‘Anarchist’ Seattle Makes It Official, Slashes Police Dept. Funding

Horrific Murder and Felony Firearm in Flint, Michigan: Three Family Members Charged, iStock-1138299265
With Seattle being declared a jurisdiction where anarchy is rampant, the City Council has voted to cut the police department budget. Weeks ago, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms advised Seattle residents to arm themselves. iStock-1138299265

U.S.A.-(AmmoLand.com)- Barely 24 hours after the Department of Justice declared Seattle to be a jurisdiction that has “permitted violence and destruction of property to persist,” the far-left Seattle City Council made it official by overriding an earlier budget veto by Mayor Jenny Durkan by cutting the Police Department budget.

According to KOMO News—the local ABC affiliate—the 7-2 council vote will result in cutting the department staff by “roughly 100 officers,” elimination of the department’s Navigation Team, which serves as “an outreach effort to the homeless,” and cutting salaries of the department’s command staff.

This comes three weeks after embattled Police Chief Carmen Best retired after 29 years on the force, rising through the ranks to the top cop position.

The council had likely already decided to make the cuts, but went through the motions of allowing the public to comment. In response, a radical left group called Seattle Indivisible, wants its members to call the council and thank members for their votes.

Seattle has been one of three cities—the others being Portland, Oregon and New York City—where often violent and destructive protests have been occurring over the summer in reaction to the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis while being restrained by police there.

How this plays out is up to speculation, but back on July 16, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, which coincidentally is headquartered in nearby Bellevue, advised Seattle residents to “prepare for the worst, and as part of that effort they should buy a gun if that’s their choice, and demand that both the Seattle Police Department and King County Sheriff’s Office resume taking applications for concealed pistol licenses.”

CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb said in a prepared statement, “While the city council may believe crippling its police department is a politically smart move, it’s going to directly impact public safety. Nobody should be surprised when more people buy guns and apply for carry licenses.”

The only drawback to that currently is that the Seattle Police Department and King County Sheriff’s Department have not been accepting new applications for concealed pistol licenses since mid-March.

“Seattleites saw what happens when there is limited police response by watching what occurred in the so-called ‘CHOP’ zone in the city’s Capitol Hill neighborhood,” Gottlieb noted at the time. “Two teens were murdered, four other people were injured in shootings, and no amount of fluff reporting and official denial could conceal the anarchy.”

According to the Seattle P-I.com, the department budget cuts come to $3 million. While it may or may not be largely symbolic, critics contend it is the wrong symbol for the city to be displaying. Yet far-left Council President Lorena Gonzalez remarked during the meeting, “When I look back in this moment in time, I want to be able to tell my daughter, who I am currently holding in my arms, that I did the right thing, that I voted on the right side of history.”

Her colleague, Councilwoman Tammy Morales, began her comments by reading names of people killed by Seattle Police Officers over the past 10 years, the Seattle P-I.com said.

“It’s not just about breaking the cycle of police violence,” Morales was quoted as stating, “it’s not just about fixing the budget, it’s about creating a new system of community safety that centers mental wellness, prosperity and safety for all of our community members.”

According to a Justice Department announcement, Seattle’s problems include:

  • For nearly a month, starting in June, the City of Seattle permitted anarchists and activists to seize six square blocks of the city’s Capitol Hill neighborhood, naming their new enclave the “Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone” (CHAZ) and then the “Capitol Hill Occupied Protest” (CHOP).
  • Law enforcement and fire fighters were precluded from entering the territory.  The Seattle Police Department was ordered to abandon their precinct within the CHOP.
  • Person-related crime in the CHOP increased 525% from the same period of time in the same area the year before, including by Mayor Durkan’s own count “two additional homicides, 6 additional robberies, and 16 additional aggravated assaults (to include 2 additional non-fatal shootings).”
  • The CHOP was allowed to stand for nearly a month, during which time two teenagers were shot and killed in the zone.
  • The Seattle City Council, Mayor Durkan, and Washington Governor Jay Inslee publicly rejected federal involvement in law enforcement activities within the city of Seattle.

Business have been closing up and leaving. The most recent high-profile departure was Hardwick & Sons hardware, a fixture for the past 88 years in Seattle’s University District. The business is moving to Idaho.

According to MyNorthwest.com, proprietor Dean Hardwick explained during an on-air conversation with KIRO radio personality Dori Monson, “It’s not a safe place for the next generation to bring up families. Not at all. We’ve been broken into five times this year, and usually the average of some pinhead trying to break in here has been about once every decade, … so they got away with a bunch of power tools, once with a cash register. You just never know. You gotta have your cell phone by your bed because you don’t know if you’re going to get a call from the alarm company or not.”

Seattle may be providing a glimpse of metropolitan decay that seems to be spreading in several major cities, all controlled by liberal governments.

Right now in King County, which encompasses Seattle, there were more than 100,000 active CPLs, and while that number may have declined slightly due to the SPD suspension of its license application process—a move that is under scrutiny by the Second Amendment Foundation—it translates to a lot of citizens, many living in or working in the city, taking the step to protect themselves.

According to SPD data, homicides have been climbing in the city for the past few years. In 2016, the city posted 19 homicides, and in 2017 the number spiked to 27. The following year saw 32 murders, last year there were 28 slayings but already this year there have been 29 killings, and there are still three full months to go.

