Latest / Beyond The Horizon / Mega Edition: The City Of Seattle And The Breakdown Of The System (10/28/26)

Transcript

Mega Edition: The City Of Seattle And The Breakdown Of The System (10/28/26) · Beyond The Horizon

0:00
Speaker 1: What's up everyone and welcome back to the program. So
0:04
Speaker 1: Seattle has degenerated into an absolute shitshow. It's a violent place.
0:11
Speaker 1: There's homeless encampments everywhere. They have sexual assault cases that
0:16
Speaker 1: are completely backed up. And what's the local government doing? Well,
0:21
Speaker 1: absolutely nothing. And to add to all of that, here's
0:25
Speaker 1: some more insanity for you. firefighters in Seattle are now
0:30
Speaker 1: being assaulted by people when they show up to do
0:33
Speaker 1: their job. Now, what kind of degenerate scumbag assaults a firefighter?
0:39
Speaker 1: Is there a braver MF-er in the country than a firefighter, folks?
0:43
Speaker 1: We're all running out of these buildings when they're on fire,
0:46
Speaker 1: and these dudes are running in. Why in the hell
0:48
Speaker 1: would you be assaulting a firefighter, an EMS worker, or
0:52
Speaker 1: someone who's there to save your life? It is absolute stupidity.
0:57
Speaker 1: It's degenerate behavior. And it's why I said from the
1:00
Speaker 1: very beginning, defund the police was a stupid ass idea.
1:05
Speaker 1: Here's an idea. Retrain the police. Let's give them what
1:10
Speaker 1: they need to do their jobs correctly. Let's hire better
1:13
Speaker 1: people to be police. Defund the police, dumb ass, stupid idea.
1:18
Speaker 1: And I've said it from the jump. This is the
1:22
Speaker 1: end result, folks. This is what happens. These criminals become brazen.
1:27
Speaker 1: And we're not talking about, you know, people that are
1:30
Speaker 1: walking around with a pot in their pocket. These are criminals.
1:34
Speaker 1: Anyone who's assaulting a firefighter or any sort of worker
1:38
Speaker 1: who's coming to save the day, there should be very,
1:42
Speaker 1: very harsh penalties for those people. Because you have to
1:46
Speaker 1: be an absolute animal to attack a firefighter who is
1:51
Speaker 1: coming to put out a fire. Today we have an
1:54
Speaker 1: article from the Daily Mail. Headline, Seattle firefighters are being
1:58
Speaker 1: assaulted and demand the city take action after more than
2:01
Speaker 1: 40 incidents. This article was authored by Alex Hammer. Again,
2:09
Speaker 1: what the hell is wrong with the leadership up in Seattle?
2:12
Speaker 1: You have businesses leaving. I mean, they set up what,
2:16
Speaker 1: that area, that chop area during those riots? And it
2:19
Speaker 1: was just all good. People could just have an encampment
2:22
Speaker 1: and have whatever kind of society that they had going
2:25
Speaker 1: on in there. An unwashed society, if you will. But
2:28
Speaker 1: that's cool. That's okay. And you don't think that's going
2:32
Speaker 1: to lead to worse shit later on down the line? Oh, okay. Well,
2:36
Speaker 1: here we are. Firefighters in Seattle have demanded the city
2:41
Speaker 1: take action after they were subjected to more than 40
2:44
Speaker 1: violent attacks in the past four months. A string of
2:47
Speaker 1: assaults that have largely carried out by the city's homeless population.
2:51
Speaker 1: Now look, I am not a fan of stigmatizing the homeless.
2:58
Speaker 1: There's some people who are homeless that fell through the
3:00
Speaker 1: cracks and they really need our help. But there is
3:02
Speaker 1: a group of homeless people out there who are legitimately
3:06
Speaker 1: destroying cities. These people that show up in neighborhoods, they
3:10
Speaker 1: set up these encampments. And then not only that, but
3:13
Speaker 1: they destroy the neighborhoods. They're sitting around shooting drugs up
3:17
Speaker 1: in front of people's houses. And there is no way
3:21
Speaker 1: for the citizens, the taxpayers, the homeowners to get these
3:26
Speaker 1: people to go. I see it here in Las Vegas.
3:30
Speaker 1: It's starting here in Vegas, folks. These homeless encampments, they're
3:33
Speaker 1: encroaching on people's homes now where people's kids are playing
3:37
Speaker 1: and While not all homeless people are bad or evil,
3:41
Speaker 1: that's certainly not the case. There is a segment of
3:45
Speaker 1: them that have mental illness, they're on drugs, and there's
3:48
Speaker 1: no telling what they're capable of. And if they're going
3:51
Speaker 1: to attack firefighters, do you really think that they're not
3:54
Speaker 1: going to attack common everyday citizens who are, you know,
3:57
Speaker 1: leaving their house? I have watched report after report. from
4:02
Speaker 1: places like Seattle and Portland, of how residents who have
4:06
Speaker 1: been there for 20, 30 years are being basically chased
4:10
Speaker 1: out of their neighborhoods now because of these encampments. One
4:16
Speaker 1: such incident, which transpired last month, saw one fire official
4:20
Speaker 1: pelted with a rock while attempting to put out a
4:22
Speaker 1: blaze that originated from an encampment fire. Another altercation in
4:27
Speaker 1: June saw firefighters chased by a homeless person with a
4:30
Speaker 1: knife while while responding to a medical call at one
4:33
Speaker 1: such encampment. The string of incidents, of which there had
4:36
Speaker 1: been more than 40, union officials wrote in several letters
4:39
Speaker 1: to Seattle's city council complaining of the assaults, has left
4:43
Speaker 1: the fire officials fearing for their safety, as well as
4:46
Speaker 1: the impact the unrest may have on the rest of
4:49
Speaker 1: the community. Now imagine being one of these firemen and
4:51
Speaker 1: you get called to one of these homeless encampments or
4:54
Speaker 1: to one of these calls, and you're getting pelted with rocks.
4:58
Speaker 1: And for what? For showing up to try and put
5:00
Speaker 1: out the fire that these degenerates started? It comes as
5:06
Speaker 1: the city's mayor was forced Friday to administer an emergency
5:09
Speaker 1: plan to clear the growing number of encampments in the
5:12
Speaker 1: famously woke city. Now look, I'm all for treating people
5:17
Speaker 1: with honor and respect. And as I've said on this
5:20
Speaker 1: podcast a million times, there is a huge homeless problem
5:23
Speaker 1: that needs to be addressed. But that starts today. for
5:26
Speaker 1: me anyway, with dealing with the drug addiction problem. And
5:30
Speaker 1: when we have no resources to deal with that, and
5:32
Speaker 1: we have no levers to pull on to bring people
5:36
Speaker 1: to get this treatment, then this is what we're going
5:39
Speaker 1: to have. Our neighborhoods are going to look like the
5:41
Speaker 1: set of Walking Dead. Kenny Stewart, president of IAAF Local 27,
5:51
Speaker 1: aired the union's concerns in a July 26 letter to
5:54
Speaker 1: the Seattle City Council, in which he explained how the
5:57
Speaker 1: attacks have left his fellow firefighters afraid to do their duty.
6:02
Speaker 1: Seattle firefighters are not trained or empowered to mitigate violent individuals,
6:07
Speaker 1: and it is not conducive to our mission. Stewart, who
6:10
Speaker 1: has served as a Seattle firefighter since 1996, wrote in
6:14
Speaker 1: one July 26 letter obtained by a local radio station.
6:18
Speaker 1: These guys are so at the end of their rope
6:20
Speaker 1: that they have to write to the radio stations to
6:22
Speaker 1: get some relief. You would think the city council would
6:25
Speaker 1: be up in arms here and wanting to help out
6:27
Speaker 1: the fire department, but that's not the case. They just
6:30
Speaker 1: don't care. This hazard, this violence, Stewart went on, must
6:36
Speaker 1: be proactively mitigated through policies and actions of our elected officials,
6:41
Speaker 1: law enforcement, and leaders within the Seattle Fire Department. Now,
6:46
Speaker 1: there has to be a way, right? Look, I'm not
6:48
Speaker 1: a big fan of the government being in charge of
6:53
Speaker 1: Who's getting moved where. Or anything like that. But if
6:56
Speaker 1: there are people out in the streets. Who are demonstrably
6:58
Speaker 1: mentally ill. There has to be some way. That they
7:02
Speaker 1: get picked up. And they get put under some sort of.
