Some additional information for those who want to understand the history if Mayor Durkan and how she ended up in this predicament.
In the 1990s a huge committee was formed 8n Seattle to push for police reform.
One of the power players on the committee was Jenny Durkan, a corporate attorney.
The committee spit out a list of 29 proposed changes.....dubbed the 29 points of light.
The city came to the union to bargain for many if the cha get as required by state labor law.
The two parties came to an agreement...the police officers received improved compensation and benefits and the city got many...most actually...of the 29 points of light in the new contract.
The city being stupid failed to implement many of the concessions they received in thqy contract...someone which the police union actually wanted ajd kept asking “when are you going to get around to doing these things?”
Then Obama became Prez and Jenny Durkan checked many desired boxes for the leftist Prez....lesbian, rich from politically connected family, attorney for high powered and connected law firm....jus5 what a new leftist president would want as the US Attorney for Western Washington.
The newly minted US Attorney Jenny Durkan went about her business doing lawyer stuff until one day a Seattle cop shot and killed a native American street drunk who brandished a knife at him.
The Chief of Police at that time was John Diaz who had lucked into the position after the then mayor bungled the hiring if a competent Chief.
The hiring of Chief Diaz, a 30 year Seattle PD Officer was the result of the following circumstances.....the search committee settled on 3 candidates.
A highly competent Chief from a CA agency who they wanted to have the job, a looney tune whackadoo who was added to the list to appease the radical leftists from the community, and the token internal candidate John Diaz.
When the desired candidate met with the mayor for the courtesy meeting where he would be offered the job....a deputy mayor asked him about illegal immigration.
He replied that immigration was the feds job but if they really wanted to solve the problem they would first need to cut off the inflow of newly arriving illegal aliens.
That deputy mayor, who wanted to get in good with the local LA Raza chapter leaked the answer to them and the papers ran wild with it.
That desired candidate decided if he was going to get back doomed before he was even offered the job he wanted no part if Seattle.
That left whackadoo insano from East Palo Alto and Mr. Mouth breathing Lucky ass last man standing....John Diaz.
So Diaz got the job.
Now back to the dead drunk.....Jenny Durkan HATED HATED HATED John Diaz and saw her opportunity to agitate for “reform” while sticking it to John Diaz.
She used the killing of the “woodcarver” street drunk to begin a pattern and practice investigation into Seattle PD which resulted in a settlement agreement requiring my a court monitor to oversee changes to the dept’s use of force policies and some other items.
During Durkan’s rise to prominence shebaligned herself with the crazy left to amass favors and power.
The Mayor at the time of the Woodcarver’s
Killing was a pedophile of note and a guy man....Ed the Ped Murray.
He had to resign after the leftists finally turned on him when the 6th accuser came forward.
That left the field wide open for Jenny Durkan to win the Mayoral race....and she ascended to the mayoral throne.
Now remember...she started in the 90s pushing reform, forced a consent decree/settlement agreement on the Seattle PD as an US Attorney, then became Mayor and in charge of the police department she had rammed the consent decree upon
She was then highly invested in the success of the dept. completing the agreement and getting the judge to release the dept. from supervision.
While she was going through all the efforts to complete it....the leftists she was aligned with were not satisfied with the progress and began slipping away from.hwr as she tried to get the judge t release the Seattle PD.
Several radical leftists were elected to the city council during these years as well as one full on communist Kshama Sawant.
Then George Floyd was killed and the extreme leftists raised hell, demanded more “reform” of Seattle PD.
Mayor Durkan was fully vested in checking the box “consent decree completed” and the dept. actually had finished all the required reforms.
But alas....now the revolutionary had loved long enough to become the counter revolutionary....and her old alloes and pals hate her now.
At least 4 of the 9 city council members want her to resign after the riots nearly burned down the dow town core, the SPD had to use CS gas on the rioters and later someone the violent proresters who had mixed in with the “peacefull protesters.”
The city council was in full revolt against SPD and the Mayor...even coming to the protest lines and trying to provoke the officers into overreacting.
The antifa and anarchists orchestrated the events perfectly resulting in the SPD being forced to abandon a precinct.
Which how we have now ended up with 6 square blocks of the capital hill neighborhood become “CHAZ” The Capital Hill Autonomous Zone where no poloce can go and where there is a competition ongoing to see which warlord will.rose to the top ajd be in charge.
The current favorite is a local rapper “Raz” who had been walking around with an AK47 and assaulting journalists and others while stating “I am the police now”
Bill....you may enjoy this breakdown I put togerher.
Another hostile democrat city I don’t have the desire to ever see again.
They might as well have Rocket Man run these dumps.
My list of places to visit, sports to follow and movies to watch gets smaller by the day.
Hiking, hunting, camping and fishing for me.
interesting historical summary TheErnFormerlyKnownAsBig
One thing you might have missed ... The Battle in Seattle for the world trade conference.
I dont know if it was Durkan or others ... But afterwards, they made peace with the riot groups. A bunch of the protestors were given jobs (think predecessor to Sound Transit, public housing coordinators and community outreach).
So radical folks from Seattle Pacific U, Evergreen etc. who would not be able to get a decent job, now were paid well with potential of a great pension after 30 years. One is a cousin of a good friend - when she joins for a BBQ at his place, she and her BF both laff at the cushy jobs at Sound Transit - they basically work less than 20 hrs a week, leave early each day and get great job reviews.
This is the lesson that some on the Capitol Hill protests learnt
Wow, thanks for the detailed history. So this madness has deep leftist roots. I think we’d probably find similar stories in the other “liberal” cities where civilization and law are breaking down and anarchist/communist terror is bursting out.
It didn’t happen overnight, but has been years in the making. This has accustomed people to a sort of suspension of urban social standards...for years, people have been laughing at whatever nonsense has come out of these leftist cities and saying, oh, ha, that’s just Seattle (or Portland, or any other leftist loony bin). Meanwhile, the left was deadly serious about their plan to subvert and take over, and now we see it come to pass.
The city was already loony tunes 10 years before your narrative begins ...
And Hussien was snug in his bunker; until...
Wow. That is a hell of a history for Seattle. Fits in beautifully with a scene from Atlas Shrugged...
—
“We are at the dawn of a new age,” said James Taggart, from above the rim of his champagne glass. “We are breaking up the vicious tyranny of economic power. We will set men free of the rule of the dollar. We will release our spiritual aims from dependence on the owners of material means. We will liberate our culture from the stranglehold of the profit-chasers. We will build a society dedicated to higher ideals, and we will replace the aristocracy of money by—”
“—the aristocracy of pull,” said a voice beyond the group.
They whirled around. The man who stood facing them was Francisco d’Anconia.
…”What’s the matter?” he asked in the midst of their silence. “Did I say something that somebody here didn’t know?”
Damn...you know your history.
Thanks! That was very helpful.
That does go back a ways and explains a lot. I remember the "woodcarver" incident very well, but I couldn't have told you Durkan's name if you paid me. It looks like Sawant and her crazies own the streets at the moment and aren't going to be satisfied with anything short of total chaos. If Her Honor does buy into a 50% reduction in police funding Seattle will make Thunderdome look like a kids' playground. Watch your six, bud.