Who thinks that headline is inaccurate?
Slight exaggeration — maybe.
Inaccurate — no.
Yesterday I wrote about the Consent Decree that was entered into in 2012 between the Obama Justice Department and the City of Seattle as a result of allegations of unlawful use of force by Seattle PD officers based on bad policy and bad training. Under the Consent Decree, the City of Seattle was prohibited from making any changes to its use of force policy for the Police Department without obtaining prior approval of DOJ and the Court Monitor overseeing the Decree.
When protests first began in Seattle following the death of George Floyd in late May, Seattle Police made use of pepper spray, tear gas, and non-lethal munitions in order to disperse crowds once they were deemed to be an unlawful assembly. When protest organizers protested such tactics to the Seattle City Council — all Democrats except one Socialist/Marxist — the City Council responded by passing an ordinance that banned the Police Department from using those non-lethal crowd control measures against protesters. One consequence of not being able to disperse an unlawful assembly of protesters/rioters was that the Police Department was forced to retreat from its East Precinct Station, and concede the area of “Capitol Hill” to the protesters — who created “CHOP/CHAZ”.
That prohibition was set to be effective starting today — but on Friday a federal judge in Seattle issued a temporary restraining order at the request of DOJ prohibiting the ordinance from being enforced because it violated the terms of the Consent Decree since it was passed without first seeking or obtaining the approval of DOJ and the Court Monitor.
The Seattle City Council should be sending a “Thank You” letter to Attorney General Barr for saving them from themselves.
It does not take a genius to figure out that when you give a police officer only 3 options to defend against an advanced mob of rioters — a baton, a firearm, and retreat — if retreat is not possible then the likelihood that lethal force will be used in self-defense is greatly increased. By telling Seattle PD that they could not use tear gas or pepper spray to disperse a crowd, or non-lethal munitions to discourage further advance in the direction of the police, the remaining options are to “stand and fight” or retreat. In some circumstances, retreat may not be possible.
So the policy changes adopted by the City Council created a greater likelihood that some Seattle Police Officer would, at some point, be forced to fire his or her firearm into a violent and advancing mob.
So who are the nitwits that couldn’t see the potential consequences of their actions, and how did they get elected?
As I noted, there are 9 Council members — 7 are elected from districts, and 2 are elected “at-large.” Seattle has approximately 750,000 residents and assuming each district has approximately the same population, each council person elected from a district represents about 105,000 people.
Lisa Herbold won her most recent election in 2019 with 20,000 votes.
Tammy Morales won her most recent election 2019 with 16,000 votes.
Kshama Sawant won her most election in 2019 with 22,000 votes.
Alex Petersen won his most recent election in 2019 with 17,000 votes.
Deborah Juarez won her most recent election in 2019 with 19,500 votes.
Dan Strauss won his most recent election in 2019 with 24,000 votes.
Andrew Lewis won his most recent election in 2019 with 16,000 votes.
Theresa Mosqueda won her most recent election to an at-large seat in 2017 with 121,000 votes.
Lorena Gonzalez won her most recent election to an at-large seat in 2017 with 146,000 votes.
24,000 votes — less than 25% of the population of the City Council District — is sending these idiots into office.
The 121,000 votes city-wide received by Theresa Mosqueda represents only 16% of the total population of Seattle.
You get the leadership you vote for.
Here are the highlights from Saturday night’s return of the riots to Seattle:
I feel like we warped back in time to early June, when Seattle police set up a line in this exact spot, repeatedly clashed with protesters over many days, then gave up the line, leading to the creation of the CHOP.
I’m heading out. Be back for another big event planned tomorrow pic.twitter.com/LKaRobcpvT
— Mike Baker (@ByMikeBaker) July 26, 2020
We are back at the site of the zone formerly known as CHOP, formerly known as CHAZ.
The police department has said that due to restrictions on their use of tear gas, the officers would have to use batons more to control crowds. They’ve got them ready. pic.twitter.com/ngyTXUiAxw
— Mike Baker (@ByMikeBaker) July 26, 2020
It looks like most of the front line policing has been done by Seattle PD.
Police advance and make an arrest pic.twitter.com/znK5kK1D5T
— Mike Baker (@ByMikeBaker) July 26, 2020
Huge escalation as police push protesters back. Injuries and people thrown to the ground. pic.twitter.com/8ZRRJ6BPWF
— Mike Baker (@ByMikeBaker) July 26, 2020
More than 40 arrests were made after Seattle Police declared the protests to be a riot and ordered the crowd to disperse.
King 5 News in Seattle had a good recap on the events here.
