In the leftist paradise of Seattle, Washington, the city has decided that it is indeed wise to cut the city’s police budget by a whopping 50 percent. The problem is that this leaves them with a bit of a problem as policy dictates that layoffs must first begin with those recently hired.
Why is that a problem? Because the majority of Seattle’s officers who were recently hired were minorities. As such, it would appear that a city councilwoman has found the solution to the problem, and as tried and true Democrats have done since the old days, she found the answer in racism.
Seattle city councilwoman Lisa Herbold took to Twitter and highlighted that there is a danger in conducting layoffs to minority officers and SPD staff, so her solution is to ignore seniority and just terminate employment based on skin color.
“The Council is continuing to work through the SPD budget and we are in the very beginning stages of developing proposals. I want to address some misinformation SPD leadership is prognosticating on the content of budget cut proposals that haven’t been developed yet,” tweeted Herbold.
“In the case layoffs are necessary, one threat is firing BIPOC officers first. Chief can request the Public Safety Civil Service Commission ED for permission to lay off “out of order” when doing so is in “the interest of efficient operations of his or her department.” she added.
This means Chief doesn’t have to fire the newest hired first. Chief says firing BIPOC members of the SPD would be harmful & I agree. I know she can argue just as convincingly that maintaining the employment of BIPOC officers is in the interest of efficient operations of the SPD.
— Lisa Herbold (@Lisa_Herbold) July 13, 2020
In short, if you have white skin, then you can expect to have your employment at the department terminated before anyone else.
I don’t think I need to point out that this is not only incredibly racist, it’s highly illegal. In fact, it’s been highly illegal since the passage of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 where it clearly prohibits “employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex and national origin.”
I can make one of two safe assumptions regarding Herbold here.
Either she’s wholly ignorant of the law that makes it illegal to conduct employment practices based on skin color or she doesn’t care. Perhaps it’s both.
It wouldn’t surprise me to learn that Herbold’s ignorance of the law perhaps includes knowledge that it exists but that it only applies to those considered in the minority column. Even if that were true, she still must contend with the fact that she’s openly, and willingly, engaging in racism by targeting a group of people based solely on their skin color.
No matter how you swing this, Herbold — and by extension, Seattle — doesn’t look, at all, good here. Not that this will matter much in Seattle, which is bluer than a choking Smurf, but that also has its own worthwhile commentary.
Has the left become so static in its hatred that it’s encouraging and even institutionalizing racism right before our eyes? Has it bought into the narrative that a certain race is truly so guilty of damaging a society that it’s readily punishing them simply for having that skin color or background?
I can think of a certain party that did that back in the 1940s and as I recall, we went to war with them and found out just how seriously they took their hatred of specific groups. I want to say that “it can’t happen here” and thanks to our right to free speech and firearm use, it will be incredibly difficult for that to happen. Regardless, it always starts somewhere and the solution is never enough. Escalation is right around the corner.
I’m sure many people scoffed at the demands for defunding the police departments at one point as well, yet here we are.
I think it’s very clear that racism still exists in this country, and that attempts at systematic racism are indeed being made. It’s just not coming from the party everyone thinks it is.
