Seattle’s embattled lesbian mayor is finding few friends among city leadership, with multiple commissions calling for her resignation.
On Wednesday, Seattle’s LGBTQ Commission released a statement condemnng the “human rights violations that have occurred in our city” during Mayor Jenny Durkan’s tenure, referring to her repeated defense of the city’s violent police officers during protests this summer. The commission also called out Durkan’s rejection of efforts to shift funding from police to social programs.
“Our attempts over the past four months to engage and demand accountability from the Mayor’s Office and the Seattle Police Department were met with insufficient response,” the commission wrote in a six-page statement, adding that he “resignation is necessary… to begin to address the human rights violations that have occurred in our city.”
Its members voted for her removal by a 6-5-1 margin, saying that the decision was made “with a heavy heart.”
The commission noted that police violence has been an ongoing issue in the city for years, with the U.S. Department of Justice imposing a consent decree in 2012 over “a pattern or practice of excessive force that violates the U.S. Constitution and federal law.” Durkan, the city’s first LGBTQ+ mayor, was elected in 2017, and two years later, Seattle Police were found to have violated that decree by failing to implement reforms.
The worst police violence over the summer was in Capitol Hill, the city’s established LGBTQ+ neighborhood, with police setting off frequent explosions and tear gas canisters. The commission noted that the tear gas was so excessive, it entered residents’ homes and caused medical issues that were particularly acute for trans people.
“Given the long history of reproductive violence against the LGBTQ+ and Black populations, that this happened repeatedly in the traditionally LGBTQ+ neighborhood of Seattle at a series of protests for Black lives is particularly egregious,” it noted.
Commissioners also said the mayor could have reprimanded or removed the chief of police at any time and could have assumed the chief’s duties in an emergency.
But their harshest criticism came in regards to the city’s half-billion-dollar police budget. Community groups have called for at least half of the Seattle Police Department’s budget to be reallocated to better serve the city, but Durkan proposed a change of less than 5%. That came as numerous other departments were asked to cut their budgets by much more, including the Office of Civil Rights. What’s more, Durkan’s budget calls for an increase in the number of officers on the force.
