Colin
SEATTLE, WA – It’s no secret that the City of Seattle has been one of the main epicenters of the “defund the police” movement the last 18-plus months.
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Now, Mayor Jenny Durkan, who once referred as the lawless “autonomous zone” dubbed “CHOP” that was set up by Black Lives Matter activists as a “summer of love,” has signed an executive order authorizing up to a $25,000 hiring bonus for Seattle Police Officers and 911 call center dispatchers to attempt to fix the extreme staffing shortage the first-term mayor has helped to create.
The mayor, who has said she will not be seeking a second term, said that she authorized the massive bonuses due to a “civil emergency” based on the lack of police officers on the streets and dispatchers in the call centers.
The bonuses will be granted based on years of experience and training levels. Additionally, new recruits can be given a hiring bonus of up to $10,000- half being paid upon hiring and the other half of the total amount being paid upon completion of probation.
Seattle’s police union is far from impressed by the offering.
President of the Seattle Police Officer’s Guild Mike Solan said that Durkan and other local politicians have been “politically betraying” the agency.
Apparently, “they boasted that the Seattle Police Department was the modeled reformed police agency for other police agencies to emulate.” In fact, “As a result [of the George Floyd incident], outside agencies from across the nation flew into Seattle to learn from our Department of Justice reform work.”
Nevertheless, police officers have fled the city for various reasons, including low morale, the mayor’s vaccination mandate, budget cuts, etc. Some have retired early, and some have sought careers in other agencies.
“The result of this betrayal,” Solan said, “has caused 350 police officers to flee Seattle since the riots. Many of these former police employees left for lower paying agencies just to escape Seattle’s toxic political climate.
“We also have another 100 officers now off the street due to the Mayor’s COVID-19 vaccination mandate and another 130 officers currently unavailable for service who are out on extended leave. When totaled, that is just under half the department gone/unavailable in almost two years. Seattle’s current police staffing crisis was caused by our current politicians and sadly it all could’ve been avoided.
Durkan has been criticized for many of her decisions during her stint as Mayor, including her handling of the CHOP last summer. She allowed the six-block section of the heart of Seattle’s downtown to be overtaken by crime, resulting in several assaults and even shootings and murders, to continue without police intervention.
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