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The claim that she supports collectivizing Amazon.com has shown up here and in a few blog posts and a Forbes article. Each of these claims cite a single Stranger article, Goldy's "The Case for Kshama Sawant," as their primary source. Problem is, that article doesn't really support the claim. The relevant text of the article is
"Sure, if you really push her on the subject, she'll make a cogent economic argument for, say, collectivizing Amazon, so I guess there's that."
This is pretty ambiguous. He doesn't name a specific time, place, or context. It sounds like he's just making up an example of some hypothetical argument. I can't find any other mention of or reference to her speaking about wanting to collectivize Amazon. I suspect that the reporter may have confused 'collectivize' with 'unionize', since unions are also called 'collective bargaining' and she does explicitly discuss unionizing Amazon.com on her web site. I suggest this claim doesn't belong on wikipedia until we get corroboration.
Maybe the Wikipedia:Dispute_resolution_requests/DRN would be a more appropriate place? Not that we are in too big of a dispute. I just thought since three people have already weighed in? Ljpernic ( talk) 03:04, 17 November 2013 (UTC)
I'm going to eat some crow now. I still think that Stranger article was equivocating and misleading, but after some searching I found much more substantial corroboration. The Internet Archive captured her website on July 27 2012. At that time, her platform explicitly stated that she wanted to collectivize not just Amazon but also Boeing and Microsoft:
"Break the power of Wall Street and Corporate America! Take the giant corporations that dominate Washington state such as Boeing, Microsoft, and Amazon, into democratic public ownership to be run for public good, not private profit."
— Vote Sawant: What Our Campaign Stands For at the Wayback Machine (archived July 27, 2012)
I'll revert to GraniteSand's version and add a citation to the archived version of her website. Bencmcclain ( talk) 06:48, 17 November 2013 (UTC)
To add to my comments below, we should consider WP:UNDUE in relation to the collectivization issue. Sawant campaigned heavily on a simple 3-point platform, not on this. She stated clearly that she was not campaigning on a takeover of any corporations; it is only an opinion that she holds. This should be mentioned in the article because multiple sources discuss it, but again, it is mostly focused on by critics. We should explicitly attribute the emphasis on collectivization to her critics. The actual agenda she campaigned on should be given the greatest weight. -- Dennis Bratland ( talk) 17:16, 17 November 2013 (UTC)
I removed the nationalizations mention and the housing stuff here. There's no actual independent secondary sources, just in order, (1) her campaign page; (2) her own campaign page; (3) an interview with her and (4) another interview with her. There is zero evidence that independent secondary sources actually care about this issue, just that she's brought it up. This is especially important for a politician so that the page isn't just parroting her campaign. -- Ricky81682 ( talk) 08:49, 26 January 2016 (UTC)
Wikipedia:Biographies of living persons takes a very strong view that we should error on the side of caution when including criticism or negative information about living persons. So when I go to see if any sources support the use of the words "Marxist" and "Trotskyist" to describe Sawant, what I find is that the vast majority of reputable sources use the word "socialist", not Marxist. None of the mainstream, reputable sources mention Trotsky, or if they do only rarely. On the other hand, I do see many references to Marx and Trotsky in attack pages, and the use of Marxist or communist in lieu of socialist. I can understand the point of view that these words are synonyms, or at least mean very close to the same thing. But sometimes these words mean distinct things. And it's clear from the way the sources use them that one set of word choices is used by critics and another by neutral sources.
The bottom line is that Wikipedia must conform to the tone and attitude of the most neutral sources, and when there is any doubt, negative information must be avoided unless it is very well sourced. I checked four cited sources which supposedly supported calling Sawant a Marxist, and not one used the word. It appears likely that there is a negative slant at work in some of these word choices, and therefore we should be certain we cite high quality sources before echoing the critics of a living person. -- Dennis Bratland ( talk) 16:44, 17 November 2013 (UTC)
The only reason this article can even meet notability is that Sawant has received national attention for being a third party socialist. Look at the news headlines: 100+ news stories in a day, and the headines say Richard Conlin Concedes: Seattle Elects Sawant As First Socialist Councilmember, Socialist Sawant wins City Council seat. Etc. Etc. But Marxist? Barely five hits and they're all blogs, and opinion pieces, and the reason you even get hits for "Marxist" is because Google News is including reader comments.
Responsible, mainstream, neutral sources all say "socialist". They don't drag Trotsky into it. Why? Because these terms evoke turn of the century, Soviet authoritarian communism. And even if we didn't know that, we do know it's our job to faithfully relay what our sources say, not embroider, enhance, or spin what we find in the sources.
I think it would be fine to cite reputable critics who are saying "Sawant calls herself a socialist but she's really a Trotskite Marxist and she's hiding it..." Such editorials exist, but we must attribute them as opinions.
Please explain why it's so necessary to deviate so far from what the vast majority of quality sources say. Why do you want to change "socialist" to "Marxist"? -- Dennis Bratland ( talk) 20:05, 17 November 2013 (UTC)
You guys need to deescalate a little bit. Take a breather. The article as it stands now clearly identifies her as a socialist. It only uses the term Marxist once, with two citations to speeches. She self-identifies as a Marxist at 0:47 into the video (so, the very beginning). Primary sources can be problematic, but in this case, there is no room for misinterpretation, so per Wikipedia:PRIMARY, I would favor including the term. (Relevant text from WP: "A primary source may only be used on Wikipedia to make straightforward, descriptive statements of facts that can be verified by any educated person with access to the source but without further, specialized knowledge.") She's pretty clearly a Marxist. As for her being a Trotskyist, she is a member of the Socialist Alternative, which, to my understanding, is a Trotskyist political organization. My opinion is that these labels are appropriate and not over-used. Ljpernic ( talk) 21:03, 17 November 2013 (UTC)
If somebody thinks the most accurate term is Marxist, that somebody should be a published expert and we should attribute that opinion to them by name. Simple. -- Dennis Bratland ( talk) 21:13, 17 November 2013 (UTC)
I've removed the term "Marxist" from the intro because it wasn't supported by the listed references. I think that the best way to address this issue is to somehow cite the speech inline and note that shes happens to identify specifically as a Marxist and leave it at that. This allows for the inclusion of the statement without putting it at the forefront of the article which simply cannot justify with the given sources. John Reaves 21:37, 17 November 2013 (UTC)
Sawant clearly is positioning herself as a socialist, not strictly a Marxist, so that we can't infer that she is unwilling to compromise with non-Marxist socialists. Going beyond what the mainstream sources say and changing "socialist" to "Marxist" is misleading because it leads the reader to think she rejects other forms of socialism.
