Defunding the Police Is Cruel

There were few U.S. cities in 2020 where activists and politicians embraced lawlessness and condemned police as aggressively as in Seattle. The legacy of that period—including a spike in crime and a wave of officers leaving the force—is still haunting the community and many of its most brutalized victims.

In Seattle and elsewhere, thank goodness the political pendulum has swung back a bit toward public safety, but it’s a long hard road to peaceful streets.