Link. Beginning:
After months of deliberation amid a politically turbulent year, the Seattle City Council voted Monday evening to pass their final 2021 budget which included investments in a new homeless outreach program, tiny home villages and most notably an 18% cut to the Seattle Police Department's budget.
The Council voted 8-1 on the $6.5 billion budget after a last-minute proposal from Councilmember and Select Budget Committee Chair Teresa Mosqueda aimed to cut an additional $2 million in SPD salary funding based on the accelerating attrition of officers in the past few months. The council had expected to see only 7 officers leave the force in October, when in reality 23 left.
Based on those attrition statistics, Council President Lorena Gonzalez said that she expects departures from SPD "will continue at an increased rate" and raised the council's projection of attritions to 114 for 2021.
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UPDATE: Same SeattlePI online layout page as the above; current as this post is typed:
Today in history: Looking back at the Battle of Seattle, the WTO riots
FURTHER UPDATE: From that item's beginning:
21 years ago this week, Seattle exploded.
Violent labor disputes have a long history in the city, including the original "Battle of Seattle" in 1856 when settlers and Salish warriors attacked the village and were repelled by artillery.
Paul Joseph Brown, Seattle Post-Intelligencer But the 1999 World Trade Organization protests have certainly become one of the Emerald City's defining flashpoints.
[...]
As soon as they announced Seattle's selection, activists began planning a counter-protest. Organizers across various factions and interests coordinated efforts to block access to the buildings themselves.
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Civil disobedience was the name of the game, complete with time-honored Northwest protest tactics (devices to fasten people together to make them harder to remove) and performance art.
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