The Seattle City Council has voted to overturn Mayor Jenny Durkan’s veto on legislation that would slash millions of dollars from the local police budget, a move cheered by activist groups and reviled by some residents.
The council overturned Durkan’s veto by a vote of 7-2, securing exactly the number of votes needed to put the legislation into effect.
“In the wake of a racial reckoning, a $300 million budget shortfall, a pandemic, a climate crisis, a homelessness crisis... and a lack of federal leadership, our fundamental duty remains: to balance the City’s budget and meet the needs of Seattle’s most vulnerable residents,” city council president Lorena Gonzalez said in a statement.
Seattle City Council President @CMLGonzalez issued the following statement after the Council voted 7-2 on Council Bill 119825, overturning the Mayor’s veto: https://t.co/ysgVzEdXNM
City lawmakers also negated vetoes for two other bills unrelated to law enforcement, however the police defunding bill, originally passed in August, will cut some $3 million from the Seattle Police Department’s $400 million budget and reduce the force by 100 employees, including 32 patrol officers. The legislation will also abolish Seattle’s “Navigation Team,” an agency that works with police to disband homeless encampments around the city.
While the $3 million cut is far from the massive 50-percent budget reduction sought by the council over the summer, police accountability activists have nonetheless celebrated the overturned veto, including local groups Decriminalize Seattle and King County Equity Now, which issued a joint statement after Tuesday’s vote.
“Today, we are encouraged to see the City Council...resist Mayor Durkan’s bullying tactics and anti-Black obstructionism,” the activists said. “Specifically, City Council upheld their decision to divest from the Seattle Police Department (SPD) by 3 million dollars – less than 1% of SPD’s annual budget – and invest modestly in Black communities.”
The organizations were joined by other supporters in hailing the move, including local residents, one of which declared “I love my anarchist jurisdiction” – a play on a designation recently slapped on Seattle, New York City and Portland, Oregon by the Department of Justice, which has vowed to strip the localities of federal funding.
Thank you Seattle City Council for keeping your promise to the people and overriding the Mayor's veto of police budget cuts. Thank you for hearing us where the mayor would not. https://t.co/aE4JNGNRzG
Some residents were far less enthused, however, with one accusing the city council of “completely destroying Seattle” and governing only for “a select few who are the loudest.” Other netizens also voiced anger and disappointment with city lawmakers, even urging residents to flee the city.
“As a Seattle native (who will be leaving as soon as my responsibilities here are done) this was unsurprising and is merely the latest data point in the arc of leftist idiocy that we've been seeing here for the past 40-odd years,”wrote another local.
Seattle City Council voted to override the Mayor's veto of their dangerous defund police bill. This Council will *always* side with socialists and criminal activists. They are the enemy of sane constituents because they don't respect us. https://t.co/0WOpkVsQHs
Looks as though Seattle is doing to learn the hard way as has Chicago as to what happens when you defund the police! Then they'll try to blame the spike in the crime rate on the police when it can be laid at the City Councils door.
Poor Seattle!!
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