Mayor Durkan vetoes council's 2020 budget revision that would have cut up 100 police officers

[brooklynite]

Source: Seattle Times

Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan will veto the revised 2020 budget approved last week by the city council. The budget would have cut up to 100 police officers.

Council President M. Lorena González said she disagreed with Durkan’s veto.

“This morning the Mayor and I committed to each other that we will continue to try and partner in this work. I have to believe that we agree on more than we disagree, and I will strive to bridge the gap on our few but critical differences of opinion,” González wrote in a news release. “While I disagree with Mayor Durkan’s decision to veto the Council’s budget legislation, I hope that the public knows that their elected leaders are committed to working together on achieving a long-overdue transformation of our law enforcement and criminal justice systems that have for far too long perpetuated trauma and harm on our black, brown and indigenous neighbors.”

Read more: https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/mayor-durkan-vetoes-councils-2020-budget-revision-that-would-have-cut-up-100-police-officers/

[LisaM]

1. We need better trained officers, not fewer officers.

Until the pandemic, I worked downtown, and it was getting increasingly unpleasant. Open drug deals and drug use, stores closing due to shoplifting, and a general unsafe feeling.

I don't think cutting police is a good idea. Shifting resources to social work is - I saw a lot of police dealing with ODs - but I don't feel especially safe in Seattle.

[OnlinePoker]

3. Is social work a city responsibility or state?

We're having similar issues in B.C. But calls to defund the police mean nothing if the province isn't providing the mental health resources to address the problems of drug use, mental health and homelessness on the streets. The cities are responsible for policing and don't have the expertise (or available funds) for the social work that's needed. We're left with a patchwork of NGO's to take up the slack.

[maxsolomon]

8. Its America. It is no one's responsibility.

That's how King Co. has >11K homeless.

[maxsolomon]

5. You may not FEEL safe, but that doesn't mean you aren't.

I think cutting the Police Budget is a fine idea.

The proposed cuts were token, and are unlikely to affect Public Safety in any meaningful way, yet Best took her ball and went home to her Snohomish neighborhood of armed yahoos.

What stores closed because of shoplifting? I don't read the Seattle Times or listen to Dori Monson.

[LisaM]

9. Well, I have been assaulted.

I ride the bus and I've been outright assaulted at the bus stop, along with other times where I was groped or had a man just drape himself on me.

With the businesses all leaving Third Avenue, and bus riders forced out of the tunnel and on to the street, it seemed like a very unsafe environment. I got out of downtown early every night. And it was worse for bus riders over on Pioneer Square.

[maxsolomon]

10. Sorry to hear you were assaulted.

On the whole, it is fairly safe in downtown Seattle, despite the drug use and homelessness.

There are 2 bad spots on 3rd, and you mentioned both of them: The Blade and outside the DESC.

[LisaM]

11. I'm sure women feel less safe than men.

I mean, before the pandemic, I did not feel safe waiting for the bus. And I've commuted downtown for over 20 years. Moving the buses out of the tunnel really changed things. We didn't used to have to wait on the street.

[Sewa]

12. They should've put the defunding issue on November ballot

Let all the Seattle residents have a voice. IMO

[bucolic_frolic]

2. Was it really a slice and dice operation?

Mayor Durkan vetoes council’s 2020 budget revision that would have cut up to 100 police officers

[Mr.Bill]

4. The Pigs probably

would have had her killed if she didn't.

[Mr.Bill]

7. Thanks. Corrected. n/t

[robbob]

13. I'm not a big fan of the police...

But cutting them up? Seems a bit extreme...

[hydrolastic]

14. All you have to do is look at a SPD police car,

Its clear they are completely militarized. Defunding without redirecting funds to other programs is unwise. But something has to be done about a police force that is extreme and they enter every situation with a gun.