Perhaps she does -- some critics have accused her of being a rigid ideologue who will attempt to impose a one-sided agenda. Or that she is doomed to being ineffective because she won't compromise with anyone. But those criticisms must be attributed by name to the critic in question, because the mainstream, objective sources don't label her that way. -- Dennis Bratland ( talk) 00:03, 18 November 2013 (UTC)
It would be fine to include this other content, but only after giving due weight to the more important things: city council business, and the campaign she ran which defeated a scandal-free, well-liked, well-funded incumbent. That's the real story: how did this third party socialist succeed where so many others failed? WP:UNDUE requires expanding that first and these ancillary background details later.
Until the relevant content is expanded to proper proportion, the less pertinent material should be left out or kept on a workpage or this talk page until a properly balanced article can be written. -- Dennis Bratland ( talk) 04:14, 18 November 2013 (UTC)
The Seattle Times has emphasized that they think 2 of the 3 points in her platform, the millionaire's tax and rent control, require changes in state law, so are above the office of City Council. Others disagree. But the criticism is that she lacks an effective agenda for how she will use her office, and will instead focus on telling other lawmakers what they should be doing. An activist, not a city council member. When you write an article that disproportionately focuses on ancillary issues and ignores the greater weight the press has given to her City Council agenda, then you surreptitiously spin the article in support of that criticism.
This is why undue weight is so central to the BLP policy. What we choose to emphasizes colors the way the person is perceived. The structure of the article should be balanced, and the criticism that she is an activist working above her office should be stated openly and attributed. -- Dennis Bratland ( talk) 17:24, 18 November 2013 (UTC)
Kaczynski is a terrible example. At least compare Sawant to other local politicians.
Other editors are doing good work in making this article somewhat better. Please do not undo their work as you have done up to now. The next step is to expand the City Council positions section to get it into proportion to the actual coverage. Right now there is 5 to 10 times as much content about other things than about her City Council positions, which deviates too far from our sources.-- Dennis Bratland ( talk) 18:22, 18 November 2013 (UTC)
Well, there's a NPOV tag on the article now. User:Dennis Bratland has been a moving target of criticism for the past couple days now. He's tried and failed to get the article locked on his preferred version. He's tried and failed to undermine the legitimacy of uncontroversial primary sources, tried and failed to argue that Marxist and socialist are mutually exclusive terms, tried and failed to strip the article's subject of an identity she actively promotes, tried and failed to confine her biography to her City Council election and tried and failed to remove language from the article which he thinks might provoke a negative emotional response from some people. The other half dozen editors here have not support any of this so he seems to be concluding his lone dissension with tactic of muddying the waters with an NPOV tag.
I'm sure he'll have a different recollection but the history of the article seems pretty clearly laid out to me. If interested editors could weigh in here on this so as to quickly resolve this issue and remove the unilateral tagging of the article I would appreciate it. I've made my case on most of the respective issues. GraniteSand ( talk) 19:02, 18 November 2013 (UTC)
This keeps us on the right side of the BLP policy and doesn't cause any serious harm. It is really not that hard to work up 3 or 4 more paragraphs about her positions in the campaign. In particular the 3 main points should be expanded, with some of the reaction from critics of her 3 points and her replies. See her Reddit AMA, for example, and various editorials. We've already established that the sources are there.
If you want to revert, then put the POV tag back, and here we are. I think my compromise is a better way out. -- Dennis Bratland ( talk) 22:15, 18 November 2013 (UTC)
The article fails to explain that she is not a "classical" Marxist (the original thought of Marx and Engels), but a Trotskyist.. The difference is really this, Trotskyism is a development (or officially, the continuation of) Leninist interpretation, and what many consider, development of Classical Marxist thought. Secondly, the word Trotskyist should be used instead of socialist. To take one example, a social democratic politician is a socialist, but you refer to him as a social democrat.. A communist politician is a socialist, but you call him a communist politician. Sawant is a socialist, but more specifically she is a Trotskyist politician. Why so precise? Because Trotskyism is a socialist ideology which some people consider the correct interpretation of Lenin's thought and its continuation... I haven't made these changes since there seems to be a discussion going on here. What am I saying? It would be factually more correct, and more neutral to call here a Trotskyist. -- TIAYN ( talk) 23:56, 18 November 2013 (UTC)
And we do not "have to work with what we have". We can -- and should -- remain silent when we have uncertainty like this in a BLP. Read WP:BLP; it's very clear. -- Dennis Bratland ( talk) 01:56, 19 November 2013 (UTC)
Today's The Times of India headline states that Sawant is the "first elected socialist in the US". [6] This appears at odds with the article lede. Incidentally, the last two paragraphs of the Times story appear to be lifted word-for-word from this article. — Brianhe ( talk) 23:46, 20 November 2013 (UTC)
This edit removed the citation for the reference to Hugh De Lacy (politician), and the explanation for what it's about. So instead of saying, "The last socialist on the city council was A. W. Piper, who served 1877–1879, notwithstanding Representative Hugh De Lacy, said by historian Harvey Klehr to have been secretly a member of the Communist Party USA when elected to the city council in 1937" it only says "...notwithstanding Representative Hugh De Lacy."
If we're going to mention De Lacy we have to say why -- which is that he was secretly a communist, not a Democrat, which is what he was elected as. And we need to keep the citation no matter what. If we can't explain what his name is doing in this article, then we should delete him altogether. Making readers click through to try to figure out why we mention him is an WP:EASTEREGG.
