News May 31, 2023 at 9:15 am

Familiy of Those Killed by Police Reject Judge’s Reformed SPD Narrative

Gettin' there! RS

Comments

1

I remember when Mayor McGinn ushered this era in. What might we have accomplished if we did the work of community engagement/building from the beginning?

2

'“Who do you think you’re going to call in an emergency?” [Judge Robert] asked. The police, he answered.'

Spoken like someone who's never experienced an emergency. As they say, "when every second counts, police are just minutes away." The idea that police exist to protect the community from harm is as mythological as marijuana being a gateway drug.

6

We are...Familiy (sic)

7

@3 which was the offense worthy of death: possessing fent pills (which the cops didn't know about until after the execution), possessing a stolen firearm (which he dropped prior to the execution), or "wrestling" with numerous police? And if the execution was justified why did the city settle? And finally, how does SPD dick taste?

9

@7: SPD dick tastes great, nice and hard.

10

@9 only after murdering a civilian, or maybe gassing some protesters

11

@10: Nobody was murdered, but some protesters do fart.

12

"Judge Robart said communities in the West need to reestablish the notion that people who work as police officers perform an honorable duty. "

In order to reestablish the notion that they serve an honorable duty, the duty needs to be honorable. The drug possession law makes this impossible, where every choice the officers have is dishonorable.

They could choose to enforce the law, forcing people into treatment centers under threat of imprisonment even if they have not harmed another person. This is dishonorable, as they are threatening violence in an aggressive fashion, not using it to defend against an aggressor.

They could choose not to enforce the law, which is the most ethical path. But this too is dishonorable, because they swore an oath to uphold the law. The only path which is both honorable and ethical is to resign - meaning that police officers do not perform an honorable duty.

You could say that there is a middle ground, where officers selectively enforce the law. Somebody is causing problems but not in a way that would lead to prosecutorial success under legitimate laws - but they have drugs on them, so the officers can use the possession law to get them off the street. This too is dishonorable, when you examine the situation realistically and take our values seriously. What is happening in this situation is that the officer has determined that there is no legitimate law that they can use in a due process in order to convict the person. Therefore, they use the illegitimate possession law to circumvent due process and punish them for a different offense than the one presented in court. There is no honor in this.

@3 Sir Toby II Arguing against a position by attacking the moral character of a person who happens to support that position only serves to show that you have no valid argument against the position itself.

13

There were 15 people at the Federal Court protesting the consent decree AND Seattle's accountability system -- 4 seriously impacted by SPD violence, 2 of whom had relatives murdered by SPD -- yet reporters mostly ignored them.

This article is a first for The Stranger over the last 7 years in relation to reporting on policing AND the attendant accountability systems (which must be discussed together since federal oversight, started in 2012, requires accountability): a mostly reasonable report, one that does mention & interview a family member of someone killed by SPD (Po). While KUOW interviews Castill Hightower (not interviewed by Stranger, whose brother was murdered by SPD), the Seattle Times ignores Po & Hightower (despite taking a picture!) as does Crosscut.

Two most critical aspects of Tuesday that Ashley missed:

(1) Failure to talk with any of the other 15 people protesting the City/DOJ narrative beyond a brief quote from Po. A discussion with others would have revealed the massive failures of police accountability in Seattle & how the current system actually prevents improvement and blocks community input and initiatives. This is part of The Strangers refusal to even report things like recent attacks on Castill Hightower from the Seattle Community Police Commission in February and then again just 2 weeks ago -- all captured on video & of no interest to The Stranger reporters.

(2) The absurd and heartless response from the City Attorney when Judge Robart asked about SPD killings since the start of the consent decree. The City Attorney claimed that differences in police killings across different US cities could be due to "differences in hospital care" (Seattle has one of the best EMS systems in the US), differences in gun use/ownership (~50% of folks killed by SPD did not have a gun when killed), due to small numbers (which are not small if you add in how many are shot by SPD & survive), etc. All the City Attorney's claims could be easily evaluated & shown to be irrelevant. Additionally, Robart later made the 100% untrue claim that SPD killings have remained flat. All of this could be informed by my article on this, which The Stranger has assiduously ignored: https://southseattleemerald.com/2022/06/22/opinion-a-simple-change-could-save-lives-our-police-reform-system-ignores-it/

14

@13 HJGale Thank you for sharing that article. Its criticism of the CAHOOTS model is a good point that I hadn't previously considered. I do believe in reducing the role of the police in society, but I want to do so in a way that is mindful of the harms that could be created by such a large change.


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