Seattle helps criminals with warrants better than law abiding citizens

While law abiding citizens desperately try to get the city and county to address the ongoing homeless problem which threatens their safety and well-being, the Seattle Municipal Court held an outreach event to help attendees deal with their over 9,400 outstanding warrants.

Outside the King County courthouse in downtown Seattle, jurors, staffers, and judges have dealt with an increase in violence thanks to an out-of-control homelessness problem. Even the former sheriff found himself face-to face with a knife-wielding man. This problem hasn’t gotten any better and the county shows no willingness to address the problem in a meaningful way. The best we have is a Seattle City Councilmember hoping ping pong tables will do the trick. No, it’s not parody; an idea so silly it transcends parody.

Instead of focusing on our safety concerns, the City of Seattle is helping criminals with outstanding warrants. Why? Because law abiding, tax paying citizens will always get the shaft.

Seattle Municipal Court held an August 9th event in Lake City to help criminals deal with their outstanding warrants. There were no arrests intended. The city wanted the environment to be a “non-threatening location” so criminals with outstanding warrants could understand their rights and options.

The intent wasn’t to make Seattle a safer place and to ensure criminals see justice. It was to make it easier for these folks “to get a job, secure housing and generally move forward in life.”

Indeed, life is hard when you have an outstanding warrant, which should serve as a disincentive to commit a crime and an even bigger disincentive from not showing up to your court date. Social justice activists will, of course, act as heroes and defend the criminals with a host of excuses: institutionalized racism and sexism, white privilege, a war on the poor, criminalizing homelessness, etc. Not once, however, will they take the position that maybe criminals should actually, you know, be held accountable for their actions. Then, these activists wouldn’t be able to perceive themselves as heroes.

And the city does this under the guise of saving taxpayers. The press release says “Resolving warrants saves taxpayers money through jail cost savings.” Indeed. So why have warrants at all if you don’t intend to enforce them? Get rid of the whole process and you’ll save us even more money. But the social justice police will shame me for using a straw. That’s a good use of tax dollars: policing straws.

“We are bringing our staff and court resources into the community to provide a safe and convenient path for resolving outstanding warrants or tickets”, stated SMC Presiding Judge Ed McKenna in a press release. “Attendees will learn options to resolve their case and for those who need it, how to access social services and support through the Court Resource Center.”

What they’re not doing is bringing their staff directly outside the courthouse to clean up a neighborhood in desperate need of it. Because that would serve the law abiding tax payer and we can’t have that, can we?

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