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Seattle Candidate Wants To Stop Prosecuting Criminals

Seattle media personality Jason Rantz details the crumbling of a once great city. Now, Democrats in the town basically want to turn the city over to criminals. Isn’t this the plot of “The Dark Knight Rises”?

Rantz: Nicole Thomas-Kennedy could soon destroy Seattle as we know it. Thomas-Kennedy is a police and prison abolitionist who wants to dismantle the Seattle City Attorney’s Office. She is a former public defender who says most misdemeanor crimes should not be prosecuted. And given her support for so-called anti-fascists, she’s better labeled the Antifa candidate. Thomas-Kennedy won the primary for Seattle city attorney, ousting a three-term incumbent who rarely prosecutes crimes. She now faces Ann Davison, a moderate Republican lawyer and arbitrator.

Thomas-Kennedy may very well be the most extreme, fringe candidate running for office in the entire country. But in Seattle, she seems to fit right in. Even a cursory glance of Thomas-Kennedy’s Twitter feed provides a terrifying look at what drives her activism.

A pinned tweet at the top of her Twitter feed says this: “Despite decades of reform, the criminal punishment system still targets the most marginalized. “It’s time to dismantle this racist system and build structures of community-led accountability and true public safety.” But wait, there’s more.

The abolitionist believes property destruction is a “moral imperative” and cheers on Antifa thugs who burn property in riots. Thomas-Kennedy pretends Antifa and Black Lives Matter agitators didn’t commit violence during the notorious “Summer of Love” that created a deadly autonomous zone. She calls police “Nazis” and “oppressors” that must be defunded and abolished. She claims prosecutors “target” marginalized communities. And, of course, she wants to end capitalism and refers to the United States as “Amerikkka.” She’s not the only abolitionist who won her Seattle primary, either.

Local activist, lawyer and police abolitionist Nikkita Oliver beat her pro-business Democrat in the primary for at-large city councilmember. Oliver was a leading organizer during Seattle’s autonomous zone. And while not quite as extreme, current Council President Lorena Gonzalez is in a tight race for mayor. She helped lead the defund movement with promises to cut 50% of the budget while trying to find a legal way to fire White cops for being, well, White. While Oliver and Gonalez would help push Seattle further toward the city’s brink, Thomas-Kennedy’s race is much more meaningful.

The city attorney has prosecutorial discretion and can run the office without much Council interference. If an abolitionist takes over, there is no turning back. Seattle will never recover. For those of us who live and work here, as I do, it’s hard to imagine Seattle further deteriorating. The Seattle Police Department has lost 300 officers since last year. That’s roughly a third of its force. Officers are leaving because of ongoing defund activism from the Seattle City Council. Consequently, the city experienced a 26-year-high homicide rate in 2020. The city is on pace to break that record this year.

And homelessness has never been worse: encampments are everywhere, with the homeless growing increasingly violent. Many of them are repeat offenders who are either rarely prosecuted or never see meaningful jail time. The latest high-profile incidents involve a homeless mob attacking a young family and a tourist being viciously beaten and robbed in broad daylight. Two arrests reveal the suspects have long criminal histories…

With crime already on the rise, can Seattle withstand a city attorney who aims to dismantle the entire office? After all, she wants “abolition, not reform.” The overall outcome of Thomas-Kennedy’s low-to-no prosecution will likely be anarchy or vigilante justice. And there are already rumblings of more Seattle officers saying they’ll quit rather than work in a city that gives this kind of activist so much power. This won’t end well for Seattle.

This piece was written by David Kamioner on September 17, 2021. It originally appeared in LifeZette [3] and is used by permission.