A Seattle council member, who helped defund the city’s police department, introduced a bill to decriminalize a variety of offenses. However, once she became the victim of one of the crimes on her list, she was quick to call the underfunded officers.
Seattle City Council Member Lisa Herbold failed to live by the same principles with which she expects everyone else to comply. After effectively defunding the Seattle Police Department, Herbold made a frantic call to the police that has both her constituents and her opposition calling out her hypocrisy.
Not only has the Seattle City Council pushed for defunding and eventually abolishing the police, but its members apparently still expect the officers to respond with the same capability and timing as they previously did. Herbold was labeled a hypocrite for her duplicitous actions involving the local police, proving that the push to suppress law enforcement doesn’t work.
Herbold proudly proposed a bill that would legalize many crimes due to the culprit’s social or mental status. Essentially, the proposal would decriminalize misdemeanor offenses committed by those who live in poverty, admit to a drug addiction, or show signs of mental illness, regardless of a medical diagnosis. Under local law, a mental disorder is defined as any “organic, mental, or emotional impairment” that influences one’s behavior.
If approved, it would allow criminals to use excuses like financial hardship, chemical dependency, or even anxiety to escape justice for crimes such as assault, theft, harassment, and trespass. Only domestic violence and driving under the influence (DUI) would be eligible for an exemption, KOMO News reports.
“If approved, the ordinance would excuse and dismiss — essentially legalizing — almost all misdemeanor crimes committed in Seattle by offenders who could show either: Symptoms of addiction without being required to provide a medical diagnosis; Symptoms of a mental disorder; or Poverty and the crime was committed to meet an ‘immediate and basic need.’ For example, if a defendant argued they stole merchandise to sell for cash in order to purchase food, clothes or was trying to scrape together enough money for rent. The accused could not be convicted.”
Despite her efforts, Herbold doesn’t even truly believe in her bill. In fact, she’s been blasted for hypocrisy after she called the police for a crime that could have been decriminalized by her own proposal. According to KTTH, weeks after defunding the police, Herbold called them to report a man for throwing a rock at her living room window.
In the report, she tells police that “she was on the west side of the living room near the kitchen when she heard a loud noise that sounded like a gunshot and dove into the kitchen for cover.” Herbold told police that “her staff has received anonymous phone threats recently, but nothing in particular that links the threats to today’s incident.”
Fortunately, the sound wasn’t a gunshot but a rock hitting the glass. Herbold’s neighbor reported seeing an “un-athletic and a bad runner” leaving the scene around the time of the proposed non-crime. He described the suspect as a white male in a black hoodie and jeans, but he implied that he won’t report the man if he sees him again in the future.
Under Herbold’s proposal, the rock-thrower could simply claim to have anxiety for any charges against him to be dropped. There would be no medical diagnosis required to confirm this defense, and he would be exempt from punishment.
If any such bill was passed, it would make roughly 12,000 arrests invalid each year. Former public safety advisor Scott Lindsay explained that such legislation would create a “legal loophole” for criminals and create “a green light for crime.”
“I’m not aware of any legislation like this anywhere in the United States (or) even globally,” Lindsay said. “All cities have criminal codes to protect their citizens from criminal acts. This would essentially create a legal loophole that swallows all those codes and creates a green light for crime… It’s basically a blank check for anybody committing theft, assault, harassment (and) trespass to continue without disruption from our criminal justice system.”
Herbold’s own actions proved that she not only doesn’t believe in her proposal but also that she can’t live by it. Either she considers herself to be elite and, therefore, worthy of special privilege outside of the law or she actually believed her own logical fallacy.
Herbold is lucky that the rock didn’t damage her property or cause her physical harm. Of course, by her standards, the culprit shouldn’t be held responsible in either case. Perhaps now she’ll reconsider her foolish endeavor.