I think it sort of does sound like red baiting but it's unavoidable. If we want to describe accurately the history of socialists on the City Council, we have to mention him, if only to clarify that the voters didn't pick a socialist in 1937. Only in 1877 and 2013. -- Dennis Bratland ( talk) 03:55, 22 November 2013 (UTC)
C.J. Griffin, I just tried a different wording. One way to avoid red baiting would be to frame the issue as related to the persecution of communists or socialists for much of the 20th century, as a barrier people like Sawant had to overcome. I agree the "secret communist" stuff smacks of red baiting, but it's also relevant so we should try to find a way to bring it in.-- Dennis Bratland ( talk) 16:31, 22 November 2013 (UTC)
The whole question of separation and living apart from her husband had nearly zero attention in reputable media, and nobody had even thought to ask about her marital situation until it was made an issue in this source: Erica C. Barnett. "Isn't It Weird That...A weird thing we noticed about "99 percenter" and socialist city council candidate Kshama Sawant". SeattleMet.. Barnett is one of Seattle's most erratic reporters even when she is attempting straight news, and the source here is purely editorial, not straight news. Everything else Barnett wrote at seattlemet.com throughout the campaign was pretty clearly pro-Conlin and the marriage story is basically op-research for the Conlin campaign. The point being, I don't think we have objective, non-partisan sources saying the subject's family status is relevant. We have hostile editorialists prying into private family affairs, but that doesn't meet the WP:BLP standards for respect of privacy. -- Dennis Bratland ( talk) 00:44, 1 December 2013 (UTC)
Sawant was profiled in the NYT today, which mentions that Seattle had a socialist mayor in 1922. That would be Dr. Edwin J. Brown, a lawyer and dentist, elected in 1922, and re-elected in 1924. Brown was involved in a split of the Washington Socialist party in 1909, leading the right wing of the party to try to form a separate faction. [7] [8] The City Clerks records don't list Brown as a socialist. [9]. Here is a think piece on Brown's career and election in 1922, attributing it to reaction against the incumbent rather than support of Brown, noting that Brown had as many enemies among the left as the right, and had a reputation as a gadfly. -- Dennis Bratland ( talk) 22:48, 29 December 2013 (UTC)
I think the SOTU rebuttal is worth including because it is evidence that Sawant is the most prominent Socialist in the US. The event received mention in several local media outlets, plus the HuffPo and various politics blogs. I wouldn't use this stuff in a notability discussion, but for purposes of whether it belongs in an article it seems sufficient (see WP:NNC). -- Dennis Bratland ( talk) 01:59, 24 January 2015 (UTC)
By the way, Bernie Sanders has been a registered Independent since 1979. Sawant is the most prominent Socialist in the US. -- Dennis Bratland ( talk) 06:24, 27 January 2015 (UTC)
On Wikipedia, sources don't have to have Internet links; they're nice, but it's not required in any way that a source be available on the Internet. It's bad practice to remove sources with broken links, rather than either removing the links, noting that they're broken or searching for a new link to the given material.
As a further note, the link for Sawant's graduate thesis is not actually broken - this works fine for me. NorthBySouthBaranof ( talk) 08:18, 25 January 2016 (UTC)
Raggz, you need to slow way, way down on your removal of citations claiming they don't support the material in the article, because in at least one case that's clearly incorrect. In this edit, you claim the LA Times article cited does not support the statements about her family history, when it most certainly does. The linked source states When pressed to divulge more than just vote counts and policy planks, the reticent councilwoman-elect said her entire family still lives in India. Her mother, a high school history and geography teacher who retired as a school principal, lives in Bangalore, the capital of India's Karnataka state. Her civil engineer father was killed by a drunk driver when she was 13. NorthBySouthBaranof ( talk) 08:29, 25 January 2016 (UTC)
I object to the ideological identification of Sawant in the lead sentence; as per Wikipedia style, it appears to be deprecated to include detailed discussion of a politician's particular ideology in the lead sentence of their biographies. See, for example, Rand Paul, Newt Gingrich, Hillary Clinton or Ted Cruz, all of whom are simply described as an "American politician" in the lead sentence of their biography. They are not called "conservative," "radical," "libertarian," "leftist," etc. Detailed discussion of ideological positions should be left to the body text of the article, and I object to its inclusion in this article. NorthBySouthBaranof ( talk) 08:45, 25 January 2016 (UTC)
Why is the 2014 arrest put in the Kshama_Sawant#Arrest section while the 2012 arrest is in Kshama_Sawant#Involvement_with_Occupy? The Occupy at least provides context to it while the 2014 one doesn't. Also this article is severely lacking in actual dates which is pretty typical when the sources are largely primary sourced interviews by her. -- Ricky81682 ( talk) 08:56, 26 January 2016 (UTC)
It's incorrect to delete sections about Sawant's positions merely because they are sourced to Sawant's own website and other self-published sources. The guidelines at WP:BLPSELFPUB proscribe a list of areas where we shouldn't cite material Sawant published about herself, but this is not one of them. The best source for Sawant's political goals, positions, talking points, agenda and so on is Sawant. Reputable criticism and comment is of course welcome (not rando bloggers, Tweets and YouTube though!).
Also, what's wrong with filling in the yawning whitespace next to the table with a map showing what parts of Seattle she represents? The districts are brand new, and lots of people aren't used to them yet. Sawant is often mistaken the "Capitol Hill council member", but her district is more complex than that. All the new districts span the traditional neighborhoods of Seattle in non-intuitive ways. I'd put the same map on any article for the rest of the Seattle city council district representatives. -- Dennis Bratland ( talk) 04:06, 27 January 2016 (UTC)
Of course her district map is important -- who her constituents are and aren't is vital to a politician's career. I'll tell you why you don't see many of these maps: they're hard to draw, if you don't own an expensive copy of GIS software. With free tools, you have to go through an awkward conversion process to plot the boundaries accurately and overlay them on a map correctly. I'm getting the hang of it though, and with any luck I'll carpetbomb Wikipedia bios with electoral district maps. And why not? It fills in a big empty hole, especially since somebody nuked all the other illustrations for some bizarre reason. -- Dennis Bratland ( talk) 04:15, 27 January 2016 (UTC)
Strange how none of that is in the article. There's literally no comment from a critic of hers. Fine, we're going to keep arguing in circles. Would you both consider WP:DRN on the subject? It's pretty straightforwad I think. -- Ricky81682 ( talk) 04:38, 27 January 2016 (UTC)
I find it sad that there's literally no bending here. It's all "her campaign is the best source for what she supports" while you acknowledge that she's been criticized on numerous issues but don't suggest including the wording from her opponents. For example this page which you mentioned alleges that she abstained from the actual $15 an hour vote. You've never thought to include that in the article but have no issue with parroting her campaign language that she supports a living wage? Instead I get "fine we're going to keep her campaign lines in there but you should go and find opposing information even though we could but we don't think it's necessary" (which is fine). I'm not putting up a giant POV tag here, I just say how about we don't literally quote her campaign on what her issues as that is unduly self-serving. -- Ricky81682 ( talk) 05:03, 27 January 2016 (UTC)
Take a look at a Featured Article like Barack Obama. You see whole long sections listing Obama's agenda and his accomplishments, and hardly a word of the criticism he faced for literally every single thing he ever did or didn't do. Wikipedia biographies are not attack pages. We go easy on people, even politicians. We just present who they are and what they're about. We aren't here to right great wrongs or take them down a peg.
