It doesn't mean much to hear Murray say the last misconduct finding won't be reversed again. All we can say is that he's claiming it hasn't been reversed as of press time.

Will Murray's guy reverse it again? Maybe! We just don't know. We will never know.

Because Leadership!

What is this? Morning news appetizers before the entrée?

On the plus side, no one has reported Mayor Murray misidentifying the victims of the helicopter crash yet.

If you are disappointed, your expectations were too high.

If Murray means what he says, Bailey should be out a job NOW. FIRE HIM.

@6 haven't you heard? Bailey is restoring the public's confidence in the SPD, not making it into even more of a corrupt and disgusting joke.

Fred Phelps is dead. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/03/20…
Kinda wish I actually believed in eternal damnation at the moment.

Thank you Bethany. The orange juice was great.

@9: My pleasure to serve you!

Bailey's a liar. Murray's incompetent. Fire them both.

There's quite a bit in the SPD story about Bailey claiming that former interim chief Pugel approved the reversals and Pugel calling bullshit on Bailey.

In a written statement Wednesday night, Pugel said, “Any claim that I ‘tentatively’ or otherwise reversed any of the disciplinary decisions that I made, before the current interim chief was appointed, is not true. I did not approve any settlements. There would have been a record.”

Pugel said city officials could have asked him. “To this day none of them have contacted me. There is no record of me approving these settlements because I did not,” he said.

Murray has no vision, no agenda and no credibility. He is a cowardly protector of the status quo, nothing more. He is Seattle's George W. Bush, a strutting peacock of ineptitude.

This is a huge step backward for the city and a public-relations disaster. It makes Murray look like the pawn of SPOG.

Full DOJ takeover today.

If only there was some short of political alternative to the Dems, to challenge their stranglehold on the political establishment and propose bold and popular policy. We elected the king of King County Democrats, and people expect change in our police state. Wouldn't want to be soft on crime!

Remind me, why did you people vote for this guy again?

@ALL Hack politician acting like a hack politician? Surprise TOTALLE!!! You could knock me over with a feather!

I think Murray's playing the long game rather than doing some kind of quid pro quo.

Police reform is needed badly, but it isn't going to happen effectively from external pressure. Ultimately we'll only see real reform when the culture of the police force changes. While it might be just and righteous to punish any and all firmly now, that's likely to cause a further circling of the wagons and make the police even more insular. Let a few go now and the relationship for reform can proceed. But yeah, Bailey probably should go sooner rather than later, this whole thing has been pretty botched.

@18- Ah yes, the fabled "long game". Like the one Obama's been playing by capitulating to the GOP on almost every issue.

@16 Because McGinn pissed away his first term.

@12 Yeah, I saw that, and it was ridiculous. The next line also goes to the heart of this:

“It is true that the union proposed lessening or even eliminating some discipline,” Pugel added. “But I concluded the proposal was not in the best interest of the city, or the Seattle community.”

Murray's need to kick out everyone with any relation to McGinn is hurting Seattle.

@18

Yes, we all know that the only way a police force ever gets reformed is from within. The best way to motivate them to change their own culture is to take everyone convicted of wrongdoing and let them off the hook. And nothing says "reform" like taking the punk who was arrested for shooting a guy in a bar fight at a biker rally and putting him in charge of the cop union. When that fucker sits down with a mayor who has cleverly projected a wet noodle image by acting like a wet noodle every chance he gets, you're going to see real change among the cops.

Ask any cop. This is why cops are always saying we need to go easier on crooks. If you have a gang problem, any cop will tell you the recipe for gang reform is to parole lots of gang members. They're your reformers. Burglars will change their burlarism if you reverse their convictions, because they'll go tell all the other burglars "See! Love is the answer."

Whether a crook murders a cop, or a cop murders an innocent man, the key remains the same: play the "long game" and let 'em go free! And then, presto! Change!

@22 says you and a bunch of other people who don't pay any attention to city politics. Not feeling so smug now, eh?

@22:

At least McGinn took the full four years to do it; Murray OTOH seems intent on setting some sort of record for fastest pissing away of an administration.

Phelps finally did what everyone has been praying he'd do for years: die alone, in agony and disgrace.