Some insight into what's going on with various city governments and how the 'critical race theory' advocates, adherents and promoters have gotten into the social institutions which define our culture, and are attempting to kick-over that banquet table.
Academic institutions have promoted and developed this 'theory', mass media and entertainment institutions have amplified it; and at the government level, just about every government office, has one or, two manager-level or, higher supporters or, sympathizers to this line of thinking. Seattle is merely the first major metro-area, that's nearing the tipping-point where all social institutions as we know them, are nearing their destruction. Beware of those in your community who are sympathetic or, supportive of this line of thinking.
American cities are entering a period of chaos. Protests and riots have dominated headlines, but beneath the surface, activists are launching an unprecedented campaign to overthrow the traditional justice system and replace it with a new model based on a radical conception of social justice.
In Seattle, where this campaign may be most advanced, activists have crafted a narrative about police brutality, mass incarceration, and punitive justice that leads to a natural sequence of solutions: “abolish the police,” “divest from prisons,” and “defund the courts.” Over the past three decades, the city’s radical-progressives have seized control of municipal government—with the notable exception of the criminal-justice system, which they see as the final obstacle to total control. If they can dismantle it, activists believe, they can bring about their transformation of society.
The city’s political establishment has joined the campaign to “deconstruct justice.” Since the outbreak of the George Floyd–related protests starting in late May, elected officials in Seattle and King County have announced their intentions to defund the Seattle Police Department, permanently close the county’s largest jail, and gut the municipal court system. They believe that, when the oppression of the justice system is lifted, a new society can be shaped through criminal diversion, psychotherapy, and harm reduction.
The theoretical underpinnings of this movement can be traced back to the academic currents of “critical race theory,” long pervasive in university humanities departments, which holds that all legal structures—and society generally—can be understood as a function of embedded racism. The law is shot through with white supremacy, critical race theorists believe, which must be rigorously identified and dismantled if true justice is to be achieved. In recent years, critical race theory has expanded beyond the academy and become a force in progressive politics.
For today’s radical-progressives, the nation’s traditional institutions are little more than vestiges of white supremacy, capitalist exploitation, and colonialist domination. Seen in this light, the recent unrest in America’s progressive cities becomes clear: the chaos is the necessary price—and the accelerant—for the revolution. During the recent occupation of Seattle’s Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone, self-described “abolitionist” Nikkita Oliver translated the sentiments of the graduate seminar into the language of the streets, calling for the overthrow of “racialized capitalism” and “patriarchy, white supremacy, and classism.” Motivated by such goals, mobs have seized control of police precincts.
If radicals are successful in moving Seattle toward police abolition, the results will be catastrophic. The city is coming apart. Crime has exploded in the downtown corridor, businesses have barricaded their windows, and citizens fear that the city will collapse into anarchy. Yet the activists and political class are moving forward with their experiment at astonishing speed. Nearly every week, they offer new proposals for transforming the constituent parts of the criminal-justice system. “Burn it down” has evolved from a street slogan into a political platform.
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Posts: 15146 | Location: Wine Country | Registered: September 20, 2000
Originally posted by ZSMICHAEL: Color me surprised. This has been going on in Portland for some time. The mob rule could have been stopped a LONG time ago with effective government.
The PacNW has seen a long-slow-burn of pliant government leaders, pandering elected officials and ambitious SJW's looking to 'affect change'. What's happening now, is the turning-over of the institutions which are universally, at least in the Western world, accepted as just, legal and reasonable. The misfits, outcasts and socially maladjusted are being allowed, encouraged, to become the voice and lead impressionable youths without any filter or, understanding or, consequences.
Posts: 15146 | Location: Wine Country | Registered: September 20, 2000
When you're an idiot and surrounded by like-minded idiots, it becomes oh so easy to define anyone who disagrees with you as anything from 'a dinosaur' to 'reactionary' to 'a fascist'.
Posts: 27306 | Location: Deep in the heart of the brush country, and closing on that #&*%!?! roadrunner. Really. | Registered: February 05, 2008
A friend is a Seattle Officer. He just dropped his retirement papers. So far this year 144 officers have left. This includes the 34 reported in the last few days. My friend tells me many others are burning through their leave and sick time.
There’s an advantage for the cities around Seattle. The newest officer to our police department is coming from Seattle.
There’s an advantage for the cities around Seattle. The newest officer to our police department is coming from Seattle.
Same here, we are looking forward to the “new wealth” of qualified laterals!
I feel bad for the guys I know who went to SPD because they believed in the city and the department and wanted to make a difference by working there...
Bill R
Posts: 1146 | Location: Wet side of WA | Registered: October 24, 2008
Mobbing seems to be the go to leftist way these days. After the Pence statement the other day, we saw the criminal old media bastards go mob on him, damn near chasing him down the exit hall. The electoral process was mobbed by fraud on multiple fronts. Information is increasingly controlled by Silicon Valley's mob mentality. News is mob rule. It goes on. Look from many angles, you see mobs.
Set the controls for the heart of the Sun.
Posts: 8617 | Location: Flown-over country | Registered: December 25, 2008
Originally posted by Graniteguy: Sadly, the very people who allow this mob rule to persist are continually re-elected by the same idiots being impacted by the mobs actions.
Not only elected officials but, you have policy writers, administrative functionaries and department managers who also promote and encourage such thinking; these are not elected officials but who's jobs maintain the day-to-day role of civic government.
As we've seen within various Fed govt offices like State, FBI, CIA, etc... regardless of who's at the top in the appointed positions, the senior and mid-level personnel will press-on with whatever the line-of-thinking is dominant and impress upon everyone below them to fall in line. If they're senior or, impressive enough, they'll work for a govt policy think-tank or lobby group, financed by a wealthy fund or, individual looking to promote their social agenda. When the right person is elected, they'll be installed in govt office to help run certain departments.
Most major cities now have some senior director position with a direct line to the mayor, staffed and fully funded for dealing with the homeless. The vast majority of these people have not worked in private industry but, have spent their careers writing theoretical policy papers in academia and/or govt consulting firm financed by wealthy interests. Their employment isn't based upon results, deadlines or, expectations but, merely promoting and raising awareness, making sure govt is listening but, not actually doing. Whoa to the person who challenges this sacred cow they're working to create as you'll be branded and cast-out.
Posts: 15146 | Location: Wine Country | Registered: September 20, 2000
