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Seattle Festivities
credit: komonews.com

Before we check in on the focus of this article—the People’s Republic of Seattle—let’s stop by Chicago to see how the midwestern version of the Summer of Love is working out.  Stacy Matthews at Legal Insurrection reports:

The rally was organized by Black Lives Matter Chicago and was held at a police station in the South Loop where organizers say individuals are currently being held in custody. At least one organizer called the looting tantamount to ‘reparations.’

This following a BLM riot and mass looting, accompanied by a coordinated caravan of vehicles, include U-Hauls, in downtown Chicago.  The damage and thefts have thus far cost untold millions.

‘I don’t care if someone decides to loot a Gucci or a Macy’s or a Nike store, because that makes sure that person eats,’ said Ariel Atkins, a BLM organizer, according to NBC Chicago. ‘That makes sure that person has clothes.’

Video of those participating in the looting revealed no one who appeared to have missed any meal, and all were well and trendily clothed.

‘That is reparations,’ Atkins continued. ‘Anything they wanted to take, they can take it because these businesses have insurance.’

I’ll address the insurance issue shortly.

A statement posted by Black Lives Matter – Chicago on their website and to their Twitter account went even further (bolded emphasis added):

Others in the media have been quick to condemn attacks on ‘our city’ and play up racialized fears for the city’s white residents. These commentators seem to believe that the immense wealth that has been hoarded in downtown Chicago is in some way all of ours. The South and West sides have seen no benefits to this hoarding.  Over the past few months, too many people — disproportionately Black and Brown — have lost their jobs, lost their income, lost their homes, and lost their lives as the city has done nothing and the Chicago elite have profited.When protesters attack high-end retail stores that are owned by the wealthy and service the wealthy, that is not ‘our’ city and has never been meant for us.

The Mayor cannot expect people to play by her rules as she refuses to treat them with basic dignity. These protests can only end when the safety and wellbeing of our communities is finally prioritized.

In other words, BLM has just declared itself the legitimate government of Chicago and will continue to reap “reparations” and engage in “peaceful protests” until they are recognized as such.  Odd how peace requires so much arson, theft and other destruction.  It intensifies so fast.

Let’s move across the country to Seattle, where Chicago’s fellow anarchists, communists and anti-racists ply their trade, as Fox News reports:

credit: seattle5.com

The Seattle City Council voted Monday to move forward with a controversial proposal that would begin the process of defunding the police department.

The 7-1 vote comes despite objections from the city’s police chief, mayor and the Seattle Police Officers’ Guild.

The plan would ultimately slash funding to the department but not the 50% some had sought. Seattle currently has around 1,400 police officers, and the current plan would see about 100 cut. It was also cut the police department’s $400 million budget by about $3 million, according to KOMO.

One member of the council, Kshama Sawant, voted against the measure, not for reasons of sanity, but because it didn’t go far enough to destroy the SPD.

The council reviewed a final set of amendments Monday before the vote, which included reducing the police department by up to 100 officers through layoffs and attrition as well as cutting the $285,000 annual salary of the Police Chief Carmen Best and other top officers.Best is the city’s first Black police chief and the pay cut would put her salary well below her White predecessor.

The council’s plan also removes officers from a team that dismantles homeless camps.

And the SWAT team, and various other special squads that were among the few effectively targeting crime.  The Council’s actions were also successful in removing Chief of Police Carmen Best, as Fox again reports:

Chief Best
credit: youtube

Seattle Police Chief Carmen Best on Tuesday announced her resignation, saying that she was not leaving because of pay cuts to her department, but because of the ‘lack of respect’ toward her fellow officers.

Best’s resignation comes amid the City Council’s decision to reduce the department by as many as 100 officers through layoffs and attrition.

In response to a reporter who asked if her decision was motivated by protesters who appeared at her home earlier this month, or the City Council’s decision, Best said it ‘is not about the money, and it certainly isn’t about the demonstrators.’

Paul Mirengoff at Powerline adds detail:

Seattle police Chief Carmen Best announced her retirement following the city council’s decision to cut the police department budget by 14 percent. According to this report, the cuts would have had little effect on Best’s salary, but will reduce the salary of the 12 non-union sworn officers on her command staff.

More importantly, the cuts will reduce the number of regular police officers in Seattle. Up to 100 jobs might be lost through layoffs and attrition. Actually, I think we can expect a larger exodus of police officers, given the city council’s lack of support. Carmen Best can’t be the only member of the force who will look for more hospitable employment.

In other words, Antifa and BLM have won. Residents of the city of Seattle have lost.

Even Seattle’s left-wing mayor understands this. Jenny Durkan called the cuts ‘infuriating and deeply disappointing.’ She noted that the council did not cut the salary of any other municipal department head or its own staff.

Why should it have? This isn’t about the budget, it’s about far left ideology and catering to the mob. Only those who protect the city against criminals are the target.

This lunacy is rife with irony.  The SPD has been, for years, under a federal consent decree essentially preventing them from using force, particularly against black criminals.  That consent decree was forced on them by current Mayor Jenny Durkan, who was then a US Attorney.  Every action the council has taken has made it all but impossible for officers to use force, which makes it all but impossible for them to enforce the law.

The most recent group of police recruits has been lauded as the most “diverse” in Seattle history.  Due to seniority rules, they will be laid off first.

