Watch out for those knife-thrusters, too!
The Seattle Police Department sparked a wave of social media mockery after unveiling a doublespeak euphemism for “shooters” — now opting to formally refer to criminals who commit acts of gun violence as “trigger-pullers.”
Interim Seattle Police Chief Andre Sayles soft-launched the woke rebrand during a Monday press conference after a weekend of shootings left three people dead and three others wounded.
“We’re working with business owners, increasing patrols, bike patrols, working with our community response group and our gun violence reduction group as well,” he said in response to a reporter asking him to get specific about the “proactive” measures the department is planning to thwart crime in violence-prone areas of the city.
Sayles continued that the department is “looking at ways where we can identify individuals known — we call them trigger-pullers — in our community, identifying them, making sure we’re putting cases on those individuals, and working with the King County Prosecutors Office to bring these individuals to justice because the families that lost loved ones throughout this year and in years past deserve justice.”
Social media exploded with mockery for the nonsensical softening of the well-established terminology.
“Are they doing anything about the shootings themselves or just making sure they don’t overstep boundaries with criminals?” one X user wondered.
“You still got shot either way, the word choice didn’t stop it,” another commenter pointed out.
One poster chimed in with some additional mock suggestions for renamed criminal acts.
“Additionally, they will now refer to cannibals as ‘alternative-protein enthusiasts,’ looters as ‘unlicensed wealth redistributors,’ arsonists as ‘freelance urban-renewal specialists,’ and murderers as ‘life-expectancy adjusters.’”
Seattle’s mayor is socialist Katie Wilson, who has already been called out repeatedly for hyper-woke public statements despite only being elected last November.
That same month, Wilson joined a barista union rally as mayor-electe and voiced disgust with one of Seattle’s most recognizable homegrown businesses.
“I am not buying Starbucks, and you should not either,” she whined in November, according to KUOW.
Several months later, Wilson attempted to walk back her statement, telling the New York Times that her comments at the time were “not productive” and “caused more harm than good.”
In April, Wilson sparked backlash after scoffing at the notion that millionaires could soon leave the state en masse due its new 9.9% income tax rate, dismissively saying with a wave, “like, bye,” to large theoretical swaths of the city’s tax base, drawing cheers and laughter from a lefty Seattle University crowd.
SPD did not respond to a request for comment about the new “trigger-puller” moniker, or how they arrived at the baffling neologism.
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