7:06
Speaker 1: Surveillance or watch or whatever. Observance. For 72 hours. To
7:11
Speaker 1: evaluate their mental state. We can't have a bunch of
7:14
Speaker 1: mentally ill people. Roaming the streets. That's going to lead
7:18
Speaker 1: to disaster. And. Again, I have compassion for the homeless.
7:24
Speaker 1: I'm not one of these people that sits here and says, oh, well,
7:27
Speaker 1: you're homeless. You're a piece of shit. Nobody should care
7:31
Speaker 1: about you. My problem is with our leaders who have
7:36
Speaker 1: done nothing. They've sat on their hands. And in fact,
7:39
Speaker 1: in places like Seattle, they've promoted this lifestyle. That is
7:43
Speaker 1: not a good thing. There are a lot of people
7:47
Speaker 1: who are slipping through the cracks right now who need
7:49
Speaker 1: a lot of help. And those people are being caught
7:53
Speaker 1: up with these degenerates in these camps who are completely
7:57
Speaker 1: loked out on drugs and literally acting as if they're
8:01
Speaker 1: infected with some sort of zombie disease. Those people that
8:06
Speaker 1: are walking around, throwing karate kicks in the street, having
8:09
Speaker 1: conversations with themselves... As a compassionate society, should we let
8:14
Speaker 1: them just roam around or should there be some sort
8:17
Speaker 1: of services, maybe create a new bureaucracy that people love
8:21
Speaker 1: so much to deal with it? Have it all done
8:25
Speaker 1: at a state level and have that state division, whatever
8:30
Speaker 1: it is, the state mental health division to get homeless
8:32
Speaker 1: off the street, have it be federally funded. I mean,
8:36
Speaker 1: we waste so much money on so much dumb shit.
8:39
Speaker 1: You mean to tell me there isn't money to try
8:41
Speaker 1: and get the crazies off the street here? And again, look,
8:45
Speaker 1: I don't have all the answers, folks. I'll never sit
8:47
Speaker 1: here and tell you that I do. But what I
8:49
Speaker 1: won't do is just sit around and run my mouth
8:52
Speaker 1: and not offer you a couple of different ways to
8:54
Speaker 1: go about things that I think might work. And for
8:59
Speaker 1: those of you who are new listeners, I am very
9:01
Speaker 1: receptive to constructive criticism, by the way. Send me some
9:05
Speaker 1: emails because that's what we're doing here, right? We're having
9:07
Speaker 1: a long form conversation. We're trying to, you know, throw
9:11
Speaker 1: some shit at the wall and see what sticks because
9:13
Speaker 1: what we're doing now does not work. And anyone who
9:17
Speaker 1: thinks it does, I don't know what to say about it.
9:20
Speaker 1: Because when you have firefighters being assaulted for simply doing
9:23
Speaker 1: their job, when you have politicians promoting people taking craps
9:28
Speaker 1: in the middle of the street, we're in a bad place.
9:32
Speaker 1: And I don't care what your political affiliation is. Nobody
9:35
Speaker 1: wants to walk by somebody in the street dropping a deuce.
9:43
Speaker 1: Stewart went on to cite the dangers his fellow firefighters
9:45
Speaker 1: were facing by recounting several of the brazen attacks, which
9:49
Speaker 1: transpired when officials responded to a call stemming from a
9:52
Speaker 1: homeless encampment. In one instance, in July, Cruz showed up
9:56
Speaker 1: to a camp to put out flames started by inhabitants
9:59
Speaker 1: who threatened the first responders with weapons, including a steel
10:03
Speaker 1: rebar club. Stewart wrote that the incident saw a female
10:07
Speaker 1: firefighter kicked in her genitalia by one of the perpetrators
10:10
Speaker 1: and slapped in separate attacks by other homeless citizens. See,
10:15
Speaker 1: once you start doing that, you're a violent person. And
10:18
Speaker 1: you should be arrested for assault. I have no compassion
10:23
Speaker 1: for violent criminals. None. My problem is when people are
10:29
Speaker 1: picked up for being drug addicts. Possession, you get pulled over,
10:33
Speaker 1: you got some drugs in your pocket. I don't believe
10:35
Speaker 1: you should be going to jail or getting a felony
10:37
Speaker 1: for that. I think there should be rehabilitation and a
10:40
Speaker 1: different process. But if you're a violent criminal, let me
10:43
Speaker 1: be very, very clear. That's where my compassion ends. Your
10:48
Speaker 1: fellow citizens aren't there for you to prey on. And
10:50
Speaker 1: I don't care if you're on drugs or you're mentally ill,
10:53
Speaker 1: whatever it is. If you're committing violent felonies, violent crimes,
10:57
Speaker 1: you need to be taken off the street. In another
11:05
Speaker 1: incident on July 18th, Stewart detailed how a firefighter responding
11:08
Speaker 1: to another encampment fire was struck by a large rock
11:12
Speaker 1: while putting out the blaze, hurled by an unhappy inhabitant,
11:16
Speaker 1: of the camp, like it's the firefighters' fault. Here's an
11:19
Speaker 1: idea if you're unhappy. Tell your fellow campmates or whatever
11:22
Speaker 1: the hell you call them not to start any fires.
11:25
Speaker 1: Pretty simple, right? Another attack on June 3rd, Stewart wrote,
11:31
Speaker 1: saw fire officials chased by mentally disturbed homeless patient who
11:36
Speaker 1: they had been treating after receiving a medical call, who
11:39
Speaker 1: had been wielding a knife and attempting to stab the
11:41
Speaker 1: first responders. When the fire officials retreated into their truck,
11:46
Speaker 1: the homeless perpetrator climbed atop the engine as the officials
11:50
Speaker 1: hid inside before eventually being detained. I have a nephew, cousin,
11:56
Speaker 1: but basically my nephew, who's a firefighter. And my girlfriend,
12:01
Speaker 1: she has, what, three nephews and a brother-in-law who are firefighters.
12:07
Speaker 1: So I take this shit personally, man. Leave these dudes alone.
12:10
Speaker 1: Are there braver people than the men and women working
12:12
Speaker 1: as firemen and women? Running into blazes? I don't know
12:16
Speaker 1: about you, but I've burned myself with a lighter and
12:18
Speaker 1: fireworks and shit like that before. None of it's fun.
12:22
Speaker 1: As I like to say, you can miss me with
12:24
Speaker 1: all of that. But these firemen and women have coyons
12:28
Speaker 1: the size of the globe and they run into the fire.
12:31
Speaker 1: They show up to all these disgusting scenes to help people.
12:35
Speaker 1: To help people. and you have the audacity to chase
12:38
Speaker 1: them with a rock or a knife, you have to
12:40
Speaker 1: be mentally ill. And if you have the brazen stupidity
12:45
Speaker 1: to do that, what will you do to common citizens
12:48
Speaker 1: who are in the neighborhood? In all three cases, the
12:53
Speaker 1: attackers were arrested, Stewart wrote in the letter, before revealing
12:56
Speaker 1: that all have since been allowed back into the community.
13:00
Speaker 1: Regarding the rise in attacks on members of the SFD,
13:03
Speaker 1: the most recent of which transpiring on Thursday, Stewart urged
13:07
Speaker 1: city officials to address the attacks. This is a disturbing trend,
13:11
Speaker 1: and we are calling it to the attention of all
13:14
Speaker 1: of our elected leaders so that it can be addressed
13:17
Speaker 1: before there is a tragedy in our city involving an
13:21
Speaker 1: attack on a public employee. So this is basically shots
13:25
Speaker 1: fired to the government, right? This is the union saying
13:28
Speaker 1: tragedy is on its way. If you guys don't adjust
13:31
Speaker 1: the way you're going about all of this, dealing with
13:33
Speaker 1: the encampments, dealing with the mental illness, then we're going
13:37
Speaker 1: to have a tragedy on our hands. And one of
13:39
Speaker 1: our firefighters or one of the public officials who comes
13:43
Speaker 1: out to these places is going to be killed. That's
13:46
Speaker 1: what this gentleman is saying. And I suggest we take
13:49
Speaker 1: him seriously. Earlier this month, the city seemed to hear
13:53
Speaker 1: Stewart's call for aid, with new mayor Bruce Harrell releasing
13:57
Speaker 1: a statement in support of the firefighters, saying the city
14:00
Speaker 1: would work with the union to ensure fire officials' safety. Well,
14:03
Speaker 1: isn't that nice? Way to go, Bruce Harrell. Way to
14:06
Speaker 1: do your job. I applaud their continued commitment to our
14:10
Speaker 1: collective safety and am committed to working with the council, SFD,
14:14
Speaker 1: and IAFF27 to ensure that they are safe on the
14:18
Speaker 1: job and across the city. Man, I love Seattle. I
14:22
Speaker 1: don't want to seem like I'm coming down hard on Seattle.
