Andre Taylor has a new job as the city of Seattle's "street czar" after inking a deal to provide city leaders with recommendations on "alternatives to policing."
Taylor is a convicted pimp who moved to Seattle in 2016 after his brother died in a shooting with Seattle police. He vowed at the time that he had moved to "go to war" with the city, according to the Seattle Times.
Taylor's responsibility as street czar is to "provide recommendations to the City on de-escalation, community engagement, and alternatives to policing," his contract specifies. For this service, the city will provide him an office and monthly pay of $12,500, for a full year. Last year, Seattle paid Taylor's "Not This Time" organization $100,000 to host a series of lectures called "Conversations with the Streets," featuring a variety of speakers.
In an interview with KOMO News, Taylor said he is being paid for "particular genius in a particular area," including the fact that he can talk to "gang members, pimps, and prostitutes" who "won't sit down with anybody else."
Earlier this year, Taylor urged people occupying the "Capitol Hill Occupied Protest" zone in Seattle to remain in place until the city gave them $2 million. The Seattle Times noted that he later appeared with the city's mayor in a press conference urging people to leave CHOP on the same day he signed his most recent contract with the city.
In 2000, Taylor was convicted in Nevada for his role as a pimp, and sentenced to five years in prison. He served a little more than one year. A report by the Las Vegas Sun says some of the prostitutes he oversaw were underage girls.
