“I think it would be unfortunate and perhaps even tragic for an elected official to encourage people to confront and engage in confrontations with the police department.”
Indeed, the soldiers of social justice have seemingly over-consumed the spiked Kool-Aid in Seattle, Washington. On April 24, 2017, Seattle City Council unanimously voted in a “Resolution” to allow all city employees a day off in observance of “religious and conscientious leave” for workers to participate in May Day scheduled for May 01, 2017.
The Resolution was initiated by Seattle City Councilwoman Kshama Sawant, a noted activist and anti-Trump enthusiast, and was met with zero dissension from the entire contingent of Seattle’s city council.
The Particulars
Since she introduced the legislative act, it is safe to assume Ms. Sawant penned the text and checked off the appropriate boxes with an “X” or a “Yes” or “No.” Scrutinizing the questions on their own city affidavit (Resolution form), some glaring things remain.
One, Ms. Sawant must be a psychic savant with enough vision to place an “X” before the Resolution’s statement: “This legislation does not have direct financial implications.” Whether “direct” or indirect, financial implications are always present when running a metropolis, especially when the event is to oppose certain governance and the US presidency.
Certainly, not all parties will arrive dripping with disdain. However, one need only look back at May Day in years past; last year, a Seattle cop was ablaze from a Molotov cocktail thrown at police assigned to ensure order of the “peaceful demonstration.” It took a full year, five law enforcement agencies, and the efforts of both the King County and US attorney’s office to investigate and apprehend the suspect. He was found in another state. That engenders “financial implications” beyond imagination, in the realm of tax dollars. How she deemed otherwise is beyond my comprehension.
Two, with regard to potential costs in the grand scheme of things, how did a prediction of “No” get placed next to the question “Does the legislation have indirect or long-term financial impacts to the City of Seattle that are not reflected in the above?”
The aforementioned retort applies here as well. It took one entire year among several government entities—primarily the Seattle PD—to finance the investigation leading to the arrest of the perpetrator. Moreover, it will increase the costs to prosecute the suspect whose arrest/identity announced on April 28 will require more effort/expense.
Since when does an outdoor city event not include specially-arranged police presence at an event categorized as a protest, on public streets? How is that in any way a freebie and no drain on the budget?
Three, calling it a “Day of Resistance” in a publicly-attended recorded council session, Sawant declared “It’s clear when we organize, mobilize and fight, and when we strike together we can win.” The words mobilize, strike and fight, when assembled together, in no way reflect anything other than inflammatory tone motivating treason. How does anyone equate the context of Sawant’s words “Day of Resistance” and the Resolution’s language of “day of faith and conscience” as one and the same?
Spoilers
With literal regard to declaring “May Day” an official day for all Seattle employees to have unpaid “religious and conscientious leave,” does that not discriminate against the city’s essential services such as police, fire, and public works? What about the Sanitation Department and its staff to clean up the mess left by revelers (protestors). This circles back to questions above in which City Council acknowledged that there would be “No” costs to the city budget.
Seattle’s own Relevant Personnel Rules (in section 7.3.5 Unpaid Religious Days) cites:
“B. An employee may take the unpaid religious days at any time with supervisory approval. The employee’s supervisor or other management representative may deny the use of an unpaid religious day if the employee is necessary to maintain public safety, or if the employee’s absence creates an undue hardship as defined by the Washington State Office of Financial Management.” [emphasis added]
As a former policeman, I raised my hand knowing the concept behind the clause “essential employees” and reported for duty when most others were home safe and sound. Seattle cops will do the same on May Day. My contention is that this factor contradicts Ms. Sawant placing an “X” in the Resolution box stating “This legislation does not have direct financial implications.” Some may label it semantics, others may call it a cost to taxpayers which is an inherently “direct financial implication.”
City Council’s crystal ball and its predictive abilities mimics a snow-globe turned upside-down: clouded and needing settlement.
Inciting a Riot
Civil disobedience. Disorderly conduct. Civil unrest. Call it what you wish, but nowhere in our great nation is it okay to condone and set in motion elements which could conceivably materialize in a riot under the guise of “social justice.” And, Councilwoman Sawant’s “Resolution” (misnomer) is the equivalent of pushing a boulder off a cliff and denying any danger exists. It also amounts to indictment.
“If we truly want to build a summer of resistance against Trump and the billionaire class, we will need disruptive actions like shutting down airports, like shutting down highways,” said Councilwoman Sawant in a King 5 news report.
