Rantz: ‘Ashamed’ of department, Seattle cop explains why it’s time to quit

As protests continue and Seattle leaders turn their backs on the Seattle Police Department, some cops are deciding to call it quits.

Seattle police officers email, text, and tweet at me about how they no longer want to work for a city that despises them so much.

Two years ago, cops felt dismayed and attacked by a city that didn’t value them. They were called racist murderers by Socialist Seattle Councilmember Kshama Sawant and felt the council were too quick to demonize them. There was a “mass exodus” of cops at the time.

Please consider a donation to the Seattle Police Foundation to help purchase ‘mourning badges’ for officers, after the city change their policy.

Now, you have Councilmember Teresa Mosqueda listening to a man demanding cops kill themselves, and rather than condemn the threats, she justifies them. Councilmember Debora Juarez says it’s not just “a few bad apples” in the police department. She said the whole tree is rotten.

Fearing she’ll be impeached, Mayor Jenny Durkan pushed cops under the bus and sacrificed them — and their East Precinct — to placate a group of protesters that will never vote for her and a council she will never control.

Seattle police quit in record numbers in 2018. What do you think they’ll do now?

Rantz: Seattle councilmember defends ‘kill yourselves’ threat to cops at protest 

One cop says he quits. More will follow

A Seattle Police officer wrote me to say, “I’m so ashamed of my department that I loved so much.” And the officer asked if I could share some thoughts. With one redaction, made to protect the officer’s identity, here it is:

I’ve been punched, spit on, hit with rocks, a few glass bottles, and blown up twice in the last 10 days (IED thrown at me by rioters that tore the leather on my Danner boots).

I’ve also hit and/or sprayed more people in that time than in the previous [several years] of my career. The damage done to community trust will take a decade to un-[expletive] (technical term).

I love the city that I was born in, but I’m done. I was used as cannon fodder, then blamed for inciting the violence. I’ve visited fellow officers in the hospital and we have 45 out on injuries, but the narrative is the crowds were non-violent and cops are the problem.

I was there. Every day but one. On the front. That’s not how it was.

It’ll take a few months, but I’m leaving SPD and I’m completely devastated by that. We’ve done more in this city to reform than anywhere else in the country and done it without complaint. We are, or at least were, one of the most reformed, professional departments in the history of this country but I’m done.

I love you guys and I feel like I’m abandoning residents like you and a piece of myself but I’m out. I have no idea what this will mean for the city. Please lock your doors and stay vigilant.

Every city gets the police department it deserves.

Losing a good Seattle police officer. Does Antifa win?

This is a good cop who cares deeply about his community. He won’t be the only one who quits.

And I can’t say I blame this Seattle police officer for wanting to leave. In fact, it would be selfish to ask this cop to stay. We don’t deserve this cop. We don’t deserve any of them, not the way this city treats them.

This news will, of course, be celebrated by the very Antifa groups the city and activists pretend don’t exist (even if they did, they’re not organized anyway, am I right?). This is their literal plan: to wear officer’s down until they quit.

Antifa doesn’t hide who they are or the hate they stand for. pic.twitter.com/Eykzk5gDJI

— (((Jason Rantz))) on KTTH Radio (@jasonrantz) June 10, 2020

But as the officer above says, “every city gets the police department it deserves.” Maybe Seattle doesn’t deserve one at all.

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