When news broke this month that the Seattle Police Department’s sex crimes unit is too short-staffed to properly investigate rapes, some of the city’s left-leaning media outlets rushed to absolve anti-police activists of blame. Instead, publications like The Stranger and The Seattle Times suggested police were the ones failing survivors.

Yet some of the same activists being shielded from criticism have been pushing for the police department’s Sexual Assault Unit to be defunded since at least last fall.

Oops.

In September 2021, activists unveiled their 2022 “Solidarity Budget,” which called for a 50% reduction in funding for the police department’s Sexual Assault Unit. The budget proposal was endorsed by a long list of Progressive groups, including the King County Young Democrats and the King County Department of Public Defense.

The budget claims that prosecution of rape cases “does not work for the vast majority of survivors, especially Black, Indigenous, migrant, criminalized, young, drug-using, disabled, homeless and sex working survivors who do not call the cops because they are more likely to get a negative or no response.” Writers argue that the work of the sex crimes unit “is often used to justify continued police funding.”

It should be noted that the Sexual Assault Unit also handles cases involving child rape and molestation.

So, what would activists do with the $4.15 million they proposed cutting from the unit’s $8.3 million budget? Invest it in community programs.

“Support for survivors of gender-based violence to overcome abuse means ample affordable and decent housing, living wages, paid leave, childcare, access to transportation, health care, counseling, services for children that foster healing from trauma and strengthen resiliency, and civil legal services – all critical services that Seattle has demonstrated support for, but that remain underfunded, especially when compared to the policing budget. People who perpetrate gender-based violence should be held accountable - but arrest and incarceration does not equate to meaningful accountability that truly repairs harm.”

Backers of defunding the Sexual Assault Unit include twice failed political candidate Nikkita Oliver, who was endorsed by The Stranger in 2021 (the same publication now aggressively arguing that activists aren’t to blame for low police staffing and, should you suggest they are, you are “unhinged.” The article was written by Will Casey, a former spokesperson for the Washington State Democratic Party who worked on the campaign of police abolitionist Nicole Thomas-Kennedy, who once called cops “serial killers.” The Stranger also used to employ the Seattle Times reporter who broke the story on low staffing in the Sexual Assault Unit – a story that distanced defund supporters from scrutiny. The same writer actually ENDORSED Nikkita Oliver for mayor in 2017 while working for The Stranger, suggesting Oliver wasn't "that radical." Should anyone really wonder why those writers are so quick to vilify the police and give activists a pass?).

And lest one argue that activists seeking to defund the Sexual Assault Unit this year wouldn't support doing so without alternatives in place, remember that the very same activists pushed for a 50% reduction in the SPD budget in 2020, despite warnings that it would leave the city without a public safety net.

Oliver, a Socialist-endorsed abolitionist, led efforts to try to convince the Seattle City Council to defund the police department in 2020 after the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis. In fact, Oliver was a backer of the first iteration of the Solidarity Budget that year, which directly influenced proposals introduced in the Seattle City Council.

While the budget the city passed that year failed to meet all their demands, writers of the Solidarity Budget took credit for cuts to SPD.

“This year is the first time in Seattle’s history that we are shrinking, rather than growing SPD’s budget, via eliminating 35 unfilled positions and civilianizing functions like 911 response and parking enforcement. This is a step in the right direction, but it can’t be a stopping point: if we are truly reckoning with how to build healthy and safe communities, hiring new police officers will not help us reach that goal.”

The 2020 debate around defunding, marked by unrest and the abandonment of a police precinct, kicked off an exodus of officers from the city that has left the department short staffed across the board. Any attempt to suggest Seattle’s anti-police climate is not tied to the staffing crisis is negated by countless exit interviews in which officers cite vitriol from politicians, activists, and the press for their decision to leave.

Let me be clear: The Seattle Police Department has a duty to ensure serious cases like rape are investigated fully, even if there are fewer detectives assigned to such cases. It is of paramount importance. But to ignore or downplay how activists who claim to care about survivors have instead made getting justice more difficult is – as I stated in a June 6 commentary – nothing short of media malpractice.

And just in case it needs to be said: The idea of defunding an already short-staffed unit that investigates heinous sex crimes against kids and adults should be seen as the final straw for voters who, until this point, have been too afraid to turn away from Seattle’s activist class.

SOURCES:

TIMES ARTICLE: https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/times-watchdog/seattle-police-halted-investigating-adult-sexual-assaults-this-year-internal-memo-shows/

BRANDI COMMENTARY: https://twitter.com/BrandiKruse/status/1533927571410264066

THE STRANGER REBUTTAL: https://www.thestranger.com/cops/2022/06/08/74782442/blaming-spd-for-failing-rape-victims-isnt-media-malpractice

2022 SOLIDARITY BBUDGET: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1meeXTETSLaZEwdS9Ec2SF1_aTZOKs1JJhArY3J3wDvU/edit

2017 ENDORSEMENT OF OLIVER: https://www.thestranger.com/news/2017/07/12/25280763/the-case-for-nikkita-oliver

2021 ENDORSEMENT OF OLIVER: https://www.thestranger.com/news/2021/10/13/61926578/the-strangers-endorsements-for-the-november-2-2021-general-election