Seattle Councilperson Suggests Police Should Fire White Cops
On a recent Zoom based Seattle city council meeting, councilperson Lisa Herbold rambled on about who to fire in the police department if she gets her wish to cut the funding in half. Herbold made it a point that all police officers of color should be retained, and whitey should get the axe.
Jason Rantz reports for MyNorthwest.com:
Seattle City Councilmember Lisa Herbold, a supporter of the radical defund movement, suggests the Seattle Police Department fire officers for being white. This wouldn’t just be racist, it would be illegal.
The Seattle City Council is on a mission to cut the police budget by 50% — a completely random number they’ve jumped on. Their end goal is to abolish the police. Of course, this would have deadly consequences that this council is blind to. Indeed, when council members call the police, they get immediate attention.
The move would also undoubtedly result in a less diverse workforce. But Herbold seems willing to rid the police department of their white officers. The reason? They’re white.
Herbold starts off her argument with a disingenuous implication that layoffs might not occur. During a council meeting, she claimed this was a “worst case scenario” but she knows this is false. Herbold is attempting to frame her radical agenda as not that big of a deal.
But then, Herbold says a way to get around laying off “BIPOC” (black, indigenous, and people of color) officers is to request permission to lay off the more veteran officers (who are white), thus allowing the SPD to spare officers of color.
Jason Rantz snagged the video of Herbold saying this and posted it on his Twitter feed:
Seattle City Councilmember Lisa Herbold, a supporter of the radical defund movement, suggests the Seattle Police Department fire officers for being white. This wouldn’t just be racist, it would be illegal.
Read: https://t.co/bqpEJrjmrC pic.twitter.com/hxxjS3zXWQ
— (((Jason Rantz))) on KTTH Radio (@jasonrantz) July 19, 2020
Delusional communist Herbold further elaborated:
This means Chief doesn’t have to fire the newest hired first. Chief says firing BIPOC members of the SPD would be harmful & I agree. I know she can argue just as convincingly that maintaining the employment of BIPOC officers is in the interest of efficient operations of the SPD.
— Lisa Herbold (@Lisa_Herbold) July 13, 2020
Police chief Carmen Best responded to Herbold’s delusions via KIRO news:
As the Seattle Police Department looks at the Seattle City Council’s demands to cut the department’s budget by 50%, police Chief Carmen Best fired back at a suggestion from Councilmember Lisa Herbold to lay off officers out of order of seniority as a way to preserve the jobs of people of color.
“We cannot do layoffs based on race,” Best said. “I would love for Councilmember Herbold to work with us and not against us, making sure we have a viable number of officers.”
Currently, a majority of the City Council supports defunding the Seattle Police Department’s budget by 50% in an effort to move some tasks away from the department and to fund community-led organizations.
“Now is the time to divest from the police department,” Council President Lorena Gonzalez said of the effort last week. “Now is the time to zero out these budgets and to reimagine, rebuild, build something from a community-led and community-driven perspective that will actually build community safety for the people who have been harmed the most by over-policing and criminalization.”
On Wednesday, SPD released a detailed diversity breakdown of current officers and recruits to show the impact of that proposed cut. According to the policy, they would lay off the most recent hires first.
SPD said that would mean laying off 46 Asian officers, 47 Black or African American officers, 56 Hispanic or Latino officers and 59 biracial or multiracial officers, among others, as well as 526 white officers.
“It is illegal to make layoffs based on race,” Best said. “I’m not sure where she’s getting her legal advice from, but the persons who are advising us are making sure we understand it’s illegal to do that.”
Video report via KIRO:
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