SEATTLE NEWS ARCHIVES & FEATURES

Seattle council gets its due for catering to ‘grievance crowd’

Aug 17, 2016, 6:49 AM

black lives matter...

Dori says the Seattle City Council has no one to blame but themselves for the SPd precinct criticism. (KIRO 7)

(KIRO 7)

You reap what you sow and Seattle council members are in deep right now.

As you’ve likely heard by now, there was a contentious Seattle City Council meeting Monday. Protesters do not want a new north precinct to be built. The building is projected to cost $149 million, which would make it one of the most expensive police stations ever constructed in America.

Upshaw: Black Lives Matter’s ‘reservoir of rage’ is misdirected on SPD ‘bunker’

I do not understand the cost of this thing. And that’s where I think the argument could easily be made.

But, at these council meetings, the protesters very much have an anti-police agenda. I will admit, listening to the council, which is filled with people who got elected by pandering to those with grievances in our society, it is interesting that the council now has to deal with the consequences of an atmosphere that they have very much created themselves.

And now that they’re the target of this grievance parade, they don’t like it at all.

With that said, I don’t like the demonization of cops or people calling a police station a bunker and denouncing it as bomb proof (why would you want one that is bombable?). If you just argued this project on the cost, I’d be right there with these people. Much like with Bertha, this city can’t just replace something, they needed it to be the biggest in the world.

But this is a horrible time to be inspiring people toward more hatred of cops, and it’s a dangerous narrative unfolding in our city.

Then again, this is a narrative that has been carefully nurtured by our local politicians. This has been going on for two decades, going back to when council members encouraged anarchists to come into the city for the May Day protests.

We’ve had an atmosphere of politics here that has catered to the grievance crowd. And, inevitably, that crowd will turn on them, and that’s what’s happened now.

So I must admit to a little bit of Schadenfreude that the council is suffering the impact of what they inflicted on all of us for years.

Associated Press

‘A beautifully American story’: El-Sayed’s historic Senate victory resonates with Muslim Americans

DEARBORN, Mich. (AP) — Campaigning relentlessly across Michigan, Abdul El-Sayed didn’t highlight the possibility that he could become the first Muslim elected to the U.S. Senate. But with victory in hand, he savored his triumph over the vitriol aimed at him and his fellow Muslim Americans. “They tried to demonize people because of how they […]

22 minutes ago

Associated Press

House fire in Brooklyn kills 6 people and injures 7, more than 200 firefighters respond

NEW YORK (AP) — Six people died in a fire that barreled through a two-story home in New York early Thursday and seven others were injured, including three firefighters, the city’s fire department said. Heavy fire was reported in the row frame building at 1:40 a.m. in Brooklyn. More than 200 first responders reported to […]

32 minutes ago

A professor holds a silicon wafer as students from Rio Salado College participate in a chip making ...

Associated Press

Community colleges rush to expand semiconductor training as labor shortage looms US chip industry

TEMPE, Ariz. (AP) — For three years, Ethan Mock worked part-time at a gym to make ends meet while taking on more than $100,000 in debt to pursue a degree in business administration. Earlier this year — his fifth and final at Northern Arizona University — he began looking beyond his major for a stable […]

4 hours ago

Michael Carman votes at a Checkers grocery store on Election Day, Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2026, in Lawrenc...

Associated Press

Inflation, tariffs and a voter revolt: The midterm verdict on Trump’s economy

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump was publicly humbled by inflation in Tuesday’s midterm elections, as rising prices provoked a blistering set of losses for Republicans in House, Senate and gubernatorial races. Most voters said that Trump’s own policies had smothered growth and drove costs even higher, according to The AP Voter Poll, a survey […]

7 hours ago

President Donald Trump talks to reporters during a tour of White House Ballroom construction at the...

Associated Press

After midterm loss, Trump is left to weigh his next move in Iran war that contributed to GOP debacle

WASHINGTON (AP) — As he takes stock of his Republican Party’s midterm drubbing, President Donald Trump now faces the difficult question of what to do about his unpopular 8-month-old war against Iran. For weeks, Trump has threatened to return to a full-scale bombardment of Iran once the U.S. elections were in the rearview mirror if […]

7 hours ago

FILE - Former President Donald Trump waits for the start of proceedings in his trial at Manhattan c...

Associated Press

Trump’s lawyers to appear before appeals court as he fights hush money conviction

NEW YORK (AP) — President Donald Trump ‘s lawyers will try to persuade a New York appeals court Thursday to throw out his hush money conviction, two years after it made history. The conviction, on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records to obscure a $130,000 payment to adult film performer Stormy Daniels, continues to […]

7 hours ago

Seattle council gets its due for catering to ‘grievance crowd’