© Ted S. Warren/APSeattle Police
Seattle City Council voted this week to permanently remove 80 Seattle police positions despite critically low staffing levels and a record-breaking increase in homicides throughout the city.
On Tuesday, Seattle City Council approved their 2022-2023 budget which rerouted funds that were initially reserved for hiring 200 positions in the Seattle Police Department. Council slashed 80 of those positions, leaving the department with a budget for only 120, according to Seattle Times.
However, it is going to be a particularly challenging task for the Seattle Police Department to come even remotely close to hiring 120 police personnel when officers are leaving the department in droves as the city continues their war on police.
More than 500 officers have left the department since the notorious "Defund the Police" movement in 2020 following the death of George Floyd, and more are on their way out the door.
SPD's budget has been slashed by more than $50 million since the city council began to "transform" the department in 2017. From 2020-2021, Seattle PD was defunded by $35 million, and an additional $6 million in 2022, according to KOMO News.
According to data from Seattle PD, the city has seen a record-breaking number of homicides this year, surpassing the reported amount in 2021, which also broke city records. From January to August of 2022, violent crimes and property crimes doubled from the previous year but fell below the reported total amount in 2021 in both September and October. Seattle's violent crime rate hit a 14-year record in 2021, according to the department's year-end crime report.
City Councilmember Sara Nelson voted against the budget stating, "I believe that eliminating these positions does reinforce a 'defund' narrative that got us here," according to Seattle Times.
To maintain optimal public safety levels in the city, there needs to be 1,400 deployable police officers. As of November 27, the Seattle Police Department only has 881 deployable officers, according to the Seattle Police Officers Guild's Public Safety Index.
Reader Comments
What you think about that Artex - maybe it is a possibility...
maybe not?
In all seriousness, Seattle has a sickness of cowardice, like many politicians and corporations also have.
The rest of us are sick of dominators and we intend on killing them one at a time - off with their necks I proclaim. One at a time with discriminate justice resolute.
Simple for eff sake.
the time is NOW
As far as Seattle goes you’re correct to point out the cowardice. It’s been a typical story here for years. A small, unhinged progressive minority with a large, submissive, scared shitless group of “liberals” who go along because they’re mortally afraid of being excommunicated from their social group as a result of expressing any “wrong think”. Then there’s the rest of us who just spend our days laughing at their descent into oblivion whilst amassing dehydrated food and bullets.
Since the start of the pandemic, we have seen INSANE driving grow in this city. Cars without license plates driving 20 - 30 mph over the speed limit and something right down the middle of the street. The city declines to prosecute even when they catch someone, which they rarely do since police chases are more dangerous than a lunatic driving without regard for others even when they are not being chased. Also, enforcement of traffic and licensure laws is "racist" according to the woke mob here.
Madison has always been a diverse city and home to real progressive politics, not racism masquerading as progress. When I moved here in the 90s it was a far more welcoming place, very much like the stereotypes portrayed in Portlandia, as far as culture. It was a weird, wonderful, welcoming place. Now it's best to stay away if you're white, straight, and/or male (once you've gotten your degree from UW, that is). Never mind that all these malcontents are under-educated and all the big tech industries that have grown up here have to recruit from other states, and will eventually move because it's easier than continuing to pay to move qualified people here.
Anyway, things were quite a fair bit better when it was the boomer hippies in charge and Gen Xers running independent businesses all over the place. Now it seems millennials are in charge and all we have are national chains replacing what used to be a unique downtown replicated nowhere.
Accept this proposal or not, but know this - when I read the term "leftist" I know it is so subjective nowadays it basically is meaningless.
Respectfully proposed,
Ken
ps - I have other proposals at the ready and 2023 is gonna be better for the peasants, myself included - my family and the families of peasants around the world, and a peasant herding sheep or cutting wool or welding metal really could give a shit about the term "leftist" cause we already know - it has lost all meaning in narrative....
Man made catastrophes are avoidable if folks set their mind to refute harm man-made.
I mean Billy bad ass could be going to get a can of pees one day, or maybe just out in the sun, and then he and those of his ilk could be eliminated one a time with discrimination based upon evidence solid of course....irrefutable evidence demanding justice.
Sometimes, discrimination is called for....
Justified Retribution is not a trivial concept, but when push comes to shove, the meek get herded like lemmings over the cliff or herds of bison shot down for no reason, so my advice is this:
Don't be meek.
Ken
Sure, it would be more useful to break it all down into the ideas implied by Leftist, but I think it's fair to define it as far-left church-militant politics, since the policies of the far left would/will require coercion and/or force to implement.
