Rantz: After mass shooting, Seattle voters share the blame

After yet another mass shooting in Seattle, don’t assume Mayor Bruce Harrell will show an ounce of leadership. He continues to lean on lazy reactions blaming “gun violence,” rather than addressing the actual crisis Democrats created. And residents don’t seem to mind the lack of leadership.

An early morning shooting left three dead and six injured in south Seattle on Sunday. The Seattle Police Department (SPD) did not offer details on what led to the shooting. The Jason Rantz Show on KTTH hears it was gang-related and resulted from an altercation, but it has not been confirmed. The city has now experienced 47 homicides, assuming all three are classified as such. We’re on pace for a record high, surpassing the previous record in 2020.

Despite this being the second mass shooting in the last thirty days, Harrell has nothing new to say. He had his spokesperson fill out his “Blame Guns” Mad Libs statement to release on X (formerly known as Twitter). Per usual, he won’t accept any blame, acknowledge the crime crisis, and then move forward with reforms.

I’m out here at the shooting at Rainier & Walker. I’m getting told this is a triple homicide that occurred at the hookah lounge at this corner. Bad day for Seattle. #seattlehomicide #seattleshooting pic.twitter.com/7ANwoYuvwa

— Seattle Homicide (@HomicideSeattle) August 20, 2023

More lazy arguments blaming guns after Seattle mass shooting

Seattle, and greater Western Washington, has been experiencing a crime crisis since the city council defunded police in 2020. Making matters worse, the SPD still faces a mass exodus of officers, losing nearly 600 since the defunding effort. Harrell doesn’t seem to mind. He chooses not to address either issue because they’re too difficult. Instead, he goes with the default Democrat line: guns are to blame!

“No place in this country is free from the awful epidemic of gun violence, which once again reverberates here in Seattle,” Harrell released in a statement. He doesn’t explain, of course, who is responsible for pulling the trigger. He never calls out the criminal, almost certainly the beneficiary of the Democrat’s soft-on-crime policies and laws.

Seattle criminals rarely face serious repercussions for their crimes, particularly when they’re youth, no matter how dangerous. At worst, they get light prison sentences where faux concerns over “equity” mean they’ll be released before they settle into their cells. The rest get pushed into restorative justice programs that don’t work and have little oversight; what’s not so little is their growing budgets, despite few results. Criminals know they can get away with almost anything, so that’s how they act. We’re dealing with brazen crimes that no Democrat in charge will tackle head-on.

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Here’s a simple plan to tackling Seattle’s crime crisis

Seattle doesn’t need innovative plans to tackle the crime crisis. City leaders just need to do what they used to: take crime seriously, regardless of the race or gender of the suspect.

We must deal with violent criminals aggressively, regardless of their age. If Democrats believe in restorative justice programs, provide them in jail so that they’re not revictimizing communities. Caught stealing a Butterfinger from a 7-Eleven? Restorative justice. Have a gun on you at the time? Jail. The safety of the community isn’t worth giving that criminal a second (or third, fourth, or fifth) chance to get on the right track.

If it’s a judge or prosecutor that goes easy on a criminal, call them out by name. Put pressure on anyone who puts ideology above community safety. If they’re disinterested in putting dangerous people in jail, they should go work for the King County Public Defenders, who do little to seek rehabilitation for their clients; too many of them are abolitionists who believe the criminal justice system is an example of white supremacy culture. These extremists shouldn’t have like-minded allies on the bench or in the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office.

The SPD should be given a long-overdue contract. They should be paid the highest in the state since they deal with the most danger. And the city should actually work to recruit the right kind of cops instead of working to socially engineer a force so that it has fewer white people and military veterans. You’d think local media would take an interest in my exclusive reporting that shows how the mayor’s office is working to recruit fewer white men and veterans. Instead, journalists DM or text me to say they’re disgusted, while their outlets do nothing to shine a spotlight on the issue, ensuring that Harrell’s office will continue its shameful, racist, and failing recruitment strategy. Maybe another media outlet will notice the mayor’s recruitment and retention plan hasn’t even begun, with roughly 70% of his plan either abandoned or yet to be started.

Crime is all around us

If it’s not gun violence, it’s out-of-control drug use and homelessness.

Public drug use is rampant, but the mayor’s office has yet to write its drug policy for the council to vote on. If only the far-left council didn’t kill a simple ordinance criminalizing drugs that were offered by its only two moderates, Sara Nelson and Alex Pederson. Suddenly aligned with council member Andrew Lewis, who killed the original ordinance, Harrell wants the council to pass a drug policy that doesn’t yet exist, giving his office more control over the direction the SPD takes on drug policy. His direction is fewer arrests and prosecutions, of course.

A homeless encampment just caught fire for the 9th time at the Mercer I-5 south on-ramp. It’s been the site of a murder and an alleged rape, but the mayor refuses to declare the site an emergency, which would give him the power to sweep it. Council member Lewis indicated the only thing that will get it swept is a “credible 911 report of an incendiary device, [or] of a bomb in the encampment.” It’s just like Seattle to wait for another encampment to catch fire due to an incendiary device.

A big reason why Seattle continues to struggle? Ignorant ideologues like this who seem content as we reach another historic number of fatal ODs because they don’t want to admit their policies are to blame. Surge of violent crimes and car theft? Ignore it because… progressive! pic.twitter.com/sboaB39ej4

— Jason Rantz on KTTH Radio (@jasonrantz) August 16, 2023

Rantz: As crime crisis worsens, Democrats refuse to accept responsibility

We get the city (and leaders) we deserve

This is the city we deserve because voters have, over and over again, signaled they’re okay with it. They vote for the same far-left activists who put their ideology over our welfare. And when you think Seattleites are ready for a change, they disappoint and re-elect more extremists. Others pretend there’s no crisis, to begin with; all is well, and it’s conservatives who are lying about the crises. Didn’t you hear? Ben Bridge moved its headquarters a few blocks and now operates in downtown Seattle. That means Seattle is thriving. Take that, Fox News!

San Francisco is imploding in real-time thanks to a council, mayor, and voters who pushed through and supported extremist policies. And while some have changed their tune and are trying to walk back to their previous positions. Washington, D.C., after adopting rabidly pro-criminal policies and postures, is now doing an about-face and trying to aggressively tackle the crime crisis it created. Both cities may be too far gone to truly recover.

Seattle is not far behind.

Will voters change directions? Don’t hold your breath

Voters could actually do something to save the city they claim to love. We have an election coming up, and we could boot every incumbent to the curb. But those of us who actually acknowledge the crisis — and the policy decisions to blame — shouldn’t hold our collective breath. Will anything change? Not if this election unfolds like the last few.

I wrote a book called What’s Killing America: Inside the Radical Left’s Tragic Destruction of Our Cities for Center Street Publishing. I’ve studied the reasons behind why so many Democrat-run cities are experiencing the same handful of existential crises. They have a lot in common: far-left policies pushed through by the Radical Left.

The writing is on the wall, and only Seattle can save itself. Otherwise, we’ll continue to fail, people will continue to die, and we’ll live in the city we deserve.

Listen to The Jason Rantz Show on weekday afternoons from 3:00 p.m.–7:00 p.m. on KTTH 770 AM (HD Radio 97.3 FM HD-Channel 3). He is the author of the book “What’s Killing America: Inside the Radical Left’s Tragic Destruction of Our Cities.” Subscribe to the podcast. Follow @JasonRantz on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. Check back frequently for more news and analysis.

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