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Crime is soaring in Seattle in the wake of the city council’s decision to “defund the police” partially in the wake of the George Floyd riots, Black Lives Matter protests, and “Capitol Hill Occupied Protest” (CHOP) of the summer of 2020.
America's crime-ridden woke capital of Portland is already on track to surpass last year's record-breaking murder total, with homicides up more than 10% compared to 2021.
Since then, the two sister cities of crime have walked down the path of destruction hand in hand.
A leftist Seattle columnist admits Seattle has gone backward 30 years, due to crime. The same can be said of Portland.
C.S. Lewis gave us the solution to failed progressive policies.
Be informed, not misled.
The Emerald City
Police Chief Best, whose salary was to be cut, promptly retired.
Last quarter Seattle recorded 13 homicides, the most in six years---Seattle is on pace, according to the Seattle Times, to surpass last year's crime rates, which were worse than the year before.
The Times says, "Last year, 88 people were fatally shot and 372 were wounded by gunfire in King County, surpassing 2020's record high of 69 gun-related homicides and 268 shooting injuries.
Columnist Danny Westneat wrote this Wednesday in the Seattle Times:
“We’ve had over a 95% increase in more shots fired, with a 171% increase in people being shot compared to last year,” Police Chief Adrian Diaz told our numb City Council recently. “And last year was one of the highest years we’ve had on record.”
Aggravated assaults — which last year were already up 24% — are up another 33% in the first quarter of 2022, as compared to the first three months of 2021. That’s according to preliminary reports posted at the city’s open records portal.
Robberies are up 30% in 2022. Overall, violent crime is up 32% — from 1,051 incidents in the first three months of 2021 to 1,387 this year.
Westneat also noted that Seattle had gone "30 years backward" in terms of crime, nearing a per capita crime rate last seen in 1995. It has also lost 375 police officers, putting the city’s police force at levels last seen in the 1990s.
In June 2020, Black Lives Matter protesters occupied six blocks of the city after local leaders told then-Police Chief Carmen Best to stand down and abandon the Eastern Precinct. The protesters called their utopian, crime-filled community the CHOP or the “Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone” (CHAZ). It lasted for weeks before being cleared by authorities, following threats by then-President Donald Trump to intervene.
Public outrage has grown so bad in leftist Seattle that a Republican, Ann Davison, was elected city attorney last November.
The Rose City
As of March 6, Portland already had 22 murders since the start of 2022, up from the 19 in the same period last year
If it keeps the same pace, Portland could see around 130 murders this year, which would once again break the record for most homicides in the city
Last year, Portland had 92 homicides, breaking the 1987 record of 70. It was on pace to have around 102 last year
All crime is up in Portland with a total number of crimes rising from 9,600 in 2020 to 10,200 in 2021, an almost six percent increase
Portland saw an increase in crime from protests over the death of George Floyd
The city saw a 250 percent increase in murders within the first six months of Floyd's death and shootings rose almost 175 percent.
Led by Black Lives Matter demands, the city slashed its police budget, following George Floyd's death, by about $15 million initially with more promised.
Police retirements and resignations followed, en masse, while progressive Portland prosecutors refused to charge 70% of people arrested by the city's police. They simply walked, with no consequences.
Violent crime has risen across the board throughout the Rose City, with assaults, kidnappings, and rape-- all seeing sharp increases.
Homeless people line the streets of both Portland and Seattle---another issue for discussion on another day---but caused by the same deadly ideology: Progressivism.
Takeaway
Most of us know CS Lewis as an author, philosopher, theologian, and Christian apologist. His name invokes the story of his conversion from atheism to Christianity---it brings to mind lions, witches, and wardrobes---all defenses of the Christian faith.
However, the man who gave us Narnia also took a strong stand against so-called "progressivism."
He strongly resisted European progressivism, rejecting their assumption of man's inherent goodness---and of the "state" as an idol. In fact, he described progressivism as "state worship" predicated on the assumption of man's inevitable rise to godhood.
In his 1958 essay, “Is Progress Possible: Willing Slaves of the Welfare State,” Lewis prophetically warned of the tendency of progressives to take away human liberties in the name of progress. He said that when “our whole lives” become the “business” of the state, we become slaves to the state and can no longer question the ideology of the state. He wrote that these are some of the hazards of “an increasingly planned society” and a “mother knows best” government. A primary solution to this danger, Lewis proposed, is “an education not controlled by the government.”
He wrote these condemnations while leaders like Lenin and Stalin all pursued human perfection through state control.
How many times have you heard progressives in Seattle, Portland, and across the nation talk about creating "a more perfect union?" Sure they're quoting a Founding document, but they are also assuming that all progress, where ever it leads, is good.
Biden's slogan "Build Back Better" has been used by so-called progressives for years. Progressivism has never built back better. It always destroys.
Perhaps the most poignant comment from Lewis about 'progressivism" is found in "Mere Christianity."
"Progress means getting nearer to the place you want to be. And if you have taken a wrong turn, then to go forward does not get you nearer. If you are on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road."
Hopefully, we will walk back to the "right road" in the next election.
Pray for America.
Be Informed. Be Discerning. Be Engaged. Be Vigilant. Be Prayerful.