quote:

Originally posted by Dan:
Despite the author's intention, this story has nothing to do with the recent push to use social workers to augment police responses involving mental health patients, or defunding the police. This woman wasn't trying to deescalate anything. She was attacked in her office. Even if Seattle's police force had doubled since September the result would have been the same.

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_{What part of "...Shall not be infringed" don't you understand???}

quote:

Originally posted by 911Boss:

I think you missed the point/connection...

True, this incident had nothing to with defunding or talks about changing the response to disturbances involving people with mental issues and sending social workers instead of cops.

The point as I see it is that it reinforces the fact that while a lot of these folks have mental issues and are in need of social services, a good number can also be quite violent. You don’t always know who is or who isn’t or when the seemingly harmless rambling crazy guy might pull out an eight inch chefs knife and just start slashing everyone in sight.

That is why cops get sent to those calls where someone is “acting” crazy instead of sending social workers.

quote:

Originally posted by Dan:
When social workers are deployed today it is with police present. No one is seriously considering sending social workers in lieu of police despite the hysterics of social media, least of all social workers.

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Originally posted by NOCkid:
Couldn't help but notice the reference to the "Military grade" knife.

quote:

Originally posted by Dan:
Despite the author's intention, this story has nothing to do with the recent push to use social workers to augment police responses involving mental health patients, or defunding the police. This woman wasn't trying to deescalate anything. She was attacked in her office. Even if Seattle's police force had doubled since September the result would have been the same.

quote:

Originally posted by Dan:
When social workers are deployed today it is with police present. No one is seriously considering sending social workers in lieu of police despite the hysterics of social media, least of all social workers. They know as well as anyone the risks of violence. Social workers have been involved in these programs for years to divert mentally ill from jails and emergency departments when appropriate. Any suggestion that social workers be used otherwise is just noise. We should resist being drawn into the false argument.

quote:

Originally posted by Dan:
When social workers are deployed today it is with police present. No one is seriously considering sending social workers in lieu of police despite the hysterics of social media, least of all social workers. They know as well as anyone the risks of violence. Social workers have been involved in these programs for years to divert mentally ill from jails and emergency departments when appropriate. Any suggestion that social workers be used otherwise is just noise. We should resist being drawn into the false argument.

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_{What part of "...Shall not be infringed" don't you understand???}

quote:

Originally posted by Dan:
Despite the author's intention, this story has nothing to do with the recent push to use social workers to augment police responses involving mental health patients, or defunding the police. This woman wasn't trying to deescalate anything. She was attacked in her office. Even if Seattle's police force had doubled since September the result would have been the same.

quote:

Originally posted by 911Boss:. . . working to decriminalize “first time” non-violent felonies . . .

Memphis has the tag line of “Mogadishu on the Mississippi”. Seattle, a once beautiful water front city along the shores of Puget Sound (the big inlet from the pacific that creates the “hook” of WA state) is quickly going down the road to become “Somalia on the Sound”.

Funny thing is they are losing jobs, residents, support, constantly looking for new taxes and fees, but everyone keeps voting the same way.

quote:

They just passed a budget with an 18% budget reduction, moved other money to social programs, and that also call for another 100 fewer officers and to remove the 911 center from the police department and put it under some as of yet unknown department.

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Originally posted by corsair:
The push for 'defunding the police' was more about being punitive and vengeful rather than creating an 'alternative' solution. The early advocates were all about putting the cart before the horse, pushing the narrative that the obstacle needed to be removed first before a solution could be developed.

Many of the loudest voices hand't done any research, were willfully ignorant or, knew full well what was going on but choose to ignore the obvious: that mental health systems were already in place and criminal justice already had multiple pathways to reduce incarceration. Never mind the countless rates of recidivism or, the multi-page records that people had racked-up, due to early release, non-prosecutions by activist DA's and diversion programs set up to alleviate overcrowding. Instead they choose to direct their rage at police, claiming the system doesn't work and dreaming up the terms 'systemic racism' and 'institutional racism' to emotionally charge the message, which played well to the ignorant.

quote:

Originally posted by Scoutmaster:
Bingo. And the problem is the liberal policies will increase rates of crime and violence, yet liberals will ignore the cause/effect relationship.

quote:

In October, the Seattle City Council floated legislation to provide an exemption from prosecution for misdemeanor crimes for any citizen who suffers from poverty, homelessness, addiction, or mental illness. Under the proposed ordinance, courts would have to dismiss all so-called “crimes of poverty”—which, according to the city’s former public-safety advisor, would cover more than 90 percent of all misdemeanor cases citywide. In effect, the legislation would create a new class of “untouchables,” protected from consequences by the city’s powerbrokers.

This is the latest and most brazen effort in the city’s campaign to establish what might be called a “reverse hierarchy of oppression.” The underlying theory is that society has condemned the lower class to a life of poverty and stigma, which leads to addiction, madness, and indigence. The poor, in the logic of Seattle’s progressive elites, are thus forced to commit crimes—including violent crimes—to secure their very existence. Therefore, as society is the perpetrator of this inequality, the crimes of the poor must be forgiven. The crimes are transformed into an expression of social justice.

....

The courts, for their part, would be eviscerated. The “crimes of poverty” legislation would nearly eliminate the caseload for nine out of ten of the most frequently filed criminal charges in the Seattle Municipal Court. The objective here is twofold. First, councilmembers believe that mass decriminalization is a good in itself. Second, it almost certainly represents a strategy to “starve the beast” and create a rationale for dramatically downsizing the court system. Seattle’s activist coalition has long argued that the courts are a bastion of racism and oppression. Political leaders have sought to replace traditional courts with social justice and rehabilitation programs, especially for “crimes of poverty.”

...