Seattle: "Defund" meets "Decriminalize"

By Don Varyu

September 21, 2021

Well, it was bound to happen. My fair city of Seattle has finally decided to conclusively determine what happens when the proverbial unstoppable force meets the immovable object. Spoiler alert: it ain’t pretty.

In June of 2020, after Minneapolis police murdered George Floyd, protests erupted around the world. Seattle not only wanted to take part—it wanted notoriety. So, protestors took over several blocks of the popular Capitol Hill neighborhood. They created CHAZ—the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone (later CHOP), which was really more like the declaration of a new state. Seattle's mayor blithely wrote it off as "a summer of love." The occupiers erected fences…barred police, fire and emergency vehicles…and forced one of the city’s police precincts to evacuate. It was really cute—in that naïve, grad student radical kind of way. But four shootings, two killers and a rape later, the love seemed to have gone out of the air. The police moved back in and reclaimed the turf.

But it wasn't really over. Something lasting came of it—a civic pledge of allegiance to the national call to “defund the police!” (I wrote about this at the time.) Later, some apologists said, well, maybe they were wrong--maybe--but it was the responsibility of the public to understand what they meant exactly by the term “defund.” Whatever. The damage was done. Republicans nationally (including then-King Trump) were able to run on a platform putting this question to local voters: “do you really want these kinds of crazy radicals to stop paying our police officers—and take them off of our streets?” Many voters were thus swayed. And perhaps ironically, the strong majority of African Americans who live in neighborhoods like the one where George Floyd was killed did NOT want the cops to disappear.

As this defund campaign lost steam, the pandemic began to spike. In downtown Seattle, it’s no exaggeration to say that the number of homeless on its streets frequently outnumbered office workers. As more of those workers stayed home, downtown turned into a ghost town. Shop doors were boarded up, and graffiti began to spread. Meanwhile, in the neighborhoods, street people began to set up home in RVs outside individual houses…and then filled in with tents on those same sidewalks.

Those homeowners were not happy. They didn’t like walking around needles and garbage to get in and out of their houses, and let’s just say that “toileting” among the newcomers was inventive. What’s more, property values might be negatively impacted—which no one thought possible in Seattle. So those homeowners began to call police. But frequently, the police said, “Nah…no thanks.”

Now the city center, if anything, is worse. The gifted Seattle Times columnist Danny Westneat recently detailed this in a story about three business owners in Seattle’s historic Pioneer Square neighborhood, and how they’re considering closing up shop for good. It’s not that they couldn’t find workers—it’s the fact that the ones they had simply stopped coming to work. For them, it got too stressful and too dangerous just to get there. Vagrants harass them on their way through the neighborhood—and then often just walk in and lounge around the businesses and rummage the premises for food. No one acts to stop them.
Well, this is something, isn't it? Street people invading your restaurant....or living on the curb right outside your front door? And police sitting back in their stations drinking coffee and talking? The unstoppable force and the immovable object are at standoff.

Why aren’t the police doing anything!? Your initial thought might be that they're still pouting over the calls for their jobs to be “defunded.” It’s true that some 250 have left the force. At the same time, those who remain can feast on available overtime. Last year one officer made over $400,000.

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In fact, something much larger is at work here--the blind obstinance of Seattle’s utterly distinctive city council.

The Seattle City Council absolutely oozes empathy—for the most-needy. And to be fair, many of the 11,000+ in Seattle without permanent shelter are truly in dire straits, through no fault of their own. Rents soared, and jobs evaporated. They deserve help. And much is available. In combination, city, county, state and federal entities…along with private donations...are applying some $200 million this year to “fix” the homeless problem. But the problem keeps getting worse. Many among those11.000 refuse the help. They are the drug addicted, the mentally ill and the "free spirits" who prefer life on the streets. And the word is out. Seattle won't hassle you. So Seattle now claims the country’s third largest population of homeless, after New York and Los Angeles.

Perhaps a different approach is needed? Well, the city council has an unorthodox, "outside the box" solution. Late last year they quietly inserted a provision into the city budget that would “decriminalize” certain crimes under certain circumstances. You read that right. They want to decriminalize crime. To be specific, all misdemeanors other than domestic violence and DUI’s would be forgiven…as long as the perpetrator could claim one of three conditions: 1) addiction; 2) poverty; or 3) mental disorder. So, if you smash through the window of a parked car…or walk out of a restaurant without paying? It’s fine—as long as you say you were stressed out, hungry or high.

Scott Lindsay is a former public safety officer for the city of Seattle, so he has some insight into these matters. He stated, “it’s basically a blank check for anybody committing theft, assault, harassment (and) trespass to continue without disruption from the criminal justice system. This would absolutely open the floodgates for crime.” Nearly a year after introduction, the council still hasn’t decided exactly what to do. And the number of petty crimes grows. Why would the cops arrest someone who might never be prosecutable? And anyway, they get paid hansomely whether they act or not.
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But wait. There’s a footnote.

The councilmember who proposed the “decriminalizing” language is named Lisa Herbold. (She had also voted to “defund” the police.) Not long after making her proposal, Herbold called 9-1-1 to report someone throwing a rock at a window in her home. The only evidence was the statement of a neighbor who said he saw a white guy dressed in jeans and a black hoodie running from the scene. However, that wasn’t nearly enough to make any arrest.

Which is probably all for the best. By Herbold’s reckoning, that guy could have thrown as many rocks as he wanted at her house, so long as he claimed mental disorder—which, under state law, includes “emotional distress”.

Maybe he was just pissed off at his boss.

All good…

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