Seattle considers ordinance that would excuse crimes, including assault, for drug addicts and the homeless

Lisa Herbold (D) Seattle City Council proposes "poverty" defense- YouTube screenclip

Seattle councilmember keeps calling the police she defunded to report crimes she’s trying to legalize

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SEATTLE, WA- In the last several weeks, Seattle City Councilmember Lisa Herbold, a leading proponent of the “defund the police” movement, reported two harassing and threatening phone calls to the Seattle Police Department (SPD).

According to My Northwest, one of the phone calls was made to her office phone, possibly from a repeat offender and the other phone call, from a separate caller, was made to Herbold’s personal cell phone. Both calls were anonymous. 

Herbold continues to use limited resources from the department she gutted and she is reporting crimes that may be effectively “legalized” under legislation she is advancing. This is also not her first time reporting such incidents.

Back in the middle of December 2020, Herbold reportedly called the authorities after a man allegedly threw a rock through her living room window. According to a redacted police report obtained by My Northwest, 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 here is that under a proposal introduced by Herbold, the suspect who allegedly threw a rock at her window, could avoid criminal charges if caught.

Under the proposed 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, as so-called “poverty defense.”

Both crimes, the rock throwing incident and the harassing phone calls may be effectively legalized under Herbold’s “poverty defense” bill.

A staff member for Herbold reported a threatening voicemail left on the councilwoman’s office line on January 16, 2021. The police report details the calls’s content:

“The caller takes exception to victim’s proposal on new defenses for misdemeanor crimes. The caller continues to berate the victim through profane language and states that she better not run again.

The caller then goes on to state that if anyone who should have been in jail harms him or his family he is going to pay her for a visit.”

The report added:

“The caller does not elaborate on what he intends to do, though the inference that he is going to cause her harm is clear. The caller then stated that he hopes that the victim is victimized and that her family is harmed. The call abruptly ends after that.”

Currently, under Seattle Criminal Code, telephone calls to harass, intimidate, torment or embarrass, which include lewd, profane, and threatening content are misdemeanors.

However, under the draft bill on which Herbold has based her poverty defense, the caller could get a pass if he made the call while “experiencing symptoms of a behavioral health disorder”.

The second phone call, which was to Herbold’s personal cell, told her to watch her back. The female caller left a brief message on morning of December 16, 2020. Herbold forwarded the voicemail in an email to the police. The message said:

“Lisa, Lisa, Lisa, the cops aren’t going to save you, honey. We’re coming for you, watch your (expletive) back, (expletive).”

Under the poverty defense bill, this behavior may be excusable if the caller experienced emotional impairment at the time of the call.

These phone calls and the rock throwing incident should be a wake-up call that Herbold’s push to defund the police and effectively legitimize criminal behavior is dangerous.

She is reporting crimes that she is effectively trying to legalize to an understaffed and under-resourced police department.

Herbold is not the only Seattle City Councilmember looking for extra-special treatment from the police department she is trying to defund. Her colleague Kshama Sawant also demanded VIP treatment from police after she received threats.

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Seattle council member who wants to defund the police demands investigation into “threats” she never reported

January 28th, 2021

SEATTLE, WA- After receiving a series of threatening emails, Seattle City Council member Kshama Sawant demanded the city take this issue seriously, stating she was “extremely concerned” with the potential for violence from the sender of the emails.

According to reports, Sawant never actually contacted the Seattle Police Department (SPD) about the threatening emails. Instead, she released a press release demanding an investigation and implying that the city would not conduct such investigation.

However, had she reported the threats to law enforcement as she was supposed to, the investigation would have already started and maybe even ended. Jason Rantz, host of “The Jason Rantz Show” on AM 770 KTTH said:

“The council member is using the spurious claim to portray herself as a victim of a city disinterested in supporting her, while using the threats to rally supports behind her.

She’s transparently political, all in the name of fighting off a threat that she doesn’t seem to take too seriously.”

Sawant said that she received a number of threatening emails from an account belonging to a Seattle Fire Department staffer. She went as far as to publish four on her council blog page, careful to block out the staffer’s name. 

The employee tied to the account denies that they sent the emails, which allegedly began on December 17, 2020.

On December 31, 2020, the Seattle Fire Department emailed Sawant to explain they heard about the issue and were investigating, but the emails continued. The last one being sent on January 18, 2021.

On her council blog page, she wrote in her press release:

“The most ominous of these emails arrived yesterday, January 18, titled, ‘Time to announce your expiration’ and concluding, ‘The time is here and you will not have a place after tomorrow council woman. Announce your resignation now or else.'”

