A female Seattle cop with 23 years on the force sent a scathing resignation letter blasting the city for allowing “crime and anarchy” to take over.
Seattle Police Lieutenant Jessica Taylor, who retired on August 1 after more than two decades on the force, refused to complete the standard exit interview form and instead penned a blistering 15-page letter to the police chief, KTTH’s Jason Rantz Show reported.
“Chief Diaz, let me tell you, the state of the Seattle Police Department and this city is a disgrace,” Taylor began her letter.
“The toxic mix of the Seattle City Council’s absurdity, the spinelessness of the Mayor, the leniency of the prosecutor’s office, and your failed leadership has accelerated this city’s downhill slide straight to rock bottom,” she wrote. “The problems were already brewing before you came on the scene, but since your arrival, it’s been a free fall into anarchy & chaos.”
Violent crime remains high in Seattle this year after hitting a 15-year high in 2022. So far this year, Seattle has seen 28 homicides, more than 1,500 aggravated assaults, more than 3,700 car thefts, more than 4,000 burglaries, and more than 10,700 larceny thefts, according to police data.
“If you haven’t noticed, the criminals are running this city,” Taylor wrote. “Aren’t you embarrassed? I am. It’s mortifying. The city that once prided itself on progressiveness and prosperity has now become a hotbed for crime and anarchy.”
Taylor accused Adrian Diaz, the police chief, of having an “insatiable appetite for control” that blinds him to the sacrifices of officers facing danger on the street.
She also accused the police chief of “badging” his way to the front of a Taylor Swift concert, “where people paid $1000s to be there.”
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Taylor also lambasted Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell, a Democrat, accusing him of prioritizing “political correctness” over safety.
Meanwhile, the Seattle City Council has “lost touch with reality and is making decisions that defy common sense and basic logic,” Taylor wrote.
“Their priority is playing politics and pandering to radical ideologies, rather than genuinely serving the city’s and its resident’s best interests,” she said.
“So, as I walk away from the Seattle Police Department, I do so with my head held high, knowing that I stood up for what’s right and refused to be silenced,” she wrote. “My conscience is clear, and I have no regrets about speaking out against the failed leadership that has brought this department and this city to its knees.”
Seattle is not the only West Coast city struggling with the trifecta of crime, homelessness, and drug addiction. Harrowing scenes of homeless people engaging in open-air drug use and living in filth on city streets continue to come out of the neighborhoods most in need of help.
Los Angeles is seeing a drop in overall violent crime, but personal theft is up 15% to more than 19,700 thefts so far this year, according to police. Meanwhile, homelessness is up 10% this year, according to the latest count, released last month. Los Angeles County’s homeless population rose to about 75,518 people, up from 69,144 in 2022.
In San Francisco, violent crime is up when compared to August of last year. Homicides are up 20% to 35 homicides, robberies are up 14% to more than 1,600, and car thefts are up 13% to more than 4,100, police data shows. About 38,000 people are homeless on a given night in the Bay Area, up 35% since 2019. Crime and open-air drug use have caused businesses to flee San Francisco’s downtown, where foot traffic has thinned.