The statute spelling-out the components of inciting a riot is as follows:
“Whoever travels in interstate or foreign commerce or uses any facility of interstate or foreign commerce, including, but not limited to, the mail, telegraph, telephone, radio, or television, with intent— (1) to incite a riot; or (2) to organize, promote, encourage, participate in, or carry on a riot; or (3) to commit any act of violence in furtherance of a riot; or (4) to aid or abet any person in inciting or participating in or carrying on a riot or committing any act of violence in furtherance of a riot.”
Do you see what I see? Assessing the variables that we already know via first-hand testimony from Councilwoman Kshama Sawant and Settle Mayor Ed Murray, coupled with United States Code, the City of Seattle is in the crosshairs of destruction, seemingly inviting folks from far and wide to an unruly demonstration, at the behest of its own elected officials.
Falling nothing short of arrogant, self-serving, reckless, and abusive of conferred power, the entire body of the Seattle City Council soils their sworn oath and sullies the city seal. There is significant irony in calling their May Day demonstration “conscientious leave” while promoting volatile actions void of conscience.
For his city, Seattle Mayor Ed Murray told KING5,
“Civil disobedience has a long history in our country and in this city. We need to keep our freeways and our on and off ramps … the state, of course, needs to keep our on and off ramps open…”
Ahh, yes, involve the state in the damage control plan. I am certain state tax payers are appreciative of inclusion. I believe that cost would also engender “financial implications” which Ms. Sawant swore away in her legislative affidavit.
Usual Suspects, Usual Tab
With this Resolution, the Seattle City Council forfeits all quality assurance and control. The usual anti-Trump suspects will arrive and bastardize the city while squashing Seattle’s equilibrium…and the usual responsible parties—the taxpayers—will foot the bill. Just like electing political figures who somehow slip through the cracks and cause decay while in office, the tally is avoidable and ultimately the responsibility of the citizenry.
When choices are made, and those choices turn out to have nefarious notions, there often exists the choice to undo what has been done. The legitimacy of the election process we all patronize has a formidable two-way direction: in office, out of office. And, depending on the outcome of May Day’s dubious “demonstrations” which Councilwoman Sawant legislated, impeachment is also on the tool table.
Councilwoman Sawant’s “Resolution” is more naked than a nudist colony. Void of constructive substance, it somehow mustered unanimous approval by City Council. When it backfires, Seattleites will project nothing but angst.
Ripples of Raucous Behavior
When the May Day ripples of raucous behavior roll in, who stems the tide? Seattle police officers, deemed “essential employees,” will be where they always are: the frontlines. Governmentally-speaking, for a law enforcement agency shadowed by a federal police reform “consent decree” imposed by the Justice Department (Obama years) and a police monitor, it would seem counterintuitive to expose your city to anarchistic sorts who will undoubtedly taunt cops and bring undue chaos. I am neither suggesting having lack of faith in the Seattle PD nor am I hinting at tucking tail. I am emphasizing reflections of history and judicious use of wisdom.
To cater to May Day shenanigans is tantamount to weaponizing and supplying ammunition to the dark side, then expecting Herculean, utopian resolve from your police force. From approving the Resolution through the clean-up phase, overall…it is self-defeating behavior.
At the outset, Seattle will unsettle with litigation brought about by wittingly inviting carnage while jeopardizing rights of law-abiding citizens to freely and safely use the city. As I finalized this article, Seattle police Chief Kathleen O’Toole, Seattle FBI Special-Agent Jay S. Tab, Jr., and Todd Greenberg from the US Attorney’s Office gave a press conference during which they announced the arrest of Wil Casey Floyd, 32, for launching a Molotov cocktail at police during last year’s May Day spectacle. Floyd, a “Black Bloc” protester, was charged federally (given the speculative climate in Seattle) and faces a maximum ten-year prison stint and a fine up to $250,000.
Councilwoman Sawant opines “against Trump and the billionaire class” and goes so far as to say “we will need disruptive actions like shutting down airports, like shutting down highways,” effectively perpetuating a May Day debacle.
Oddly, Mayor Murray noted he’d not seen Sawant’s comments, yet offered, “I think it would be unfortunate and perhaps even tragic for an elected official to encourage people to confront and engage in confrontations with the police department.” Perhaps more unfortunate is a mayor who does not intercede and tacitly condones a rumbling powder keg. Yet, Ms. Sawant thanked the mayor for “concurring” with her Resolution. Someone is askew in their testimony.
Despite whose authority supersedes the other, all have a civic duty to act under color of law and in the peoples’ interests. By “people,” I am not referring to Black Bloc thugs.
Sure, bring on the May Day mayhem…sounds like a marvelous idea, especially if you’re a subversive type or attested anarchist. Perhaps Councilwoman Sawant can be the front-person leading Seattle’s contingent of riot police.
