A member of the Seattle City Council has made a suggestion on how to solve the problem of how to go about firing a large number of the city's police officers: fire them based on their race.
The City Council recently backed a proposal to defund the Seattle Police Department by 50 percent, which would lead to a massive number of firings, particularly of junior officers. The problem now facing the council is that the majority of the junior officers in the department are black.
Council member Lisa Herbold is now suggesting the city avoid the issue by firing officers based on their race, which would, of course, be city-sanctioned discrimination. Herbold, however, claims that discrimination in this case would be for the greater good.
Seattle Police Chief Carmen Best released a video in response to Herbold's proposal, calling it "completely reckless." She also sent a letter to Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan informing that the massive budget cut would mean laying off hundreds of officers. The SPD tweeted out a warning last week that these layoffs would include a large number of minority officers.
Herbold responded on Twitter to the chief's concern, suggesting the chief make layoff decisions based on race.