On Monday night, radio host Jason Rantz of KTTH in Seattle shared an open letter reportedly from an anonymous Seattle police officer in which the officer poignantly described himself as “broken” because the citizens of the city have abandoned their police department.
The letter began, “I am a police officer in your city. I say your city because I don’t live in the geographic boundaries that make up ‘Seattle.’ My kids were fully entrenched in school in a neighboring city when I decided to become an officer and I didn’t want to uproot them. My experiences are my own but I believe other officers will have had similar experiences and may be nodding their heads when they read portions of this letter.”
After recalling winning awards for their service and suffering significant injuries on the job, the officer continued, “The criminals who I have interacted with trust me because I always treated them as human beings first, while still holding them accountable for their illegal behavior. Police officers are very mission oriented problem solvers by nature and I am definitely that type of person. So I work in this career trying to serve you, performing THE MISSION, and solving problems along the way … During that time I have had a mayor get angry and throw papers at me, several chiefs angry enough to try to get me to quit for being a truth teller, friends kill themselves when proper leadership could have saved them, [and] agitator lawyers go on TV and demand I be fired for a lie they were told.”
The officer noted surviving attacks on his life that included using a vehicle, by fire, and a “few times by firearms and knives.”
The officer wrote, “Along the way my spouse and children suffered. They didn’t understand why I would choose to experience all this for strangers. Over the years I have tried to explain it to my family. I think my spouse understands but I am not sure my children have had enough life experience to fully grasp what I have been teaching them. The didn’t understand why when a person was elected president that Seattlites didn’t like, why I had to go to ‘don’t be a Nazi’ training. The people who live with me know I am the furthest thing from that so why are the people I serve worried I would round up and imprison them for some far off politician. Didn’t break me. Not even close.”
The officer segued to the recent protests: “Then came the George Floyd protests. It was not a new experience to have protesters screaming in my face. Telling me to ‘go kill yourself, pull out your Glock, put it in your mouth, and pull the trigger and make the world better.’ ‘They hired you because you have an IQ below 80 and will do whatever they tell you to do’ and ‘I know you beat your wife because…’”
The officer stated, “They threw glass bottles, rocks, pieces of steel, chunks of concrete, and even improvised explosive devices (the ones the media have video of but won’t show you.) I used the tools I was issued, and trained on, to stop the assaults and keep the East Precinct so THE MISSION could be performed. Protecting you from predatory criminals. Letting you walk your neighborhood in peace.”
“Then came the politicians standing right in front of me, on the front lines, calling me a racist killer cop. Standing next [to] people who were telling us to kill ourselves, with people around them handing out rocks and bottles which were thrown at me shortly thereafter,” the officer wrote. “That didn’t break me either. Nice try. Anarchists, I bet you were surprised that we…that I… still did my duty. The anarchists’ belief system includes how horrible I am because I chose to wear a uniform and serve the community so why would I go through all of this?”
The officer then described what has “broken” him: “I have now been broken. I don’t believe in THE MISSION or at least in my ability to perform the mission. At this point in time you have not earned my duty and dedication to ‘THE MISSION.’ You don’t deserve me. That may sound harsh. You may recoil at that line. But go back to my experiences before the part where the politicians sold me and you out. I made it through all of that unbroken … When a mob can control city streets, those who do not agree with the mob are not free. Who is responsible for this breakdown? You. You are allowing it.”
The officer concluded: “Whether you are afraid to speak up to your political leaders. Whether you feel like ‘I pay the police to deal with that stuff.’ Or maybe you just try to ignore political stuff altogether. This is your responsibility. I, & the collective ‘we’ the police officers, cannot change the trajectory Seattle is on right now. Only you can change it. Only you can march in the streets against the mob or flood the city council meetings…only you who don’t want to see mayhem, disorder, and anarchy in your city can stop it. Only you can make the politicians allow us to complete ‘THE MISSION.’ Only you can unbreak me. Only you can let me return to THE MISSION. I await your decision.”