Crime, including homicide, is surging across my native Washington, as police staffing levels fall to a dangerous all-time low.

In 2022, the Evergreen state logged 394 homicides, an increase of nearly 17 percent from the previous year, according to an annual report by the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs. Since 2019, homicides are up a staggering 96 percent.

Ever since the George Floyd riots in 2020, cheap and malicious anti-cop rhetoric and soft-on-crime policies, including defund the police efforts, have crippled law enforcement.  Today, Washington state ranks the lowest among all U.S. states and Washington, D.C., for police officer staffing at 1.36 officers per 1,000.  The national average stands at 2.31 officers per 1,000 people.

Even with huge signing bonuses, the Seattle Police Department (SPD) is down nearly 350 officers.  Cops know the word on the street is: “We don’t have your back.”  An audacious document from Democrat mayor Bruce Harrel’s office specified recently that SPD show fewer white men and “military bearing” in recruitment materials, according to a memo obtained by the “Jason Rantz Show” on KTTH. 

All the while crime is exploding all around us in the form of homicides, shootings, theft, carjackings, and vandalism.  Still the mayor’s office is obsessed with partisan identity politics or DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) -- when keeping law-abiding citizens safe should be his top priority.

“The toxic mix of the Seattle City Council’s absurdity, the spinelessness of the Mayor, the leniency of the prosecutor’s office, and your failed leadership has accelerated this city’s downhill slide straight to rock bottom,” wrote Seattle Police Lt. Jessica Taylor, in a blistering resignation letter to police chief Adrian Diaz, in August.  She had served the SPD for 23 years.

Common sense dictates that fewer police officers make everyone less safe, but as we see repeatedly, Democrat policies like defund-the-police efforts locally and nationally, are sorely lacking in common sense.  And our quality of life is being diminished as a result.

Here is one example.

In the Normandy Park neighborhood, some 20 miles southwest of Seattle, Valor Soccer, a youth organization, just cancelled its entire soccer season.  The decision came after miscreants vandalized the team’s practice field, leaving more than $100,000 in damages, as reported by independent journalist and Discovery Institute Senior Fellow Johnathan Choe. Underprivileged youth now have no place to play, and nowhere to let off steam.

So much for equity.

The book of Proverbs says “Idle hands are the devil’s workshop.” How will these young athletes occupy their time now that they cannot play soccer?  Although it is unknown who committed the vandalism, it is highly probable it could have been someone from a nearby homeless encampment.  In today’s Seattle Metro area, vandals know there will be no consequences for their crimes with fewer police officers to make arrests.

“A lower officers-to-people ratio means less ability to provide justice for victims, Washington Association of Sheriffs & Police Chiefs Executive Director Steven Strachan told the Seattle Times recently.

Fewer police officers also mean that fewer crimes get solved.  With a homicide clearance rate of 24 percent in Seattle, criminals have a 76 percent chance of getting away with murder. In other words, only 24 homicides out of 100 are solved.  “The reality is if you don’t have enough people coming to the initial scene when it [a crime] just occurred it’s harder to contain evidence, to get witnesses,” Strachan told Fox13 recently.

With police officer shortages and slow response times -- if police officers respond at all -- street justice is also on the rise, as frustrated citizens take the law into their own hands to protect themselves and their property.  But vigilantism comes with its own set of risks. “It’s just not worth it.  You’re possibly going to hurt yourself or someone else. Or you’re going to face jail time or civil penalty from a lawsuit over stolen property,” Sgt. Darren Moss with the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department told Fox13 in Seattle. (Pierce County is the second largest county in Washington state).

If we want safer neighborhoods, we must support law enforcement in Washington state -- and in every state.

In the Evergreen state, the GOP is leading the charge to fight crime and restore law and order by championing law enforcement.  This includes hiring more police officers, endorsing I-2113 that would allow reasonable police pursuits, prosecuting criminals, and enforcing strong bail and parole processes. 

Collectively, we must also resist the corporate media’s gratuitous anti-police rhetoric.  It is time to repudiate the lies that policing is systemically racist.  The data simply does not bear this out, according to The War on Cops author, Heather Mac Donald.  Police officers, like the rest of us, are not perfect.  Still, I suspect the majority are dedicated to public safety above all.

Why else would they risk their lives every day?

Image: Picryl