There is something oddly satisfying about watching ideological idiots tripping over each other to be the most woke. So, living just outside Seattle I have a great view of the torrent of stupid flowing ceaselessly out of that city.
The most recent example is unique and, I must admit, elicited a bit of schadenfreude. Just before the defund/abolish the police movement gained traction, blue cities like Seattle banned police officers from using less-lethal munitions (teargas, rubber projectiles, etc.) to quell riots. The Seattle City Council members (who voted unanimously for the ban) prefer to place their cops and residents in danger, choosing instead to protect violent Antifa and Black Lives Matter (BLM) insurrectionists from the cops.
But what happens when you take less-lethal crowd control options away from cops? They are logically left with fewer use-of-force options, including lethal. Well, now the geniuses on the Seattle City Council voted to ban less-lethal crowd control weapons. But, in doing this, they’ve apparently violated the (bogus) federal consent decree inflicted on the Seattle Police about a decade ago, during the Obama/Holder corrupt DOJ era.
According to the Seattle City Council Insight, the City of Seattle filed an official notice in U.S. District Court, acknowledging the DOJ and the federal monitor have advised them the City Council’s ban of “less lethal” crowd control munitions violates the consent decree.
Though the federal monitor doesn’t seem to have an issue with the “merits of the ordinance…there are valid policy questions to consider whether use of those ‘less lethal’ devices prevents escalation to more serious use of force.” Um, duh! It’s kind of in the name, right? Less lethal.
The far-left idiots are willing to run roughshod over a consent decree many of them support and argue should not be lifted from the SPD (which was about to happen when the Marxist insurrection began). These idiots can’t inhibit police effectiveness fast enough to stop themselves from falling all over each other in the attempt. Still, now they’ve crapped in the federal monitor’s sandbox.
I suppose, like everything else these days, idiot fighting will also eventually have to be banned. After all, can it really be called sporting to watch dumb people attempt to out-stupid each other? Lucid people watch, fascinated by how leftist politicians have managed to raise stupidity to an artform.
When the Left cried for less lethal options for crowd control (and other situations) the ostensible motivation was to save suspect’s lives—from lethal options. However, at this point in the anti-cop idiocy, we can see the call for less lethal was just the beginning of a proverbial slippery slope.
After screaming for years for less-lethal alternatives (such as for crowd control, tear gas, blast balls, etc.) and Tasers as a less lethal option for normal patrol, the Left has worked hard to ban these less lethal options. It should be clear by now: the Left doesn’t want the cops to use any force (lethal, less lethal, or even non-lethal, at any time—not to save innocent lives and especially not to save their own lives).
I knew many officers who turned in their Tasers after leftist complaints accusing cops of “torturing” suspects with their Tasers became popular. The protocols became nearly as stringent as those for lethal force. Many cops considered, if the standards for both were essentially the same, why carry two options? If a less lethal option has essentially the same protocols as lethal weapons, what’s the point?
So, now, thanks to the woke elites on many city councils, cops cannot use less lethal options for violent crowd control and riots. And, of course, they’re not going to use lethal force, so that only leaves allowing the violent insurrectionists free to terrorize many large Democrat-run American cities.
Anti-police leftists are already condemning officers even if they employ uses-of-force just as their department instructors taught them in training. It doesn’t matter. This socialist, Marxist neo-Left will find something wrong with what the officer did. Just like an Atlanta police officer who is likely wondering why he ever volunteered to put his wellbeing and life on the line for the people of Atlanta. He is now languishing in a jail cell, charged with murder by a corrupt district attorney, awaiting his trial—for doing his job.
Join the Discussion
COMMENTS POLICY: We have no tolerance for messages of violence, racism, vulgarity, obscenity or other such discourteous behavior. Thank you for contributing to a respectful and useful online dialogue.