Free Republic

This is the current state of Seattle. pic.twitter.com/jLkwm830p6— Katie Daviscourt🇺🇸 (@KatieDaviscourt) February 28, 2022

Former Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan’s administration had drafted legislation to transfer power in the Police Department’s East Precinct building to a Black Lives Matter activist organization. Newly released documents obtained by The Seattle Times showed that on June 8, 2020 Calvin Goings, the director of Seattle’s Department of Finance and Administrative Services (FAS) sent three memos and a draft resolution via email to Durkan about abandoning the precinct.

… As of Tuesday night, 53% of ballots were in favor of the recall and 47% were against it.

According to King County Elections, about 38.5% of voters eligible to participate in the potential recall of the District 3 council member had already cast ballots as of a midday count Monday. Only those registered in District 3 are eligible to vote. On Friday, Kendall Hodson, King County Elections chief of staff, said the office was projecting roughly a 50% turnout by the ballot return deadline of 8 p.m. Tuesday. Projections for this election — a December election in an off year and the first recall election of a Seattle City Council member — lack historical precedent. Sawant, who was...

**SNIP** The Times’ editorial board took issue with Sawant’s denial of the charge related to the protest at Durkan’s house. “This denial rings hollow,” the board said. “During Sawant’s onstage speech in front of Durkan’s house, she reportedly spoke critically of the ‘Richie Rich’ neighborhood. Shortly afterward, Sawant’s council Twitter account retweeted notes of gratitude ‘for speaking @MayorJenny’s rich house,’ as one put it. Curiously, those notes appear to have vanished from Sawant’s timeline.” The alternative biweekly newspaper The Stranger has a much more sympathetic view of Sawant and opposes the recall election. In a colorfully-written Nov. 17 piece, “Vote...

After supporting Seattle's CHOP and declaring it a "summer of love," Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan had no choice but to bow out of it, given that it had become a killing zone and police were obstructed from tending the gunfire victims bleeding in the streets. The lawsuits from destroyed businesses were looming, plus there was President Trump, a man she rabidly hated herself, threatening to come in and hose that hellhole out if she wouldn't.

It’s election time again. You think we are kidding. We are not. Results of this month’s election are not yet certified, but it’s already time for another one. King County Elections sent out more than 76,000 ballots on Wednesday, to voters in Seattle City Council District 3, who must decide whether Councilmember Kshama Sawant should remain in office or be recalled. Only voters in District 3 - made up of Capitol Hill, the Central District, First Hill, Madison Park, Little Saigon International District, Madrona, Mount Baker, North Beacon Hill and South Lake Union - can vote in the recall. The...

On Monday morning, an Amtrak train derailed while crossing an overpass in Dupont, Washington. Law enforcement say at least six people are dead and 78 others were injured. Independent journalist Mike Cernovich tweeted an archived link to a now deleted article from “prominent,” far-left website It’s Going Down, on an ANTIFA group bragging about pouring concrete on train tracks in Olympia, WA.

The mayor of Seattle is facing major backlash after offering big hiring bonuses to incoming police officers to make up for staff shortages. Democrat Mayor Jenny Durkan issued an executive order Friday, granting bonuses for new hires up to $25,000 depending on their experience and skill levels. However, the police union fired back at Durkan for the move while suggesting the city betrayed its loyal police officers after violent protests over the death of George Floyd. The union added, the staff shortage was caused by the ‘defund the police’ movement and worsened by the city’s vaccine mandate.

On Sep. 30, King County Elections formally certified a petition seeking to recall Seattle City Councilmember Kshama Sawant. The recall election has been scheduled for Dec. 7 and will decide whether Sawant remains in office. According to state law, an election must be held within 45 to 90 days after a petition is certified. The petition to recall Sawant accuses her of various offenses, including misusing resources of the city to promote a “Tax Amazon” ballot initiative. In June last year, Sawant let Black Lives Matter (BLM) protestors into Seattle City Hall when the building was closed due to COVID-19....

The mayor of Seattle is calling on the city to rebuild its depleted police force after six separate shootings rocked Washington state's largest metropolitan area over the weekend. "As a city, we cannot continue on this current trajectory of losing police officers," Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan said during a Monday press conference. "Over the past 17 months, the Seattle Police Department has lost 250 police officers which is the equivalent of over 300,000 service hours. We’re on path to losing 300 police officers." Durkan added that the weekend violence is a "reminder" that there are certain emergency situations that require...

