by the uber-progressive Constantine and confirmed by the equally uber county council (6 D and 3 R).
Why would voters vote their power away to a politician? I guess they don’t trust themselves and prefer Mommy and Daddy government to make decisions for them. Unfortunately, the neo-socialist takeover of the Democrat Party created this paradigm. They’ve already shown the neo-Democrats, ironically, don’t seem all that interested in democracy. They’d rather the Party’s elected apparatus, county exec and county council, choose a Party puppet for them. The office of county sheriff has normally been a conservative institution in the U.S., and the progressives cannot abide it.
The Sheriff’s Office recently announced a $5 million-dollar payout to the family of that 20-year-old man who threatened that homeowner and later ran at officers with what turned out to be a ballpoint pen. The deputies may not have known what sort of edged/pointed weapon the suspect had at the time. But that doesn’t really matter, does it? Would you enjoy being stabbed with a ballpoint pen?
Sheriff Johanknecht sent an email to her staff telling them the payout is “not a reflection of how I view the [deputies’] actions.” Constantine admitted he sent a letter to a constituent addressing the sheriff. The power-grubber wrote, “In light of these challenges, and the shift of authority and responsibility from the Sheriff to the Executive office in less than nine months, I urged her to consider retiring immediately and allowing the people of King County and the law enforcement community to instead focus on the important transition ahead.” He wants oversight of the county’s law enforcement so badly he can taste it.
The Seattle Times reports Constantine goes on to express his “frustration and disappointment” in Sheriff Johanknecht’s written reaction (to her staff) to the settlement. Another peeve the county exec, councilmembers, and community members have is their perceived lack of discipline from the sheriff for a recently promoted captain. What was the captain’s egregious offense? The captain dared to make an accurate social media post.
In an incident, which the Times’ writers grossly understated when they wrote about the incident the captain was referring to, “a group of Black [sic] teens in Brooklyn… assaulted and stole from a girl as, ‘animals.’” I believe the captain also understated the event by insulting animals.
Watch the video and see what adjectives (and invectives) come to your mind.
What if it was your 15-year-old daughter? After one male slams her to the concrete, about a dozen more descend on her like a pack of jackals. They punch and kick her repeatedly. One of the barbarians can be seen jumping and stomping on the young girl with both feet. After stealing her shoes, the hoard flee like the cowardly vermin they are (the animal reference is spot on after all).
And, for the Times’ writers’ edification, assault + theft = robbery: a felony. Reportedly, Sheriff Johanknecht gave the captain a one-day suspension, which was one day more than he deserved for being entirely accurate in his description of events. I’m sure the one day was only to placate her critics for her perceived “leniency” in addressing his accurate comment.
King County, the largest in the state of Washington, whose county seat is Seattle, its largest city, no longer resides in the United States of America. This state, named for the father of our country, has de facto seceded from this great union, no longer interested in the great liberty experiment in republican democracy its namesake made possible. Instead, with leadership like King County Executive Dow Constantine and Seattle Mayor Jenny (Summer of Love) Durkan, they are leading the state to ruin, desperate to join California and Oregon in socialism, on the way to its suicide pact with Marxism.