Sawant then released a press release reprinting a letter to various city officials. The reprinted letter went to Mayor Jenny Durkan, whose home Sawant led a mob to for a political speech culminating in vandalism by her supporters.

The reprinted letter went to Seattle Police Chief Adrian Diaz, whose department she is trying to defund by 50 percent, but now hopes will spend limited resources tracking down an emailer she chose not to report, and others. According to Rantz:

“Sawant demanded a ‘thorough investigation into this matter immediately’ after baselessly claiming a ‘possible link between these emails and the far right protests planned for Biden’s inauguration.’ Without President Donald Trump in office, Sawant and others with pivot future attacks on unnamed right-wing threats.”

Sawant said in her press release:

“I believe these emails must be taken very seriously given the current political context with an emboldened right wing nationally, the specific threatening content of the emails and the fact that they originate from a City of Seattle email account.”

SPD confirmed to the “Jason Rantz Show” on KTTH that Sawant never reported the threats directly to the department. In fact, they only learned about them after Sawant’s comments went public.

A department spokesperson confirmed that there is now and active investigation, which started as soon as they learned of the concerns. Rantz said:

“When researching an unrelated story, a council spokesperson told me that council members ‘are encouraged to work directly with SPD when called for, which is the normal practice for anyone.'”

He added:

“An hour later, the spokesperson clarified her statement, claiming it’s, ‘the council office-staff who typically make a determination as to how to proceed.'”

On Twitter, Sawant’s account has retweeted a stream of sympathetic followers, who demand an investigation that they do not realize she stymied by keeping the threatening emails from the police.

Sawant said that while she received the threats, it wasn’t really about her at all. It was about a movement she attaches her brand to. She said in her press release:

“While the threats are directly at me personally, I and others recognize that they are in fact directed against our entire government. They are attacking me as a means of threatening all who dare to fight for workers’ rights and against racism, sexism, and oppression which stem from the capitalist system.”

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Seattle city council uses ‘loophole’ to give $3M of taxpayer money to anti-cop organization that helped create the CHOP zone

December 12, 2020

SEATTLE, WA- The Post Millennial reported that it was recently revealed that the Seattle City Council is using a loophole to circumvent the bidding process and appropriate $3 million to “non-profit” organizations that were part of the Capitol Hill Occupied Protest (CHOP). 

These “non-profit” organizations have lobbied the City Council since early summer to defund the Seattle Police Department (SPD) and use the money for “community programs”.

According to SCC Insight, the Council awarded the entire $3 million in a single contract to King County Equity Now (KCEN), an anti-police organization of multiple groups who were behind the establishment of CHOP, through the office of socialist council member Tammy Morales. Morales has lobbied the Council since early summer to defund SPD.

However, KCEN is not a 501(c)(3) non-profit, thus the Council could not simply bypass the bidding process to give them the contract. Reportedly, KCEN claims that it is a 501(c)(4) organization and that it has applied for 501(c)(3) status. 

KCEN has registered with the state of Washington as a non-profit conforming with 501(c)(3) rules, yet as of this writing, the IRS’s website for 501 non-profits does not list KCEN as either.

SCCI reported that during the time when city leadership was trying to get the protesters to move out of the occupied area, Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan launched the Mayor’s Equitable Communities Initiative (ECI) task force to guide $4 million of investments into minority communities.

At the same time, City Council voted to hand a $3 million contract to KCEN, who calls themselves an “ecosystem of over 70 black-led community orgs driving black-centered policy.”

Allegedly, the contract will fund its Black Brilliance Research Project, which is part of Seattle’s transition to a participatory budget process that allows residents to vote on public funding.

KCEN’s project plan says:

“Its research will focus on identifying the needs and priorities of black and indigenous people of color communities, particularly black communities and aim to identify what communities want to see in Participatory Budgeting (PB) so that Seattle’s PB will be community-led and centered of the experience, wisdom, and expertise of black people in the Seattle-metro area.”

King-County based PubliCola has raised concerns with the plan. PubliCola reported:

“The work plan does not include a clear explanation of how the research findings will inform the structure of next year’s participatory budgeting process, but it does include a list of preliminary recommendations for changes to the city’s budget priorities, based on feedback from respondents to the project’s surveys and from interviews with black residents.”

The statement added:

“These priorities include reducing the size of the Seattle Police Department.”

SCCI reported that the project has many “yellow and red flags.” SCCI reported:

“It’s a very large amount of money,  being handed to an organization that lobbied hard for it and contracted through a dubious loophole that bypasses standard processes guaranteed to ensure that the city is getting a good deal.”

Their report added:

“The contract itself is weak on the details of schedules, deliverables, and tracking the money.”

