Shaun Scott is a police de-funder through and through. He is a leader in the “Abolition” movement. His statements do not hold up to today’s reality of public safety.
Recent editorials in the Seattle Times confirm my position as a community activist, and now candidate for public office — we must fund public safety.
The Defund ideology is past its pull date.
Danny Westneat writes about King County finally funding a juvenile detention facility. He states, “So, it’s over. Four years on, the progressive push to abolish jail and the police has, at least for now, fizzled to an end.”
The reality of carjacking, shootings, rampant shoplifting and other crimes is troubling to rational minds.
Jon Talton writes about crime affecting downtown, “Defunding the police became a temporary fad — although good policing costs more money, not less.”
2020: DEFUNDING’S MOMENT
2020 was when I became involved with creating We Heart Seattle. We started as volunteers helping clean downtown after riots left extensive property damage.
In June of that same year, my opponent Shaun Scott proclaimed in Crosscut, “The time to abolish Seattle police was yesterday.“
Scott’s 2020 Crosscut OpEd is his Abolitionist manifesto. Scott includes a history of racism within the Seattle Police Department (SPD). I am not discounting this account of a tragic history. My point is how Scott’s abolishment advocacy is out of touch, and, as we will see, destructive.
Scott’s OpEd derides support for funding a youth jail as “cheerleading” for militarism. Fast forward to reality: A unanimous King County Council just voted to fund a youth jail. Westneat’s article, cited above, captures current sentiment, “‘This is legislating in reality’, remarked council member Rod Dembowski, implying that the [defund] idea had been fantasy all along.”
FANTASY TO GRIM REALITY
Scott also wrote in his OpEd, and on social media, “During the past 35 years, racist laws like Seattle’s ‘drug-loitering’ and ‘prostitution-loitering’ ordinances were used as a pretext to badger transgender and cisgender Black women.”
In 2020, the Seattle City Council bought into this idealism to unanimously repeal laws protecting communities from the harms of prostitution. Today’s reality? Aurora avenue is a hotbed of street walking — trapping women, regardless of race, into sexual exploitation.
The Council also followed the Abolitionist narrative by repealing drug-loitering laws. Look at 3rd Avenue around Pine Street today — the area is so bad, it’s unsafe for anybody.
CHAOS REIGNS
On June 2 of 2020, Scott seemingly joked on social media, “Expecting Seattle Police Chief Carmen Best to fire Mayor Durkan any day now.” This may sound nonsensical, however, it’s very serious.
Scott’s post occurred only days before Seattle’s East Precinct was occupied during the CHOP/CHAZ. His PBS/Crosscut OpEd demanding abolishing police was published during the East Precinct takeover! Scott was in his element of fanning flames destabilizing public safety. He is a leader in radical politics and a play to further wreck law enforcement was in motion.
The Seattle City Council eventually followed suit with undermining police department leadership. In 2021, they jumped on the Defund bandwagon by slashing $3 million from the SPD, including a loss of 100 officers through a combination of layoffs and attrition. This led to the resignation of Carmen Best, who was the first African-American woman to ever serve as Seattle’s police chief.
YES TO PUBLIC SAFETY
I support approaches and ideas to actually improve public safety to meet the needs of our increasingly multi-cultural America.
Efforts like the 2012 Consent Decree between the City of Seattle and the United States
Department of Justice are real progress. This is a settlement agreement which required Seattle to implement reforms, “with the goal of ensuring that police services are delivered to the people of Seattle in a manner that fully complies with the Constitution and laws of the United States, effectively ensures public trust and officer safety, and promotes public confidence…”
No thanks to Scott, we got our East Precinct back after the Mayor ordered officers, which included police from neighboring cities, to restore order.
Shaun Scott plans on taking his wrecking ball approach with public safety to Olympia. I am the only candidate in this race committed to funding public safety. Vote for me, Andrea Suarez on November 5th.