SEATTLE NEWS ARCHIVES & FEATURES

Dori: Stats on DOL website prove Durkan is lying about suspended license drivers

Nov 28, 2018, 1:53 PM

A study on the Washington state Department of Licensing's website states that drivers who drive wit...

A study on the Washington state Department of Licensing's website states that drivers who drive with a suspended license are three times more likely to cause a fatal crash. (KIRO 7)

(KIRO 7)

We have some exclusive news for you that proves that our leaders around here are either unimaginably stupid, or attempting to deceive you so that they can look like social justice crusaders. Sometimes we catch them red-handed — and this is one of those days.

Jenny Durkan and City Attorney Pete Holmes want to lift a little over 200 warrants for people driving with a suspended license because they say it’s not fair to people of color and poor people, who disproportionately have these types of warrants. They assured us that this action would have no impact on public safety.

I have to ask the question, are Pete Holmes and Jenny Durkan really that stupid, or are they trying to deceive the public so they can burnish their reputation as grand social justice warriors?

RELATED: City getting rid of select warrants for social justice PR moment

On Tuesday night, I found a very fascinating 37-page document. Guess where I found this document? Why, it was on the Washington state Department of Licensing’s website. I’m guessing that Jenny Durkan and Pete Holmes would have access to information on the state DOL website, right? The title of this document was, “Estimation of Fatal Crash Rates for Suspended/Revoked and Unlicensed Drivers in California.”

This study covered a 23-year period, from 1987 through 2009. The study was conducted in California, but consistently matches the stats from around the country. Guess what this 37-page document on the Washington state DOL website says? For every year studied, suspended license drivers are over-involved in fatal crashes as the at-fault driver. And, if you take the entire 23-year period, the fatality rate for suspended license drivers is, in fact, about triple that of legal, validly-licensed drivers.

So when Jenny Durkan and Pete Holmes say that they are going to forgive people with a suspended license because there is no public safety risk, we can determine from data available to all of us on the state Department of Licensing’s website that they are lying, either from ignorance or from their desperate, manipulative social justice agenda. There is no third option here. It is either stupidity or willful deception.

I personally have known a woman since college, about my age now, whose life was forever physically impacted when a suspended license driver crashed into her about 25 years ago. Back then, I started doing the research. I knew then and I know now that people who drive with a suspended license are a far greater death risk to my life, my loved ones, your life, and your loved ones.

Not to mention, when Jenny Durkan and Pete Holmes stand up there at this press conference — unchallenged, of course, because who can challenge them? — and say that we need to lift these warrants because they’re unfair to the poor and minorities, it is in fact extremely condescending to the poor and minorities. I know a lot of low-income people and people of color who do not break the law. They do not use their economic or racial status as an excuse not to follow the law. But our liberal enablers running this region are willing to put people three times more likely to kill innocent citizens on the roads because they claim our criminal justice system is “unfair.”

You know what is unfair, Jenny Durkan and Pete Holmes? I think it’s unfair when you put people who are demonstratively more deadly on our roads. I think it’s unfair when you send a clear message that driving with a suspended license is a crime you don’t care about as you spin your lie that it has no impact on public safety.

In a city that has sent such a clear message to heroin addicts around the country that we will not prosecute drug use, in a city where we have de-policed so much, in a city where we have the highest property crime rate in the nation, sure, let’s start allowing people with a suspended license to kill innocent people on our roads.

Please follow our Community Guidelines

FILE - President Donald Trump signs his signature bill of tax breaks and spending cuts at the White...

Associated Press

New limits on federal student loans are steering many borrowers toward private lenders

NEW YORK (AP) — New limits on federal student loans filled Chloe Frabotta with anxiety as she began studying in New York City to become a physician assistant. The changes that took effect this fall include caps on loans for particular programs as well as limits on the amount parents can borrow to pay for […]

3 hours ago

Associated Press

1 officer killed and 3 wounded in a firefight with a suspect in Lakewood, Colorado

LAKEWOOD, Colo. (AP) — An officer was killed and three others were wounded during a firefight in a Denver suburb Thursday evening with a man who was fatally shot by police, according to law enforcement. The Lakewood officers had responded to a call about a suspicious person attempting to get on a public bus, police […]

5 hours ago

Mike Bourcier and his wife Jenifer hold No Data Center signs Monday, Oct. 12, 2026, in Mason, Mich....

Associated Press

Data centers took a beating in the midterm elections. A reckoning may be ahead for tech giants

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — After a campaign season filled with outrage against data centers, the midterm elections ushered in a wave of Democrats pledging to clamp down on the energy-hungry behemoths. A tougher regulatory environment for artificial intelligence giants and data center developers is expected to follow, even if President Donald Trump — perhaps the […]

6 hours ago

Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., speaks at the Center for American Progress (CAP) post election forum, T...

Associated Press

Republicans rammed through Supreme Court nominees. Now Democrats will have the votes to stop them

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump led a transformation of the Supreme Court that ushered in a conservative supermajority but soon he will confront an emboldened Democratic-led Senate that is preparing to play hardball on his judicial nominations. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, who is likely to return as majority leader next year, promised in […]

6 hours ago

A photo of Sandra Birchmore is displayed during a Stronger Together Standout gathering, where the g...

Associated Press

Closing arguments expected in trial of ex-cop accused of killing Sandra Birchmore

BOSTON (AP) — Closing arguments are expected Friday in the trial of a former Massachusetts police officer accused of killing a pregnant woman to keep her from revealing that they had been in a sexual relationship that began when she was 15. Federal prosecutors say Matthew Farwell killed Sandra Birchmore, 23, and tried to stage […]

6 hours ago

Sarah Leyba grieves as she visits her flooded property in Edith, Colo., Nov. 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Bri...

Associated Press

Uninsured and flooded out, a Colorado man worries if life will be normal again

EDITH, Colo. (AP) — Matthew Martinez has lived nearly all of his 60 years in a canyon on the Navajo River and never saw severe floods. Then twice over the last two weeks the river surged through his home and outbuildings in far southwestern Colorado, about 25 miles (40 kilometers) south of the resort town […]

6 hours ago

Dori: Stats on DOL website prove Durkan is lying about suspended license drivers