Seattle Council Overrides Mayor’s Veto On Police Cuts

September 23, 2020 3:01 am

SEATTLE (AP) – Seattle will reduce the police department’s budget and reallocate some money to community programs after the City Council voted Tuesday evening to override Mayor Jenny Durkan’s veto of adjustments to this year’s budget. The council’s proposals approved last month were supported by demonstrators who have marched in the city for months following the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis but strongly opposed by the mayor and former police Chief Carmen Best. Council President M. Lorena González said before the vote that divestment from a broken policing model is not only the right thing to do, it is the needed course of action if they believe that Black lives matter.