Posted on 12/12/2020 9:39:33 AM PST by simpson96
In October, the Seattle City Council floated legislation to provide an exemption from prosecution for misdemeanor crimes for any citizen who suffers from poverty, homelessness, addiction, or mental illness. Under the proposed ordinance, courts would have to dismiss all so-called “crimes of poverty”—which, according to the city’s former public-safety advisor, would cover more than 90 percent of all misdemeanor cases citywide. In effect, the legislation would create a new class of “untouchables,” protected from consequences by the city’s powerbrokers.
This is the latest and most brazen effort in the city’s campaign to establish what might be called a “reverse hierarchy of oppression.” The underlying theory is that society has condemned the lower class to a life of poverty and stigma, which leads to addiction, madness, and indigence. The poor, in the logic of Seattle’s progressive elites, are thus forced to commit crimes—including violent crimes—to secure their very existence. Therefore, as society is the perpetrator of this inequality, the crimes of the poor must be forgiven. The crimes are transformed into an expression of social justice.
On a practical level, if this ordinance becomes law, it will effectively legalize an entire spectrum of misdemeanor crimes, including theft, assault, harassment, drug possession, property destruction, and indecent exposure. Criminals must simply establish that they have an addiction, mental-health disorder, or low income in order to evade justice. The impact of this measure would be enormous. In 2019, the Seattle Police Department reported 25,993 thefts, 8,442 assaults, 6,430 property offenses, 4,194 frauds, 3,910 trespasses, and 1,640 narcotics violations—representing 72 percent of all reported crimes. If the ordinance passes, nearly all these crimes would be permitted under law.
(Excerpt) Read more at city-journal.org ...
A simple message to property owners in Seattle—”A fool and their money are soon parted.”
“Hey! You! You can’t just walk out of my store with a big screen TV! You have to pay for that!”
“No, I don’t.”
“Yes, you do.”
“Nah, I’m crazy. I can just take this now. The police won’t touch me.”
“That’s your plan? That’s your Get Out of Jail Free card?”
“Yup.”
“Well, that’s crazy enough that it just might work. Go on. It’s yours.”
Employed, law-abiding, citizens of Seattle...Leave Now!
On bizarre result of these “laws” is that most of the victims of the “non-crimes” are other poor folks.
The poor will be quickly divided between the “takers” and the “victims without recourse”.
The next step (to the extent it is not there already) is that the “victims without recourse” will need to form (or hire) neighborhood gangs to protect them.
There will be neighborhood policing—but it may be gangs that do it.
The gangs won’t bother with messy stuff like rules of evidence or lengthy trials....
The worst part is that anyone would fall for such a gobble-de-gook, twisted argument. So much for equality under the law.
People forget one of the jobs of police is to protect criminals from the angry mob.
Oh well. At least we'll get some good videos on Twitter.
Stores like supermarkets will suffer and shut down. Then poor neighborhoods will be outraged that they suddenly live in a "food desert".
In California, theft has to amount to $1,000 dollars before the police will be even come out. Businesses report criminals bringing in calculators to keep the theft under $1,000.
You mean like blankets infected with smallpox?
Italian mobs used to take care of neighborhood policing in NYC. I wonder eho will be doing that in Seattle? Bloods? Crips? MS-13?
These “untouchables” will migrate to other cities and municipalities. They will expect the same leniency that they received in Seattle. When their expectations aren’t met, they become combative. Seattle is enabling and exporting criminal behavior.
Our country is turning into a godless nation little by little, with increasing frequency. A nation where lawlessness rules over the law abiding, and the lawlessness is protected by the lawlessness elites
Under such policies commercial interests will eventually disappear from public ways, and only exist within secure compounds with stringent entrance requirements (like “membership only”).
Yes. Laws have been reduced to weapons used to bludgeon the political enemies of the elites. The Republicans had better wake up pretty quick.
Escape From Seattle
Yeah, it is time to just leave. Find another job leave the house and leave the politics behind.
Stores could turn into place you place your order,pay and then pick up your stuff at a delivery counter. All the stall in secure areas.
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