(DailyAnswer.org) – A restaurant owner in Seattle has said that he has lost all faith in the leadership of his city after his business was broken into for the 23rd time since the Defund the Police movement started in 2021. The business owner requested to remain anonymous out of fear that activists would attack him. He had already received several negative reviews on Yelp for speaking out about the city’s crime epidemic.
CCTV footage from a break-in on February 3 showed a burglar struggling for ten minutes to break in through the glass on the front door of the restaurant. The suspect then walked inside, leaving behind a brutally dismantled door, lock, and frame.
Prompted by the deaths of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd, protestors successfully managed to pressure municipal lawmakers to defund the police in several cities in the US. Cities such as Seattle, Austin, and Portland then used the funds for housing, mental health programs, pandemic medical services, and food access instead. As the pressure mounted, Rev Harriet Walden, an advocate for police accountability in Seattle, expressed concern that defunding the police department could put black communities and victims of violence at greater risk.
By August 2023, Seattle led the nation with the largest number of adults, saying that crime and homelessness issues were forcing them to move away from the city. Out of the 227,000 people surveyed who felt pressured to move, over 50,000 left the city in the following six months. The Seattle City Council voted in July 2023 against legislation that would have allowed the prosecution of public drug-use cases. In January 2024, the city agreed to pay 50 Black Lives Matter Protesters $1 million in response to claims that the police used excessive force during the 2020 riots. The city has also agreed to pay $3.6 million to dozens of business owners and residents impacted by the riots.
The owner of the restaurant targeted by burglars lamented the senselessness of the crime as he noted that despite there being so many break-ins, often nothing was stolen. Officers suggested that the suspect who targeted the restaurant in February may have been looking for a safe. The restaurant owner stressed that he could no longer count on the Seattle Police Department, Council members, or state elected officials.
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