Morales, who said she was a member of Democratic Socialists of America in 2019, said that the contract is “DEMOCRATIZING power and resources.” In an email to SCCI, Morales said:

“The issue is not whether this is a typical research project, but instead entirely about how to teach community members exactly how to critically analyze the impact of policy on their neighborhood. We could have contracted with a university and had graduate students doing this research, but that would not have produced the outcomes we’re looking for.”

SCCI reported that the council solved its contracting problem by enlisting Freedom Project, a Seattle-based 501(c)(3) with an annual budget of around $250,000, as a “fiscal agent” to be the official contractor, who will in turn subcontract all the research work to KCEN. 

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Seattle police chief resigns shortly after City Council defunds department and cuts 100 officers

August 11th, 2020

Seattle, Washington – It seems that everyone has their proverbial breaking point or moment of surrender, and one of the most important figures within the Seattle Police Department is said to be resigning.

SPD Chief Carmen Best is said to be ending her career with the SPD after 28 years with the department.

In an email said to have been from Chief Best that was sent to the roughly 1,400 officers with the SPD, she stated the following about her planned resignation:

“This was a difficult decision for me, but when it’s time, it’s time.”

The infamous Seattle City Council had pushed through a vote to cut the SPD budget for the remainder of the year by about $3 million in a 7-to-1 vote. Unsurprisingly, the only person who voted against the motion was Kshama Sawant – because it didn’t go far enough into cutting the budget:

“It completely fails to defund the police by 50%, as six of the eight council members had promised to support and carries out a major austerity program on behalf of big business.”

However, the Minneapolis Charter Commission had already blocked the controversial 50% defunding option from being present on the November ballots earlier in August.

Yet, this newly passed budget cut by the City Council will see roughly 100 police officers laid off and cuts to the SWAT team, Navigation team, and the Chief’s own salary.

https://twitter.com/Doranimated/status/1293166857596416006

Chief Best has been a strong voice in the opposition against the City Council’s knee-jerk reactions to protests which seemingly on represents a minority of what Seattle really wants done with the SPD.

Not to mention, there’s already been studies that show the SPD couldn’t possibly see the remainder of 2020’s budget be reduced by 50% anyway.

In the email addressed to members of the SPD, Chief Best stated the following:

“I wanted to notify you that I will be retiring from the Seattle Police Department, effective September 2nd, 2020. I wanted you to hear this from me, but some media have reached this conclusion on their own.”

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Later on in the email, Chief Best also revealed who her successor would be:

“Mayor Durkan has appointed Deputy Chief Adrian Diaz as the interim Chief of Police. Chief Diaz shares my commitment to this department and has the trust of the community.”

Acknowledging her long career within the department, Chief Best reflected on how much she appreciated the time she had with the department and the officers within it:

“After more than 28 years, I am so thankful for the time I spent at SPD. You are my family. You will always be in my heart. We have had tough times before and come out better on the other side. I am glad I pushed through each of those tough times with you.”

Not long after Chief Best sent the email out to those within the SPD, Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan also emailed members from the SPD confirming Chief Best’s retirement:

“I wanted to follow up on the Chief’s note announcing her retirement from the Seattle Police Department. Know that while I understand the Chief’s reasons, I accepted her decision with a very heavy heart.”

Mayor Durkan noted some of the accomplishments attributed to Chief Best since her appointment in that role in 2018:

“She led the department toward a dramatic reduction in use of force against people in crisis as well as a decreased major crime rate in 2019. In addition, she hired more diverse officers to reflect the community, and in 2019, the department hired its most diverse class in recent memory at 39 percent people of color.”

In Mayor Durkan’s email, she also noted that the ongoing public debate and protests against police officers have been a hardship against those who don the uniform:

“I know that this necessary public debate is personal for you, and that it affects not just your jobs. It impacts your families and the pride you have in serving the public. I also know it seems like the real strides SPD has made in recent years are going unrecognized.”

Still, much like Chief Best stated, Mayor Durkan feels as though the newly announced Deputy Chief, Adrian Diaz, will be able to handle the upcoming hurdles for the SPD.

It’s unclear what this move will translate to in the long run from a public relations perspective, but it’s possible that the City Council may have run off what was perhaps one of the best mediating voices within the community and the SPD overall.

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About The Author

Jenna Curren, Ed.D., is an assistant professor in criminal justice studies. As chair of a CJ advisory board, Jenna actively partners with members of the community to integrate current students into internships and prospective law enforcement careers. Prior to working in academics, Jenna held various custody and treatment positions and was a lieutenant for the CT Department of Correction. Throughout her tenure, she supervised men, women, youth and mental health offenders. A C.E.R.T and honor guard member, as well as a training officer, Jenna has 10 years of experience in the criminal justice and human services fields.

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