That said, we should all work together to expand the article and this whole thing would be a non-issue. -- Dennis Bratland ( talk) 05:12, 27 January 2016 (UTC)
We need to place a separate Campaign issues section under both the 2013 Campaign and 2015 Campaign sections. Currently there's circa 2013 quotes where Sawant is taking shots at Richard Conlin under the 2015 campaign; it makes it look like she doesn't remember who her 2015 opponent was. Also, politicians change their platforms from one campaign to the next, so we need to be clear about which issues they ran on in each campaign. In 2013 the minimum wage was as much pie-in-the-sky as rent control or income tax, but after it passed, and spread nationally, Sawant pivoted to run as a successful reformer, not a mere dreamer. In 2013 she was attacked as someone whose whole agenda was impossible. In 2015 the main line of attack was that she was too busy campaigning for minimum wage increases across the US to serve Seattle. -- Dennis Bratland ( talk) 17:35, 28 January 2016 (UTC)
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A couple notes on Indigenous Peoples' Day in Seattle:
Sawant can probably claim some credit for her promotional efforts, but keep in mind this same thing passed the school board, and had recently been proclaimed in several other cities and states in 2014.
This thing could belong on some other Seattle article, but it has very little to do with Kshama Sawant, except perhaps as one example of the ways that Sawant's views conform with every other council member and the Mayor, with whom she often clashes. I wish I could have back the time I wasted researching this. Nothing here. -- Dennis Bratland ( talk) 03:46, 22 May 2017 (UTC)
We might want to switch to this photo. I think it looks better than the current one. - Jmabel | Talk 02:45, 29 November 2017 (UTC)
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I am requesting the re-inclusion of some or all of the text below, which was removed by JesseRafe ("Not particularly relevent [sic] to an article about her, per balance and wp:notnews"). I believe it is relevant because it discusses specific economic policy positions, namely her opposition to the Qwest Field ballot initiative and her support for the Washington Income Tax Initiative.
Sawant criticized Paul Allen's reputation as a philanthropist shortly after his death, including for his involvement in Qwest Field and his opposition to the Washington Income Tax Initiative. [1] [2]
Seattle city councilmember Kshama Sawant took aim at Paul Allen's reputation as a philanthropist in the wake of his death Monday.
Paul Allen was known as a philanthropist. He spent $250 million on the biggest yacht in the world in 2003; he also owned two more yachts and a fleet of private jets, several sports teams. He paid to put the Qwest Field on the ballot so that working people picked up most of the $425M tab. He spent half a million dollars to defeat the I-1098 Tax the Rich statewide initiative in 2010.
We could remove the references to Paul Allen if need be, but I believe the policy position are worthy of inclusion, neither of which are clearly articulated in the article as it stands. PvOberstein ( talk) 18:45, 18 October 2018 (UTC)
Sawant opposed the ballot initiative to fund Qwest Field, and supported the 2010 Washington Income Tax Initiative
Has this also been scrubbed from this historical record, just like the other pages for Seattle City Council members?
https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/seattle-has-spent-258752-78-so-far-gets-partial-win-in-1-sawant-suit/ https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/crime/judge-dismisses-defamation-lawsuit-against-kshama-sawant-filed-by-2-police-officers-over-brutal-murder-comments/ — Preceding unsigned comment added by 73.239.192.63 ( talk) 06:25, 31 March 2019 (UTC)
I recently removed this section and its list of news articles. Some of these sources seem like useful independent reliable sources that may could provide content and be included in the article as references.
– wallyfromdilbert ( talk) 19:39, 21 April 2020 (UTC)
An editor recently took issue with Capitol Hill Seattle, the blog that has been reporting local news from the main neighborhood in Kshama's district of Seattle since 2006, for being a blog. The BLP comments about sourcing from a blog WP:BLPSPS but Capitol_Hill_Seattle_Blog even has a wiki entry and seems more to fall under using "blog" to denote independent. I'd suggest the CHS website has existed for long enough with a stable editor that it's local news site and not a self-published blog in a fly-by-night/anyone can post light. If CHS fails the blog test, then the majority of material sourced to the publication Socialist Alternative, which is heavily influenced by Sawant and relatives, would also fail the "blog" test. -- Jwfowble ( talk) 19:35, 22 April 2020 (UTC)
I have added, with some additional content, a few lines about the clash between Durkan and Sawant, which appears to me to be well-sourced and noteworthy. The text includes both the gist of the mayor's statements and the gist of the councilmember's response. I do not think this will be controversial but am bringing the matter for here for discussion in the event anyone objects. Neutrality talk 14:42, 1 July 2020 (UTC)
A judge has ruled that a recall effort against Sawant can proceed, stating "the following accusations are justification: Sawant relinquished her duties of office to an outside political organization; misused city resources; misused her position by letting protesters into City Hall; led a protest to the mayor's house despite her address being protected by a state program due to threats stemming from her time as a U.S. Attorney." Dropping this here in case anyone is interested in determining what's WP:DUE to add to the article. Schazjmd (talk) 00:41, 17 September 2020 (UTC)
In this edit, User:JesseRafe removed the following content:
In October 2022, the Councilor discovered times where feces had been thrown or spread on her home. When she requested extra steps in an ongoing investigation and the posting of a direct police guard for her home, it raised concerns of why she would need more than the average citizen's allotment from a police force with drindling manpower to cover a mere case of vandalism from someone who has repeatedly asked for a dwindling police force. [1] [2] [3] [4]
and commented, “Rv, non-npov.”
I think it's notable that a politican who supports defunding the police is acting the exact opposite when she herself is the vicim of criminal activity. I propose rewriting and resoring info on this. This is my proposal:
In October 2022, Sawant sent a letter to the Seattle police where she criticized them for "failing to investigate" six recent incidents where someone had thrown human feces into her yard. In her letter, she stated, "Needless to say, it is disturbing that right-wing media, including a police-run website named [Law Officer], portrays these attacks on my home as justified against an elected representative who has the temerity to criticize the police or attempt to hold them accountable. That is certainly a dangerous direction, especially if it is embraced by police and de facto supported by SPD leadership and the city’s Democratic Party establishment.” [5]
What do others here think of this?
SquirrelHill1971 ( talk) 17:28, 26 October 2022 (UTC) SquirrelHill1971 ( talk) 17:28, 26 October 2022 (UTC)
References
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I added a small comment to the article to cover Kshama's recent resignation from her positions in Socialist Alternative, and her subsequent resignation from SA and the ISA. But this will need more references from publicly available reputable sources. ابو علي (Abu Ali) ( talk) 06:29, 19 June 2024 (UTC)
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The claim that she supports collectivizing Amazon.com has shown up here and in a few blog posts and a Forbes article. Each of these claims cite a single Stranger article, Goldy's "The Case for Kshama Sawant," as their primary source. Problem is, that article doesn't really support the claim. The relevant text of the article is
"Sure, if you really push her on the subject, she'll make a cogent economic argument for, say, collectivizing Amazon, so I guess there's that."
