Public Safety

We have never been in more danger. We have record crime, murders, assaults, and car thefts. In fact, we have just graduated as a state from being the number 14 worst state with car theft to now number 3. No one feels safe anymore. You can be accosted in the middle of the afternoon at the grocery store parking lot on any given day by a homeless drug addict or mentally disabled vagrant.

There are a few reasons why this is happening to us I believe.

The first reason is because we have been forced by liberal legislators to allow the drug addicted and mentally ill segment of the population to move into our neighborhoods and down towns and take up residence in tent cities across the region, weather we like it or not. Furthermore, we have legalized personal use amounts of heroin and other drugs. We also hand out free needles and hot meals to this segment of the population.

Along with this attracted homelessness problem comes a the huge amount of additional crime that supports them.

Our local legislatures created the vacuum that drew this segment to our area. “If you build it, they will come” This is happening all over the country wherever Liberal government is present in the majority.

We also have a current crisis with judges throughout our judicial system who consider themselves “justices in robes”. These judges are hesitant to lock anyone up for so called “equity” reasons or because they feel incarceration is not effective for the offender, forget about the victims. The result of this kind of adjudication has resulted in our record crime and lack of safety.

Police have been villainized and humiliated. They have had their funding and ranks slashed. Here is a good example: Seattle currently has around 660 full time patrol officers. Our sister city (Boston) which is similar size has 2,200 patrol officers. Seattle disbanded its swat and gang units. Currently the response time for any major crime in the city is 11 minutes. Seattle recommends if you have a home intrusion you should try to leave out the back door. Seems strange they even want to disarm you to make you as helpless as possible.

Gang activity in King County is now at an all-time high.

Adding to the desperation of the situation the Democrat run state legislature insured that more criminals would come to this area and flourish. The Democrats passed, and Governor Inslee signed new restrictive laws that limit the ability of law enforcement to pursue criminals. I even heard a 911 call on a talk show today where a fleeing criminal called 911 to report he was being pursued by the police. They also passed new accountability laws for officers that reigned in police tactics effectively hamstringing police work.

The truth is becoming more apparent every day as we see the same situations taking place in other Liberal controlled states, counties, and cities around the country. It seems to be intentional. Why else would such devastating effects go uncorrected I so many places at once.

 Even our Governor seems complicit. I Remember after 2 days of violence in Seattle “Chop/ Chaz” a reporter asked Inslee if he was concerned about what was going on there. He said he wasn’t aware of anything going on and that he would have to investigate it. That seemed to me to be a blatant lie, as a good Governor knows everything going on in his state. After he “looked into it” he did nothing at all to stop the mayhem and it went on for months as the “summer of love” with tragic results.

The first fix is to take control of our state, cities and counties from the radical liberals that now control them. We must elect people that have our citizens safety as their top priority.

Second, keep in mind one thing. The state gives huge amounts of money to counties and cities for various things. Effective legislators and governors could easily make receiving these funds contingent upon conditions such as requiring recipients to maintain a certain level of patrol officers based on a per capita formula compared to other states. This would prevent out of control city councils from stripping away law enforcement and endangering citizens without facing enormous financial consequences.

Is this a new tactic? Absolutely not. The Federal Government does it all the time to states. I will give you an example. The Federal Government gives millions of dollars to our state education system, however, to receive it the states are required to adopt certain teaching requirements or lessons that the federal government wants implemented.

So why didn’t this ever come up as a solution for what’s going on in our state? Again, we are being railroaded in legislation by extreme liberals who either do not care about your safety or they are supporting the chaos taking place in our communities as part of an orchestrated effort across the country. Some legislators might also be a part of the silent minority legislators who are weak and ineffective.

I also believe a good legislator would be very active in defending the safety of their districts by being present at board meetings and using their platform to be vocal on issues both state and local. I am that legislator. I will defend the silent majority.

Barry Knowles