The most ironic irony, however, is Seattle, a bastion of diversity, has forced out its first black, female chief of police.  Unfortunately for her, she actually tried to be a chief of police rather than a D/S/C wokester.

Let’s examine two potential realities, as Seattle begins their elimination of the SPD.

Social Justice Reality: as racist, violent police fascists, who are responsible for all the violence in Seattle, and for driving people of color and their allies to mostly peacefully protest, are eliminated with increasing speed, mostly peace spreads throughout Seattle.  Antifa, BLM and associated fighters for social justice just demands are met by the City Council, and everyone lives in perfect, mostly peaceful mostly peace and harmony.  The poor are made equal by the appropriation of the riches of the wealthy who seized their wealth on the backs of slaves.  Perfect, mostly peaceful diversity, equality, equity, and respect for LGBTQWERTY and other communities rules, and Seattle prospers like never before and money that was formerly used for fascist police is distributed to the aforementioned underserved communities.  Utopia is finally realized.

Real Reality: the loss of 100 police officers has ballooned to at least 300 as every officer that can resigns and flees.  Because recruitment has been suspended, there is no relief in sight, and projections for at least that many leaving in the next year badly understate the issue.

The police are reduced to responding only to the most serious, in-progress, violent felonies, and then only in certain approved areas where they are allowed to enter.  Arrest rates have fallen by 83%.  As a result, citizens in many neighborhoods have formed militias, and are enforcing their own law, which is far more violent than anything the SPD ever did.  The City Council is alarmed that prominent “community” members are disappearing.  Occasionally, one of their bodies is found, but for the most part, they simply vanish.  Some speculate militias are disposing of them when they try to shake their neighborhoods down, but the few remaining police have no time to investigate such things, and no one seems to know anything about the disappearances.

Emergency medical first responders have also left the city in large numbers.  The remainder respond only with the cover of significant numbers of police officers.  Because there are no significant number of police officers, most calls for help in most areas of the city, go unanswered.  For the police and medics, about 40% of Seattle is a “no go zone.” Only one hospital remains open, but it too is chronically understaffed and underequipped.  Mass thefts of drugs and all medical supplies are a daily occurrence, and it is almost impossible to get replacements.

Firemen also have deserted the city in droves.  They too rely on the police for protection, but for the most part, it is not forthcoming.  As a result, a small fire can easily consume blocks, and some 18% of Seattle is burned out, and that percentage is accelerating daily.

The homeless take up residence wherever they please, and downtown Seattle is knee deep in urine, feces and discarded needles.  City resources have allegedly been allocated for clean up, but city workers refuse to enter much of Seattle without police escort.  Their priority is even lower than that of EMTs and firemen.  Medieval diseases are rampant, and there is no hope of controlling them.

There are rumors that Antifa, BLM, and even organized crime families have set up protection rackets.  Some neighborhoods and a few of the remaining merchants have paid, but some significant gun battles have also occurred over this issue.  Gunfire is common virtually everywhere, at any time of the day or night.  The remaining police do not respond to reports of gunfire.

The criminals the SPD arrests are immediately released, as bond has been abolished.  At least 70% of the charges against them are dropped prior to a preliminary hearing.  Of the remainder, local prosecutors have only a 25% conviction rate.  Even those convicted are released as jails and probation and parole have been abolished.

Businesses, including national chains such as McDonald’s, have closed their doors for good.  They cite out of control crime, protection rackets, daily looting and destruction and assaults on their employees, and most of all, the impossibility of buying insurance.  Insurance rates for businesses have been steadily rising and are at such levels virtually no one, even national chains, can afford to pay.  Projections are that within a month or two, no insurance will be available in Seattle at any price.

The auto policies of most Seattle residents have been canceled months ago, so common has the vandalism, theft, and destruction of motor vehicles become.  Home and apartment insurance has become astronomically expensive for the same reasons, and many insurance companies plan to soon entirely withdraw from the Seattle market.

Shootings of criminals—those with clear and lengthy criminal records, as well as prominent Antifa, BLM and other “community” members, many of whom have significant criminal records, have reached epidemic proportions, a development the City Council has blamed on the “proliferation of weapons of mass destruction by anti-anti-racism fascists,” many of who were previously Democrats who had never owned guns until the Council began the disbanding of the police.

There are few remaining gas stations, convenience stores, grocery stores, and other businesses in many areas of the city.  Even WalMart has closed four locations in lawless areas.  Constant vandalism has crippled electric, water and sewer services in large portions of Seattle, including some of the suburbs as various “communities” have expanded their territories in search of easier pickings.  This is exacerbated by the fact many trucking companies refuse to serve Seattle after their drivers have been beaten and killed and their loads “appropriated” as “reparations.”

President Michelle Obama and Vice President Kamala Harris have recently visited Seattle and proclaimed it “a shining example of what can be done when diversity and equity are valued,” and have vowed to assist Seattle in funding a new windmill powered solar facility to manufacture batteries for electric bicycles.  Motor Vehicles have been banned in Seattle for two years.

I could go on, gentle readers, but I trust this is sufficient for now.  Which reality do you think most likely?  Coming to a city near you?

UPDATE, 08-13-20, 2240: And it’s now happened in Austin, where the city council voted unanimously to cut the police budget by $150 million—about 34%.  They’re going to implement a “public health” approach to policing.  Guess they really didn’t like the police arresting “protestors.”  This is going to be, as they say in Texas, a hoot.