Liberals and progressives are not and never have been Leftists. Liberals are center left but primarily socially progressive. Progressives are left of liberals and push for things like fair-market capitalism rather than laissez-faire capitalism, and equal opportunity elsewhere. Libertarians are like the true-neutral of politics, but seem to lean slightly to the right.
It's telling that the far left and right demonize liberals and libertarians more than anyone else.
Also, I try to capitalize Leftist as a proper noun so it is not confused with simply being on the left. Leftist/Woke = cult politics
I consider myself left-leaning so maybe I'm biased, but my leanings do not ascribe to what many associate with the term "leftist". Therein for myself and others is the problem. Now, I'll share a few other words that have basically become subjectively meaningless:
Capitalism
Marxism
Communism
Socialism
Upyourbuttism
and schism.
~
Ken
ps - that "schism" word might not belong in the list, but you get my drift I hope?????
pss - I made up that word "up-your-butt-ism", but it might as well be a word compared to the "isms" above it lately...
Perhaps "capitalist" has lost meaning, but capitalism is simply the exchange of money for goods in a system where wealth can be accumulated (as opposed to a barter system where money isn't a thing and there are a lot of goods that aren't worth accumulating).
Marxism still refers to the teachings of Karl Marx, while "Marxist" has just become a pejorative used by people (including those who call themselves Marxists) who don't know what Marxism actually is.
Communism, see Marxism, except more broadly. Communes = good, anything bigger than a commune that practices communism = bad. Once you take from something they can produce or collect on their own, without the need for the rest of society, you're on a path that ends in mass murder.
Socialism, similar to Marxism or communism. It still has a meaning while the accusation of being "socialist" no longer does. Also see "anti-Semitic."
I don't know what upyourbuttism is, but it sounds gay.
Schism? That's a pretty simple term to have lost meaning. I haven't experienced this losing meaning.
So please don't try to pretend that these words are all understood as they are in your mind and if you observe communication sometimes you realize "trigger" words are not used to improve discourse, but rather are tools used to suggest this or that.
Last time I played chess with a pigeon it flew away before I even made my first move.
Next time I'll let the pigeon play the "white" team, but we flipped a coin and fair is fair, but that damn pigeon flew away, and next time I'll refuse the game.
Maybe there is a better chess playing pigeon out there....
Ken
Ironically, I learned "Don't play chess with pigeons" from someone who was very center-left liberal and who has now become a Leftist (as defined in this thread). I don't engage with him anymore because everything "triggers" him. And sadly, I've been watching his mental health decline while at the same time being able to see that he clearly recognizes something isn't right. And what bugs me the most is that he introduced me to Bill Hicks, but now I see him shitting on comics who spread the same ideas Hicks did. I also learned how to use my acerbic tongue for comedy when I worked with him at an art supply store 26 years ago. He used to say some gawdawful shit to be edgy, and I learned how to make him say " What is wrong with you???"
Anyway, I understand and accept your points. The best advice I can give is learn to jump on people when you recognize they are triggered and ask them if they understand what you're saying, or just roll your eyes and tell them to take a fucking chill pill before they have an aneurysm (or conniption fit if you want to be old-skewl).
Anyhow, I'm stewing now on the thought you triggered on the other post I think it was regarding my advocacy for 2023 and thanks hombre! If I am ever in Madison I will look you up and literally just now I got off the phone with my ChE friend PhD - Madison, and he is the guy who shared the ghost peppa seeds with me about a year ago literally.....so, tis a small world now and that is a good thing and maybe not so good of a thing, but it is is what it is - just depends I reckon, but I'm a believer in good communication.
Ken
I don’t think fighting the leviathan is necessary. It’s collapsing under its own weight. The challenge will be outlasting it’s collapse. I’m somewhat prepared but I’ve still much work to do.
just saying Johnny - seriously - get a clue
I don't mind turning the other cheek when I was in the wrong, but I refuse to be meek.
What do you consider the effective path? Should I take one last look at my wife and two children and then head out to be either killed or permanently imprisoned in the process of “doing the right thing”?
That is all I'm saying....I mean hells-bells, they treat all of "us" on the "outside" poorly .....lately most of em, and it is evident.
Thats all I'm saying....I just don't think it is advisable to be meek anymore for anybody wants to refute the harm.
Ken
You can't deny that is a possibility Artex Maybe this or that, but maybe not.
Maybe yes and maybe not....
at the end of the day
ideas with merit
survive....and
ideas old
with no
merit
die.
Simple.
The time for some ideas to die is now.
Literally NOW....as I type the next letter.
Bad ideas always die in the end.
Nothing doesn't mean anything - nothing is everything if you want to know, but do you really want to know that?
If you do, show your face and lets have a debate at the table and then let the peasants decide freely and fairly....but if that is out of your cookbook, then know this - your death awaits and you will get what you deserve - nothing.