SEATTLE - Nearly 10 months worth of Mayor Jenny Durkan's text messages went missing following an investigation triggered by a whistleblower into the mayor's office mishandling a series of public records requests. The texts that were not acquired include messages from August 2019 to June 2020, during which demonstrations and the Capitol Hill Occupied Protest (CHOP) took place in Seattle and SPD officers had to vacate the East Precinct. Dan Nolte, a spokesperson with City Attorney Pete Holmes confirmed with Q13 News Saturday the missing text messages and that the city spent, to date, "hundreds of thousands of dollars in...

Thanksgiving is a time to look back in gratitude on all that has been good in the past year. It’s also a chance to award the bad — and politicians have given lots from which to pick. Below, we award some of the dumbest or most blatantly hypocritical politicians. The Easily Foreseen Consequences Award: Minneapolis City CouncilEarlier this month, the Minneapolis City Council spent nearly $500,000 to hire outside police to help protect the city from a rise in crime, violence, and shootings. The council may not have needed to make the expenditure had they not voted to eliminate the...

A unanimous Washington State Supreme Court tossed out the effort to recall Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan, ruling that the accusations against her did not rise to the level that would allow a citizen initiative to remove her from office. The decision kills the push to recall the mayor and means that, barring unforeseen circumstances, voters in 2021 will have the final say on Durkan’s job performance, should she choose to run for a second term. “The allegations in this case are deeply troubling and our review requires that we treat the factual allegations as true,” the court wrote in a...

Washington’s Supreme Court on Thursday unanimously rejected a recall effort against Seattle Mayor Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan over her handling of widespread summer protests. The recall effort, led by six Seattle residents, blames the mayor for the Seattle Police Department’s indiscriminate use of tear gas during weeks of protests against racial injustice and police brutality sparked by the police custody death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

On September 17, a King County Superior Court Judge ruled in favor of four articles of recall brought against Seattle’s socialist city councilmember Kshama Sawant. The recall campaign represents an attempt by the right wing and big business to overturn Kshama’s re-election last year and drive socialist politics out of Seattle City Hall. **SNIP** While the recall petition was officially filed by an individual resident of Kshama’s district, the language in it is notably all but identical to a public statement from Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan calling for the City Council to expel Kshama. **SNIP** This recall effort is above...

Seattle: Drivers doing doughnuts outside the Space Needle hit people. Police have not responded to the lawlessness. They are occupied with antifa rioters in Capitol Hill. #SeattleRiots pic.twitter.com/o1oBwEiAjM— Andy Ngô (@MrAndyNgo) September 27, 2020

The Department of Justice is looking into whether federal charges can be brought against Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan over her failure to crack down on a so-called “autonomous zone” controlled for weeks by rioters. Attorney General William Barr has tasked the DOJ’s civil rights division with investigating whether charges can be brought against Durkan, The New York Times reported on Wednesday evening citing two people familiar with the discussions. Barr has also asked federal prosecutors to consider charging rioters with sedition and insurrection against the United States government, according to The Wall Street Journal. Rioters took over several city blocks...

MSNBC on Wednesday attempted to do a "reality check" on South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem's remarks at the Republican National Convention about the ongoing violence in certain cities. Noem kicked off the evening of speakers and took aim at "Democrat-run cities" that have been hit with violence following the death of George Floyd. "From Seatle and Portland to Washington and New York, Democrat-run cities across this country are being overun by violent mobs," Noem said. "The violence is rampant. There's looting, chaos, destruction, and murder. People who can afford to flee have fled but the people that can't, good hard-working...

Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan, after vetoing Friday the revised 2020 budget approved last week by the City Council, called for new collaboration with council members, with whom she’s often been at odds. “The people of Seattle expect us to work together,” Durkan said during a Friday afternoon news conference, adding that she had spoken to Council President M. Lorena González on how to “make changes in a more thoughtful, deliberate way.” The council’s adjustments to the budget would have cut up to 100 police officers, slashed the salaries of police command staff and also scrapped the city’s Navigation Team, which...