Whenever I choose a monitor, I like to get one who knows absolutely nothing about the stuff s/he is monitoring.
Keeps them objective, you know.
Reminds me of Cyprus. Two sides fighting over stuff that didn't matter in the long run, unable to wake up and smell the free Turkish Coffee at this weekend's Seattle Center Turkish festival.
This is nothing more than campaign rhetoric. The ACLU, Pete Holmes and others have settled on Merrick Bobb as their preferred guy and are launching a PR salvo to try and get him in. I don't know where their claims that McGinn is trying to stop reforms are coming from - he did sign the agreement with DOJ and it's not like he wants a weak monitor.
I've seen police reform under a consent decree in other city and McGinn is actually right that a monitor has to have everyone's support. I know people want to treat the Seattle cops like bad little boys who need a spanking. I don't like them either, but the last thing we want is to give the cops and their union some reason to undermine the monitor as soon as he comes in.
@2 I'm curious if the police reform you witnessed in another city came w/ a major DOJ investigation & lawsuit, where the mayor was forced by the fed to reform or else?
Just don't want any apples to oranges comparison here.
@8 - Yeah, the PR division of the SPD seem to have made it clear they aren't interested in reform. If they wanted to help the process, they had all the opportunity in the world, but they dug their heels in. I see no reason to believe they'll cooperate with any substantial interference with the deal they've got going.
Keeps them objective, you know.
Reminds me of Cyprus. Two sides fighting over stuff that didn't matter in the long run, unable to wake up and smell the free Turkish Coffee at this weekend's Seattle Center Turkish festival.
I've seen police reform under a consent decree in other city and McGinn is actually right that a monitor has to have everyone's support. I know people want to treat the Seattle cops like bad little boys who need a spanking. I don't like them either, but the last thing we want is to give the cops and their union some reason to undermine the monitor as soon as he comes in.
Just don't want any apples to oranges comparison here.