Comments

1
Where does the Council's Public Safety Oversight Committee fit into this debacle? Does it have a third area of legal standing (in addition to Holmes/Mayor) or is it strictly advisory?
2
Depends. Are they white children of privilege?

If so, you can trust the cops.
3
After taking many steps toward becoming a real mayor instead of the doofus he was for three years, McGinn has set himself back, w-a-a-a-a-ay back. The City Attorney represents the city, a municipal corporation. He does not represent the Mayor any more than the in-house counsel for Microsoft would be on hand to write Trey's Will. For McGinn to pick a fight he knows he will lose is a sucker's game and it appears he is just that: A sucker.

And to answer the question @1 asks: No, the City Council and its Public Safety Committee have exactly as much power over the SPD as you do. Maybe less. They like to strut and puff and act like they are working to protect your tiny tush, but there is nothing they can do except vet new candidates for the Chief's job.
4
I so regret that I voted for McGinn. Notice how he doesn't get along with anyone. It pains me to say it, but government is set up a particular way and one must navigate the foibles of public officials with a bit of decorum even when you disagree with them. That's what Obama does. McGinn does not do this. What a disaster.
5
McGinn's gone all in for SPD. Weird. This is his reelection platform now, "I'll defend SPD against any reform whatever". In his mind, "the city" = "the police force". Not good.
6
Kick his ass, Pete.

Fun fact from Real Change this week: DOJ forced the City to form a Community Police Commission, so McGinn made sure his campaign co-chair got on it. Not a bad thing, I'm sure. Just a thing, is all. http://realchangenews.org/index.php/site…
7
The only thing I'm interested in is who is the one that is working for justice? Or, in the Stranger's terms, 'the voters' (although I don't feel they are completely congruent.) No one will ever bother to claim that they're working for justice, as that's not a sellable sound-bite. Even if it was, all sides would claim it, no matter the truth. No, the old saw "by their actions you shall know them"* is the way to go.

Neither side seem to come out smelling fresh-- McGinn seems to be taking the bully's approach while Holmes is comfortable working behind the scenes and giving a 'what me worry' smile. The big difference I see is that Holmes seems to understand why the DOJ stepped in & wants to work w/ them, while McGinn sees them as meddling interlopers. They might be meddling, but the reason they're here is no joke. The SPD must be overhauled in a very profound way.

*There are parts of the bible that are worthwhile. Amazing but true. Take a note, Goldy.
8
@6) The mayor had the idea for the Community Police Commission, not the DOJ, according to Assistant Attorney General Thomas Perez. On July 27, Perez went out of his way to point out it was McGinn's contribution, saying that "a signature component of this agreement--which was your idea, mayor, and imitation is a form of flattery, I expect to see this elsewhere in the county--is the creation of the community police commission, which is a critical innovation." It's here at about the 15:30 mark. Neither here nor there as it applies to this post, but, you know, there it is.
9
Damn, a nearly excellent report, clear and cogent and informative. And then at the end these lines....

"What the fuck is US District Judge James Robart to think?... this is clearly a slow-motion shit show..."

Just had to throw your feces and tell us what to think. I was sitting next to a reporter who suddenly turned into just another asshole at the bar.
10
It almost makes you wonder what the cops have on McGinn.
11
@9 I believe you need to use that special ae combo vowel for that noun in the next to last sentence.
12
@8, good catch. I didn't know it had been the mayor's idea to form the commission he put his campaign chair on. Thank you!
13
Great, now I have the image of Cienna in that pink weeding dress, one breast exposed, with a fresh copy of the stranger pressed against her lactating nipple. Nursing the paper and putting it to bed, indeed.
14
since the city's official position is that DOJ is wrong and there is no real problem to fix, there is no excessive force pattern, then we're not going to have any reform work no matter how this contretemps turns out.

you can't fix a problem if you deny it exists. twelve step 101. relationships 101. human nature 101.
15
worked for him last time, will work against him this time.
what a Tool to blow his wad for the crooked cops. sad.
16

20 years of letting neighborhoods go to rot to help the Downtown Syndicate and nothing else. Forced urban density and bankrupting "infrastructure" projects that benefit no one except a corrupt City Council and their benefactors. Dumping of the mentally ill, drug addicts and teen psychopaths on the streets.

And somehow SPD is supposed to be blamed for the shortcomings of sick and lazy Democrat rule from Olympia to Seattle?

Nope. Don't think so. Police training doesn't include butterfly nets and school hotlines. Seattle politicians and the Establishment need to clean up their act. Not the other way round...
17
Nope, John, there are plenty of Republicans to blame. They're called "bad cops".
18
Cienna, you hit the nail on the head. It is something how Denial by the Mayor and SPD and City Council works.
Huff and Puff and Blow their house of cards house down.
19
@16 - Another example of conservalol fantasyland.
20
We thought our previous mayor was vindictive, he pales in the light of McGinn! Why should tax payers pay for private legal counsel for the mayor, that is the job of the city attorney. Why did his honor need a private attorney? Something to hide? It saddens me to see the inability of the city to move forward, when the answer lies in common sense!

se activist

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