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Defunding Seattle Police by 50% proving complicated for council
Crosscut ^ | 7/31/20 | David Kroman

Posted on 08/01/2020 3:15:59 PM PDT by Libloather

Much has been made about the “veto-proof” majority of Seattle City Council members who committed on Twitter and elsewhere to cutting 50% of the Seattle Police Department’s budget. But in the near term, the reality is proving more complicated.

On Friday, council members for the first time offered specific proposals and timelines for cutting the department’s budget and creating alternative systems to prevent violence and provide community safety. They also urged Seattle Police Chief Carmen Best to prioritize responding to violent crimes and to deprioritize calls that could disproportionally impact communities of color.

Only one council member, Kshama Sawant, proposed immediate and blunt cuts that could slash close to 50% of the department’s remaining 2020 budget. The rest offered proposals for this year that would slice 100 full-time equivalent positions - out of 1,428 fully trained, probationary and recruited officers - from the department through layoffs and attrition, while shuffling some police functions into other city departments.

“There are, no doubt, roadblocks to us being able to do that 50%,”

Councilmember Tammy Morales said in an interview Friday, as the council began to look at specific proposals for cutting the police budget. “But what we’re presenting today is the downpayment…. We do plan to continue this work through the next six to nine months, really understanding what would a community safety department system look like that doesn’t center police but really is about violence prevention and safety.”

(Excerpt) Read more at crosscut.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Conspiracy; Health/Medicine; Local News
KEYWORDS: council; defund; police; seattle
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Socialists can't agree. Are they going pro-cop all of a sudden? I'll bet they all enjoy the protection police provide. Maybe Seattle would be better off with fewer council members.
1 posted on 08/01/2020 3:15:59 PM PDT by Libloather
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To: Libloather
The primary obligation of ALL towns is health, safety and welfare.

I guess safety is out.

2 posted on 08/01/2020 3:20:12 PM PDT by Sacajaweau
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To: Libloather

Only one council member, Kshama Sawant, proposed immediate and blunt cuts


Some might call me a bigot, but so be it. This Sawant woman is an idiot, and she should go back to India and fix India, rather than come to my country, and try to fundamentally transform it.


3 posted on 08/01/2020 3:20:25 PM PDT by Dilbert San Diego
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To: Libloather

So police should wait for crimes to turn violent before responding instead of trying to deescalate situations that have not yet become violent. Brilliant, just fing brilliant.


4 posted on 08/01/2020 3:20:31 PM PDT by dblshot (R)
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To: Libloather
They also urged Seattle Police Chief Carmen Best to prioritize responding to violent crimes and to deprioritize calls that could disproportionally impact communities of color.

That's a no-brainer since the bulk of violent crimes coincidentally involves "communities of color" (whatever the hell that's supposed to mean).

5 posted on 08/01/2020 3:21:11 PM PDT by rockrr ( Everything is different now...)
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To: Libloather

Before they defund anything, how about finding the killers at large of the 3 youths at SeattleChop? Or aren’t the city council members concerned about black on black crime?


6 posted on 08/01/2020 3:24:14 PM PDT by blueplum ("...this moment is your moment: it belongs to you... " President Donald J. Trump, Jan 20, 2017))
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To: Libloather

These proceedings are getting boring—we need to send them some Twinkies. :-)


7 posted on 08/01/2020 3:24:34 PM PDT by cgbg (Masters don't want slaves talking about masters and slaves.)
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To: Libloather

So I can fill up a truck with stolen merchandise, but as long as I’m not violent, no cops? Cool!


8 posted on 08/01/2020 3:24:42 PM PDT by Veggie Todd (Voltaire: "Religion began when the first scoundrel met the first fool".)
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To: Veggie Todd

Offer the night manager half the take, and the two of you can empty the place—might take a lot of trucks, though. :-)


9 posted on 08/01/2020 3:28:53 PM PDT by cgbg (Masters don't want slaves talking about masters and slaves.)
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To: Libloather

Good luck.


10 posted on 08/01/2020 3:29:51 PM PDT by Jim Robinson (Trump stands with us to preserve the Republic. Biden kneels with those wanting to burn it all down.)
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To: Libloather

Businesses will line up for miles to start up in a city with No Police ,all the Peace Love and Dancing in the streets


11 posted on 08/01/2020 3:34:09 PM PDT by butlerweave
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To: cgbg

This happens sometimes, where theft from retailers facilities, warehouses, trucks, etc. are inside jobs. Sometimes they just give security guards some cash to be on their break when the thieves haul away merchandise. I hope that’s harder to do now with security cameras everywhere. But clever criminals will find a way.


12 posted on 08/01/2020 3:37:12 PM PDT by Dilbert San Diego
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To: Libloather

Businesses must be threatening to leave.


13 posted on 08/01/2020 3:38:54 PM PDT by Huskrrrr
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To: Libloather

Most of the new “social workers” hired, will be ex cops.

They are all trained negotiators etc.

All they are doing is rearranging the deck chairs on a sinking ship.


14 posted on 08/01/2020 3:39:02 PM PDT by Hypo2
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To: Dilbert San Diego

You are not alone in that sentiment. There are some on the council that share it.


15 posted on 08/01/2020 3:41:05 PM PDT by moehoward
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To: dblshot

Social services will handle all domestic violence calls. You know the ones where the person ringing the doorbell is shot and killed.


16 posted on 08/01/2020 3:41:18 PM PDT by Kozy (new age haruspex; "Everyone has a plan 'till they get punched in the mouth.")
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To: Libloather

“They also urged Seattle Police Chief Carmen Best to prioritize responding to violent crimes and to deprioritize calls that could disproportionally impact communities of color.”

This ought to be interesting to watch Seattle burn. Hopefully the city council is at the epicenter of the fire pit when it does go up in flames


17 posted on 08/01/2020 3:45:32 PM PDT by chuckee
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To: Veggie Todd

Truck full of stolen merchandise and——
“to deprioritize calls that could disproportionally impact communities of color.”

So wear your theatrical blackface makeup for crimes.

Reminds me of the ill fated attempts to force local police to stop disproportionately pulling over and ticketing persons of color. Each race should get equal tickets or it would be called “driving while black.”

If the racially balanced quota was reached, such as 15% tickets to blacks out of each expected monthly 100 tickets, and this was done at the end of the first week or cops would soon go into 60-80 or 110 tickets for blacks by the 30th of the month, then cops had to refrain from any more traffic stops of anyone black until a new calendar month began.

Only whites were stopped after that certain day of the month. Some whites meekly did a minor backlash.


18 posted on 08/01/2020 3:46:21 PM PDT by frank ballenger (End vote fraud,harvesting,non-citizen voting & leftist media news censorship or we are finished.)
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To: blueplum

Before they defund anything, how about finding the killers at large of the 3 youths at SeattleChop? Or aren’t the city council members concerned about black on black crime?”

They are saying they want to de-prioritized crimes that might unduly target POC. So black on black crime would mean that one of the blacks would be unfairly targeted. The same with POC domestic disturbance. They don’t want to interfere with the black dude beating his wife because he’s just trying to show her who’s the boss according to his culture.


19 posted on 08/01/2020 3:48:45 PM PDT by angry elephant (My MAGA cap is from a rally in Washingon state in May 2016)
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To: Dilbert San Diego
prioritize responding to violent crimes and to deprioritize calls that could disproportionally impact communities of color

Bit of a contradiction there.

20 posted on 08/01/2020 4:00:07 PM PDT by arthurus (kb ov)
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