Granted, for a city of its size, Seattle has a remarkably low number of murders, but the upward trend is raising eyebrows.

The council’s move to slash the police budget and manpower will likely raise some blood pressure readings as well. And now that the Justice Department has identified Seattle as being in a state of anarchy, tensions—and probably gun ownership—are likely to increase.

 


About Dave WorkmanDave Workman

Dave Workman is a senior editor at TheGunMag.com and Liberty Park Press, author of multiple books on the Right to Keep & Bear Arms and formerly an NRA-certified firearms instructor.

Dave Workman
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uncle dudley

The citizens that love their city and want it safe should do a recall of all council members and the mayor and start all over from scratch.
The citizens who are leaving should leave all the liberal thoughts and attitudes in Seattle and not infect the new home they find in another state.

Superman

Neither will ever occur. But thanks for playing.

Dave in Fairfax

Political locusts.

hippybiker

Here in Florida, our Governor just signed an order that allows us to run over rioters if we are threatened with violence!
In the area where I live things are quiet. They know if they pull that crap here, they’ll get blasted!

gregs

i really like de santis

Rock

100% correct, NOBODY wants the leftist political viewed people to bring their disgusting political baggage to their town. If you must take it with you, head for another SHIT HOLE state controlled by the Dems/libs.

Tionico

or maybe try a place where they are already doing things the way you like. I’d suggest Cuba, Venezue;a, or perhaps South Africa. Somalia might also be a good recommendation.

MP71

I hereby solemnly promise that when my family escapes Kommiefornia, we will not be spreading the disease of known as Communism.

WI Patriot

LEO’s in Seattle and subsequent “defund” cities, should just walk off the job…

JDT

LMAO up 525%… let that shithole burn!

Mac

Only one thing to say – STUPID IS AS STUPID DOES!

Rowboat

If the Seattle Police Department do not resign, “en masse “ they really don’t have any integrity- they are just working for a paycheck and “ following orders “- where have we heard THAT before ?

loveaduck

They are individuals and require paychecks to take care of their families. Blue flu would be better.

hoss

If the CRBs ever come to power, these people that are complicit will have their turn before the wall. History teaches us that the turn coats that are complicit with tyrants sooner than later will be terminated by the very ones that are pulling their strings. In other words, when you are no longer useful to them, you will be put before the bullet scarred wall.
I would rather be dead, and free, than to be alive, and a slave!

Tionico

Council President Lorena Gonzalez remarked during the meeting, “When I look back in this moment in time, I want to be able to tell my daughter…, that I did the right thing, Sorry Mizz Unicorn Feathers, yor daughte,r IF she survives into adulthood, will end up hating and despising you, as you did NOT do “the right thing”. No amount of safe spaces, fuzzy unicorn pets, feather beds, or Happy Meals will make up for the anrchy YOU are encouraging. SHE will grow up undisciplined, and be even more a failure at life than you are. I’m also curious as… Read more »

Oldman

What? education? More like brainwashing.

nod

Wait until she finds out the “reimagined” police force is the Gestapo.

Arny

You really don’t think she would defund her security ?

MICHAEL J

It would appear that the entire city government has no concerns about ever answering to any authority but their own.
What’s next permanent dictatorship?

buzzy

Defunding in a feel good attempt to appease the anarchist .Let’s set back and watch the Animals destroy their cities and their selfs and run off all the businesses in their community’s. When their environment is destroyed where will they turn next ?Law enforcement ,those that remain will sit back and let them destroy their community and their selfs when they become outnumbered. Your and my suburban communities will be next . It has all ready happened in my community . The protestors applied for a permit and showed up eventually after rumors swirled for a month that they were… Read more »

Carter

As a business owner here for 35 years I have stopped servicing Seattle. Inslee is a bottom feeding lunatic lawyer who loves creating his own laws and he doing a good job of prying my fingers off it all but I want to watch the November elections first. Washington did elect a Republican for Governor not too long ago (Dino Rossi) but the RATS found ballots in a car trunk and kept counting for Gregoire (3 times) until she won. I am watching Montana this November but there is a good chance they’ll go blue, if that is the case… Read more »

loveaduck

Fifty miles down the road and I won’t go there unless I absolutely must. I will carry when those rare times happen.

American Patriot

Good for them…..Hope the council members get what they deserve!

Oldman

It has been going south in WA since the middle 70’s. I don’t see anything on the horizon other than Culp getting elected Guv, Durkan getting recalled and the Seattle City Council all meeting with a bad ‘accident’ while having their daily seance as they meet in town hall.

loveaduck

There’s a real nightmare………Mayor Sawant.

Stag

Leftists. Not anarchists. There is a huge difference between these statists/socialists/communists who want more government control over your life and us anarchists who want the government out of your life.

MarkE

As a Minneapolis Councilwoman told CNN’s Camerota in a live interview, the mere expectation of having police respond to your 911 call was nothing more than another example of white privilege. Public safety is of no concern here – this is a pure example of the end justifying the means. And the end is not hard to envision – in Louisville last night, protesters attempted to burn down a library. But elections have consequences, as Obama once said, and as long as the Seattle voter continues to cast ballots for these people, they better have a backup in case they… Read more »

Circle8

First things communists and Nazis do is eliminate law enforcement so there is no one to maintain the peace. Seattle deserves what they get.