Seattle Backs Calls to Slash the Police Budget in Half
City Council officials back defunding the police after CHOP zone dismantled
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Seattle City Council officials have backed proposals to defund the Seattle Police Department by 50%, just a week after the city's CHOP zone was dismantled.
The proposal includes the removal of 911 dispatchers from police control and to “imagine life beyond policing.”
Seven of nine council members are on board with the idea of defunding law enforcement.
But officials are still not clear on how they will make the cuts.
At the moment, six votes are needed to pass budget-related legislation and to override a mayoral veto.
Mayor Jenny Durkan, a Democrat, has not yet backed a 50% reduction.
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Coalitions that have emerged during the recent Black Lives Matter protest are Decriminalize Seattle and King County Equity, which count a number of community organizations led by Black people as endorsers.
According to The Seattle Times, the activists’ four-point plan is as follows:
- Remove Seattle’s 911 dispatchers from police control
- Scale-up community-based solutions to public safety
- Fund a community-led process to “imagine life beyond policing.”
- Invest in affordable housing
Seattle was the site of the CHOP zone for several weeks in June before being dismantled by police earlier this month.
The Seattle mayor issued the order to remove the CHOP on July 1, not long after protestors turned up outside her home.
After clearing out the protest area known as CHOP, police made more than a dozen arrests.
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President Donald Trump said Seattle's leadership only cleaned up their protest area because of threats that federal forces were about to act.
“We were going in, we were going in very soon,” Trump said.
“We let them know that, and all of a sudden, they didn’t want it," Trump said.
Many Democrats have supported the far-left mob's demands to "defund the police” or even “abolish the police."
Mayor Durkan faced backlash after she likened the armed takeover of a six-block zone to a "block party," last month.
The mayor told CNN the area was “more like a block party atmosphere” than an “armed takeover.”
Trump slammed the "protesters" as "domestic terrorists" and demanded that Durkan “take back” her city.
