“Shon F. Barnes is a nationally recognized leader in crime reduction and community-police relations. In recognition of his contributions, Chief Barnes was honored as a National Institute of Justice, LEADS Scholar (Law Enforcement Advancement using Data and Science) for his innovative use of technology and scientific methods to combat crime. He previously served as the Chief of Police in Madison, Wisconsin and was the Director of Training and Professional Development for the Civilian Office of Police Accountability in Chicago, Illinois. Before that, Chief Barnes was the Deputy Chief of Police in Salisbury, North Carolina (2017-2020) and held the rank of Captain with the Greensboro Police Department, where he began his career as a patrol officer in the fall of 2000. He is also a council member on the National Police Institute’s Council on Policing Reforms and Race, a nonpartisan initiative dedicated to using research and evidence to address pressing issues in police reform.

Throughout his career, Chief Barnes has championed Neighborhood Oriented Policing, which emphasizes smaller police beat responses, neighborhood ownership, and community engagement at all organizational levels. He is a national advocate for Evidence-Based Policing strategies and was inducted into the Evidence-Based Policing Hall of Fame at George Mason University. Most recently, he received the Excellence in Policing Award from The Center for Police Practice, Policy and Research at Radford University.

Chief Barnes holds a B.A. in History/Pre-Law from Elizabeth City State University (Elizabeth City, North Carolina) and a Master’s degree in Criminal Justice from the University of Cincinnati (Cincinnati, Ohio). He has also earned a Ph.D. in Leadership Studies from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University (Greensboro, North Carolina) with a published dissertation that explored racial profiling in police traffic stops. This work was awarded the 2018 Outstanding Dissertation Award for the College of Arts and Sciences at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University.

His philosophy on policing can be summarized as follows: “Community policing should be neighborhood-oriented, community-focused (encompassing both businesses and residences), problem-oriented, and grounded in the most current empirical research available to swiftly reduce crime and enhance citizens’ satisfaction with police services.”

I would summarize Barnes’ summary as “Ramalama ding-dong.

Madison, Greensboro and Salisbury are not exactly hot-spots of gang violence and major crime, so I’m pretty sure Seattle could have found a more appropriately experienced chief, but maybe not one with all the trimmings of kinder, gentler law enforcement and the woke politics essential to enhancing “citizens’ satisfaction with police services” which so many of Seattle’s unhinged progressives want to defund anyway. Remember, Seattle is probably second only to Minneapolis as a Ground Zero for The Great Stupid. This year, Chief Barnes ordered his force to do all it could to obstruct I.C.E. operations.

In 2020’s “Nah, There Are No Race-Obsessed Anarchists Running Seattle!,” I referred to reports that…

“Seattle’s Office of Civil Rights has developed a “race and social justice” curriculum for all 10,000 city employees. I’ve obtained new documents from the city’s segregated “whites-only” trainings, which induct white employees into the cult of critical race theory….I’ve received a trove of leaked documents from within the King County Executive’s Office claiming that the justice system is a “white supremacist institution” that must be dismantled. It’s explosive…The document begins by claiming that the justice system is built of a foundation of “racism,” “white fragility,” and “white supremacist culture.” They say that whites have a “need to control” and have designed “social conditions” to “oppress People of Color”…Next, they claim that the jails are designed as “a system of oppression based on race and built to maintain white supremacy.” The plan to permanently shut down the jails is centered on the obligation to “isolate race” and “examine the presence and role of whiteness.”…Next, the government defines “white culture” as one that focuses on the corrupt and racist values of “individuality,” “meritocracy,” “linearity,” “progress,” “objectivity,” and “the written word”…n the attached glossary, the officials claim that whites uphold “the U.S. white supremacy system,” “oppress People of Color,” and have “unearned power and privileges associated with having white skin,” which they call “Whiteism.”

Well. I guess I answered my own question. I understand now! A major city hires a non-resident, absentee police chief when it isn’t serious about law enforcement, and is more interested in sending the right woke message to its addled citizens.

Then it is surprised at the predictable results.