Rantz: Kshama Sawant says Seattle cops target black people to ‘shoot and kill’

While the police community and it’s supporters honor law enforcement during National Police Week, they’re also pushing back at the latest vile, anti-police rhetoric coming from a notorious cop-hating Seattle city council member.

In an statement to KUOW reporter Amy Radil, Councilmember Kshama Sawant claimed that black residents are “targeted” in deadly shootings. The comment comes as the radio station reviewed what cops said when they quit the force; it’s a topic I’ve covered in great detail over the last year.

“African-American community members are overwhelmingly disproportionately targeted in fatal police shootings, arrests, and mass incarceration,” Sawant said. “Seattle police shoot and kill more people each year than the police forces of many countries. The city’s political establishment unfortunately approved a police contract last year that rolls back the hard-won accountability measures, with only my dissenting vote. We need a democratically-elected community oversight board in Seattle, with full powers to hold police accountable, including setting department policy and procedure.”

RELATED: Seattle leaders mad when repeat assaulter put in jail
RELATED: Sawant ditches democracy vouchers for outside money

Sawant’s language is intentional. She’s actually claiming SPD officers target black people to murder. It’s offensive, baseless, and absurd, especially to Seattle Officer Kevin Stuckey. He is the president of the Seattle Police Officer’s Guild (SPOG) — Seattle’s police union. He’s also African American.

“I’m a member of this community, I am a police officer, and I happen to be an African-American police officer,” Officer Stuckey told the Jason Rantz Show on KTTH. “And I was absolutely disgusted by her comments.”

Stuckey and many others with SPOG have worked hard to defend officers against Sawant’s vomitous and frequent attacks. Last year, she claimed cops committed a racist, “brutal murder” when they shot and killed a rapist who pulled a gun on them. They were cleared of any wrongdoing.

Sawant’s noxious attitude may make her popular with the Socialist Alternative crowd of the moonbat anti-intellectuals she exploits for personal gain, but she also makes it harder for the SPD to recruit and retain officers at a time they’re seeing “historically large” numbers of cops quit. Though, perhaps that’s her point.

“She’s not just anti-cop,” Stuckey says. “What she is, is anti-community because she’s the one who is pushing these young officers away, who are going to work someplace else, and that doesn’t make our community safer. So she’s actually anti-community, but she’s down there … in her really nice house, so [she doesn’t] have to worry about those things.”

Last year, the SPD saw 110 separations. This year, the numbers continue to dwindle, alarming SPD Command Staff and the mayor’s office. Recently, the department has put resources into recruitment efforts that have not yet been particularly fruitful, while the mayor pushed forward a plan to offer big bonuses to laterals and new recruits.

“You know, every time the city does something, they try to fix our retention and recruitment issue, [Sawant] opens her mouth and says something like that and sets it back,” Stuckey complained. “If I’m a young kid looking to get into police work, would I want to come work for city when you have a city councilperson, an elected person, saying these kinds of things about the police force? The ones who have to go up there every day and do it when the most dangerous jobs in this country and do it under this level of scrutiny which we have done.”

Police anger doesn’t stop with Sawant. As she spews her venom, her council colleagues are silent, which usually earns the ire of officers wondering why others on the council don’t speak up to condemn the remarks or, at least, offer up some support.

Requests made to each council member for their reaction, via council communications director Dana Robinson Slote, were ignored.

Listen to the Jason Rantz Show weekday afternoons from 3-6 p.m. on KTTH 770 AM (or HD Radio 97.3 FM HD-Channel 3). Subscribe to the podcast here.

Follow @https://twitter.com/jasonrantz