Seattle City Council’s Plan to Gut Police Department By 50 Percent Has Collapsed

So, there’s some good news coming out of Seattle, but let’s also stress that “good” is for lack of a better term here. The plan to gut the Seattle Police Department by 50 percent has collapsed. The overall plan to abolish its police department, which is the goal for the far left, appears to be put on hold for now. Some council members cited the labor laws, noting that if they lost a dispute, they would have to rehire the officers they purged plus back pay. They are moving forward with cutting 100 officers, getting rid of its mounted units, and the navigation squads, who deal with the homeless (via Seattle Times):

Proposals to reduce the Seattle Police Department by up to 100 officers through layoffs and attrition won unanimous City Council support Wednesday, while proposals to reduce police-command pay and stop removing homeless encampments also cleared hurdles.

Final votes on the moves are still to come next week, and the council rejected a push to “defund” the Police Department’s remaining 2020 budget by 50% and reinvest that money, as many Black Lives Matter protesters have urged.

The amendments passed in a committee Wednesday are expected to save only about $3 million this year (the Police Department’s annual budget tops $400 million), partly due to the assumption the layoffs wouldn’t be carried out until November. In order to provide community organizations with $17 million to start scaling up nonpolice solutions right away, council members intend mostly to borrow money, rather than redirect police funds

Still, council members said they were sending a message as they voted 9-0 on the midyear budget amendments that Mayor Jenny Durkan and police Chief Carmen Best have vehemently opposed.

“We’re not going to be bullied into doing nothing,” Councilmember Teresa Mosqueda said. “It’s important to show community members that we hear them, that we’re working towards the same goal and not just saying no.

Supporters of gutting the police recently showed up at the home of Seattle Police Chief Carmen Best. The whole situation is just out of control. Only a left-wing city could have armed leftists seized a portion of the city, have it quasi-endorsed by state and local leaders, and then come to the conclusion that the police department is the problem and has to be cut.

The proposal to abolish the entire police department is no negotiation ploy. It’s what the left-wing wants to do in this country…because social workers would be better responding to armed robberies. It’s nonsense. Keep an eye on Minneapolis. Right now, a ballot initiative to disband its police department after the George Floyd incident has been held up in order for a further review of the language, but it should never get that far. Second, again, this is what the Left wants. 

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I'm all for girl power - but who's fighting for our boys?

London -- Last week began with a dinner at The Garrick Club and finished in AllBright, a young women's networking club.

The Garrick is the complete opposite of AllBright. Founded in 1831, it still – staggeringly – does not accept female members, and its rules state that the club should never be used for business, although we all know that some of the most important connections are made without a laptop or sheaf of papers on the table.

The Garrick epitomises the culture of the old boys' network that has kept men at the top for centuries. Despite all the advances of recent years, many women are still fighting against lower pay and for a greater voice.

But for the vast majority of today's younger generation of men, for whom that old-school-tie culture is as distant and irrelevant as the land of hope and glory, it must at times seem as if the playing field, rather than being levelled, is skewed in the opposite direction.

You only have to look at Instagram and millions of T-shirts to see the flood of female empowerment messaging and hashtags urging women to feel proud, clever, strong and beautiful. I might be missing something, but I'm not spotting any of that coming from men.

And I don't believe that's because they all feel they are already proud, clever, strong and handsome. University entrance is now dominated by girls, with even the most traditional Oxford colleges showing a greater female UK intake last year.

The Booker Prize longlist of 13 features only four male writers, explained by the fact that apparently nobody is interested in reading their stories.

Even the phrase 'old master' as a descriptor of artistic value is under threat. Close to my home there is a small, newly opened women's workspace offering a place 'to work and feel better'.

But flip that over and imagine what the reaction would be to a placard heralding a men-only venue. It would be instantly pilloried as a bastion of sex discrimination and I can't picture a man who would feel comfortable joining it.

No doubt the fact that I'm the mother of a son makes me feel this way (interestingly, I've no evidence that he shares my concerns).

But it seems to me that in the laudable mission to promote women, we are in danger of creating a generation of disenfranchised young men, who are left there holding the door open for us, not from good manners, but because they can no longer get through themselves.