This is pretty ambiguous. He doesn't name a specific time, place, or context. It sounds like he's just making up an example of some hypothetical argument. I can't find any other mention of or reference to her speaking about wanting to collectivize Amazon. I suspect that the reporter may have confused 'collectivize' with 'unionize', since unions are also called 'collective bargaining' and she does explicitly discuss unionizing Amazon.com on her web site. I suggest this claim doesn't belong on wikipedia until we get corroboration.
Maybe the Wikipedia:Dispute_resolution_requests/DRN would be a more appropriate place? Not that we are in too big of a dispute. I just thought since three people have already weighed in? Ljpernic ( talk) 03:04, 17 November 2013 (UTC)
I'm going to eat some crow now. I still think that Stranger article was equivocating and misleading, but after some searching I found much more substantial corroboration. The Internet Archive captured her website on July 27 2012. At that time, her platform explicitly stated that she wanted to collectivize not just Amazon but also Boeing and Microsoft:
"Break the power of Wall Street and Corporate America! Take the giant corporations that dominate Washington state such as Boeing, Microsoft, and Amazon, into democratic public ownership to be run for public good, not private profit."
— Vote Sawant: What Our Campaign Stands For at the Wayback Machine (archived July 27, 2012)
I'll revert to GraniteSand's version and add a citation to the archived version of her website. Bencmcclain ( talk) 06:48, 17 November 2013 (UTC)
To add to my comments below, we should consider WP:UNDUE in relation to the collectivization issue. Sawant campaigned heavily on a simple 3-point platform, not on this. She stated clearly that she was not campaigning on a takeover of any corporations; it is only an opinion that she holds. This should be mentioned in the article because multiple sources discuss it, but again, it is mostly focused on by critics. We should explicitly attribute the emphasis on collectivization to her critics. The actual agenda she campaigned on should be given the greatest weight. -- Dennis Bratland ( talk) 17:16, 17 November 2013 (UTC)
I removed the nationalizations mention and the housing stuff here. There's no actual independent secondary sources, just in order, (1) her campaign page; (2) her own campaign page; (3) an interview with her and (4) another interview with her. There is zero evidence that independent secondary sources actually care about this issue, just that she's brought it up. This is especially important for a politician so that the page isn't just parroting her campaign. -- Ricky81682 ( talk) 08:49, 26 January 2016 (UTC)
Wikipedia:Biographies of living persons takes a very strong view that we should error on the side of caution when including criticism or negative information about living persons. So when I go to see if any sources support the use of the words "Marxist" and "Trotskyist" to describe Sawant, what I find is that the vast majority of reputable sources use the word "socialist", not Marxist. None of the mainstream, reputable sources mention Trotsky, or if they do only rarely. On the other hand, I do see many references to Marx and Trotsky in attack pages, and the use of Marxist or communist in lieu of socialist. I can understand the point of view that these words are synonyms, or at least mean very close to the same thing. But sometimes these words mean distinct things. And it's clear from the way the sources use them that one set of word choices is used by critics and another by neutral sources.
The bottom line is that Wikipedia must conform to the tone and attitude of the most neutral sources, and when there is any doubt, negative information must be avoided unless it is very well sourced. I checked four cited sources which supposedly supported calling Sawant a Marxist, and not one used the word. It appears likely that there is a negative slant at work in some of these word choices, and therefore we should be certain we cite high quality sources before echoing the critics of a living person. -- Dennis Bratland ( talk) 16:44, 17 November 2013 (UTC)
The only reason this article can even meet notability is that Sawant has received national attention for being a third party socialist. Look at the news headlines: 100+ news stories in a day, and the headines say Richard Conlin Concedes: Seattle Elects Sawant As First Socialist Councilmember, Socialist Sawant wins City Council seat. Etc. Etc. But Marxist? Barely five hits and they're all blogs, and opinion pieces, and the reason you even get hits for "Marxist" is because Google News is including reader comments.
Responsible, mainstream, neutral sources all say "socialist". They don't drag Trotsky into it. Why? Because these terms evoke turn of the century, Soviet authoritarian communism. And even if we didn't know that, we do know it's our job to faithfully relay what our sources say, not embroider, enhance, or spin what we find in the sources.
I think it would be fine to cite reputable critics who are saying "Sawant calls herself a socialist but she's really a Trotskite Marxist and she's hiding it..." Such editorials exist, but we must attribute them as opinions.
Please explain why it's so necessary to deviate so far from what the vast majority of quality sources say. Why do you want to change "socialist" to "Marxist"? -- Dennis Bratland ( talk) 20:05, 17 November 2013 (UTC)
You guys need to deescalate a little bit. Take a breather. The article as it stands now clearly identifies her as a socialist. It only uses the term Marxist once, with two citations to speeches. She self-identifies as a Marxist at 0:47 into the video (so, the very beginning). Primary sources can be problematic, but in this case, there is no room for misinterpretation, so per Wikipedia:PRIMARY, I would favor including the term. (Relevant text from WP: "A primary source may only be used on Wikipedia to make straightforward, descriptive statements of facts that can be verified by any educated person with access to the source but without further, specialized knowledge.") She's pretty clearly a Marxist. As for her being a Trotskyist, she is a member of the Socialist Alternative, which, to my understanding, is a Trotskyist political organization. My opinion is that these labels are appropriate and not over-used. Ljpernic ( talk) 21:03, 17 November 2013 (UTC)
If somebody thinks the most accurate term is Marxist, that somebody should be a published expert and we should attribute that opinion to them by name. Simple. -- Dennis Bratland ( talk) 21:13, 17 November 2013 (UTC)
I've removed the term "Marxist" from the intro because it wasn't supported by the listed references. I think that the best way to address this issue is to somehow cite the speech inline and note that shes happens to identify specifically as a Marxist and leave it at that. This allows for the inclusion of the statement without putting it at the forefront of the article which simply cannot justify with the given sources. John Reaves 21:37, 17 November 2013 (UTC)
Sawant clearly is positioning herself as a socialist, not strictly a Marxist, so that we can't infer that she is unwilling to compromise with non-Marxist socialists. Going beyond what the mainstream sources say and changing "socialist" to "Marxist" is misleading because it leads the reader to think she rejects other forms of socialism.
