The Seattle Police Department (SPD) said they would lay off more than 50-percent of their Black, Indigenous and other non-white officers in response to the Seattle City Council’s proposed budget cuts.
Those substantial cuts, which seem likely to pass at present, are themselves in response to “Defund the Police” activism and organizing that quickly became a nationally recognizable aspect of the Black Lives Matter movement following the Minneapolis Police Department’s killing of
George Floyd in late May.
Decriminalize Seattle and King County Equity Now spearheaded the effort, premised on a four-point plan that would: (1) disassociate 911 dispatchers from the SPD; (2) increase civil society-based solutions to public safety; (3) fund community-led initiatives to “imagine life beyond policing”; and (4) drastically ramp up investments in affordable housing.
Decriminalize Seattle’s
Jackie Vaughn described “the pathway to defunding the Seattle Police Department and building a world where we trust and believe in community to provide the safety that we need”
during a virtual press conference on Thursday.
After that event wrapped up, the coalition had amassed pledges from a super-majority of Seattle City Council members in support of a 50-percent police department budget cut. The SPD quickly sprang into damage control mode after those commitments were made.
“While no decisions have been made yet, we wanted the community to be aware of the situation,” the SPD said
via their official Twitter account on Friday. “Laying off 50% of the department would be catastrophic for public safety in the city of Seattle.”
“The Department has made a conscious effort to hire employees, both sworn and civilian, who represent the diversity and values within our community,”
the thread continued. “Cuts this deep mean we would lose more than 50% of our (BIPOC) officers. These officers’ life experiences make us a better department and community.”
Critics quickly took issue with the SPD’s threat based on the law enforcement organization’s own in-house statistics which state that more than 50-percent of sworn SPD officers are white.