In a lengthy statement and series of Twitter messages Thursday night, a Seattle councilor slammed the city’s slow-moving police chief Carmen Best, claiming it was “no coincidence” that “right-wing” figures such as President Trump and Attorney General William Barr was sorry that Best was planning to resign.
‘They recognize the service [Best] has delivered the capitalist class in retaliation against the Black Lives Matter movement at the height of its power, ‘wrote socialist councilwoman Kshama Sawant, according to Seattle’s KIRO-TV.
Best, who has been the Seattle police officer since August 2018, revealed in an email Monday that she was planning to retire, effective Sept. 2. Her announcement came after the Seattle City Council voted to reduce the police department’s budget, including Best’s own salary.
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“I hate to see her go,” Sawant quoted Trump as saying about Best. The president made the remark in a newsletter Tuesday, according to a White House transcript.
“In the face of mob violence, she drew the line in the sand,” Sawant Barr quoted as saying of the outgoing boss. Barr also made the comment Tuesday, according to the Justice Department’s website.
The council’s action came on Monday as supporters of the US ‘Defund the Police’ movement sought to reduce or even eliminate funding for the nation’s police departments, pointing to what they say is a history of police mistreatment of African Americans and other minority groups.
In its statement Thursday, Sawant claimed that the council’s $ 3 million cut from the city’s police budget – expected to result in the loss of 100 officials through dismissal and attrition – represented a 2% reduction, but was a far cry from the 50% slash that some Democrats in the council had promised protesters weeks earlier.
But that 2% cut “was too much for Best,” Sawant wrote.
Best also called on the city council to curb inflated payments from police operators to allow the funds to be used instead for the needs of the Black and Brown community, saying the 7 per cent was cut on their salary over a a quarter of a million dollars ($ 294,000), ‘felt fair and punitive,’ ‘Sawant wrote.
Prior to the proposed cut, Best’s salary was 45% above the national average for police officers, while nine of the top police officers received higher salaries than all 50 U.S. executives, Sawant claimed, according to KIRO.
‘Earthquake in American Politics’
The councilwoman claimed that Best and other U.S. police officers have resigned in recent weeks because the Black Lives Matter movement has been a bit of an earthquake in American politics, exposing the endemic racism and police violence of American capitalism and put mayors, police managers and political establishments throughout the country on the defense worker. ”
Sawant, 46, is a resident of India and former software engineer who has served on Seattle City Council since 2014, representing the Socialist Alternative Party.
In early July, Sawant called for the overthrow of capitalism, including the seizure of Fortune 500 companies.
Kshama Sawant speaks in Seattle, Nov. 4 2013. (Associated Press)
On Tuesday, Best described the city council’s cuts as a betrayal of the city’s police department, which worked to emerge from federal oversight after the U.S. Department of Justice in 2012 discovered a pattern of unconstitutional use of force.
“The council gave us $ 1.6 million to make sure we hired the best and brightest and most diverse and brought them in,” Best said Tuesday. “And less than a year later, we’ll just turn them away. It feels very duplicating. I have my convictions. I can not do that.”
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Seattle has been among the top cities for frequent protests and uprisings since the death of George Floyd on May 25 in Minneapolis.
In late July, Best cracked down on assailants after an explosive device left an eight-inch hole in a wall of a city police building.
“What we saw today was not peaceful,” Best said at the time, according to the Seattle Times. “The assailants had no regard for the safety of the public, for the safety of officers or for the businesses and property they destroyed.”
