"Bury the rag deep in your face
For now's the time for your tears."
The problem with betrayals and abuses by people in positions of power is not that they happen, that is a given, it's that they are rarely dealt with justly. I hope resignation means he draws no pension or benefits from the city. He should have been fired, and at least been charged with manslaughter if not murder.
The next step is to push for the WA Criminal Justice Training Commission to revoke his law enforcement certification. Kind of like being disbarred or having your doctors license revoked. And let's hope the family at least gets some justice in civil court. And for the sake of justice, let's push the legislature to change the law. Even without malice, gross negligence is not a good faith, honest mistake. It's called manslaughter. If I, as a private citizen, had confronted John T Williams and shot him, wouldn't I be on trial right now?
Birk should never have been allowed to resign: he should have been fired (which is what was probably going to happen to him in the middle of March). This is purely a self-serving move on his part.
"massive"? Really. By your own reporting in the other post it was 100 ppl. When I hear "massive" I think like Tahrir square being filled with people. Or even during WTO or the march against the war when 1000's and 1000's of people were on the streets.
All other cops are taking a firestorm of malice, because one idiot thought he was above the law. Egregiously, he was right by the law. The police union needs to face up. One airhead doesn't make a union, but if a union blindly stands by and supports him... Well they aren't really about protecting the rank and file are they?
Bus got me there early, so I tanked up at the Noc Noc, but their kegs were offline, so I bought two 40oz of PBR and got most of it down in 15 minutes.
Felt like 200 people at the rally, but we gained 100 during the march. They had low powered megaphones, it was impossible to hear anything they said. Some tribesmen broke out the drums when we arrived at Boren & Howell, it was good.
What a march! Unlike most political marches stemming from Westlake, this was not permitted by the city. The march lived a long satisfying life: I saw two hours of it from the circling of downtown blocks with hundreds, the walk to the intersection where John T. Williams was murdered, and the split at Pine when people were conflicted whether they should return to Westlake Center or make their way to Ian Birk's former precinct headquarters (where we faced off nervous looking cops clutching broomsticks) until it dwindled down to the a smattering of ragtags looking like a bunch of lost deer in the middle of Broadway near Dick's. I heard there were arrests made right in front of the Stranger offices. Anyone know what happened there?
@16: Really? When I hear that a 50 year old native american artist with a troubled past is killed, I think of my father, a 50 year old Comanche artist with a troubled past. I wonder, "what if it was him?" -- full of it? I think about family struggling in Oklahoma, of our elders who have not lived to see promises fulfilled, many of whom were orphaned after their parents were killed in the 20s and 30s, some in the 40s.
@25: I had a similar reaction to that comment. But now I wonder who #16 means by "you." Is it the commenters here, as it seems, or is it the mayor and chief of police?
Yep, Birk will now just move to another State and get a Cop Job and/or go to work in the Correction's field. Hope his sister's wedding turned out well.
Wow.
TANJ.
For now's the time for your tears."
The problem with betrayals and abuses by people in positions of power is not that they happen, that is a given, it's that they are rarely dealt with justly. I hope resignation means he draws no pension or benefits from the city. He should have been fired, and at least been charged with manslaughter if not murder.
Your hyperbole just takes away from things.
All this means is that he'll need to buy his own bullets if he plans to kill anyone else.
http://twitter.com/#!/jseattle/status/38…
There are 100 John T. Williams on the streets right now.
Find them...
Felt like 200 people at the rally, but we gained 100 during the march. They had low powered megaphones, it was impossible to hear anything they said. Some tribesmen broke out the drums when we arrived at Boren & Howell, it was good.
Who's Street? Our Street!
Can we go back to talking about the problems of being Fat.
All I could think about yesterday was Kirsten Dunst in Bring It On.
Remember the fantastic speech where she told the cheer-trainees, "don't eat every meal".
Isn't that what it's about?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDoU71zwp…
Go figure, drunks trying to lead anarchists and a few hyper-angry white liberals. You'd have more luck herding cats.
What a joke.
Full of it? Fuck you.
Thank you for the photos, soggydan.
@25: I had a similar reaction to that comment. But now I wonder who #16 means by "you." Is it the commenters here, as it seems, or is it the mayor and chief of police?