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The increase in crime in Seattle will only get worse if the city’s leaders continue to hamper its police force, Seattle Police Officers Guild chairman Mike Solan told Fox News on Wednesday.
“This is clearly the result of the city council leading its activism through its governance, listening to the noisy socialist crowd calling for more reforms, removing the budgeted money from public security, which is unfortunate for me because whatever your politics, we know Seattle is very progressive, ”Solan told Overnumbered Overtime.
SEATTLE WANTS TO REDUCE POLICE BUDGET BY 20%, THE SECOND MOST IN THE NATION BUT WITH LESS DEFUND REQUESTS
Seattle City Council voted Monday to cut the police department’s budget by about 18% – a far cry from the 50% cut activists had called for – and reallocate “millions” of dollars to “fund community alternatives” .
Members voted to cut funds for SPD training and overtime, reassign some roles – including 911 dispatchers, parking enforcement officers and mental health officers – to other agencies in the city and eliminate job vacancies, according to officials and the local KING 5 news station. MyNorthwest .com previously described it as one of the biggest budget cuts to any major city police department this year.
The council approved the hiring of 100 new police recruits in 2021, which Mayor Jenny Durkan and other officials deemed necessary.
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According to the Seattle Times, the city’s police budget will drop by more than $ 30 million after growing steadily for years.
“The march towards socialism is a very serious situation,” said Solan, who predicted that such actions “would spread throughout the country”.
“It is the public safety of everyone that is at stake”, he added before warning that if the council continues to “show disdain vis-à-vis the police and to take money away from us, people’s public safety will continue to decline. “
Fox News’s Stephanie Pagones contributed to this report.
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