Tim was a member of the Seattle City Council from 2008 to 2017, and served as Mayor of Seattle for 71 days in late 2017. Prior to his political career, Burgess was a radio journalist and Seattle Police Department officer.
The timing, days after a mass shooting at Seattle Center, was not ideal. Either way, the decision is made. What the mayor does next will define her stewardship of public safety.
When I helped design this anti-crime program, we built safeguards in from day one. But the mayor's pause has hardened into paralysis, and the neighborhoods that can least afford it are paying the price.
The urban theorist Richard Florida argues cities and surrounding regions will thrive as we move beyond the pandemic, just as they have following previous calamities: “Covid-19 is a once-in-a-century catastrophe, but it also hands us a once-in-a-century opportunity to rebuild communities to be more equitable and more inclusive, as well as more livable.”
The roadblocks to successful prosecution this proposal establishes will discourage police from making arrests, amplifying a condition that already exists today, and discourage prosecutors from taking cases to court.
Nationally, there's reason to believe that, historically, Black and Brown communities have been over-policed when it comes to minor offenses and under policed when it comes to serious offenses.