I’ve seen worse than that in my alley. Does that mean the Armpit of Puget Sound is next?
Seattle mayor Bruce Harrell is poking the bear, so probably.
The first executive order aims to separate Seattle police operations from any federal activities. It directs city departments to coordinate with the Washington attorney general and governor while supporting peaceful demonstrations.
The second order focuses on supporting immigrants and refugees. Harrell said those communities are “the fabric of Seattle,” and he emphasized that city property should not be used for federal immigration enforcement.
The order also restricts the use of face masks by Seattle police, requiring visible identification except in limited situations. Officers will receive training on how to respond to incidents involving masked individuals.
The orders are targeted specifically at frustrating ICE’s plans to terrorize people in the city. Trump will not like that at all.
The Seattle police won’t either. Outsiders see the Emerald City as another squishy super-liberal city, but as a resident you know Seattle’s cops are fucking horrible. They’ll be fractious about not getting to join ICE and the occupying troops in knocking brown-skinned heads.
Cops are always willing to get violent with protestors. No need for the national guard if all you want to do is shoot out some eyes with plastic bullets or tear gas old people.
ICE is running commercials on TV which advertise this exact thing. “Sorry that as a member of the <your city here> police force that you don’t get to beat-up brown people?[1] Come join ICE and get a $50,000 signing bonus.”
the actual words are something about “protecting your city”, but we all know what they mean ↩︎
Yeah, there will be some guaranteed pushback from SPD on this.