Comments

2

What a convenient list for future reference.

3

That's quite a list of weaklings and nobodies.

4

You're not going to get her resignation, and you're not going to get an "Amazon" tax. Got it?

6

The citizens elected her. If she is so horrible she will be voted out. That's how civilized societies work. I've never heard of any of these letter-signers but hey, good luck with those future political careers in this town.

7

Well, I see an awful lot of 43rd district Democrats with an awful lot of fancy titles.
I mean, my goodness, in addition to a Secretary and a Treasurer they have a Chair, a Vice Chair, a Former Chair, a Technology committee Chair, a Fundraising Chair, a Communications Chair, a Meeting and Events Chair, and an Election Committee Chair.
Whew.
That's a lot of Chairs, way to go 43rd District Dems.
Eat your heart out Tim Eyman!

10

What pretentious, self-preening nonsense from these presumed representatives of "the people." Durkan has done a credible job addressing an extremely difficult, volatile situation. Obviously events happened that few wanted (looting, fires, tear-gassing), but she met respectfully with opponents and critics and resolved several key issues. She shed a few tears, kept her cool, got back to work to make things better--and she did. And remember: many other cities saw worse planning and more shootings and injuries and deaths. No one--including the sanctimonious village scolds informing everyone about their flaws but never seeing or admitting their own--could have anticipated all that happened. And this in the middle of a horrific pandemic and with many business' existence already at stake! Okay: Jenny Durkan is not perfect. This is not sufficient grounds for removal from office. But unlike many of her critics, Durkan can admit when she needs to do better--and then she does. She's an old-school Seattle politician of the consensus-building sort, and that served her very, very well the past several days. Good going, Jenny! You did a good job. I'd wager the vast majority of people in Seattle think so, too. Hang tough through this spiteful, self-righteous pettiness!

11

Ooh, the Amazon shareowners think they can scare us by saying nasty things about us.

Nope.

13

Durkan and Best should both resign. They are BOTH SPD lapdogs.

14

But wait! We've all seen Durkan before!

https://imgur.com/a/UCA4m6u

17

The 43rd district dems are nothing more than socialist alternative in disguise.

20

@7 you made me laugh with that, well done. 🏆

21

Well, thank GOD the white people are here to save us - with a petition. As if Black community organizers haven’t been working on trying to get through their demands on Durkan & SPD.

Summer Stinson Robert Cruickshank Tara Gallagher Scott Forbes Chris Petzold SHAME ON YOU for hijacking an issue that does not impact you to center your personally validating activist selves. There have been Black people working hard on these issues way before May 25, 2020 - and Durkan & SPD were horribly problematic long ago. Where were YOU and your petition?

Am I supposed to thank you for this? For not amplifying the voices of Black activists in Seattle like Nikkita Oliver - who could’ve been our mayor had most of you not decided Cary Moon was our white savior? Not bloody likely.

I’m sure you think “we are helping“ but what you are doing is perpetuating the white supremacist notion that you are the “leaders” and your voices are essential in every single issue.

I am sick to death of all of you and your performative - lots of selfies and rhetoric and nice words but really get nothing done ever - activism.

23

I honestly can't tell if @21 is actually sincere, or an elaborate trolling attempt.

24

They tried to do the same thing with Governor Brown in Oregon. It did not work there and it won't work in Seattle. Not liking an elected official is not justification for removal from office.

25

Seattle hasn't been perfect, but instead of making the news for unidentifiable officers beating up senior citizens, we are in the news for Durkin demanding cops keep their badge number visible & also that they stop using tear gas (I know they were protester ideas, but they only became reality when the mayor demanded it.)

Once again the far left snatches defeat from the jaws of victory. I think a venn diagram of "letter signatories" and "let's convince Bernie to run for The Green Party nomination people" is a single circle.

27

@26 thanks for showing up and being the troll of the weekend. how about YOU fuck right off?

28

@23: I know what you mean, I can't tell if @27 is doing the same.

30

@28 Usually don't agree with you, but in this case I do. Funny how they don't see that @22's comment probably applies to them all.

31

@29 - What??? Lyles was a little pregnant woman. If a couple of cops can't handle a crazy little pregnant woman with a knife, how the fuck are they supposed to deal with a drunken brawl? Seriously, are they just supposed to start shooting up everyone? Fuck.

The cops fucked up. They panicked. It happens all the time. Some of it is lack of training. Some of it incompetence. All of it is based on fear and/or lack of empathy. A couple of cops with balls would have taken out a club, hit her in the arm (breaking it while she dropped the knife) and then wrestled her tiny ass to the ground. Then they would have called Medic One, and she would be back on her meds in no time.

