Rantz: Shocking silence on SPD shooting from Seattle ‘leaders’

I have a question, though I’m scared to learn the answer: Why was there so much silence coming from Seattle city leaders after the shooting in downtown Seattle this past Thursday? The silence is shocking and deafening.

I reached out to some random council members’ offices on Friday afternoon, and checked their Twitter and Facebook accounts just to make sure I didn’t miss anything.

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Councilmember Lisa Herbold? She was silent on the shooting, choosing not to release a statement (or even a tweet or Facebook message, though she does seem concerned with trees that were cut down). Herbold is not always silent on police matters. She seems eager to talk about police from the perspective of needing course correction and reform.

What about Councilmember Mike O’Brien? He’s awfully active on his blog presenting police in a negative light. He didn’t release a statement. I’m told by his office that he’s out of town.

Surely Councilmember Sally Bagshaw wrote a statement? Oh. Nope. Nothing.

According to political consultant Keith Schipper, at Thursday night’s mayoral candidate forum, there was no mention of the shooting. Let that sink in: at a forum hours after the shooting, they didn’t mention the injured officers.

This is bizarre to me. I hear a hell of a lot of criticism coming from the council. When they talk about the police, it’s through a hypercritical perspective. How do they hold the police accountable for whatever-it-is the council says they did? How do they issue civilian oversight?

Now, it wasn’t total silence. Kudos to Councilmember Lorena Gonzales. She at least sent out a tweet offering her thoughts to the injured officers. Councilmember Tim Burgess tweeted “Good job SPD.” I’ll take it, I suppose. Mayor Ed Murray? He was a leader the night of the shooting and showed us he cared about what happened to the cops. But these are the exceptions.

If you pay attention, the trend is clear: when talking about cops, the council and other Seattle city leaders tend to be negative. It would have been nice to have seen some compassion toward the cops injured during the shooting. It would have been nice to wish them well, to offer them thanks for running towards danger while we run from it. It would have even been a nice gesture to — at the very least — put out some lazy form of a press release with some quote that an intern could come up with. Because at least it would offer the impression you care.

So just a message from me to the injured officers: I’m sorry we have a selfish city council who couldn’t even muster up the energy to send out a tweet in support of the work you did. To all the cops out there, regardless of what community you serve, thanks for the work you do.

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