14:24
Speaker 1: I really love the city of Seattle. And it was
14:27
Speaker 1: one of the places that I was thinking about moving recently.
14:30
Speaker 1: But after what I've witnessed in the past, oh, I
14:33
Speaker 1: don't know, three years there and in Portland, it's off
14:36
Speaker 1: my list. I'm staying here in Nevada. I'm moving up
14:38
Speaker 1: to northern Nevada soon, outside of Reno somewhere. And I'm
14:42
Speaker 1: just going to stay in Nevada. I don't want to
14:45
Speaker 1: live in a place like that, man. It's bad enough
14:47
Speaker 1: here where these encampments are encroaching on everybody's home. And
14:52
Speaker 1: I'm not a callous person either. I don't think that
14:55
Speaker 1: those encampments should be busted up and people should be arrested.
14:58
Speaker 1: I think that there should be resources pumped into the
15:00
Speaker 1: community and there should be places for people to go.
15:05
Speaker 1: And the people who choose not to go to those places,
15:07
Speaker 1: the people with mental illness, those people should be forced
15:11
Speaker 1: into treatment. Harold's assertion comes as he made it a
15:17
Speaker 1: point to address the burgeoning amount of camps sprouting up
15:21
Speaker 1: across the famously woke city after inheriting the crisis upon
15:24
Speaker 1: being voted into office in January. You know, these politicians say, oh,
15:28
Speaker 1: I inherited this crisis. But during the whole run up
15:32
Speaker 1: in the election, they're applauding, right? They're cheering it on.
15:36
Speaker 1: And in fact, they're promoting shit like this, these encampments
15:39
Speaker 1: and whatnot. And that's all fine and well while you're
15:42
Speaker 1: running for office. But it's one thing to win an election.
15:45
Speaker 1: It's a whole different ball of wax to govern, isn't it?
15:48
Speaker 1: And we see it time and time again. These dudes
15:50
Speaker 1: come out with platitudes, these big statements. I'm fixing this.
15:54
Speaker 1: I'm fixing that. They get into office and they're just
15:57
Speaker 1: another jerk off. Seattle has dedicated $ 173 million towards its
16:04
Speaker 1: homeless crisis in 2022. That is a 125% increase from
16:05
Speaker 1: 2018 when $ 77 million was budgeted towards the issue, according
16:07
Speaker 1: to city data. Well, how much of that is going towards...
16:21
Speaker 1: mental health, and getting people off of drugs. Because guess what?
16:25
Speaker 1: We can talk about, oh, moving homeless centers, moving encampments,
16:29
Speaker 1: and that's all fine and well, but that's a band-aid.
16:31
Speaker 1: What is the cause driving this? And we all know
16:35
Speaker 1: what the cause is. Drug addiction. Once again, the war
16:38
Speaker 1: on drugs rears its ugly head and fucks with the
16:41
Speaker 1: rest of us. We need to find a way to
16:44
Speaker 1: rehabilitate people. And the people who don't want to be rehabilitated,
16:49
Speaker 1: the people who have mental illness from these drugs, well,
16:52
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, but there needs to be a place for
16:54
Speaker 1: them to go to. We used to have asylums for
16:56
Speaker 1: the mentally ill, right? Well, we need to have something
16:59
Speaker 1: like that as well nowadays. I'm convinced of it. But
17:03
Speaker 1: not where they go and get shock treatment. They go
17:06
Speaker 1: and they get drug rehabilitation. Because most of these problems,
17:10
Speaker 1: I would say the vast majority of them, ride on
17:13
Speaker 1: the back of drug addictions. This year's budget ordered by
17:18
Speaker 1: Harold included a $ 9. 8 million spending package dedicated towards the
17:22
Speaker 1: removal of encampments, which are often centered around RVs and
17:26
Speaker 1: houses dozens of homeless inhabitants. So, you know, you have
17:30
Speaker 1: the RVs set up and people live in these RVs,
17:34
Speaker 1: but they park them on regular streets. So you have
17:36
Speaker 1: common citizens paying a shit ton of money for their house.
17:40
Speaker 1: They come out and there's homeless people everywhere. How is
17:43
Speaker 1: that fair to them? With that said, the city has
17:48
Speaker 1: recorded a number of fires at encampments. 608 were recorded
17:53
Speaker 1: within the first four months of 2022, a number that
17:56
Speaker 1: eventually swelled to 855 fires through June 30th. One thing
18:02
Speaker 1: I will say about the homeless encampments that are, I
18:05
Speaker 1: don't know, close to my neighborhood, the people seem to
18:08
Speaker 1: be not so crazy or violent or destructive or dirty even.
18:14
Speaker 1: Like there's not a bunch of trash. which I applaud
18:17
Speaker 1: them for that. And whenever it's really hot out and
18:20
Speaker 1: I bring water down to them, because I'll bring them
18:22
Speaker 1: a few cases of water while I'm driving by, it's
18:25
Speaker 1: really hot in Las Vegas, folks. Really, really hot here.
18:29
Speaker 1: And like I said, I'm very compassionate for people. And
18:31
Speaker 1: I want people to have a chance, man, to make
18:34
Speaker 1: a comeback, right? Who doesn't love a great comeback story?
18:38
Speaker 1: So if I can help out with a little bit
18:39
Speaker 1: of water every now and then, that's what I do.
18:41
Speaker 1: As I've said previous times, I have family members who
18:44
Speaker 1: are caught up, who are addicted to drugs, and they're
18:47
Speaker 1: out in the streets too. So it's not like I
18:50
Speaker 1: don't have compassion for people who are out here suffering.
18:53
Speaker 1: I do. But when you start encroaching on other people's
18:57
Speaker 1: rights and their pursuit of happiness, well, if you're the asshole,
19:01
Speaker 1: you're the asshole, right? And that's what it breaks down to.
19:05
Speaker 1: If you're living in one of these encampments and you're
19:07
Speaker 1: there because you just want to be a drug addict
19:09
Speaker 1: and a general drain on society, that's where my compassion ends.
19:14
Speaker 1: My compassion is for people who truly want help. People
19:17
Speaker 1: who have found themselves in a bad way, a bad situation,
19:20
Speaker 1: addicted to something, lost a job, whatever it is. Those
19:23
Speaker 1: are the people who who we should be helping. And
19:26
Speaker 1: the people who don't want help, the people who just
19:27
Speaker 1: want to be on drugs and walk around throwing kicks
19:30
Speaker 1: like Johnny Lawrence in our streets, well, they might have
19:33
Speaker 1: to get swooped up and compelled to get off of
19:36
Speaker 1: those drugs. Currently, the city reports an average of five
19:41
Speaker 1: fires originating from encampments per day, officials say. Reports of
19:46
Speaker 1: shootings and shots fired near known encampment sites have also
19:49
Speaker 1: been rising. with officials reporting an average of three cases
19:53
Speaker 1: per week, down from three and a half per week
19:55
Speaker 1: earlier in the year. Through June 30th, there were 71
19:59
Speaker 1: shots fired near encampment sites. So what can we take
20:03
Speaker 1: from this, kids, boys and girls, ladies and gentlemen, and
20:06
Speaker 1: everybody else? There's a problem in these encampments. And there's
20:10
Speaker 1: a problem with violence in these encampments. Mayor Harrell's office
20:16
Speaker 1: has said of the number of shootings and shots fired,
20:19
Speaker 1: the encampments continue to be disproportionately represented in public safety
20:24
Speaker 1: emergencies in the city. And safety and health emergencies at
20:28
Speaker 1: encampments continue to put additional strain on an already stretched
20:32
Speaker 1: thin public safety system. Remember, we just did an article
20:36
Speaker 1: a few weeks ago here on the podcast about about
20:38
Speaker 1: how Seattle isn't even investigating serious sexual assault cases. It's backlogged.
20:43
Speaker 1: Are you effing kidding me right now? Defund the police, huh?
