May 10
soul source commented on Seattle, You Should Be Better Than This.
The city, the community are complicit in the deaths, complicit in the incarceration of youth for minor crimes, complicit in hunger, complicit in houselessness, complicit in police brutality when it turns its head away.
Apr 24
soul source commented on Hire Grounds.
It would be so civil. It makes no sense to penalize people who have already 'paid their debt'.
Mar 26
soul source commented on Columbia City Neighbors Meet with Police About Shooting, Get Few Answers.
@3 et al. You are so right about simultaneously bringing in medical support. I do wonder if the noise of incoming emergency vehicles interferes with the SWAT element of surprise, but that noise can be modified to not interfere. I'd bring in trauma mental health support for the neighbors and others at the scene. Those children, for one set that is particularly vulnerable, are traumatized in this case, no doubt. Trauma effects can manifest much later in children ad adults, even years later. Following soldiers from previous wars, like WWII, has shown how long things can be dormant and come back when other parts of us are no longer compensating.
The real tragedy is that we have let our 'police force' become beast-like, and now our political leadership who we are led to expect holds the real power in this representative society is proving itself not equal to the situation. There is a real trap that has grown up in our country. We went from a semi-compassionate way of life to one that has allowed fear of the other to rule our responses. We are a punitive society, paternalistic. We meet problems with 'arrest and incarcerate' solutions. The public consensus is pretty much that, not just that of the paid staff of the policing and justice systems. "Throw away the key". "Three strikes and you're out." "Two strikes" for some things. School "Resource Officers" are now replacing principals and their one-on-one 'interviews'. We are losing our feel for what is a civilized life.
We need the people who help us to stand back and get a grip. Where ever they come from.
More...
The real tragedy is that we have let our 'police force' become beast-like, and now our political leadership who we are led to expect holds the real power in this representative society is proving itself not equal to the situation. There is a real trap that has grown up in our country. We went from a semi-compassionate way of life to one that has allowed fear of the other to rule our responses. We are a punitive society, paternalistic. We meet problems with 'arrest and incarcerate' solutions. The public consensus is pretty much that, not just that of the paid staff of the policing and justice systems. "Throw away the key". "Three strikes and you're out." "Two strikes" for some things. School "Resource Officers" are now replacing principals and their one-on-one 'interviews'. We are losing our feel for what is a civilized life.
We need the people who help us to stand back and get a grip. Where ever they come from.
Mar 26
soul source commented on Driver Who Hit Four Pedestrians Blew Nearly Three Times Over Legal Alcohol Limit, Say Prosecutors.
Fines, prison time, public shaming. This is the punitive society's answer. Once a person is suspected of alcoholism or repeated alcohol abuse they need a treatment that prevents them from ruining their own life and the lives of others by family/work place association or by things like killing them with a car. We all know people, many, who are on the track, maybe even just early, but on the track. When we don't point it out, we can take a little share of the responsibility.
Mar 2
soul source commented on Seattle High School Teacher's Race and Social Justice Curriculum Suspended After Parent Complaint.
Once again, thank you so much to "The Stranger" for being the only real Newspaper in town. You are an amazing source of the real pulse. Wish more papers were like you, small and big.
Feb 27
soul source commented on Grand Jury Refusers Katherine Olejnik and Matthew Duran Are Free.
Thank you, Brendan Kiley. Why are there SOOOOOOO few news people like you? And thank you, Stranger, for giving him the job.
Feb 7
soul source commented on The Drones Are Already Here: How's the City Council Going to Deal with This Pandora's Box?.
First - The city council needs to address the fact that it has a rogue police department.
UW Grants and Contract Services has a long standing history of handling such situations where a grant application is tendered without pre-approval by the university. All grant applications must go through a process where they obtain sign-offs from all the lateral agencies affected and then the line of those above the party initiating the proposal before any transaction happens. For instance, if someone in the Department of Surgery wants to accept a proposal for a contract from a pharmaceutical company or apply for a grant with the FDA, both require that all aspects, including budget and all costs to the UW that will be incurred, are provided and defended. Letters or forms of support from other UW parties that may be affected or have some association with the proposed work must be provided with sign-offs from those department heads. Then the entire line up in the hierarchy all the way to the dean of the School of Medicine must sign off.
In the case of the City Seattle and this drone issue, the SPD would not have been able to "Do it and apologize later". Instead the city council could have saved everyone a lot of grief by both reviewing the contract and scanning the proposal for online perusal by the public.
I suggest we do not jump to considering ordinances any further. I propose the city nullifies the contract since the SPD did not have the authority to 'sign' for the City of Seattle.
More...
UW Grants and Contract Services has a long standing history of handling such situations where a grant application is tendered without pre-approval by the university. All grant applications must go through a process where they obtain sign-offs from all the lateral agencies affected and then the line of those above the party initiating the proposal before any transaction happens. For instance, if someone in the Department of Surgery wants to accept a proposal for a contract from a pharmaceutical company or apply for a grant with the FDA, both require that all aspects, including budget and all costs to the UW that will be incurred, are provided and defended. Letters or forms of support from other UW parties that may be affected or have some association with the proposed work must be provided with sign-offs from those department heads. Then the entire line up in the hierarchy all the way to the dean of the School of Medicine must sign off.
In the case of the City Seattle and this drone issue, the SPD would not have been able to "Do it and apologize later". Instead the city council could have saved everyone a lot of grief by both reviewing the contract and scanning the proposal for online perusal by the public.
I suggest we do not jump to considering ordinances any further. I propose the city nullifies the contract since the SPD did not have the authority to 'sign' for the City of Seattle.
Oct 19, 2012
soul source commented on And Then There Were Three: Third Grand Jury Refuser Goes to Prison.
Leah Plante was released, reasons unknown. We are promised information in a few days by the releasee.
Oct 11, 2012
soul source commented on And Then There Were Three: Third Grand Jury Refuser Goes to Prison.
Yes, this is what the Federal Court's Grand Jury looked like yesterday. It is Eric Holder's justice that Federal Judge R. A. Jones, and Federal Judge R.S. Lasnik participated in and praised yesterday in court ... respectively. Judge Lasnik had the condescending temerity to admonish a defendant in his court yesterday on a totally unrelated case for being seen by the judge dissenting on a previous day with respect to this Grand Jury's actions that resulted in the imprisonment described. The defendant in Judge Lasnik's court was put through this while the judge ruled that the defendant's own case not in the prosecutor's favor. Still the judge asked questions the defendant was expected to answer that were irrelevant to the defendant's case after what should have been the end of his time in court. That is intimidating. If the defendant had said something the judge found offending the judge's sensibilities concerning his own political opinions, would the judge have changed his verdict in the court? Certainly there was the possibility. This was an intimidating circumstance, and was not professional or just. Now how can you ask that this judge be reprimanded, as some of us would like to do, when his boss is Eric Holder whose egregious actions with respect to the solitary confinement of people who have not been convicted of a crime is itself potentially a threat to anyone who dares to not please the politics of the head of the Department of Justice or some of its judges in the federal court.
So Connie Rice, how would you fix that one? We have bigger problems than just a police department. We are not replete with gangs from the hoods. We are here being unjustly imprisoned. It is the moral code of the Department of Justice that needs to be fixed. Please, if you take out a contract with the city, understand that the problems are bigger than the city. Much bigger.
More...
So Connie Rice, how would you fix that one? We have bigger problems than just a police department. We are not replete with gangs from the hoods. We are here being unjustly imprisoned. It is the moral code of the Department of Justice that needs to be fixed. Please, if you take out a contract with the city, understand that the problems are bigger than the city. Much bigger.
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