Even better cops would have done what previous cops did: Calm her crazy ass down. Talk to her, tell her to relax, and that we are all the same side, etc. Again, training helps. Not being a dumbshit helps. We train cops on how to use guns, and don't train them enough on how to deescalate a situation. Its ridiculous.

32

@31: "cops can't handle a crazy little pregnant woman with a knife"

Crazy + adrenaline + knife = threat

"Calm her crazy ass down" - They tried.

Just because she was a small pregnant woman doesn't mean that she couldn't stab. What are you, a chauvinist?

34

Give Sawant and the DSM credit, they now control local democrat organizations. So they want historically non-partisan Mayor and Council positions to be partisan? This will get interesting. Why is Nikita Oliver’s name not on the letter? They don’t want their attempt to install her as mayor to seem too contrived,

35

Blah blah blah Rich Smith blah blah blah

36

I was going to say this letter is an example of faux outrage, but I'm convinced it's real. In fact, based on my experience with some of the signatories, they are perpetually outraged to the degree they suffer from self-inflicted PTSD.

Attending Democratic club meetings used to feel like an enjoyable, productive use of my time. But once they became the Honeycomb Hideouts of far-left moonbats, I quietly stepped away...still voting Democratic, but not content to sit at meetings and listen to Wokey McWokefaces going on and on and on and on about this or that imagined attack on whatever.

These people are opportunistic revolutionaries who are insincere in basing their demands Durkan resign on social justice grounds. They just want Comrade Sawant/Moon/Oliver/InsertNameOfLoonHere to take over and doing so without an election is their only hope.

37

Everybody I don't like is a Nazi.

40

Missing from statements by Durkan and Best was any form if apology for the use of lethal force against peaceful protesters. Durkan needs to go.

42

Yeah the cop leaned down after the cops shoved him to the ground. Then they all walked by him as the blood pooled around his head. Real fine people.

Cities Ask if It’s Time to Defund Police and ‘Reimagine’ Public Safety
In the wake of George Floyd’s killing, some cities are asking if the police are being asked to do jobs they were never intended to do. Budgets are being re-evaluated

“We are going to dramatically rethink how we approach public safety and emergency response.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/05/us/defund-police-floyd-protests.html

45

These are not "progressive leaders" — this is the group of Sawant supporters who moved in on the 43rd District Democratic organization to modify its endorsement rules and harness its brand and (impotent) apparatus to the Trotskyite cause.

47

@44 Thanks for the comment, Sir Toby. I meant "consensus-building" as a good thing, certainly in this case. Please note: I added in my original comment (#10) that this served her in good stead the past several days. I'm totally with you that principle can co-exist with reasonable negotiation. And reasonable negotiation is generally preferable to hate-filled, name-calling, eternal disputation. For any politician, this is a matter of balance: a) keeping a core of beliefs that are not for sale and won't change every minute for fear of disapproval tempered by b) understanding the need to negotiate, as there will always--always--be some disagreements among elected officials. Again, I praised how Durkan handled herself this past week. I'm not a huge Jenny Durkan fan, and I could see how she could have better anticipated what just happened--but I do not think she should resign; I respect how she rebounded by listening, facilitating discussion, and working out fair compromises. What most impressed me is she did not showboat; she did not make grandiose statements about her ostensible historic victories and amazing brilliance and evil enemies whom only she can defeat. She realized adjustments were needed, and she went about the business of making them. Good on her. I'm fine with people criticizing her--but the knee-jerk hatred of from The Stranger staff, Sawant, and others is unfair. Too much sanctimonious judgment from the authors of this demand she resign; too little of the understanding they supposedly think our city needs. And thanks again for the feedback, Sir Toby.

48

consensus-building = democracy

49

Who becomes mayor if she leaves? That should tell you everything you need to know about this “movement”

50

@49 - If the office of mayor becomes vacant, the president of the city council becomes mayor for a five-day period to immediately fill the position. If the president of the city council declines to remain mayor, the city council is authorized to vote to appoint a councilmember to the role of mayor.

Lorena González seems more than ambitious enough to want to go more than 5 days.

51

Durkan is a sick joke. The sooner she and politicians like her are gone from the Democratic Party, the sooner actual change can happen. She needs to be aggresively countered from every side, continuously, to destroy her political legitimacy. This is part of that. I applaud it.

