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Op-Ed Seattle Times "Seattle Bungled Defund The Police"

HJCane

SuperCane
Gold Member
Jun 2, 2007
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No shyt really? What a complete shocker!
More BAD LIBERAL Policies that hurt REAL PEOPLE!


The City Council initially cut the police budget by about 17%, never reaching the 50% goal. But the agency has been in a tailspin ever since.

More than 400 officers have left while crime has soared. This past week The Seattle Times and KUOW reported new sex assault cases aren’t being investigated because of understaffing. Meanwhile, the softer approaches envisioned for community safety still are in the pilot stages.

This past week the city announced it is refunding 100,000 parking tickets and voiding another 100,000 because of an oversight — namely that the parking enforcement officers, who are civilians, were not regranted the authority to write tickets after they were switched out of the Police Department last fall.


Democrats elsewhere may be fleeing the defund the police movement, but it lives on in Seattle. Business owners told the city council last week what the resulting breakdown in law and order means in daily life, and it deserves more attention.
Wednesday’s hearing came days after the Seattle Police Department released its 2021 year-end crime report, which showed a 20% surge in violent crime to the highest levels in 14 years. Aggravated assaults rose 24% in 2021 from 2020, and robberies 18%.
The official statistics show a 9% increase in property crime, but business owners testified that the real numbers are much higher. Many victims no longer bother to call the cops. Responses to 911 calls can take hours, and criminals are released soon after they’re arrested. Businesses say they fear their insurance costs will spike if they report what’s really going.

Seattle’s soft-on-criminals policy predates 2020, but after the murder of George Floyd the city council voted two years in a row to cut police funding. Since Jan. 1, 2020, some 357 cops have retired or quit. It’s nearly impossible to recruit officers to work in a city infamous for its hostility to the police.
The lawlessness now hampers Seattle’s economic recovery. “Major employers signal that it’s not the pandemic that’s keeping them away, but it is their ability to keep their employees safe,” testified Lisa Howard, executive director of the nonprofit Alliance for Pioneer Square.
Tariqa Waters said crime has forced her to open her art gallery by appointment only. “My building has been broken into multiple times. My personal health and safety has been put on the line more times than I can count removing human waste and needles,” she said. “I’ve also been threatened with racial slurs and assault weapons.”


AND THEY CONTINUE TO PUSH THIS AGENDA!
Liberals could F up a wet dream.
 
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