20:46
Speaker 1: That's working out great for you guys. Lisa Herbald, Seattle
20:52
Speaker 1: City Council member and chair of the Public Safety and
20:55
Speaker 1: Human Services Committee, earlier this month also responded to IAFF's
21:00
Speaker 1: 27 plea for help protecting firefighters from dangers associated with
21:04
Speaker 1: these sites, expressing concern for the first responders. I unequivocally
21:10
Speaker 1: condemn acts of violence and I support the safety of
21:13
Speaker 1: all in public service, especially first responders who put themselves
21:17
Speaker 1: in harm's way, both at SPD and SFD. She wrote
21:22
Speaker 1: in an email to the union. Well, that's all fine
21:24
Speaker 1: and well platitudes and this, that the other thing for
21:27
Speaker 1: the last four years, it was the other way around, right? Oh, well,
21:30
Speaker 1: we can't be seen to support these guys. And trust me, folks,
21:34
Speaker 1: I'm no big fan of law enforcement. As you all know,
21:38
Speaker 1: But the hypocrisy is very thick here. And this is
21:44
Speaker 1: a fine example of F around and find out. This
21:48
Speaker 1: is what happens when you shit on your emergency services
21:53
Speaker 1: for so long. People don't have any respect for them.
21:55
Speaker 1: And especially in these encampments. It is not immediately clear
22:00
Speaker 1: what further action the city is taking to quell the
22:03
Speaker 1: crimes being committed at the encampments. The city has seen
22:07
Speaker 1: its homeless population swell in recent years, with the rapidly
22:10
Speaker 1: sprouting encampments serving as a product of the severe housing
22:14
Speaker 1: crisis the city is currently experiencing, fueled by rocketing rents
22:19
Speaker 1: and a rising poverty line. But what they'll tell you is, oh,
22:22
Speaker 1: inflation is fine now because it went down to 8.6%
22:26
Speaker 1: and gas is going down a little bit. That is
22:29
Speaker 1: absolute gas lighting. We have a lot of problems, and
22:33
Speaker 1: most of them now are stemming on rent, and the
22:36
Speaker 1: price of food. And what we see in Seattle, if
22:40
Speaker 1: you haven't seen it in a city near you, oh,
22:42
Speaker 1: just wait, it's coming. I can tell you from personal experience,
22:45
Speaker 1: it's on the way. And once people start really getting
22:50
Speaker 1: the butcher's bill and things start to really slow down,
22:53
Speaker 1: my guess is at the end of this month, it's
22:56
Speaker 1: going to be bad, folks. So buckle up and get ready.
23:00
Speaker 1: That's going to do it for this episode. If you'd
23:02
Speaker 1: like to contact me, you can do that at bobbycapucci
23:05
Speaker 1: at protonmail.com. That's B-O-B-B-Y-C-A-P-U-C-C-I at protonmail.com. You can also find
23:15
Speaker 1: me on Twitter at B-O-B-B-Y underscore C-A-P-U-C-C-I. The link that
23:22
Speaker 1: I discussed can be found in the description box. All right, everybody,
23:26
Speaker 1: I'll be back with a little bit more later on.
23:29
Speaker 1: Hope that all of you are enjoying your day. What's up, everyone,
23:33
Speaker 1: and welcome back to the program. This morning, we have
23:36
Speaker 1: a pretty disturbing article to discuss, and it has to
23:40
Speaker 1: do with staffing shortages in Seattle in their sexual assault department.
23:48
Speaker 1: According to this memo, new sexual assault charges weren't even
23:53
Speaker 1: investigated this year. because of the staffing shortages within the
23:58
Speaker 1: police department in Seattle. And this is why the whole
24:01
Speaker 1: defund the police movement was a bad idea from Jump Street.
24:07
Speaker 1: It's one thing to try and redirect those funds and
24:10
Speaker 1: get police officers trained in the proper manner. It's another
24:13
Speaker 1: thing to get rid of all of that funding altogether
24:16
Speaker 1: and have police officers who are poorly trained and, like
24:20
Speaker 1: in this case, staffing shortages where we can't afford them.
24:26
Speaker 1: You mean to tell me that it's a good idea
24:29
Speaker 1: that sexual assaults can't be investigated? And don't get me wrong,
24:34
Speaker 1: I understand. People were fired up in the wake of
24:37
Speaker 1: what happened to George Floyd, and they should have been.
24:40
Speaker 1: It was disgusting and it was gross to watch that
24:43
Speaker 1: on my television. But the reactionary behavior that I have
24:48
Speaker 1: seen from local governments and politicians, it's gross as well.
24:55
Speaker 1: There has to be a happy medium. We have to
24:57
Speaker 1: find a balance. And defunding the police department is certainly
25:02
Speaker 1: not the way to go because you're going to end
25:04
Speaker 1: up with situations like this. So who's going to step
25:07
Speaker 1: in and find justice for your loved one if they're
25:10
Speaker 1: sexually assaulted, if not the police? What, are we going
25:13
Speaker 1: to have vigilante groups roaming the streets? That's what you're
25:17
Speaker 1: asking for if we keep defunding the police. How about
25:21
Speaker 1: we retrain the police? How about we rethink... how we
25:25
Speaker 1: do police work. Whenever there's some kind of domestic disturbance,
25:29
Speaker 1: why are we only sending out police officers and not
25:33
Speaker 1: a social worker with them? Let the police officers go,
25:36
Speaker 1: establish security, and then let the social worker figure out
25:40
Speaker 1: what's going on before you send the cops in there
25:43
Speaker 1: who are woefully unprepared to be psychologists. But instead, you
25:50
Speaker 1: have these people out here who don't want to get
25:52
Speaker 1: involved good ideas into the pipeline instead they'd rather just
25:56
Speaker 1: defund the whole police department and it's the old adage
26:00
Speaker 1: you're cutting off your nose to spite your face so
26:03
Speaker 1: let's dive into this article from the Seattle Times and
26:08
Speaker 1: let's see what sort of shit show we have waiting
26:10
Speaker 1: for us up in the beautiful city of Seattle headline
26:16
Speaker 1: Seattle police stopped investigating new adult sexual assaults this year
26:20
Speaker 1: memo shows This article was authored by Sydney Brownstone and
26:26
Speaker 1: Ashley Hiroko. Now remember, we're not talking about simple crimes here.
26:33
Speaker 1: Basic crimes, parking tickets. The parking enforcement division hasn't been depleted.
26:38
Speaker 1: But there is nobody there to take these new sexual
26:42
Speaker 1: assault reports, nobody to investigate. How in the hell is
26:45
Speaker 1: that possible in the year 2022 in one of the largest,
26:50
Speaker 1: greatest American cities that sexual assaults are not being investigated?
26:55
Speaker 1: How does that sit well with any of you? Seattle's
27:00
Speaker 1: police sexual assault and child abuse unit staff has been
27:04
Speaker 1: so depleted that it stopped assigning to detectives this year
27:07
Speaker 1: new cases with adult victims, according to an internal memo
27:11
Speaker 1: sent to interim police chief Adrian Diaz in April. So,
27:15
Speaker 1: I mean, if you're a Jeffrey Epstein or one of
27:17
Speaker 1: his buddies, I guess Seattle's the spot for you. Uncle
27:22
Speaker 1: Touchy's favorite place in the world is going to end
27:24
Speaker 1: up being Seattle. I mean, who'd want to live there?
27:28
Speaker 1: Your wife, your girlfriend, your mother, your daughter at any
27:30
Speaker 1: moment can be assaulted. And then to top it off,
27:34
Speaker 1: make things worse. You can't even file a report and
27:37
Speaker 1: have the police investigate what's going on. It's a good
27:40
Speaker 1: way to get a lot of vigilante justice. I'm not
27:42
Speaker 1: even kidding around. We saw what Cain Velasquez did. And
27:46
Speaker 1: what you think that he's the only person? If the
27:50
Speaker 1: police aren't bringing justice and the Department of Justice isn't
27:53
Speaker 1: providing justice, well, what then? The unit sergeant put her
27:59
Speaker 1: staffing crisis in stark terms. The community expects our agency
28:04
Speaker 1: to respond to reports of sexual violence, Sergeant Pamela St.
28:07
Speaker 1: John wrote, and at current staffing levels, that objective is unattainable.
28:13
Speaker 1: Law enforcement agencies here and across the country have grappled
28:17
Speaker 1: with labor shortages during the pandemic and since the 2020
28:21
Speaker 1: protests following the murder of George Floyd. Well, here's an idea.
