Ahhh, Seattle. Home of Pearl Jam, Starbucks, Amazon, and lots of other stuff that used to be cool. The Emerald City once brought to mind nothing more nefarious than flannel shirts and the occasional heroin overdose, but now Seattle’s claim to fame is violent crime. And lots of it. After a man named George Floyd died in the custody of a multiracial group of Minnesota police officers earlier this year, Seattle’s crime rate has skyrocketed. Over the summer we saw the CHAZ/CHOP lawless zone in the middle of Seattle, which accomplished nothing but driving down local property values and giving Tucker Carlson new material every night. And yet in the midst of all this crime, the city is still cutting police funding. The place isn’t as bad as Portland, Ore., yet, but not for lack of effort.
All year we’ve watched as our leaders have failed us. Over and over again, people in power have imposed rules on us and broken those same rules with impunity. So it’s more satisfying than it should be to see one of them get their comeuppance.
A Seattle City Councilwoman called the police to her home Friday to report a crime she is effectively trying to legalize…
Lisa Herbold phoned authorities on Friday after a man reportedly threw a rock through her living room window, My Northwest reported. The councilwoman said “she was on the west side of the living room near the kitchen when she heard a loud noise that sounded like a gunshot and dove into the kitchen for cover…”
The irony is that under a proposal introduced by Herbold, the suspect could avoid criminal charges if caught. Under the legislation, charges against most misdemeanor suspects could be dismissed if they can show symptoms of mental illness or addiction or if they can prove the crime provided for a need to survive, a so-called “poverty defense…”
Ain’t that always the way? It’s different when it’s your house. It’s different when it’s your life. Everything changes when the victim is you.
Whenever I see somebody condoning or actually cheering on rioting and other crime, I ask for their home address. Not because I want an answer — I’m not a doxer — but because I want them to think about what they’re saying. It’s easy to cheer on “uprisings” and “mostly peaceful protests” when it doesn’t affect you personally. It’s easy to shrug when people are watching their businesses and lives go up in smoke, because you don’t know those people. They’re just abstractions. Too bad about their misery, but at least you’re still okay, right?
Until violent crime comes to your doorstep. Then what do you do? You call the cops, of course. The same guys you want to defund. The same guys you’ve spent your whole life demonizing. And they’ll show up to do the job you didn’t want them to do, right up until the minute you needed help.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: The only thing worse than cops is no cops. I know firsthand what it’s like to deal with bad cops (GFY, DC Police!), and I’m absolutely in favor of police reform. But abolishing the police isn’t the answer. Bad cops suck, but not as much as a complete breakdown of civil society. The only people who don’t realize that yet are the ones whose living room windows haven’t been smashed in.
Johnny Rotten called it decades ago:
🎶Don’t like the look of this old town
What goes up must come down
Character is lost and found
On unfamiliar playing ground🎶
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