Perhaps she does -- some critics have accused her of being a rigid ideologue who will attempt to impose a one-sided agenda. Or that she is doomed to being ineffective because she won't compromise with anyone. But those criticisms must be attributed by name to the critic in question, because the mainstream, objective sources don't label her that way. -- Dennis Bratland ( talk) 00:03, 18 November 2013 (UTC)
It would be fine to include this other content, but only after giving due weight to the more important things: city council business, and the campaign she ran which defeated a scandal-free, well-liked, well-funded incumbent. That's the real story: how did this third party socialist succeed where so many others failed? WP:UNDUE requires expanding that first and these ancillary background details later.
Until the relevant content is expanded to proper proportion, the less pertinent material should be left out or kept on a workpage or this talk page until a properly balanced article can be written. -- Dennis Bratland ( talk) 04:14, 18 November 2013 (UTC)
The Seattle Times has emphasized that they think 2 of the 3 points in her platform, the millionaire's tax and rent control, require changes in state law, so are above the office of City Council. Others disagree. But the criticism is that she lacks an effective agenda for how she will use her office, and will instead focus on telling other lawmakers what they should be doing. An activist, not a city council member. When you write an article that disproportionately focuses on ancillary issues and ignores the greater weight the press has given to her City Council agenda, then you surreptitiously spin the article in support of that criticism.
This is why undue weight is so central to the BLP policy. What we choose to emphasizes colors the way the person is perceived. The structure of the article should be balanced, and the criticism that she is an activist working above her office should be stated openly and attributed. -- Dennis Bratland ( talk) 17:24, 18 November 2013 (UTC)
Kaczynski is a terrible example. At least compare Sawant to other local politicians.
Other editors are doing good work in making this article somewhat better. Please do not undo their work as you have done up to now. The next step is to expand the City Council positions section to get it into proportion to the actual coverage. Right now there is 5 to 10 times as much content about other things than about her City Council positions, which deviates too far from our sources.-- Dennis Bratland ( talk) 18:22, 18 November 2013 (UTC)
Well, there's a NPOV tag on the article now. User:Dennis Bratland has been a moving target of criticism for the past couple days now. He's tried and failed to get the article locked on his preferred version. He's tried and failed to undermine the legitimacy of uncontroversial primary sources, tried and failed to argue that Marxist and socialist are mutually exclusive terms, tried and failed to strip the article's subject of an identity she actively promotes, tried and failed to confine her biography to her City Council election and tried and failed to remove language from the article which he thinks might provoke a negative emotional response from some people. The other half dozen editors here have not support any of this so he seems to be concluding his lone dissension with tactic of muddying the waters with an NPOV tag.
I'm sure he'll have a different recollection but the history of the article seems pretty clearly laid out to me. If interested editors could weigh in here on this so as to quickly resolve this issue and remove the unilateral tagging of the article I would appreciate it. I've made my case on most of the respective issues. GraniteSand ( talk) 19:02, 18 November 2013 (UTC)
This keeps us on the right side of the BLP policy and doesn't cause any serious harm. It is really not that hard to work up 3 or 4 more paragraphs about her positions in the campaign. In particular the 3 main points should be expanded, with some of the reaction from critics of her 3 points and her replies. See her Reddit AMA, for example, and various editorials. We've already established that the sources are there.
If you want to revert, then put the POV tag back, and here we are. I think my compromise is a better way out. -- Dennis Bratland ( talk) 22:15, 18 November 2013 (UTC)
The article fails to explain that she is not a "classical" Marxist (the original thought of Marx and Engels), but a Trotskyist.. The difference is really this, Trotskyism is a development (or officially, the continuation of) Leninist interpretation, and what many consider, development of Classical Marxist thought. Secondly, the word Trotskyist should be used instead of socialist. To take one example, a social democratic politician is a socialist, but you refer to him as a social democrat.. A communist politician is a socialist, but you call him a communist politician. Sawant is a socialist, but more specifically she is a Trotskyist politician. Why so precise? Because Trotskyism is a socialist ideology which some people consider the correct interpretation of Lenin's thought and its continuation... I haven't made these changes since there seems to be a discussion going on here. What am I saying? It would be factually more correct, and more neutral to call here a Trotskyist. -- TIAYN ( talk) 23:56, 18 November 2013 (UTC)
And we do not "have to work with what we have". We can -- and should -- remain silent when we have uncertainty like this in a BLP. Read WP:BLP; it's very clear. -- Dennis Bratland ( talk) 01:56, 19 November 2013 (UTC)
Today's The Times of India headline states that Sawant is the "first elected socialist in the US". [6] This appears at odds with the article lede. Incidentally, the last two paragraphs of the Times story appear to be lifted word-for-word from this article. — Brianhe ( talk) 23:46, 20 November 2013 (UTC)
This edit removed the citation for the reference to Hugh De Lacy (politician), and the explanation for what it's about. So instead of saying, "The last socialist on the city council was A. W. Piper, who served 1877–1879, notwithstanding Representative Hugh De Lacy, said by historian Harvey Klehr to have been secretly a member of the Communist Party USA when elected to the city council in 1937" it only says "...notwithstanding Representative Hugh De Lacy."
If we're going to mention De Lacy we have to say why -- which is that he was secretly a communist, not a Democrat, which is what he was elected as. And we need to keep the citation no matter what. If we can't explain what his name is doing in this article, then we should delete him altogether. Making readers click through to try to figure out why we mention him is an WP:EASTEREGG.
