A Seattle councilwoman who led an effort to defund the police and is proposing forgiving most misdemeanors called the police to her home after she became the victim of a crime.
The councilwoman, Lisa Herbold, called the police earlier this month after a man reportedly threw a rock through her window. Herbold 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,” according to the police report.
A witness told police they saw a person they described as “unathletic and a bad runner” leaving the scene and would recognize the suspect if he saw him again. However, the witness declined to take an officer’s business card for a follow-up.
The incident came after Herbold spearheaded an effort over the summer to defund Seattle’s police, voting to approve cuts of about $3.5 million to the department’s budget. She has also led an effort in the city to dismiss most misdemeanor crimes if suspects can show symptoms of mental illness, addiction, or if they committed the crime out of a need to survive.
“It’s giving people an opportunity to tell their stories and giving judges and juries the opportunity to hear those stories and make a decision based on the values of our city,” Herbold told the City Council’s Public Safety Committee Committee.
In a statement to Fox News, Herbold defended her proposal and said accusations that she is attempting to legalize crimes are wrong.
“There are no crimes that I am ‘effectively pushing to make legal,’” she said.
Herbold’s proposal has the backing of King County Director of the Department of Public Defense Anita Khandelwal, who said people who commit crimes of needs should have those charges excused.
“In a situation where you took that sandwich because you were hungry and you were trying to meet your basic need of satisfying your hunger; we as the community will know that we should not punish that. That conduct is excused,” Khandelwal said during a council meeting earlier this month.
A Washington Examiner request for comment from Herbold’s office was not immediately returned.