28:25
Speaker 1: Why don't we get rid of the mandates surrounding the vaccine? Now, look,
28:30
Speaker 1: I'm not going to dive into the whole. Should you?
28:32
Speaker 1: I don't care what you do with your personal health. OK,
28:34
Speaker 1: that's your business. But the mandates, I never thought that
28:38
Speaker 1: they were a good idea because we're going to have
28:40
Speaker 1: stuff like this occurring. And furthermore. Even with those mandates,
28:45
Speaker 1: if the vaccine was 100% effective in preventing the transmission
28:50
Speaker 1: of COVID, then I'd say, all right, I can understand that.
28:53
Speaker 1: But there's still too much we don't know, right? So
28:55
Speaker 1: how many good police officers did we freeze out because
28:59
Speaker 1: of the mandates and stuff? I think it was playing
29:03
Speaker 1: the short game as opposed to looking at the long game.
29:06
Speaker 1: And we're suffering for it here on the back end.
29:10
Speaker 1: especially considering with the polarization of police work, it's going
29:16
Speaker 1: to be hard to have people who want to be
29:19
Speaker 1: police officers at this point. I mean, would you want
29:21
Speaker 1: to be a police officer? I certainly wouldn't. First of all,
29:25
Speaker 1: I don't really trust the police, okay? Second of all,
29:28
Speaker 1: I wouldn't want to put my life on the line
29:30
Speaker 1: for an ungrateful community. And third, who the hell knows
29:34
Speaker 1: what the rules of engagement are these days? So I
29:36
Speaker 1: don't know why anyone would want to be a police officer.
29:43
Speaker 1: But Seattle's failure to staff its sexual assault unit stands
29:46
Speaker 1: out from other local departments and raises questions about Seattle
29:50
Speaker 1: Police Department's priorities, advocates say. And I agree with that. Look,
29:54
Speaker 1: you have to prioritize, okay? And if you're not reporting
29:58
Speaker 1: sexual assaults or you're not investigating them, that needs to
30:01
Speaker 1: be a priority. I bet you these guys are still
30:04
Speaker 1: out there dicking around, you know, making traffic stops, right? Well,
30:09
Speaker 1: why don't we show that same vigor and that same
30:11
Speaker 1: zeal for these sexual assaults? And if you know that
30:14
Speaker 1: there's these shortages as the police commissioner or whatever, you
30:18
Speaker 1: need to come up with that money. Take it from
30:19
Speaker 1: somewhere else. Get rid of some of the other departments.
30:22
Speaker 1: Bring officers in from elsewhere. Call an emergency priority meeting
30:26
Speaker 1: and get the governor to give you some federal funds.
30:28
Speaker 1: Whatever it might be, you have to make some moves.
30:34
Speaker 1: The memo sent April 11th emerged amid a wave of
30:38
Speaker 1: new political promises for policing in Seattle. Last fall, Seattle
30:43
Speaker 1: voters elected a new mayor who rejected calls to defund
30:46
Speaker 1: the police and campaigned on a platform to clear public
30:49
Speaker 1: spaces of homeless encampments and strengthen public safety. And that's
30:57
Speaker 1: a platform I can get behind. But the caveat to
31:01
Speaker 1: that is with the homeless encampments, I believe that we
31:03
Speaker 1: need to provide a facility for the homeless where they
31:07
Speaker 1: can go and get training, get schooling, get health help.
31:14
Speaker 1: And obviously there has to be rules, right? And if
31:17
Speaker 1: you're going to get rid of those encampments... then I
31:20
Speaker 1: would hope that there's some someplace to have these people go.
31:24
Speaker 1: And the people who choose not to go to these
31:26
Speaker 1: facilities or follow those rules, well, then those people, if
31:30
Speaker 1: they camp illegally in the streets, then whatever the penalty is,
31:34
Speaker 1: then fine. But the displacement of people without them having
31:37
Speaker 1: a place to go, I find it to be callous.
31:40
Speaker 1: And I know that's a bit you know, bleeding hard-ish,
31:43
Speaker 1: but these are human beings. And I personally have people
31:48
Speaker 1: close to me who have been caught up in this
31:50
Speaker 1: drug game and who live in these encampments right now
31:52
Speaker 1: as we speak. I don't really delve too deep into it,
31:56
Speaker 1: but I have relatives right now, one in-law and a
31:59
Speaker 1: personal relative, blood relative, who are living on the streets,
32:03
Speaker 1: living this life of drug addict behavior and high-risk, you know, engagements.
32:13
Speaker 1: So I definitely have a different perspective on this and
32:17
Speaker 1: I can understand the other perspective as well, because when
32:20
Speaker 1: I drive through neighborhoods and I see these homeless encampments,
32:23
Speaker 1: it's not a good look. It's not good for property values.
32:26
Speaker 1: And frankly, there are people who are disturbed and on
32:29
Speaker 1: drugs and not mentally with it who you don't want
32:32
Speaker 1: around your children. So what I try to do is
32:35
Speaker 1: find a middle ground. And usually that means nobody is happy, right?
32:39
Speaker 1: Each side is like, oh, this is a bad idea.
32:42
Speaker 1: But that's usually how you get to middle ground. And
32:45
Speaker 1: here specifically in Las Vegas, we have plenty of room
32:48
Speaker 1: where we could put together some kind of desert camp,
32:51
Speaker 1: if you will, a dormitory setting where people can go.
32:55
Speaker 1: They have to sign a waiver or whatever. They have
32:58
Speaker 1: to get help for their drug addiction. end in return
33:02
Speaker 1: for getting help for your drug addiction, then the camp
33:05
Speaker 1: buys in on you and helps you with your future.
33:08
Speaker 1: Placement at a job, living circumstances, helping you get dental
33:13
Speaker 1: work done, whatever it is. See, these are the things
33:16
Speaker 1: that we can do to help alleviate the pressure, but
33:20
Speaker 1: they don't want to do it because this is a
33:22
Speaker 1: good political issue for them and they can argue and
33:24
Speaker 1: fight about it. And we all know that's their main goal, right?
33:28
Speaker 1: Not to make our lives better, but to make you
33:30
Speaker 1: think that the other side is evil. All right, folks,
33:33
Speaker 1: let's take a quick commercial break. Behind the scenes, police
33:40
Speaker 1: leaders confronting an ongoing staffing crisis short up patrol and
33:44
Speaker 1: positions that respond to homeless encampments while some investigative units
33:49
Speaker 1: have shrunk. Well, look, you guys shouldn't have promoted all
33:52
Speaker 1: of this crap with like the chop and all of
33:55
Speaker 1: this other nonsense that was going on during those upheavals
34:00
Speaker 1: of violence during the summer. oh, this is a peaceful place, blah, blah, blah, this, that,
34:06
Speaker 1: the other thing. Don't you remember? These people set up
34:09
Speaker 1: an encampment like right in the middle of the city
34:11
Speaker 1: and nobody did shit about it. And in fact, you
34:12
Speaker 1: had politicians out here giving it the old one too. Oh,
34:16
Speaker 1: this is a good idea, blah. No, it was never
34:18
Speaker 1: a good idea. And the people who were inside of
34:20
Speaker 1: that encampment, the chop, they were up to no good.
34:24
Speaker 1: People were being sexually assaulted, raped, the whole nine. But
34:28
Speaker 1: of course you had people out here trying to gaslight
34:30
Speaker 1: and act like this is a good thing when it
34:32
Speaker 1: never was. And what it does is it promotes things
34:36
Speaker 1: like this. These encampments and, you know, homeless people. They
34:41
Speaker 1: come and set up shop and it's very hard to
34:43
Speaker 1: get rid of them. Especially in a place like Seattle
34:46
Speaker 1: where you have all kinds of crazy wild rules. Meanwhile,
34:51
Speaker 1: because of this problem and because it's been promoted by
34:54
Speaker 1: local politicians for the most part, well... Now sexual assaults
34:59
Speaker 1: are not being investigated. So you folks tell me, what
35:02
Speaker 1: should the priority be? This nonsense with homelessness and having
35:07
Speaker 1: to send out 500 units to monitor what's going on?
35:10
Speaker 1: Or a dedicated unit that does nothing but deal with
35:14
Speaker 1: sexual assaults? I mean, it's pretty simple from where I'm sitting.
35:20
Speaker 1: Now the department's lack of attention to its sexual assault
35:23
Speaker 1: unit is threatening the viability of cases as delayed investigations
35:28
Speaker 1: and evidence collection possibly hinder their outcomes. In the memo, St.
