Seattle has a new socialist mayor and new progressive leadership, which means there will be a lot of well-meaning disasters and misplaced priorities that make life in the city worse, especially when it comes to the criminal justice system.
Seattle already had its first debacle of the year with a change in directives on how to handle open-air drug use. Seattle’s police union said officers were directed not to arrest people for open-air drug use, which the mayor’s office and police department rejected. The specific change, according to the memo from police Chief Shon Barnes, was that all drug possession and drug use arrests will first be directed to a diversion program, rather than criminal prosecution.
CALIFORNIA’S TOXIC EMPATHY ISN’T HELPING HOMELESS DRUG ADDICTS
This means that city attorney Erika Evans will take charging decisions out of police officers’ hands and leave open-air prosecution decisions to the diversion program first. There can, and will, be cases where police believe charges should be taken over by the diversion program, as they have first dibs on the decisions. Previously, many of these cases would be prosecuted, and then the courts could impose diversion as a sentence, rather than a preemptive measure. The city attorney did not directly send cases to the diversion program.
That means that a progressive “prosecutor” will help people avoid the risk of jail, with the assumption being that they should all be given the opportunity of going into a diversion program first. This will undo the old system under previous city attorney Ann Davison, a former Republican, where the city made progress in limiting both drug overdoses and violent crime. It is backward from the way it should be. A drug case should be prosecuted, and the defendant should then be given the opportunity of jail time or treatment, if it was determined that they deserved that choice in the first place.
Be honest, how many people do you think a progressive “prosecutor” will actually jail for drug possession, even if they shrug off the diversion program?
KATIE WILSON SWORN IN AS SEATTLE MAYOR, SIGNALING PROGRESSIVE SHIFT AT CITY HALL
Meanwhile, new socialist Mayor Katie Wilson will push forward with her destructive plans that will inevitably further hollow out the city. She wants more taxes and rent control, both of which will make life in Seattle more expensive. She opposes clearing homeless encampments, which meshes well with Evans doing everything she can to keep jail off the table for drug criminals. She dislikes the police and has telegraphed her views of businesses by leading a boycott of Starbucks, the Seattle-based giant that provides the city with thousands of jobs as well as a large chunk of revenue in taxes.
Seattle’s population of children is declining, as families recognize that there are too many safety and affordability concerns to raise children in the city. That will worsen under Evans, who clings to an ideology that has failed in cities across the country, including San Francisco and Los Angeles, and Wilson, whose ideology has failed in cities and countries worldwide.
