‘You’re probably going to get Care Bears showing up’: Jake rips Seattle mayor’s gun violence plan

Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson released a gun violence prevention plan that would move $5 million in community violence intervention contracts to the city’s Community Assisted Response and Engagement (CARE) Department and expand police bicycle patrols in high-crime neighborhoods.

Jake Skorheim, co-host of “The Jake and Spike Show” on KIRO Newsradio, thought the plan landed with a thud at City Hall.

“When you get to that point where you get Seattle City Council members saying, ‘I’m not one to do performative politics and b*******, but I just can’t take it anymore,’ that’s significant,” quoting Councilmember Debora Juarez’s reaction at Tuesday’s council meeting.

Juarez delivered an eight-minute rebuke of Wilson’s plan that Jake compared to Howard Beale’s famous meltdown in the 1976 film Network.

Wilson’s proposal would designate the CARE Department as the central hub for gun violence reduction, expand crisis response hours from 10 to more than 18 per day, and increase SPD bicycle patrols. The same day, the Seattle City Council voted 7-0 on its own nonbinding resolution calling for a partnership with the National Network for Safe Communities.

‘This is not a plan’

Councilmember Juarez didn’t hold back.

“This is not a plan. It’s a picture, a window, if you will, a rear-view window,” Juarez said. “It’s not forward-looking; it’s no vision, and we’re already doing these things.”

She singled out the mayor’s call for expanded bicycle patrols.

“Expand bike patrols? So on a Saturday night on Aurora, or Little Saigon, or Belltown, or when there’s car racing, Saturday night at midnight, we’re gonna have extra people on bikes out there?” Juarez questioned.

Fill-in host Greg Tomlin agreed.

“Good luck countering shootouts between pimps on Aurora Avenue with a top speed of 20 mph on your Schwinn bicycle,” Greg said. “I mean, seriously, can we get real for a moment here?”

‘Care bears or bad boys?’

Jake framed the entire debate around these gun violence plans as a choice between two responses to a 911 call.

“You either get the CARE team from Katie Wilson, which doesn’t sound particularly good to me,” Jake said. “Or you can have these guys show up,” at which point he played the Bad Boys theme song.

Greg said he believes Wilson favors bicycle brigades because they project a softer image.

“Bicycles, by their very nature, are not intimidating and they’re not formidable,” Greg said. “And I think the mayor likes that aspect of them.”

Jake said he likes bike cops in the right setting, but not against violent crime in the city’s most dangerous corridors.

‘Not grandstanding … for the whole damn city’

Juarez also took aim at Wilson’s inclusion of “more union and family-wage job opportunities” in a gun violence plan.

“How about we just have more jobs?” Juarez said. “It’s not anti-union. You got to politicize it. We just need more jobs, because wherever you have poverty, you have crime.”

Jake agrees this left an impression on him.

“Why politicize it? Just say great jobs means people are going to care about their community, means there’s going to be less crime,” Jake said. “Instead of just singling out this very specific union community.”

‘No more analysis paralysis. Let’s go.’

Jake and Greg also flagged an awkward moment from Wilson’s sit-down interview with KOMO‘s Chris Daniels. When Daniels asked SPD Assistant Chief Nicole Powell whether cameras could help solve unsolved cases, Powell froze, then looked at Wilson, who answered for her.

“How do I answer this and keep my job? That’s what it looked like,” Jake said. “She opens her mouth, but nothing comes out.”

Greg said the clip was making national rounds on social media, adding that cameras are a proven tool and the delay is inexcusable.

“When investigators can use active camera feeds to support a 911 response, the odds of making an arrest triple,” Greg said. “No more analysis paralysis. Let’s go.”

Watch the full discussion in the video above.

Listen to “The Jake and Spike Show” weekdays from noon to 3 p.m. on KIRO Newsradio 97.3