The Democrat-controlled Seattle City Council voted late on Monday to advance a highly controversial plan to defund the Seattle Police Department as violent crime and far-left riots have rocked the city in recent months.
The Seattle City Council voted to remove approximately $3 million from the Seattle Police Department’s budget, which included:
- Cut 32 officers from patrol – $533,000
- Reduced specialized units including officers assigned to mounted unit, school resource officers, homeland security, harbor patrol, SWAT team – $250,000
- Removed officers from Navigation Team, ensuring homeless neighbors are not retraumatized by armed patrol officers – $216,000
- Reduced staff budget through recognizing expected attrition – $500,000
- Reduced administrative costs, including salaries, community outreach, public affairs
- Cut $56,000 from training and travel expenses
- Cut recruitment and retention – $800,000
- Transferred victim advocates from SPD to Human Services Department – $377,000 impact
- Removed two sworn officer positions from the 911 Emergency Call Center
“The committee voted to move the bulk of its proposal forward during its 10 a.m. session, before giving its final approval Monday evening by a 7-1 margin,” MyNorthWest reported. “Councilmember Kshama Sawant was the lone “no” vote, while Debora Juarez — who was not present at Monday’s meetings — abstained. Sawant’s vote against the package was based around her belief that it didn’t go far enough in its reductions to SPD’s funding.”
Fox News reported at the start of the month that Seattle was one of several Democrat-controlled cities that had seen a recent spike in “shootings and murders.”
“It’s scary, when the cops aren’t here and there’s shootings, people flying up and down the road just having no regard to anybody it seems like,” a local resident told KOMO News.
KOMO News highlighted how in just one area of Seattle, Alki Beach, crime had exploded:
KOMO News did some digging and according to Seattle Police Department statistics, violent crimes and property crimes are up in the Alki Beach area.
According to Seattle Police, for the first seven months of the year, there were 238 crimes reported against people and property. It’s an increase from the same time in 2019 which had 163 reported crimes and 2018 which had 175 reported crimes.
The increase is 30 percent comparing crimes against people from 2019 to 2020 and a 50 percent increase comparing property crimes from 2019 to 2020.
“It’s a little disappointing,” another resident said. “I just feel there is a lack of police presence, even though you see them, they’re not engaging with the people who are out here dragging racing their cars till midnight or one o’clock, even when you’re calling them they don’t show up.”
“I think the police have the most difficult job in the country,” a third resident said. “I think they should be respected and commended for what they do.”
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