While homicides in Seattle declined to 40-42 last year from the 52 posted in 2020, the Jet City is back on pace for another deadly year, and an afternoon drive time talk radio host who also writes for Fox News declared in an Op-Ed Monday, “the crime surge hitting Seattle is spreading across the state.”
Talk host Jason Rantz said Seattle has averaged more than one homicide a week so far this year. Conservative Firing Line checked with Seattle Police to learn that in the first 13 weeks of 2022, there were 16 homicides. If that pace continues, the city might log somewhere near 60 slayings by year’s end, and that doesn’t count the possibility of a multiple killing during the remaining nine months.
According to the Seattle Homicide Twitter page—which is not affiliated with the Seattle police—there have been 17 homicides so far, and it is not clear why their number doesn’t square with SPDs.
Seattle Homicides
2022 YTD Total: 17
2022 Fatal Police Shootings: 3
2021 Total: 43
2021 Fatal Police Shootings: 2
10 Year Average: 28.8
Record High: 69 in 1994— Seattle Homicide (@HomicideSeattle) April 5, 2022
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What may have ignited the wave of violence was last year’s decision by the Legislature to literally handcuff the police, preventing pursuits, use-of-force and several other restrictions that have resulted in huge manpower losses at the Seattle department, either through retirement or going to other jobs.
The situation was so untenable that this year, lawmakers walked back some of the restrictions, but the “fixes” may be too little, too late.
At least, that’s the way Rantz sees it, as he stated, “And there is no sign that the crime explosion will slow; in fact, it’s getting worse.”
Seattle is not the only community experiencing the problem of rising crime, which explains Rantz’s premise that crime is spreading from the big metropolis to near and far reaches of the Evergreen State. Tacoma, down the road just 32 miles, has a homicide rate “just as bad as Seattle.” Auto theft is up in Bellingham, and in Spokane, in far off eastern Washington near the Idaho border.
In Rantz’s perspective, Democrats are to blame for their far left agenda, which seems anti-police, anti-gun and soft-on-crime. If it keeps up, it could cost them total control of the Legislature in November, and if voters outside of Seattle’s sphere of influence wake up, it might cost Democrats the governor’s office in 2024, the first time since the 1980s a Republican would take charge.
However, the state Republican Party is known for snatching defeat from the jaws of victory, so November might be a long shot, and 2024 nothing more than wishful thinking.
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