Rantz: Seattle CM who defunded police complains of slow investigation, wants VIP treatment

After defunding the Seattle Police Department, with promises of more cuts to come, Socialist Seattle City Councilmember Kshama Sawant is criticizing a detective for not offering her VIP treatment in an investigation into email threats she received.

Sawant wants extra attention and resources to resolve the issue. But that isn’t possible. The SPD’s staffing is exceptionally low thanks to Sawant’s successful crusade to chase police officers out of town and cut their budget.

It’s an odd demand, not just because Sawant routinely attacks the police, but because she didn’t bother to do even a modicum of research into the basics of police work. Honestly, watching a single episode of Law & Order could clear up most of her ignorance.

Sawant wants VIP treatment

Last December, Sawant received a series of threatening and rude emails from what appears to be a spoofed email account. The threats are serious and disturbing.

But Sawant did not report the emails to the police as she’s supposed to. In fact, Sawant’s office has chosen not to put protocols in place to handle potential threats like this. Her hatred of police runs that deep.

Instead, Sawant released a press release in the form of an open letter to the Mayor, Police Chief, and other local officials. The SPD confirmed to the Jason Rantz Show on KTTH, and separately to MyNorthwest, that Sawant did not report the threats to them directly. The SPD only learned about them when Sawant engaged in her Twitter press strategy to play victim to police disinterest when she claimed they weren’t taking the threats seriously.

A detective started reviewing the case when the SPD learned of the threats. But Sawant wasn’t pleased. In two weeks, they hadn’t made an arrest!

Understaffed and with fewer resources than in years past, the detective is moving forward. But Sawant is upset she’s not getting better treatment. She wanted the investigation to be wrapped up immediately.

That’s not how this works.

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Sawant doesn’t understand policing even a little bit

In a Twitter tirade, coinciding with another press release to garner sympathetic media coverage, Sawant again played victim.

The SPD wasn’t taking the threats seriously, she pretended. The detective was, instead, wasting time on useless questions and wasn’t immediately talking to who she believes is the key suspect.

As much as one could understand why any SPD detective might drag their feet working on a Sawant-related case, it was a figment of Sawant’s imagination. To think socialism would work when it’s always failed, you do have to have an overactive imagination. Much to the chagrin of Sawant, looking for literally anything she can find to attack officers, the detective is doing the job according to procedure.

Sawant just doesn’t have a clue how policing works.

Sawant was irked that the detective spent time asking her questions about how the threatening emails made her “feel” and about who opened the emails. She “failed to understand the purpose” of the questions, calling them “irrelevant.”

Allow me to explain: Police need to establish Sawant had a reasonable fear that she was being threatened. It’s that simple. If she opened the emails and laughed, they wouldn’t really be able to make a case. If she didn’t open them at all and someone told her about them, it also changes the dynamic some — like when she learned about them, and what actions she took before reporting them. I know this because radical leftists have a tendency to threaten me, and I have to report it to the police.

Questions they asked me:

when I had read each email, how i5 made me “feel,” if it was myself or my staff who first opened each email.

I failed to understand the purpose of most of the detective’s questions, but sought to give answers nonetheless.https://t.co/O9O7IZyXO9

— Kshama Sawant (@cmkshama) February 3, 2021

Sawant wants frequent updates, but SPD can’t talk to anyone else

Sawant wants the SPD to give her frequent updates. But only to her office.

The councilmember complained that she only received a “short update” in the two weeks after the detective started to work on her case. And it was only to tell her that the “investigation is progressing.” If Sawant spent less time defunding and attacking policing, and more time understanding their job, she’d know this is standard.

Detectives don’t give victims endless updates for a few reasons. For starters, they don’t want to get a victim’s hopes up. They follow leads, but there’s no guarantees they go anywhere.

But more importantly, they don’t want to compromise an investigation. Giving a victim information could get in the way — especially when the victim has a tendency to turn everything into a Twitter crusade for political gain. What if they contact a person of interest? Or perhaps get their army of dues-paying, cult-like followers to be their own detective agency? It could interfere.

She was also upset that the SPD “found the time” to talk to “right-wing media, including the local Jason Rantz Show” about her case.

I can’t quite tell if she thinks the communications department of the SPD — tasked with talking to the media — means resources were taken away from the investigation into her case. She realizes the detectives working on cases aren’t the ones answering media inquiries, right? Actually, I’m not sure she realizes that.

The SPD has, however, apparently found the time to talk about the case of death threats against me to the right-wing media, including the local Jason Rantz Show, who falsely decries that I “never actually contacted” the Seattle Police about the threats.https://t.co/gzRbP0SyMo

— Kshama Sawant (@cmkshama) February 3, 2021

Sawant created the problem

To be clear, most of this is political theater. Previous reporting shows she was aware of the timeline and process and is only now pretending to be caught off guard.

But the issue itself is real: The SPD is understaffed. And I do think she wants special attention, even if she doesn’t realize the irony.

Looking into potentially spoofed emails isn’t easy and it takes time. And the SPD does not have the staff to dedicate one detective exclusively to Sawant. The department is woefully understaffed because of Sawant. Even fully staffed, the councilmember isn’t going to get the VIP treatment she’s demanding. Most crime victims have to wait weeks, if not months, for any kind of resolution.

If Sawant wants better service, she should stop trying to defund the police by 50%. Yet, do you think personally experiencing the impact her policies are having on the department and victims will change her policies? Not even remotely. If anything, she will double down.

So why complain publicly about a situation she created when she won’t change it? Sawant is feigning outrage. She is using it to foment more hatred toward the cops. That’ll make it easier to cut their budget even more this year. Her strategy, like her policies, is odious.

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