The city of Seattle seems intent on finding new and innovative ways to get its residents killed. Over the past few years, the city’s government has focused on demonizing and defunding its police force. This has resulted in a massive loss of law enforcement officers patrolling the streets.
As RedState’s Alex Parker points out, “last year, more than 180 officers hung up their hats.”
However, 180 doesn’t appear to be enough for the city’s government, which recently threatened to fire up to 400 of its officers if they refuse to get the COVID-19 vaccine. That’s right. These brain surgeons at Seattle’s Police Department are willing to make residents even less safe — all in the name of forcing people to take the jab.
The Daily Mail reported:
The Seattle Police Department has an October 18 deadline for all sworn personnel to turn in proof of COVID-19 vaccinations or risk losing their jobs.
As of Friday, 292 officers have yet to turn in proof of vaccination – or 27 percent of the department’s 1,080 deployable police officers.
Another 111 officers – ten percent of the deployable officers – are waiting on exemption requests to be approved.
If the department follows through on its threat, it will instantly lose about 37 percent of its police force. This would happen as the department is already woefully short-staffed.
The Daily Mail notes that, as of July this year, “the department had already lost at least 280 officers since the start of 2020 due to what they called an ‘anti police climate.’”
Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkin wrote an email to city staff last Monday, which read:
The people that count on you the most are the ones that need you to get vaccinated.
KCPQ-TV reported:
[T]he change in posture will require all sworn personnel to be on standby to respond to 911 calls. That includes detectives assigned to specialty units.
Seattle Police Chief Adrian Diaz advised the department to prepare to transition to Stage 3 Mobilization, which means all officers would be on standby to respond to 911 calls. Stage 3 is the second highest stage of emergency planning in Seattle. It is the second highest, with Stage 4 being a State of Civil Emergency.
The city’s guidelines explain:
While under the stage 3 mobilization, every sworn member of the department shall be in their class A/B uniform for the duration of their shift. Those members who are in non-patrol units shall be prepared to immediately report to one of the five precincts for 911 call response.
This development comes after Seattle’s government slashed the police department’s budget by 17 percent, as hard-leftists pushed its “Defund the Police” campaign.
Durkan acknowledged the problem with the lack of police officers. During a July press conference, she said:
Over the past 17 months, the Seattle Police Department has lost 250 police officers which is the equivalent of over 300,000 service hours. We’re on path to losing 300 police officers.
Even worse is the fact that that Seattle is seeing some of its worst crime rates in recent memory. KING-TV reported that the city’s homicide rate increased in 2020 by 61 percent. Diaz told the outlet that the city “ended 2020 with 50 people who were willfully murdered.”
Unfortunately, the homicide rate does not seem to be slowing down. The city experienced its most bloody June in 13 years. Conservative commentator Jason Rantz wrote:
There were nine homicides registered in Seattle last month, according to data collected by the Seattle Police Department. That’s the highest number of recorded homicides Seattle has seen in June since 2008, the earliest year publicly available from the Seattle Crime Dashboard. It represents a 125% higher homicide rate than in June of 2020.
As I’ve pointed out previously, black Americans make up the lion’s share of the victims of skyrocketing crime rates. In Seattle, this is also true. Police Chief Diaz stated that black residents made up about 49 percent of homicide victims killed in the city. This shows that once again, “progressive” policies tend to have a disproportionately negative effect on those they pretend to be helping.
It would be the height of stupidity for the city to fire 400 officers at a time when homicide rates are increasing and the police department is already understaffed. The toll it would take on the city’s residents would be devastating. Of course, people like Mayor Durkan and those who pushed for the defunding of the police would remain protected within their walls, which are definitely not located in the areas where crime would continue to flourish. But, what’s a few more dead bodies if they can get a few more officers vaxxed, right?