I think it sort of does sound like red baiting but it's unavoidable. If we want to describe accurately the history of socialists on the City Council, we have to mention him, if only to clarify that the voters didn't pick a socialist in 1937. Only in 1877 and 2013. -- Dennis Bratland ( talk) 03:55, 22 November 2013 (UTC)
C.J. Griffin, I just tried a different wording. One way to avoid red baiting would be to frame the issue as related to the persecution of communists or socialists for much of the 20th century, as a barrier people like Sawant had to overcome. I agree the "secret communist" stuff smacks of red baiting, but it's also relevant so we should try to find a way to bring it in.-- Dennis Bratland ( talk) 16:31, 22 November 2013 (UTC)
The whole question of separation and living apart from her husband had nearly zero attention in reputable media, and nobody had even thought to ask about her marital situation until it was made an issue in this source: Erica C. Barnett. "Isn't It Weird That...A weird thing we noticed about "99 percenter" and socialist city council candidate Kshama Sawant". SeattleMet.. Barnett is one of Seattle's most erratic reporters even when she is attempting straight news, and the source here is purely editorial, not straight news. Everything else Barnett wrote at seattlemet.com throughout the campaign was pretty clearly pro-Conlin and the marriage story is basically op-research for the Conlin campaign. The point being, I don't think we have objective, non-partisan sources saying the subject's family status is relevant. We have hostile editorialists prying into private family affairs, but that doesn't meet the WP:BLP standards for respect of privacy. -- Dennis Bratland ( talk) 00:44, 1 December 2013 (UTC)
Sawant was profiled in the NYT today, which mentions that Seattle had a socialist mayor in 1922. That would be Dr. Edwin J. Brown, a lawyer and dentist, elected in 1922, and re-elected in 1924. Brown was involved in a split of the Washington Socialist party in 1909, leading the right wing of the party to try to form a separate faction. [7] [8] The City Clerks records don't list Brown as a socialist. [9]. Here is a think piece on Brown's career and election in 1922, attributing it to reaction against the incumbent rather than support of Brown, noting that Brown had as many enemies among the left as the right, and had a reputation as a gadfly. -- Dennis Bratland ( talk) 22:48, 29 December 2013 (UTC)
I think the SOTU rebuttal is worth including because it is evidence that Sawant is the most prominent Socialist in the US. The event received mention in several local media outlets, plus the HuffPo and various politics blogs. I wouldn't use this stuff in a notability discussion, but for purposes of whether it belongs in an article it seems sufficient (see WP:NNC). -- Dennis Bratland ( talk) 01:59, 24 January 2015 (UTC)
By the way, Bernie Sanders has been a registered Independent since 1979. Sawant is the most prominent Socialist in the US. -- Dennis Bratland ( talk) 06:24, 27 January 2015 (UTC)
On Wikipedia, sources don't have to have Internet links; they're nice, but it's not required in any way that a source be available on the Internet. It's bad practice to remove sources with broken links, rather than either removing the links, noting that they're broken or searching for a new link to the given material.
As a further note, the link for Sawant's graduate thesis is not actually broken - this works fine for me. NorthBySouthBaranof ( talk) 08:18, 25 January 2016 (UTC)
Raggz, you need to slow way, way down on your removal of citations claiming they don't support the material in the article, because in at least one case that's clearly incorrect. In this edit, you claim the LA Times article cited does not support the statements about her family history, when it most certainly does. The linked source states When pressed to divulge more than just vote counts and policy planks, the reticent councilwoman-elect said her entire family still lives in India. Her mother, a high school history and geography teacher who retired as a school principal, lives in Bangalore, the capital of India's Karnataka state. Her civil engineer father was killed by a drunk driver when she was 13. NorthBySouthBaranof ( talk) 08:29, 25 January 2016 (UTC)
I object to the ideological identification of Sawant in the lead sentence; as per Wikipedia style, it appears to be deprecated to include detailed discussion of a politician's particular ideology in the lead sentence of their biographies. See, for example, Rand Paul, Newt Gingrich, Hillary Clinton or Ted Cruz, all of whom are simply described as an "American politician" in the lead sentence of their biography. They are not called "conservative," "radical," "libertarian," "leftist," etc. Detailed discussion of ideological positions should be left to the body text of the article, and I object to its inclusion in this article. NorthBySouthBaranof ( talk) 08:45, 25 January 2016 (UTC)
Why is the 2014 arrest put in the Kshama_Sawant#Arrest section while the 2012 arrest is in Kshama_Sawant#Involvement_with_Occupy? The Occupy at least provides context to it while the 2014 one doesn't. Also this article is severely lacking in actual dates which is pretty typical when the sources are largely primary sourced interviews by her. -- Ricky81682 ( talk) 08:56, 26 January 2016 (UTC)
It's incorrect to delete sections about Sawant's positions merely because they are sourced to Sawant's own website and other self-published sources. The guidelines at WP:BLPSELFPUB proscribe a list of areas where we shouldn't cite material Sawant published about herself, but this is not one of them. The best source for Sawant's political goals, positions, talking points, agenda and so on is Sawant. Reputable criticism and comment is of course welcome (not rando bloggers, Tweets and YouTube though!).
Also, what's wrong with filling in the yawning whitespace next to the table with a map showing what parts of Seattle she represents? The districts are brand new, and lots of people aren't used to them yet. Sawant is often mistaken the "Capitol Hill council member", but her district is more complex than that. All the new districts span the traditional neighborhoods of Seattle in non-intuitive ways. I'd put the same map on any article for the rest of the Seattle city council district representatives. -- Dennis Bratland ( talk) 04:06, 27 January 2016 (UTC)
Of course her district map is important -- who her constituents are and aren't is vital to a politician's career. I'll tell you why you don't see many of these maps: they're hard to draw, if you don't own an expensive copy of GIS software. With free tools, you have to go through an awkward conversion process to plot the boundaries accurately and overlay them on a map correctly. I'm getting the hang of it though, and with any luck I'll carpetbomb Wikipedia bios with electoral district maps. And why not? It fills in a big empty hole, especially since somebody nuked all the other illustrations for some bizarre reason. -- Dennis Bratland ( talk) 04:15, 27 January 2016 (UTC)
Strange how none of that is in the article. There's literally no comment from a critic of hers. Fine, we're going to keep arguing in circles. Would you both consider WP:DRN on the subject? It's pretty straightforwad I think. -- Ricky81682 ( talk) 04:38, 27 January 2016 (UTC)
I find it sad that there's literally no bending here. It's all "her campaign is the best source for what she supports" while you acknowledge that she's been criticized on numerous issues but don't suggest including the wording from her opponents. For example this page which you mentioned alleges that she abstained from the actual $15 an hour vote. You've never thought to include that in the article but have no issue with parroting her campaign language that she supports a living wage? Instead I get "fine we're going to keep her campaign lines in there but you should go and find opposing information even though we could but we don't think it's necessary" (which is fine). I'm not putting up a giant POV tag here, I just say how about we don't literally quote her campaign on what her issues as that is unduly self-serving. -- Ricky81682 ( talk) 05:03, 27 January 2016 (UTC)
Take a look at a Featured Article like Barack Obama. You see whole long sections listing Obama's agenda and his accomplishments, and hardly a word of the criticism he faced for literally every single thing he ever did or didn't do. Wikipedia biographies are not attack pages. We go easy on people, even politicians. We just present who they are and what they're about. We aren't here to right great wrongs or take them down a peg.
