[G66enigma]

Seattle to Slash Police Budget as Homicides Hit Highest Level in over a Decade @ National Review, 12/1/20.

One has to wonder whether the continued "softening" of the stance against crime is going to erode or strengthen the RKBA in the state of Washington. Seattle doesn't appear to be heading in a safe and sane direction. I hope that Seattle residents who value their ability to withstand violent crime are arming-up, 'cause it's likely to get a lot worse before anything improves.

If Oregon's path is any guide, Washington's going to have a rough time in terms of the RKBA. All the worse for Washington State citizens.

According to the Seattle Mayor: "We have rightly put forward a plan that seeks to ensure SPD has enough officers to meet 911 response and investigative needs throughout the city, while acknowledging and addressing the disproportionate impacts policing has had on communities of color ..."

911 response. And "investigative" needs. No mention of protection, outright. Which implies folks are largely on their own. Perhaps Seattle residents will finally get the picture. They are on their own, on the instant things occur; always have been, and always will be. They're about to find out how true that is, I suspect. Even if it kills them.

Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan is set to sign a city budget that includes an 18 percent cut to the Seattle Police Department, a move that comes after police reform activists demanded the police budget be reduced by half. Calls for police reform have abounded in cities across the country since May, when George Floyd died at the hands of police in Minneapolis.

The city council voted last week to slash about $69 million in funding for officer training, salaries and overtime, and get rid of vacant positions in the police department as well as transfer parking officers, mental health workers, and 911 dispatchers out of the department. The goal is to ultimately reinvest in alternatives to police in situations such as mental health crises.

Meanwhile, Seattle had seen 55 murders this year as of Monday, the highest level since at least 2008, the last year of data available. The troubled city is also suffering a spike in violent crime, with 8,418 burglary incidents, up from to 7,634 last year, according to police.

The mayor, a Democrat, said last week that she believes the city is “laying the groundwork to make systemic and lasting changes to policing.”

“We have rightly put forward a plan that seeks to ensure SPD has enough officers to meet 911 response and investigative needs throughout the city, while acknowledging and addressing the disproportionate impacts policing has had on communities of color, particularly Black communities,” Durkan said in a statement.

Police Chief Carmen Best resigned over the summer amid disagreements with the city council over the cuts to the police budget.

In June, rioters claimed and barricaded off several blocks in the city’s downtown Capitol Hill neighborhood, calling it the “Capitol Hill Occupied Protest” zone, or CHOP, after police abandoned their East Precinct to vandals and arsonists. Police agreed not to respond to calls from within the “autonomous zone” unless they were life-threatening.

Later that month, however, Durkan, who previously predicted the autonomous zone would usher in a “summer of love” and said her decision to withdraw police from the area reflected her “trust” in protesters, announced the city would begin dismantling the zone, citing incidents of violence. A shooting inside the zone left a 19-year-old dead and another critically injured. Police said they were met by a violent crowd that blocked their access to the victims.

...

 

[sheepdawg]

They voted those loons into office, they get what they deserve.

 

[slow_burn]

any politician that votes/approves this, ought to be drawn and quartered.

you simply NEVER take away funding for such important services.

what gets me is that the criminals get away with crap, each and every day.

is this what some places want.......anarchy, chaos, lawlessness, civil disobedience..???

 

[primer1]

Seattle's murder rate is almost twice that of last year, and it recently received the honor of being America's #1 major city for car thefts.

Yeah, f the police. That will help.

 

[manta]

Reform if needed and independent accountability, would make more sense.

 

[Ghost1958]

Just personally I'd have no problem with reducing police budgets. Not abolishing them. Just bringing them back to a normal police roll rather than the psuedo military roll they have now. IF statutes concerning guns and self defense were loosened to the point the average citizen is no longer hamstrung to be always behind the curve when defending themsrlves.

Let's face it. Police didn't stop riots because they could not without civilian help.
Many cities they dont even try and its left up too armed citizens to protect their own towns
They dont prevent murders , rapes, thefts, etc . They rarely prevent anything They clean up after the fact 99 % of the time.

 

[Caveman Jim]

This state has become the new Kalifornia with Slezzattle coping SF. It’s disgusting to witness a beautiful state going into the toilet like Kalifornia did.

 

[manta]

Just personally I'd have no problem with reducing police budgets. Not abolishing them. Just bringing them back to a normal police roll rather than the psuedo military roll they have now. IF statutes concerning guns and self defense were loosened to the point the average citizen is no longer hamstrung to be always behind the curve when defending themsrlves.

Let's face it. Police didn't stop riots because they could not without civilian help.
Many cities they dont even try and its left up too armed citizens to protect their own towns
They dont prevent murders , rapes, thefts, etc . They rarely prevent anything They clean up after the fact 99 % of the time.

Makes me wonder how police around the world manage to handle riots etc, without civilian help. Are you saying police in America are not up to the job.

 

[Ghost1958]

Makes me wonder how police around the world manage to handle riots etc, without civilian help. Are you saying police in America are not up to the job.

They mostly dont. Police anywhere in the world are swept aside like leaves in a wind storm when faced with large scale rioters willing to use force against them . They are simply outnumbered.

