Lost in the shuffle of Joe Biden selecting the first black woman to run on a major presidential ticket, the city of Seattle forced the first black woman to lead the city’s police department into resignation.
Carmen Best was appointed to her position as Seattle chief of police by Mayor Jenny Durkan in 2018. But the Seattle City Council has voted to cut the city’s police budget by about $3 million, including cutting Best’s salary and laying off several officers. In a city that is only 6.8% black, with a white mayor and no black people on the City Council, it was Best and her police department that had to take the fall for the failures of city leaders.
Seattle’s “autonomous zone” was a tragedy waiting to happen. Best recognized that while lamenting that the department was told to evacuate the conquered East Precinct. At the time, Durkan called the takeover “patriotic” and compared it to a block party. Four autonomous zone shootings in 10 days somehow led to Best’s police department having its funding cut.
This is apparently what anti-racism looks like in Seattle. Both Durkan and Best said that layoffs would primarily affect newer officers, many of whom are minorities. Best had to write a letter to the City Council asking them to discourage protesters from marching on her home. This tactic of intimidating people in their homes, the modern-day cross burning, has been cheered by Councilwoman Kshama Sawant.
Seattle’s failures were the result of Durkan’s initial support for protesters and the City Council’s ongoing support, both implicitly and explicitly, as the situation in the city deteriorated. Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, meanwhile, watched as his state’s biggest city surrendered itself to the mob that claimed the autonomous zone.
Seattle will be worse off without Best at the helm, especially with all the current state and city leaders still calling the shots. If this is what Democrats in American cities view as progress on racial issues, then Best and her department will not be the last scapegoats. As cities such as Chicago deal with their own violent outbursts, the arguments for “defunding” the police continue to look more irresponsible.