52

The Stranger's staff seem obsessively opposed--to the point of hatred and disdain--to mainstream Democratic Party politicians like Joe Biden and Jenny Durkan. Here's a thought: Donald Trump is far worse than Biden or Durkan, and his reelection poses far more of a threat to our well-being than do Biden or Durkan. And Durkan is Mayor of Seattle, not merely of its SJW activists but of its conservatives and moderates and softer-left Democrats. She is Mayor of Seattle, not White, Black, Brown, rich, poor, or middle-class Seattle but White, Black, Brown, rich, poor, AND middle-class Seattle. Part of her job is to try to find consensus, to help us move past hatred and division and find and create common goals. She has made missteps and, arguably, is too much a pragmatist without enough of a core--but she's also a good negotiator and fundamentally a fair, humane person. Her tears on Sunday reflected a deep love of Seattle and its people. No human being--no human being--is merely an "asshole" or "fucker" or "tool." And Jenny Durkan has always, whatever her flaws or mistakes, tried to relate respectfully to every one and every group in this city. How much of the hatred of Durkan is rooted not in opposition to her views but mere personal jealousy and the cheap iconoclasm of the bored? I suspect a lot. Is perfection now a requirement to be mayor? Durkan genuinely listened to her critics earlier this week and, with Chief Best, worked to find realistic, fair resolutions to grievances. And she more or less succeeded--and I suspect that success bothers some folks more than were she to have failed. And again: Donald Trump is far, far more of a threat than Joe Biden or Jenny Durkan.

54

Time to get rid of everyone calling for Durkins removal and take a few others with them. Jenny is doing fine.

55

I only wish Sawant would not solely focus on gaining notoriety. We need help with the grunt work of making the city work.

56

Five thousand names.

We're talking Recall Petition numbers.

Seattle has had enough.

57

@56 Not liking an elected official is not justification for recall, no matter what the numbers.

Whenever any legal voter of the state or of any political subdivision thereof, either individually or on behalf of an organization, desires to demand the recall and discharge of any elective public officer of the state or of such political subdivision, as the case may be, under the provisions of sections 33 and 34 of Article 1 of the Constitution, the voter shall prepare a typewritten charge, reciting that such officer, naming him or her and giving the title of the office, has committed an act or acts of malfeasance, or an act or acts of misfeasance while in office, or has violated the oath of office, or has been guilty of any two or more of the acts specified in the Constitution as grounds for recall. The charge shall state the act or acts complained of in concise language, give a detailed description including the approximate date, location, and nature of each act complained of, be signed by the person or persons making the charge, give their respective post office addresses, and be verified under oath that the person or persons believe the charge or charges to be true and have knowledge of the alleged facts upon which the stated grounds for recall are based.
For the purposes of this chapter:
(1) "Misfeasance" or "malfeasance" in office means any wrongful conduct that affects, interrupts, or interferes with the performance of official duty;
(a) Additionally, "misfeasance" in office means the performance of a duty in an improper manner; and
(b) Additionally, "malfeasance" in office means the commission of an unlawful act;
(2) "Violation of the oath of office" means the neglect or knowing failure by an elective public officer to perform faithfully a duty imposed by law.

If people want Mayor Durkan out, they are going to have to vote her out.

63

I don't know anything about Mayor Durkan and my comments are not a show of support, they are simply fact. The people who hate Governor Brown here in Oregon tried to recall her just because they don't like her and it failed miserably. There has to be cause.

64

Not agreeing on the spot to a 50% cut in police funding (which to my knowledge, NO American mayor has ever done and I'm not sure she even would have the authority to do) is not grounds for removal. I'll wager that this is the same crowd that was demanding the white candidates for mayor step aside to install Nikita Oliver (never mind that she could not get the votes to keep her in the race).

65

Venturing no opinion on whether it's a good or bad thing, I'd be very surprised if last night didn't seal Mayor Durkan's fate at the hands of SPD.

It took less than 24 hours for SPD to violate all the commitments they'd made the previous day. The nicety that it was pepper spray and not tear gas is technical. There's just no viable political way to survive that.

There were 4 members of the City Council (Herbold, Strauss, Lewis, and Mosqueda), Representative Macri, Senator Nguyen, and County Councilmember Zahily in the crowd. Council President Gonzalez was tweeting with her colleagues. I think they need 6 votes for removal, but let's say they need 7. They probably have that - Pedersen and Juarez will be nos.

I would guess that what happens next is the mayor is told she can resign or be removed, but one or the other will happen by Wednesday. Interim Mayor Gonzales will then fire Chief Best.

66

We're over 10,000 people, of which more than 1,000 are local elected officials.

You can say nasty things about me all you want, but facts are facts.

67

Oh, and to be frank, I've never supported the firing of Chief Best.

I wouldn't want to be in charge of an out of control SPD that is determined to break the law.

68

@66, we do not have 1,000 elected officials in this region, unless you are including Precinct Committee Officers in your tally — and if you are, your comment is just propaganda.

69

@68 -- or just stupid, which would be far more in character.

70

@66 & 67- shocking. Two comments and no mention of how Seattle streets where built for horses and bicycles, not cars.

71

@70 - I miss the 100-story thin towers...

72
  1. "Step 3: Get some financial control on the city budgets......It's a hot mess." You'd have to replace the entire City Council to do that.

Please wait...

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