Dones has repeatedly called for the abolition of police departments across the country and supported the Minneapolis City Council decision to defund their police department.
A communist activist who has called for abolishing the police and an overthrow of capitalism, has been offered the job to create and oversee the new Regional Homeless Authority (RHA) for Seattle and King County. According to KOMO News the post "could set the agenda for how the region responds to one of the most pressing problems in the area."
According to the Seattle Times, Marc Dones, who is currently executive director of the National Innovation Service, has accepted the position after the board for the new agency voted unanimously to offer him the CEO job. NIS on their website advocates to "fundamentally transform the structures and outcomes of America’s public systems," and a "redesign" because "We know that our systems are built on the foundation of structural racism, which drives these cycles of failure."
The area has been declared to be in a "homelessness crisis" for over a decade. Thousands live on the streets and in growing tent encampments since the outbreak of the coronavirus.
The board's first choice for the job, Regina Cannon, declined the position last month. Cannon was not the only departure. According to KOMO News, "in anticipation of the agency assuming the duties of Seattle's homeless response, several members of the city’s Human Services Department have resigned their jobs." The RHA is already over six months behind schedule.
In April of 2020, Dones tweeted, "Let me remind you that it is never too late to pivot society towards full scale luxury communism." The term is based on a book by Aaron Bastani which calls for "automation," as "the path to a world of liberty, luxury and happiness." He also advocated for no more fossil fuels and instead mankind should mine asteroids for essential minerals. Bastani also call for "Genetic editing and synthetic biology" to "prolong life" and "virtually eliminate disease" and eventually hoped to "provide meat without animals."
Israel lobby isn’t anti-Semitic. Jewish lobby is. Less salient here but in US, for instance, Aipac is quite explicitly lobbying for the interests of a state presently undertaking racist policies (see nation-state law).
— Aaron Bastani (@AaronBastani)
While Dones claims to be a champion of racial equality, he is also championing a person like Bastani has posted vile anti Semitic rhetoric and supported radical anti Semitic politicians like Jeremy Corbyn.
Dones has claimed while speaking at a SPARC conference that racism is the reason behind homelessness, not poverty. Even though he is a socialist/communist, Dones has no problem with money. The position with RHA will be paid according to estimates over $130,000 per year.
According to the New York Post, Dones is also alleged to be the out of wedlock child of former basketball star Isiah Thomas. According to a Michigan Court of Appeals document from 1987, Thomas agreed to pay child support settlement for Dones in the amount of $52,000 as well as $2,764.78 a month until Dones reached 18, when Marc was to receive a lump-sum payment of $100,000.
Dones has repeatedly called for the abolition of police departments across the country and supported the Minneapolis City Council decision to defund their police department which led to an exponential increase in crime. The spike was so devastating that the council voted to refund the police.
Seattle has also seen spikes in crime since the Seattle City Council defunding their police department. Homicides in 2020 doubled the number in 2019. At the time, the council also defunded the Navigation team which provided homeless outreach services and was comprised of police, social workers and Waste Management.
According to KOMO News, "Dones will answer to the RHA Governing Board, three-quarters of which are elected politicians, including the Seattle mayor and the King County executive."
Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan said that Dones "is fiercely dedicated to making sure that equity is done and that we actually solve this crisis," Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan said.
The city of Seattle and King County are funding the first two years of the RHA. Dones claimed that he has worked with "anti racist organizers in Seattle and King County to redesign their homelessness prevention and response system," thought he did no specify who the participants were or who were the "racist" organizers he would not work with.
City and county leaders support the hire and the RHA but not all of the county's 38 other cities have signed on yet.
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