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DHS Exposes the Horrible Truth About Violent Antifa Riots in Portland

Friday marked the 70th consecutive night of violent antifa riots in Portland. Early this month, the rioters shifted the focus of their violent attacks from the federal courthouse in downtown Portland to the Penumbra Kelly police building in a residential neighborhood. Since the clashes no longer center on federal property and federal law enforcement, the Democratic narrative of excusing or ignoring the violence in order to demonize federal officers and President Donald Trump has fallen apart. But myths about the federal involvement persist.

This week, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) released a document dispelling three big myths about the riots and the federal response.

DHS explained that on July 29, Gov. Kate Brown (D-Ore.) “finally agreed to do what the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has demanded for months: step up and work with federal authorities to stop the nightly criminal violence directed at the Hatfield Federal Courthouse in Portland. Such cooperation between federal and state/local law enforcement is routinely done in every city in the United States.”

“As a result of the governor’s long-delayed, though welcomed, change in direction, the area of the Hatfield Federal Courthouse has finally seen a stark downward trend in violence perpetrated towards federal facilities and federal law enforcement officers,” DHS added. Even so, “misconceptions and falsehoods persist.”

DHS focused on three specific myths.

1. Federal officers are withdrawing as police replace them

While state and local police are finally permitted to work with federal law enforcement as per Brown’s agreement, federal officers have not left the area. “There has been no reduction in federal presence; federal law enforcement officers remain in Portland at augmented levels,” DHS insisted. “DHS officers are working with a robust contingent of Oregon State Police (OSP) officers to secure the courthouse. OSP has been policing the property outside the fencing surrounding federal properties and has partnered with federal officers behind the fencing.”

The increased federal presence in Portland will remain “until the Department is certain that federal property is safe and a change in posture will not hinder DHS’s Congressionally mandated duty to protect it.”

DHS noted that “while the violence in Portland is much improved, the situation remains dynamic and volatile, with acts of violence still ongoing, and no determination of timetables for reduction of protective forces has yet been made. Evaluations remain ongoing.”

2. Violence is down because federal officers are less visible

Democrats and left-leaning activists and media outlets have pushed the narrative that President Donald Trump’s decision to send federal officers has exacerbated the violence in Portland. According to this narrative, the decreasing violence against federal property should be a direct result of the federal officers becoming less visible.

The violent riots long predated Trump’s decision, however. As DHS noted, “The increased presence of federal officers was a direct response to the longstanding violence already occurring in Portland. [Federal Protective Service officers] experienced nightly violence against federal officers and property going back to late May.”

Mayor Ted Wheeler (D-Portland) tweeted on July 3 that the “nightly violence” had been “going on for more than a month” and needed to “end.” Portland Police had also declared multiple riots before federal presence increased.

“Simply put, just because the media and others were not paying as much attention to Portland’s violence prior to the DHS surge doesn’t mean the violence wasn’t occurring,” DHS added.

As DHS noted, Portland Police reported its highest number of homicide investigations in over 30 years after Wheeler decided to disband the police’s Gun Violence Reduction Team amid calls to defund police.

3. Violence decreased because state police are more effective than federal officers

DHS also addressed the idea that violence in Portland has decreased because Oregon State Police are more effective than federal officers.

In reality, “Portland’s current downward trend in riot activity is a direct result of long-awaited coordination between federal, state and local law enforcement agencies that DHS demanded to see on the ground for weeks,” DHS insisted.

“Every major American city regularly coordinates with DHS law enforcement to maintain law and order—particularly around federal properties entrusted to DHS for protection. For nearly two months, DHS demanded cooperation with state and local law enforcement in Portland. It wasn’t until DHS officers suffered more than 240 injuries that Oregon’s Governor finally agreed to do her job,” DHS added, scathingly.

The federal law enforcement department condemned “state and local officials” like Wheeler and Brown for having “put politics head of public safety.” This sent the message that rioters “could attack federal property and the officers defending it and then flee from the federal area of operations without any consequences from state or local law enforcement. Now that state and local leaders have finally agreed to step up and do their job, would-be rioters face the kind of coordinated enforcement response they should have been in place all along.”

Ted Cruz Video Eviscerates Democrats’ False Narrative About ‘Peaceful Protesters’
Tragically, the violent antifa riots have continued in Portland as rioters target the Penumbra Kelly building instead of the federal courthouse.

On Friday night, rioters with body armor and shields squared off with police in a residential neighborhood. They threw concrete, frozen eggs, rocks, and commercial-grade fireworks at the cops in a riot that lasted well past 1 a.m.