As to your question, to stop major violent riots that is exactly what I'm saying.
Without aid from the NG or civilians or both , LE as a fighting force are a relatively weak group compared to the armed citizenry of the U.S.

 

[oO_Rogue_Oo]

IF I believed in conspiracies or that someone was architecting us toward a particular endgame I would say that de-funding the police plays right into the endgame of government control. Frist defund the police then when things get out of control; come to the rescue with the National Guard. Leading ultimately to military / government control.

Glad I don't believe in any of that kind of thing. No one is trying to do that anywhere in the country.

 

[manta]

They mostly dont. Police anywhere in the world are swept aside like leaves in a wind storm when faced with large scale rioters willing to use force against them . They are simply outnumbered.

As to your question, to stop major violent riots that is exactly what I'm saying.
Without aid from the NG or civilians or both , LE as a fighting force are a relatively weak group compared to the armed citizenry of the U.S.

They manage to deal with rioters here, they would not dream of asking civilian's to help them do their job. If they need help now they use police from other parts of the UK, in the past they had the army for back up. The National guard could be used in America, if needed.

 

[locutus]

The police are perfectly capable of doing their job, without any help from the kluxers, if the damned politicians allow them to.

 

[Ghost1958]

IF I believed in conspiracies or that someone was architecting us toward a particular endgame I would say that de-funding the police plays right into the endgame of government control. Frist defund the police then when things get out of control; come to the rescue with the National Guard. Leading ultimately to military / government control.

Glad I don't believe in any of that kind of thing. No one is trying to do that anywhere in the country.

The defunding police goes against gov gaining total control.
The police are the front line Gov will use to remove guns and civil liberties. It's what the police have historically been used for.
You'll notice no defunding of fed LE. Federal LE will be the only force available to use to try to confiscate guns and enforce gov decrees.
The military will not allow itself to be used to conquer it's own people.
NG will only be involved until it realizes what it is being used for and them by and large quit.
That's the reason every federal agency right down to the dept of education is armed and have their own swat or assault teams. In order to try to build a federal police force capable of securing control of the citizenry.
It's far from being able too is the ONLY reason things like forcible gun confiscation have not been implemented.

 

[Ghost1958]

They manage to deal with rioters here, they would not dream of asking civilian's to help them do their job. If they need help now they use police from other parts of the UK, in the past they had the army for back up. The National guard could be used in America, if needed.

Uh huh. That approach has been working really well over the past months hasn't it.

And your police are no more , probably less capable of stopping a riot where the citizenry is more heavily armed than most nations. Not to hard to control riots where the rioters must use 22 s and pool noodles

 

[manta]

Uh huh. That approach has been working really well over the past months hasn't it.

And your police are no more , probably less capable of stopping a riot where the citizenry is more heavily armed than most nations. Not to hard to control riots where the rioters must use 22 s and pool noodles

They rioters etc had any amount of firearms here.

 

[Ghost1958]

They rioters etc had any amount of firearms here.

Ok.

 

[Caveman Jim]

The police are perfectly capable of doing their job, without any help from the kluxers, if the damned politicians allow them to.

This is the problem, the sheep they have conditioned will continue to vote the way they have been taught by their RULERS!!!

 

[G66enigma]

The police are perfectly capable of doing their job ... if the damned politicians allow them to.

Indeed. If only.

Nowadays, in far too many U.S. states, sketchy protests that turn ugly (even riotous) are handled with kid gloves.

When things go sideways, when the violent come out to inflict themselves upon others, frankly the gloves need to come off. *****- footing around does one thing: it teaches the cretins that they're winning, and can win in a general riot.

Trouble is, as many have mentioned before in numerous discussions, in many towns and even smaller cities, there simply aren't sufficient numbers of LE on the instant such riots require suppression. (The "major" metros have thousands, generally, and if planned in advance the state's National Guard has often been called to assist. But not everyplace has those and getting blindsided when something does get ugly can quickly overwhelm smaller forces.)

Hopefully, the citizens in such "defunded" areas will rapidly pull their fingers out and re-think what they're allowing to be done. Hopefully they'll come to fully realize the utility of keeping a solid cap on the most-violent and -threatening of crimes in their towns.

In places such as Seattle, however, I hold out practically zero hope that the people will wake up and realize that they themselves are strong. As it stands, they largely want to be protected ... and they assume they will be when push comes to shove. I suspect those types are in for a very rude awakening.

 

[manta]

Fact check: Hermann Goering did not defund and eliminate police departments
Hermann Goering was a key leader in the Nazi party and one of the primary architects of the Nazi police state in Germany (here) . He did become Minister of the Interior in Prussia, the country’s largest and most influential state, in 1933 ( here ). It is false, however, that Goering’s “first orders were to defund and eliminate the police departments.”

Timothy Snyder, professor  of history at  Yale  University specializing in the history of Central and Eastern Europe and the Holocaust ( here ), told Reuters that the claims made in the posts are “absolutely baseless.”

 

[JTJ]

Shortly the signs leading to Seattle will read
Welcome to the Wild West
Vigilante office on Main Street
Gallows in the square