Seattle’s first Black police chief, Carmen Best, left her position after budget cuts to the struggling department put her “in a position destined to fail.”
Despite objections from Seattle’s Mayor Jenny Durkan and Best, Seattle’s City Council voted to reduce the police department by 100 officers and slash the salaries of top officers on August 10.
The Mayor urged for discussions about the police budget to be moved back until 2021 when the city’s budget is up for review, but the City Council pushed the proposal through with a seven to one vote. Durkan called the move “ill-advised.”
Later that night, Best resigned in a heartfelt open letter to her department. “I wanted to notify you that I will be retiring from the Seattle Police Department, effective September 2nd, 2020. I wanted you to hear this from me, but some media have reached this conclusion on their own.”
Best doesn’t think that the department will be able to safely protect the public with reduced staff. “I believe 100% that they were putting me in a position destined to fail. Cutting a police department that already had low staffing numbers, that was already struggling to keep up with the demand.”
One of the council’s cuts was pettily targeted at Best’s $285,000 annual salary, which would have reduced her pay far below that of her white predecessor. She clarified that her choice to leave the department was not about the money.
“I mean, be real, I have a lot thicker skin than that,” the 28-year SPD veteran went on to explain. “It really is about the overarching lack of respect for the officers, the men, and women who work so hard, day in and day out.“
On her last day, Best tweeted that she was honored and blessed. She was sent off with a line of police and residents wishing her goodbye.
Started the morning with a socially distanced interview to say thank you and farewell to the community and to the hard-working men and women of the @SeattlePD . I am honored. I am blessed. pic.twitter.com/qEfTaKLwG3
— Chief Carmen Best (@carmenbest) September 2, 2020
So grateful for the @SeattlePD sworn and civilian who lined 5th Ave today to say goodbye — on my last day with the Dept. Thank you for 28 wonderful years! pic.twitter.com/9gpekWG8rr
— Chief Carmen Best (@carmenbest) September 2, 2020
So grateful for the @SeattlePD sworn and civilian who lined 5th Ave today to say goodbye — on my last day with the Dept. Thank you for 28 wonderful years! pic.twitter.com/9gpekWG8rr
— Chief Carmen Best (@carmenbest) September 2, 2020
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Sujj
Be interesting to see how Seattle fairs a year from now.
With an anti-American leadership like that, very happy I don’t live in Seattle!
With Biden as the puppet president and kamel toe Harris pulling his strings the whole country will be like Seattle.
Hey Minneapolis is already looking like a Somali city…Vote dem for a complete “remodelling”…
Seattle police officers who are eligible for retirement will in all probability soon follow her example and many more will resign. Seattle will have what they want, a lawless city. Then businesses will leave and working people will follow the jobs. What remains will be the progressive/socialist utopia and they are welcome to it.
Dat BLM ho just pissed cause Dey cut hur pay in haf!
Is English your first language? I seriously hope not.
The idiot obviously has no language to speak of…local “ghetto lingo”??? But “it” does have a filthy mind…
Carmen Best did what she could as long as she could with what she had to work with, But with a demonRAT mayor, and a complete liberal counsel…. she was left with NOTHING except interference and she got plenty of that from durkan and the council
Amazon just opening a large business in Bellevue. Where a lot of businesses have taken root. Why would any business locate in Seattle ? I won’t go to Seattle for NFL, NBA, NHL or MLB. Besides being extremely expensive for one day, it is so unsafe. I predict that Seattle will end up like old Tacoma of the sixties. Most people that work in Seattle don’t live there as it is. You can blame the communist socialist demoKKKrat mayor and city council.
AMAZON is a big contributor to BLM
I would like to know how the residents of Seattle will be able to afford homeowners insurance. I would think insurance companies will not offer insurance to those who live in these shi**oles, this should be interesting.
You know there are a lot of police departments in Florida looking for good leaders. Come south where you’ll be appreciated. And it’s warmer too.
Unfortunately this will only exacerbate Seattle’s problems…but then they DO deserve their problems…Stupid IS !!!
*i’am* sorry she (best) quit because her pay was being cut thus her pension…she was right there in collusion with the leadership on the demise of portland…
I believe I read where Carmen Best is, and always has been, a Democrat. So all I have to say about her saga is……. You reap what you sow! As for Jenny Donkey Durkan, your lone Nay Vote was way too little, way too late. Seattle Voters….. you got what you voted for. Perhaps you should consider voting in person in the future.