35:32
Speaker 1: John went on to say that she was not able
35:35
Speaker 1: to assign adult sexual assault cases that came into her unit.
35:39
Speaker 1: Cases involving children and adult cases that had a suspect
35:43
Speaker 1: in custody, a fraction of adult sexual assaults reported to police,
35:47
Speaker 1: were being prioritized. The unit just had too few detectives.
35:51
Speaker 1: How is that even possible? If you have too few
35:54
Speaker 1: cashiers over at Albertson's at the grocery store, you hire
35:58
Speaker 1: some cashiers. So why not hire some detectives here? Oh,
36:01
Speaker 1: that's right, because the budget was cut. It doesn't take
36:04
Speaker 1: a rocket scientist and you don't have to be an
36:07
Speaker 1: economist to figure out what went on here. These concerns
36:14
Speaker 1: bear out in fewer referrals from the sexual assault unit
36:17
Speaker 1: to prosecutors. King County prosecutors say they've communicated with the
36:22
Speaker 1: sexual assault unit about understanding concerns, but little has changed.
36:27
Speaker 1: Assistant Chief Deanna Nolet in an interview with the Seattle
36:30
Speaker 1: Times and KUOW this week dismissed St. John's portrayal of
36:35
Speaker 1: what was happening in her unit and as not accurate
36:39
Speaker 1: and a gross oversimplification. Oh, of course, the bean counter
36:42
Speaker 1: is going to say that. The assistant chief, Deanna Nolorete.
36:46
Speaker 1: Shut up. So tired of all these water-carrying politicians, all
36:51
Speaker 1: of these bureaucrats, and all of the surrogates that run
36:54
Speaker 1: around chirping the same shit that they hear these people say.
36:58
Speaker 1: Enough is enough, okay? The fact of the matter is
37:03
Speaker 1: Seattle is in bad shape. And the chief here trying
37:07
Speaker 1: to run cover, that doesn't do anyone any good. Takes
37:11
Speaker 1: some self-responsibility and fix the problem. Sexual assault cases are
37:19
Speaker 1: still being assigned, but the workload is being triaged based
37:22
Speaker 1: on a number of factors that we would traditionally use
37:25
Speaker 1: to triage those cases. She's saying that they're prioritizing them
37:30
Speaker 1: based on which ones are the most concerning. And I
37:32
Speaker 1: don't believe that for a second. Why would her subordinates
37:35
Speaker 1: come out and say something different? Who do you think
37:38
Speaker 1: really has their finger on the pulse? The sergeant who's
37:40
Speaker 1: actually working these cases or this dumbass politician chief? Nolet
37:47
Speaker 1: emphasized that staffing shortages were being felt across the department.
37:50
Speaker 1: She did not provide an up-to-date count of how many
37:53
Speaker 1: sexual assault cases were on hold, although detectives in the
37:57
Speaker 1: unit are keeping a list with dozens of cases. Now,
38:01
Speaker 1: think about that for a minute, folks. It's one thing
38:04
Speaker 1: for me and you to be talking about it right
38:05
Speaker 1: now from the comfort of my little studio here, you
38:08
Speaker 1: sitting at your house. What happens, though, if you're one
38:11
Speaker 1: of those names that's on that list? What then? Should
38:15
Speaker 1: we just shrug our shoulders and say, oh, well, there's
38:18
Speaker 1: a staffing shortage. We shouldn't pursue justice here. I certainly
38:21
Speaker 1: don't think so. Certainly not the route I think we
38:24
Speaker 1: should be pursuing. So something has to give here. And
38:28
Speaker 1: if this chief isn't willing to deal with reality, then
38:31
Speaker 1: she needs to be removed. Pretty simple. Other political leaders
38:36
Speaker 1: expressed skepticism at the idea that department-wide understaffing was to
38:41
Speaker 1: blame for the sexual assault unit predicament. Senator Manka Dhingra said,
38:47
Speaker 1: Democrat from Redmond, a senior deputy King County prosecutor who
38:51
Speaker 1: has led efforts in the legislature to improve treatment of
38:54
Speaker 1: sexual assault victims, said the sexual assault unit's problems were
38:58
Speaker 1: about priorities, not adequate staffing. I cannot really tell you
39:02
Speaker 1: how pissed I am about this, Dingra said, because it
39:05
Speaker 1: is completely unacceptable. This is 2022. We should not be
39:09
Speaker 1: having this conversation about allocating resources for survivors. A lot
39:13
Speaker 1: of bullshit talk. All of these people with all this talk.
39:16
Speaker 1: One thing that I have learned in my past three
39:18
Speaker 1: years of ripping the curtain back from Jeffrey Epstein and
39:23
Speaker 1: his association and the rest of these scumbags is that
39:25
Speaker 1: there's a lot of talk with people like this Senator
39:29
Speaker 1: Manka Dhingra. But then what happens? Look at all the
39:32
Speaker 1: talk we had from Ben Sasse over in Nebraska about Epstein.
39:36
Speaker 1: Did we ever get these big ass meetings that we're
39:39
Speaker 1: seeing about what happened in Capitol Hill? Of course not.
39:44
Speaker 1: Because it's only talk for them. Once they get blustery
39:48
Speaker 1: and they pitch their nonsense, they move on to the
39:50
Speaker 1: next subject, and that's that. A starved sexual assault unit.
39:56
Speaker 1: The staffing crisis at the Seattle Police Department is not new.
40:00
Speaker 1: The department has been losing officers since the beginning of 2020,
40:04
Speaker 1: and staff levels plummeted to a new low at the
40:07
Speaker 1: end of 2021. Whereas 2020 began with 1,290 officers in service,
40:14
Speaker 1: by March 2022, those numbers dropped to 968, well below
40:20
Speaker 1: the department's own projections and what the city expected to
40:24
Speaker 1: spend on salaries. And a lot of that also is
40:27
Speaker 1: people getting chased from their jobs. Not only the mandates,
40:31
Speaker 1: but who wants to do this job at this point?
40:34
Speaker 1: You're not being... backed up by your superiors the local
40:38
Speaker 1: politicians are using you as a political vice it's just
40:44
Speaker 1: ridiculous what's going on in places like Seattle and it
40:47
Speaker 1: was never going to end well when I watched what
40:50
Speaker 1: was going on up there during the summer of upheaval
40:53
Speaker 1: I just shook my head you can't have that kind
40:57
Speaker 1: of rhetoric and then expect the people to support what's
41:01
Speaker 1: going on with the police. Instead, they should have tried
41:05
Speaker 1: to weed out the bad apples, get rid of the
41:08
Speaker 1: leadership structure from the top, bring in new people who
41:12
Speaker 1: want to have new training techniques, learn new things, and
41:16
Speaker 1: go about policing in a new way. Why don't we
41:18
Speaker 1: have that conversation? Nolet defended the sexual assault unit's low
41:24
Speaker 1: staff numbers, saying units across the department felt the impact
41:27
Speaker 1: of the losses. The sexual assault unit wasn't even the
41:30
Speaker 1: most affected, she said. I could bring anybody in here
41:34
Speaker 1: from anywhere in the department, and they would tell you
41:36
Speaker 1: the same story, Nolet said. Well, that's not a problem, Senator.
41:40
Speaker 1: Who elected this lady, by the way? If you live
41:42
Speaker 1: in Seattle, and you re-elect her, then that's on you.
41:46
Speaker 1: We're at that point where we have to take responsibility
41:49
Speaker 1: for our vote. And these people who are sowing seeds
41:54
Speaker 1: of distrust in the community, these people who are not
41:57
Speaker 1: taking self-responsibility, and these people who are only getting into
42:00
Speaker 1: office for self-benefit, they need to be voted out. I'm
42:05
Speaker 1: telling you, not one single incumbent. I am not voting
42:08
Speaker 1: for one in Nevada. My life hasn't gotten any better here.
42:11
Speaker 1: These dudes haven't done anything here where it's making me
42:13
Speaker 1: get out in the streets. It's ridiculous. But yet, come
42:17
Speaker 1: election season, all of a sudden, they care so much
42:19
Speaker 1: about you. Seattle police staffing numbers presented to the Seattle
42:25
Speaker 1: City Council on April 26th show the reduction in the
42:29
Speaker 1: workforce has not been felt evenly across the department. According
42:33
Speaker 1: to council central staff, the percent of the force in
42:35
Speaker 1: operation support, which includes training and personnel on extended leave
42:40
Speaker 1: and the patrol division, has increased while investigative units have thinned.
