At first glance body cams, drones and all manner of surveillance tech seem like an erosion of the public's right to privacy. Then one realizes the cops are more criminal than the supposed perpetrators and it all starts to look pretty good. The issue here looks to be making sure all such data remains part of the public record.

And that something's actually fucking done about it. Watch that racist piece of shit be back on the street in a month...

Police officers as bullies is so common that this story doesn't even surprise me.

worse things happen every other minute in this town..and the stranger diminishes them by printing this hysterical horseshit...ok activist you know the police strategy now get a couple of dozen bullhorns pass them out to your friends and have some fun with the cops on your next march,,,you will need to try harder to be a martyr

The issue is racism and anti-civil liberties repression.Since the beginning of the BLM protests, police have blocked off intersections, arrested people, used pepper spray etc. for no good reason. They are asserting their armed authority for the sake of showing who is boss. They are trying to suppress a movement directed against their own racism. This is not about perfect cops. This is about recognizing that the police, and prison system are deeply and inherently racist. The cops protect the property of the rich and the oppressive racial order. Black men are many times as likely to be killed by police as whites. Blacks are in prison at the rate of 2200 per 100,000. Whites only 450 per 100,000. Blacks and whites use drugs at roughly the same rate, yet Blacks are much more likely to be arrested, convicted and jailed for drug offenses. The racist slur used against Jorge was not an innocent slip. It was the expression of the reality of police bigotry. We need to expose and oppose the authoritarian racist power of the police. To those opposed the press conference, were you asleep when Mike Brown, Tamir Rice, Eric Garner and John T. Williams were murdered by the police?

The marches were not illegal. They were simply without permit. The courts have said that marches expressing freedom of speech do not need permits.

This nation has a white supremacist problem and it starts with local police departments. Very unfortunate if one is of African, Latin, or Native American ancestry. Cops across this nation behave in the same gang like manner to these different races. Excessive force and military tactics used much too often. Taking down the leader is a common military technique. Another method the cops use is threatening and intimidating behavior with overpowering numbers.
Todays policeman are nothing more than gang members. Tough guy bullies. Seattle needs a civilian oversight board to protect citizens against bad cops. Protesters are not criminals. Protesters are indeed brave to standup against these police.

The OPA is a joke.

@7, that's kind of a horrible attitude.

though this may seem minor -- one of the larger problems we face is the discriminatory enforcement of the law COUPLED WITH people who say the law is not being enforced discriminately. cannot solve the former without confronting the latter.

so this is a big deal because it shows behind that veil. and i don't know about you, but i would never have to stop myself mid-sentence because i would never say nor think that term. not even under pressure. if he cannot control his instinct, in what other ways is his prejudice affecting the way he enforces the law?

@15: This isn't about the cop's words. It's about his racism. His stifled-in-mid-utterance racial slur was just evidence of this attitude. That attitude indicates that he is unsuitable for the job of enforcing public policy with force.