The Democratic mayor of Seattle, Washington, made an astounding claim about his policies related to repeat criminal offenders during a debate against his progressive challenger for the mayor’s office.
Mayor Bruce Harrell was asked by a reporter whether Seattle was too lax on repeat offenders given that the city had the fourth-highest crime rate among major cities, according to FBI statistics. The debate from Thursday was moderated by Hana Kim of KCPQ-TV.
‘So when this person is committing 6 or 7 crimes, I don’t know his or her story. Maybe they were abused as a child, maybe they’re hungry. So my remedy is to find their life story. I have no desire to put them into jail.’
Harrell said he wasn’t sure how to answer the question before launching into a bizarre answer.
“That’s an interesting question,” he said. “I don’t know how to answer that question — too lax? I don’t know how you gauge that.”
He told Kim that he understood that it was necessary to catch people “in the act” of doing bad things.
“I have all the faith in my police department, [who use] the best practices in terms of using force,” he said. “I need 1,500 officers. I need constitutional arrests. I need people who are killing themselves with drugs to get help, to get treatment. So I’m not going to give an opinion on the attitude of my officers.”
He said that he wanted to hire “culturally competent” officers after the death of George Floyd, which he called a murder.
“We created the Care Department, which is an unarmed response, the largest city in the country to do this,” Harrell said. “So whether they’re lax, in all due respect, is just not the question. The question is, ‘Are they effective?’ and they are very effective.”
He went on to blame the “defund the police” movement for demoralizing his police department but said that the department is receiving 10 applications a day for new officers.
“So to me the question is, ‘Are they effective?’ and they are very effective, when given the resources,” he concluded.
The moderator continued to press Harrell on the question of repeat offenders, even with minor offenses. At that point, Harrell’s remarks really went off the rails.
“So let me make something very clear. I was the one that sponsored the ‘Ban the Box’ legislation when everyone opposed because the criminal system has had a disparate impact on black and brown communities. Let me lead with that,” Harrell responded.
“So when this person is committing six or seven crimes, I don’t know his or her story. Maybe they were abused as a child; maybe they’re hungry. So my remedy is to find their life story to see how we could help first. I have no desire to put them in jail,” he added.
“But I need to protect you, and that’s the calibration that we have,” he continued. “I’ve put police officers on the stand. I’ve cross-examined them. So whether they commit seven or eight crimes to me is not the issue. The issue is, why are they committing these crimes?”
He went on to claim that his “health-based strategy” was the best way to balance protecting the public and finding criminals’ life stories.
His challenger, Katie Wilson, criticized Harrell from the left and accused him of defunding diversion programs for offenders. When challenged about the lack of effectiveness of the program, she said she was not sure about the issue.
The entire debate is available for viewing on the YouTube channel for KCPQ.
Blaze News’ requests for comment from Harrell and Wilson were not immediately answered.
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