42:45
Speaker 1: Diaz explained that maintaining patrol numbers wasn't just important for
42:48
Speaker 1: trying to control 911 response times. but for taking in
42:52
Speaker 1: reports of rape and sexual assault. If we don't have
42:55
Speaker 1: an officer to respond to sexual assault, we're never going
42:59
Speaker 1: to have to have the follow-up to be able to
43:01
Speaker 1: investigate it, Diaz told the council. So I've tried to
43:03
Speaker 1: make sure we've maintained our patrol staffing levels. Okay, so
43:08
Speaker 1: you're going to be on patrol and you're going to
43:10
Speaker 1: take reports, but then what are you going to do
43:12
Speaker 1: with those reports? If you don't have investigators, detectives to
43:16
Speaker 1: take them reports, then what? I don't even know what
43:19
Speaker 1: this even means, what he's trying to say here. Oh, okay,
43:21
Speaker 1: so we've increased our patrols, but we can't investigate after
43:25
Speaker 1: the fact? So unless you catch somebody in the act? Well,
43:28
Speaker 1: what's the point? Again, more lip service. Look, we're doing something.
43:34
Speaker 1: At the top of the department's priorities for investigating adult
43:37
Speaker 1: sexual assault cases are those with suspects in custody, according
43:42
Speaker 1: to an internal response to St. John's memo. A small
43:45
Speaker 1: portion of the cases the unit typically sees. Now the
43:49
Speaker 1: unit maintains a list of new sexual assault cases it's
43:51
Speaker 1: simply unable to investigate for the lack of detectives, according
43:55
Speaker 1: to internal communications at the department obtained by KUOW. Currently,
44:03
Speaker 1: the sexual assault unit has five detectives to respond to
44:06
Speaker 1: sexual assault and child abuse reports for the entire city,
44:10
Speaker 1: which had 225 sex offenses reported so far this year,
44:15
Speaker 1: according to the department's crime data. Yet other units that
44:18
Speaker 1: don't investigate violent crime have more staff. How can you
44:22
Speaker 1: justify that? And the senator who got up here just
44:25
Speaker 1: a second ago was pumping her gums. I swear to you,
44:29
Speaker 1: if you were in my district, I'd be calling you
44:31
Speaker 1: on Monday morning and I'd be letting your office have
44:34
Speaker 1: it for your comments here. You need to take some
44:37
Speaker 1: personal responsibility. All of these politicians. I'm so tired of
44:41
Speaker 1: them blaming their rivals or the other side. Shut up
44:45
Speaker 1: and look in the mirror. The department's alternative response team,
44:50
Speaker 1: the unit that responds to homeless encampment removals, is now
44:53
Speaker 1: staffed by twice the number of officers on the sexual
44:57
Speaker 1: assault unit after an additional seven patrol officers were added
45:00
Speaker 1: to the unit this year. And again, this is a
45:03
Speaker 1: problem of self-make. If you don't promote things like the
45:07
Speaker 1: chop and all the other ridiculousness that people promoted up there, well,
45:12
Speaker 1: this doesn't happen. People don't feel like they can come
45:15
Speaker 1: and set up shop the way they have. So the
45:19
Speaker 1: people of Seattle, they're going to have to vote to
45:21
Speaker 1: change this. That's the only way to do it. Bring
45:24
Speaker 1: in people who are going to go after violent sexual offenders.
45:28
Speaker 1: I can't even believe I have to say that. I mean,
45:31
Speaker 1: is this real life? That we're having this conversation right now?
45:39
Speaker 1: The department's general investigations unit, which investigates property crime, has
45:43
Speaker 1: 12 detectives. Far more property crimes are reported to Seattle
45:47
Speaker 1: police each year than sexual assault, but they're simpler to investigate.
45:52
Speaker 1: Breaking news, no one's investigating your property crimes, just like
45:56
Speaker 1: when you get robbed. You call the cops, oh, we'll
45:58
Speaker 1: take a report. What are they going to do? You
46:00
Speaker 1: really think they're sending out investigators to go and find
46:02
Speaker 1: out about your property damage? Give me a break already.
46:08
Speaker 1: When you have businesses that are the single biggest loss
46:11
Speaker 1: leaders in the country telling you, we are going to
46:13
Speaker 1: close our businesses and leave the city of Seattle if
46:16
Speaker 1: we don't do something about the crime, we have a
46:18
Speaker 1: responsibility as a department to try to do what we
46:21
Speaker 1: can to support them with policing, Nolet said. Yeah, well,
46:25
Speaker 1: you should have thought about that before you pumped out
46:28
Speaker 1: all the bullshit you pumped out in the summer of troubles.
46:32
Speaker 1: Because what you've done is you've promoted this whole entire
46:36
Speaker 1: lawlessness that you're seeing. Oh, we're going to defund the police. Yeah,
46:41
Speaker 1: that's a good idea, said nobody ever who's ever lived
46:44
Speaker 1: in the inner city. But now, all of a sudden,
46:48
Speaker 1: it's a big problem, huh? All of a sudden, you
46:51
Speaker 1: can't have sexual assaults being investigated because you have to
46:56
Speaker 1: go and clear out the homeless encampments that you created.
47:02
Speaker 1: The department has allowed investigative units, including the sexual assault unit,
47:06
Speaker 1: to fall from 16% of the total sworn force in
47:10
Speaker 1: 2020 to 14% currently, while the proportion of police in
47:14
Speaker 1: areas including patrol, leadership, and operations support has increased. So, bureaucracy.
47:20
Speaker 1: More people getting fat on the dime of the taxpayer
47:22
Speaker 1: without doing their job. Boy, isn't that nice. The understaffing
47:29
Speaker 1: in the sexual assault unit has drained the morale of
47:32
Speaker 1: its employees, most of whom are overworked and burned out,
47:35
Speaker 1: according to a detective in the unit who requested anonymity
47:39
Speaker 1: because SPD police prohibited them from speaking with the media. Oh,
47:43
Speaker 1: that's shocking. While detectives struggle to make a dent in
47:47
Speaker 1: large child abuse and sexual assault caseloads, the department has
47:51
Speaker 1: also drafted them to work security and traffic control at
47:54
Speaker 1: sporting events. I mean, are you kidding me right now?
47:58
Speaker 1: Really not the article I wanted to read on a
48:00
Speaker 1: Saturday morning, but here we are. When I was going
48:03
Speaker 1: through articles this morning, looking at headlines and different things
48:07
Speaker 1: to talk about today, I knew we would have to
48:09
Speaker 1: talk about this one. And as you folks know, I
48:12
Speaker 1: don't read these articles before we dive in. That way
48:15
Speaker 1: my reaction is visceral to the content that we're reading.
48:19
Speaker 1: And boy oh boy am I fired up right now.
48:24
Speaker 1: Sergeant St. John wrote the memo after a KUOW story
48:28
Speaker 1: in April that showed Seattle police were investigating few adult
48:31
Speaker 1: sexual assault cases while struggling to meet the demand required
48:35
Speaker 1: by law to quickly resolve cases involving children. St. John
48:39
Speaker 1: declined to comment for this story. At the time St.
48:42
Speaker 1: John wrote the memo, 30 adult cases were waiting to
48:45
Speaker 1: be assigned to detectives and 116 alerts showing that identifiable
48:50
Speaker 1: DNA from rape kits had been uploaded to a federal
48:53
Speaker 1: database and needed attention, St. John wrote Diaz. The sexual
48:58
Speaker 1: assault unit had historically been staffed with 10 to 12 detectives, St.
49:01
Speaker 1: John wrote, but that unit could start chipping away at
49:05
Speaker 1: the backlog of adult sexual cases with eight. Wow. Wow, wow, wow.
49:11
Speaker 1: So you get rid of four officers who couldn't even
49:13
Speaker 1: take care of the caseload previously, and then you expect
49:16
Speaker 1: them to take over all of these sexual assault cases?
49:20
Speaker 1: and the ones including children that have to be done
49:22
Speaker 1: in a timely manner? It doesn't make any sense. It's
49:27
Speaker 1: not logical. And the elected officials in Seattle are directly
49:31
Speaker 1: to blame for all of this. Mayor Bruce Harrell declined
49:36
Speaker 1: to be interviewed for this story, though mayoral spokesperson Jamie
49:39
Speaker 1: Housen said that a detective had been added to the
49:42
Speaker 1: sexual assault unit this year. Mayor Harrell has been unequivocal
49:46
Speaker 1: that SPD needs more officers to ensure specialty units are
49:50
Speaker 1: well-staffed and so that investigations are completed swiftly and thoroughly,
49:55
Speaker 1: Housen said by email. A month of more BS. So
49:59
Speaker 1: do it. What are you waiting for? You're the mayor.