That said, we should all work together to expand the article and this whole thing would be a non-issue. -- Dennis Bratland ( talk) 05:12, 27 January 2016 (UTC)
We need to place a separate Campaign issues section under both the 2013 Campaign and 2015 Campaign sections. Currently there's circa 2013 quotes where Sawant is taking shots at Richard Conlin under the 2015 campaign; it makes it look like she doesn't remember who her 2015 opponent was. Also, politicians change their platforms from one campaign to the next, so we need to be clear about which issues they ran on in each campaign. In 2013 the minimum wage was as much pie-in-the-sky as rent control or income tax, but after it passed, and spread nationally, Sawant pivoted to run as a successful reformer, not a mere dreamer. In 2013 she was attacked as someone whose whole agenda was impossible. In 2015 the main line of attack was that she was too busy campaigning for minimum wage increases across the US to serve Seattle. -- Dennis Bratland ( talk) 17:35, 28 January 2016 (UTC)
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A couple notes on Indigenous Peoples' Day in Seattle:
Sawant can probably claim some credit for her promotional efforts, but keep in mind this same thing passed the school board, and had recently been proclaimed in several other cities and states in 2014.
This thing could belong on some other Seattle article, but it has very little to do with Kshama Sawant, except perhaps as one example of the ways that Sawant's views conform with every other council member and the Mayor, with whom she often clashes. I wish I could have back the time I wasted researching this. Nothing here. -- Dennis Bratland ( talk) 03:46, 22 May 2017 (UTC)
We might want to switch to this photo. I think it looks better than the current one. - Jmabel | Talk 02:45, 29 November 2017 (UTC)
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I am requesting the re-inclusion of some or all of the text below, which was removed by JesseRafe ("Not particularly relevent [sic] to an article about her, per balance and wp:notnews"). I believe it is relevant because it discusses specific economic policy positions, namely her opposition to the Qwest Field ballot initiative and her support for the Washington Income Tax Initiative.
Sawant criticized Paul Allen's reputation as a philanthropist shortly after his death, including for his involvement in Qwest Field and his opposition to the Washington Income Tax Initiative. [1] [2]
Seattle city councilmember Kshama Sawant took aim at Paul Allen's reputation as a philanthropist in the wake of his death Monday.
Paul Allen was known as a philanthropist. He spent $250 million on the biggest yacht in the world in 2003; he also owned two more yachts and a fleet of private jets, several sports teams. He paid to put the Qwest Field on the ballot so that working people picked up most of the $425M tab. He spent half a million dollars to defeat the I-1098 Tax the Rich statewide initiative in 2010.
We could remove the references to Paul Allen if need be, but I believe the policy position are worthy of inclusion, neither of which are clearly articulated in the article as it stands. PvOberstein ( talk) 18:45, 18 October 2018 (UTC)
Sawant opposed the ballot initiative to fund Qwest Field, and supported the 2010 Washington Income Tax Initiative
Has this also been scrubbed from this historical record, just like the other pages for Seattle City Council members?
https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/seattle-has-spent-258752-78-so-far-gets-partial-win-in-1-sawant-suit/ https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/crime/judge-dismisses-defamation-lawsuit-against-kshama-sawant-filed-by-2-police-officers-over-brutal-murder-comments/ — Preceding unsigned comment added by 73.239.192.63 ( talk) 06:25, 31 March 2019 (UTC)
I recently removed this section and its list of news articles. Some of these sources seem like useful independent reliable sources that may could provide content and be included in the article as references.
– wallyfromdilbert ( talk) 19:39, 21 April 2020 (UTC)
An editor recently took issue with Capitol Hill Seattle, the blog that has been reporting local news from the main neighborhood in Kshama's district of Seattle since 2006, for being a blog. The BLP comments about sourcing from a blog WP:BLPSPS but Capitol_Hill_Seattle_Blog even has a wiki entry and seems more to fall under using "blog" to denote independent. I'd suggest the CHS website has existed for long enough with a stable editor that it's local news site and not a self-published blog in a fly-by-night/anyone can post light. If CHS fails the blog test, then the majority of material sourced to the publication Socialist Alternative, which is heavily influenced by Sawant and relatives, would also fail the "blog" test. -- Jwfowble ( talk) 19:35, 22 April 2020 (UTC)
I have added, with some additional content, a few lines about the clash between Durkan and Sawant, which appears to me to be well-sourced and noteworthy. The text includes both the gist of the mayor's statements and the gist of the councilmember's response. I do not think this will be controversial but am bringing the matter for here for discussion in the event anyone objects. Neutrality talk 14:42, 1 July 2020 (UTC)
A judge has ruled that a recall effort against Sawant can proceed, stating "the following accusations are justification: Sawant relinquished her duties of office to an outside political organization; misused city resources; misused her position by letting protesters into City Hall; led a protest to the mayor's house despite her address being protected by a state program due to threats stemming from her time as a U.S. Attorney." Dropping this here in case anyone is interested in determining what's WP:DUE to add to the article. Schazjmd (talk) 00:41, 17 September 2020 (UTC)
In this edit, User:JesseRafe removed the following content:
In October 2022, the Councilor discovered times where feces had been thrown or spread on her home. When she requested extra steps in an ongoing investigation and the posting of a direct police guard for her home, it raised concerns of why she would need more than the average citizen's allotment from a police force with drindling manpower to cover a mere case of vandalism from someone who has repeatedly asked for a dwindling police force. [1] [2] [3] [4]
and commented, “Rv, non-npov.”
I think it's notable that a politican who supports defunding the police is acting the exact opposite when she herself is the vicim of criminal activity. I propose rewriting and resoring info on this. This is my proposal:
In October 2022, Sawant sent a letter to the Seattle police where she criticized them for "failing to investigate" six recent incidents where someone had thrown human feces into her yard. In her letter, she stated, "Needless to say, it is disturbing that right-wing media, including a police-run website named [Law Officer], portrays these attacks on my home as justified against an elected representative who has the temerity to criticize the police or attempt to hold them accountable. That is certainly a dangerous direction, especially if it is embraced by police and de facto supported by SPD leadership and the city’s Democratic Party establishment.” [5]
What do others here think of this?
SquirrelHill1971 ( talk) 17:28, 26 October 2022 (UTC) SquirrelHill1971 ( talk) 17:28, 26 October 2022 (UTC)
References
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I added a small comment to the article to cover Kshama's recent resignation from her positions in Socialist Alternative, and her subsequent resignation from SA and the ISA. But this will need more references from publicly available reputable sources. ابو علي (Abu Ali) ( talk) 06:29, 19 June 2024 (UTC)