I could say the exact same thing for your interpretation. Why not just say 1000 years ago the budget wasn't cut? It would have the same meaning. Oh wait, it wouldn't have the same meaning because 8 and 1000 years are quite a bit different.
8 years is probably not meaningless for the poster. He probably moved there 8 years ago or had his car stolen back then and is saying nothing has improved since then despite there being no budget cuts.
It makes no sense to say in the last X years if the poser just mean X years ago. It would cause unnecessary confusion.
>I could say the exact same thing for your interpretation. Why not just say 1000 years ago the budget wasn't cut? It would have the same meaning.
Because it would not have the same meaning. The point of the phrasing is that the time the Seattle PD stopped being motivated to do their job was close to eight years ago, and they have continued to be unmotivated since then.
"1000 years ago the budget wasn't cut" does not convey that information.
If the poster meant 8 years ago they stopped being motivated he would have just said that. The post didn't say that. You are just tangling yourself in word play to try to get the post to mean something different than it does.