50:01
Speaker 1: Make it happen. Get out there and do this. Since St.
50:05
Speaker 1: John's April 11th memo, detectives have started to receive assignments
50:08
Speaker 1: for new cases with adult victims, but the number of
50:11
Speaker 1: cases that are waiting to be investigated has grown. Even
50:15
Speaker 1: with an added detective, adult assignments are still falling by
50:18
Speaker 1: the wayside. According to the detective inside the sexual assault
50:22
Speaker 1: and child abuse unit, there are now 48 adult cases
50:26
Speaker 1: that aren't being investigated, according to the detective. So that
50:30
Speaker 1: means 48 people who are obviously capable of sexually assaulting people, allegedly,
50:39
Speaker 1: are still out there in the community. Boy, isn't that reassuring.
50:45
Speaker 1: Victims wait, cases suffer. Since 2020, King County prosecutors have
50:50
Speaker 1: seen fewer sexual assault cases referred to their office from
50:53
Speaker 1: Seattle police. Between January and April of 2020, Seattle police
50:58
Speaker 1: referred 123 sexual assault and child abuse cases to prosecutors.
51:03
Speaker 1: In the same time period this year, prosecutors have received
51:06
Speaker 1: just 72 cases from Seattle police. Ben Santos, chair of
51:11
Speaker 1: King County Prosecuting Attorney Special Assault Unit, said he's discussed
51:16
Speaker 1: the problem with St. John. He said on more than
51:18
Speaker 1: one occasion, she's described dozens of cases sitting on her desk,
51:23
Speaker 1: unable to be assigned because of a lack of detectives.
51:26
Speaker 1: I mean, wow. I mean, it's one thing if you're
51:30
Speaker 1: waiting to investigate something stupid, right? It's a whole different
51:34
Speaker 1: ballgame here. Seattle police leaders are having to make really
51:39
Speaker 1: difficult choices right now, given that homicide and violent crime
51:43
Speaker 1: rates are up, Santos said. We have done our best
51:45
Speaker 1: to try and let people know what that means on
51:48
Speaker 1: the sexual assault side. It means that these cases are
51:51
Speaker 1: not being investigated the way they should be. He said
51:54
Speaker 1: if detectives are getting assigned a case later than they
51:58
Speaker 1: normally would, it makes it challenging to collect evidence that's
52:01
Speaker 1: temporary in nature, including surveillance video, third-party witnesses, and physical evidence.
52:07
Speaker 1: So basically what he's saying here is it's almost impossible
52:10
Speaker 1: for them to close these cases without the proper staffing.
52:14
Speaker 1: And he's not wrong. If you don't have the proper
52:17
Speaker 1: amount of staffing and the proper amount of officers, you're
52:19
Speaker 1: not going to be able to pursue this. I really
52:22
Speaker 1: think that to a degree the investigations themselves suffer, he said,
52:26
Speaker 1: as do the victims. Santos said he's received reports that
52:29
Speaker 1: victims who go to Harborview Medical Center for Treatment after
52:33
Speaker 1: being sexually assaulted can end up waiting hours to file
52:37
Speaker 1: a report with a Seattle officer. So not only have
52:40
Speaker 1: you been sexually assaulted and abused, now you've got to
52:43
Speaker 1: wait hours for an officer to come and just get
52:45
Speaker 1: your report. Fantastic stuff. Increasingly, victims of sexual assault who
52:53
Speaker 1: report their cases to Seattle police aren't hearing anything back,
52:56
Speaker 1: said Mary Ellen Stone, CEO of the King County Sexual
52:59
Speaker 1: Assault Resource Center. Seattle's slowdown in investigating adult rape cases
53:04
Speaker 1: doesn't match what Stone has seen from other local law
53:07
Speaker 1: enforcement agencies. We work with 38 jurisdictions, and while everybody's
53:12
Speaker 1: dealing with backlogs and everybody's dealing with staffing shortages, we're
53:17
Speaker 1: not seeing something similar from other jurisdictions, Stone said, and
53:20
Speaker 1: that's because it's the shitbag politicians of Seattle. Hate to
53:25
Speaker 1: say it, hate to break the news to you. If
53:27
Speaker 1: you're somebody who lives up there and you voted for
53:29
Speaker 1: these people, sorry, they're not doing a good job. That's
53:33
Speaker 1: just the reality. Seattle City Council Public Safety Committee Chair
53:39
Speaker 1: Lisa Herbold said in an email she had been communicating
53:43
Speaker 1: with advocates who have raised an alarm about victims whose
53:46
Speaker 1: cases are not being investigated, though she was unaware of
53:50
Speaker 1: any policy within Seattle police to stop assigning adult rape
53:54
Speaker 1: cases to detectives. The police department has planned to add
53:58
Speaker 1: yet another detective to the sexual assault unit this month
54:01
Speaker 1: to deal with the caseload and staffing concerns, according to Nolette.
54:05
Speaker 1: But the long-term solution to understaffing in the sexual assault
54:08
Speaker 1: unit was to increase hiring across the department, no let said. Well,
54:13
Speaker 1: you guys shouldn't have worked the whole defund the police angle,
54:15
Speaker 1: should you have? Now you're in big problems. You have
54:19
Speaker 1: businesses who want to leave. You have homeless people who
54:22
Speaker 1: are on drugs and mentally ill, robbing and looting and
54:25
Speaker 1: stealing whatever they want. And of course now, add to it,
54:29
Speaker 1: a huge problem of sexual assault cases that are not
54:32
Speaker 1: being investigated. To that end, Harrell announced an initiative to
54:37
Speaker 1: increase police hires last month, while last week the council
54:41
Speaker 1: approved a proposal from Herbald to free up more than
54:43
Speaker 1: $ 1 million in unspent salary savings to fund new police
54:47
Speaker 1: hiring incentives and recruitment. So basically what you should have
54:52
Speaker 1: been doing in 2020, you're doing now. And the reason
54:55
Speaker 1: you didn't do that in 2020 is because you're terrible
54:58
Speaker 1: leaders and you're bad at your jobs and you buckle
55:00
Speaker 1: under public pressure. That's basically what you're saying, right? Advocates
55:05
Speaker 1: have stressed, however, that they'd like to see more transparency
55:08
Speaker 1: in how SPD allocates the resources it already has. On Tuesday,
55:13
Speaker 1: a man reported to police that he had been raped
55:15
Speaker 1: at knife point. His report was added to the list
55:18
Speaker 1: of stalled cases. Now, imagine that as a guy, you
55:22
Speaker 1: walk in there, you've been raped at knife point, and
55:25
Speaker 1: then you have the police put your shit, your case,
55:29
Speaker 1: the bottom of the stack. So if you live in
55:32
Speaker 1: Seattle and you're listening to this podcast, is that what
55:35
Speaker 1: you voted for? Is this the kind of city you
55:38
Speaker 1: want to live in? Where sexual assault cases aren't even
55:41
Speaker 1: being investigated? I'll tell you what. I wouldn't live in
55:45
Speaker 1: Seattle if you paid me to live there right now.
55:47
Speaker 1: Same goes for Portland. Two of my favorite cities in
55:50
Speaker 1: the country. And I wouldn't live in either of them.
55:54
Speaker 1: And things aren't going to get any better unless they
55:57
Speaker 1: put more funding into these units. It's just going to
56:00
Speaker 1: get worse. So let's see what these politicians have up
56:03
Speaker 1: their sleeve, folks, in the coming days and months. But
56:06
Speaker 1: one thing is for sure, Seattle better get their shit together.
56:11
Speaker 1: If you'd like to contact me, you can do that
56:13
Speaker 1: at bobbycapucci at protonmail.com. That's B-O-B-B-Y-C-A-P-U-C-C-I at protonmail.com. You can
56:22
Speaker 1: also find me on Twitter at B-O-B-B-Y-C-A-P-U-C-C-I. The link that
56:28
Speaker 1: I discussed can be found in the description box. All right, folks,
56:32
Speaker 1: I'll be back later on with a little bit more.
56:34
Speaker 1: Hope that all of you are having a good day.