On Thursday, Mayor Ted Wheeler (D-Portland) finally vocally condemned the violent antifa rioters after the mob tried to burn down the Penumbra Kelly building on Wednesday night.

“The attack was immediate, it was intentional, and it was planned. It was intended to cause serious injury or death, and it very well could have,” Wheeler said at a press conference. “When you commit arson with an accelerant, in an attempt to burn down a building that is occupied by people that you have intentionally trapped inside, you are not demonstrating. You are attempting to commit murder.”

Why did he not issue similar condemnations when rioters repeatedly tried to burn down the federal courthouse — with federal officers inside? Wheeler should have condemned the violent riots using this kind of rhetoric from the beginning. Instead, he focused on blaming President Donald Trump.

Also on Thursday, Wheeler urged peaceful protesters to stay away from the crowds that would devolve into violent antifa riots. “If you are a non-violent demonstrator, and you don’t want to be part of intentional violence, please stay away from these areas. Our community must say that this violence is not Portland, that these actions do not reflect our values, and these crimes are distracting from reform, not advancing it,” he said.

Why did he not issue such a warning earlier? Rather than condemning the riots, Wheeler himself joined the riots in person. Even as rioters set off explosives at the federal courthouse behind him, Wheeler insisted that the federal officers had no justification for using tear gas.

The twisted leftist narrative about the riots is finally falling apart. Even The New York Times has admitted the violence and destruction of the Capitol Hill Occupied Protest (CHOP) “autonomous zone” in Seattle, which the paper once hailed as a “homeland for racial justice.” As the narrative continues to fall apart, Democrats should pay a steep political price for lying about the violence for two months.

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What Happened When New York Put Homeless People in Luxury Hotels? Double Face Palm

The homeless problem in New York City is bad and getting worse. City leaders decided to fix the problem by putting up hundreds of sex offenders, mental patients, and drug addicts in Manhattan luxury hotels.

How’s that working out for ya?

New York Post:

Upper West Side residents say three hotels that are housing hundreds of homeless men during the coronavirus pandemic have turned the area into a spectacle of public urination, catcalling and open drug use.

Among those staying at the luxury Belleclaire on Broadway and the Lucerne on West 79th Street, and the more down-market Belnord on West 87th Street, are people who are mentally ill, recovering from drug addictions, and registered sex offenders.

Ten sex offenders are staying in a single hotel — the Belleclaire, which is just one block from the playground of PS 87.

Yikes.

A nanny in the genteel neighborhood told of being offered crack while with her two-year-old charge.

“It doesn’t feel safe anymore,” nanny Michele McDowall, 39, told The Post.

She said she was recently offered crack by a pair of homeless men as she wheeled a toddler along Riverside Park at 79th Street.

“You want to buy crack?” she said they shouted repeatedly as she hurried past, and as the frightened 2-year-old girl in the stroller put her hands over her ears and cried, “Too loud!”

Nice. But maybe the finger of blame should also be pointed at the Department of Homeland Security, which is paying 75 percent of the costs of this social experiment.

“The DHS is a rogue agency,” one local community board member said of the homeless influx, noting that residents were given no input and little or no notice of the move.

The board member, who asked to not be identified by name, said they were told the city was paying the hotels $175 a day per homeless person or “two guys in a room at $350 a day.”

“You do the math,” the board members said. “It’s a lot of money.”

Obviously, residents of the neighborhood are insufficiently woke. If homeless people want to urinate or defecate on the sidewalk or in the street, or on your front steps, who are you to say they can’t?

What has really upset residents in the neighborhood has been housing 10 sex offenders a block from a public school. What genius thought that one up?

There are also four offenders whose victims were children: Ronald Butler, 62,  convicted in June 2013 of raping a 16-year-old girl; Eddie Daniel, 59, convicted of abusing a 10-year-old in 2011; Jonathan Evans, 29, convicted of abusing a 6-year-old; and Michael Hughes, 55, convicted of possessing child pornography in 2007.

“I tell my 10-year old, ‘I’ll be back in two minutes’ — I guess I won’t do that anymore,” mom Mariane Dabo told The Post at the playground after learning of the sex offenders. “It’s scary.”

A group of rabbis asked to see the mayor. No response. The local PTA sent a concerned letter. It was ignored.

Maybe Mayor de Blasio and his administration are too humiliated to answer.

SOURCE