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Veteran police officers in Seattle have been fleeing the department — citing the “socialist city council” and months of recent riots as reasons behind their departures, according to a report Tuesday.
The blistering responses were given in exit interviews with cops that have left the Washington city department for new jobs, local station KOMO reported.
In one response obtained by KOMO, a retiring patrol sergeant who worked for Seattle for more than 20 years noted, “I refuse to work for this socialist city council and their political agenda.”
“This agenda sacrifices the health and well-being of the officers and ultimately will destroy the fabric of this once fine city,” he said in his exit interview.
Meanwhile, a patrol officer from the East Precinct resigned after several years on the force due to a “current hostile work environment.”
“In a precinct that is under civil unrest by a small group that is constantly committing multiple felonies and attempting to murder peace officers,” the officer said.
Asked “What did you enjoy least about working at SPD,” the officer responded, “I enjoyed almost every aspect of working with Seattle PD itself. The one thing that I enjoyed the least was the handling of the last three months of riots.”
Police were forced to abandon the East Precinct in June amid violent George Floyd protests in the area that led to the rise of the infamous “Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone.”
Seattle Police Chief Carmen Best at the time said it wasn’t her decision to clear out the station.
Some cops noted the ensuing riots when asked in their interview “what factors had a negative effect on morale in the department?”
“The council wanting to defund us and gaining ground doing it,” replied one officer whose job is up in the air, KOMO reported. “Rioters not being charged even when they assault officers.”
Asked “would you like to work for SPD again in the future?,” one K-9 officer who’s been on the force for 11 years and resigning said, “I highly doubt it. You could pay me twice what you’re paying me now and I would not work for Seattle under this current political mayhem, Marxist collaborations and lack of government and police leadership.”
The officers are leaving for other departments in Everett, Des Moines and Kennewick, as well as the Pierce County Sheriff’s Office, according to the exit interviews.
“It’s an absolute joke and a travesty for the rest of the citizens here in this city, this once beautiful city,” Jim Fuda, the director of law enforcement services for Crimestoppers, which works with the department, told KOMO.
“Our police department is there to protect all of us and because of the cutbacks and the retirements, who’s going to protect our public safety.”
*story by The New York Post