How do we know that this is not a fake post?

My Dad was a NYC cop. I tend to come down on the side of cops in many situations when others find the behaviour of cops deplorable. I'm confident that I'm usually right.

Having said the above (for some reason I'm not entirely sure of; burnish my bona-fides maybe?) this sounds like a nice narrative that is short on specifics. What authority does the newly created Compliance and Professional Standards Bureau actually have? Didn't a citizen observer acting in an official capacity just get escorted out of a crime scene recently? How does that jive? What, exactly, is their "important role" and how will it have the weight needed to be effective and how will it be kept from being a rubber stamp for a SPOG agenda?

And how did your admininstration come to make the decisions it made in that last round of very strange disciplinary back steps?

I guess I could go on but while it strikes a reasonable tone I can't help but feel the final product will be shit.

As a tangental side note, while my dad was virtually always required to be armed my brothers and I never, even once, ever saw his gun. He hated them.

He posted it on his official twitter feed. That's about as good as it gets for conformation.

If you really want to "fundamentally change the experience on the street between the community and the police" just replace their guns with non-lethal weapons. It wouldn't necessarily take care of the bullying or lack of respect for our nation's constitution but it sure would curb the rampant and excessive use of force.

There's some internetty thing about the impossibility of distinguishing sincerity and parody; if only I could remember what it's called...

Meanwhile in Monitor-Land, their first and so far only "Semiannual Report" is dated April 2013; the only budget so far made public is for 2012-13; their last press release was more than a year ago; and Merrick Bobb, in his capacity as @SeattleMonitor, has still tweeted exactly twice, both on April 26, 2013.

The only thing regularly updated is their monthly invoices to the U.S. District Court, the latest of which is for $108,830.61.

http://www.seattlemonitor.com/

http://crosscut.com/2014/01/10/politics-…

Reform is not a place or a condition toward which we can move. It is a process in which we must engage in order to mitigate and resolve problems that have festered in our police department for many years.

Murray and his cronies have largely removed or neutralized those few people within SPD's management who were on board with this process. I hope that this was part of a grand plan to start over using staff who were not part of the abuses that led to DOJ intervention, but I suspect it was simply the result of Murray being outwitted by SPD staff who prefer the status quo.

I am encouraged by the mayor's acknowledgement of the likely utility of advice from Pierce Murphy, Anne Levinson, and the Community Police Commission. I get the impression that his actions during his first few months in office were not guided much by their advice.

Since stepping into office, Ed, you handed the keys to the police department over to the police union, and they have stymied police reform at every chance, just as they've done for decades.

You badly fucked up. I regret voting for you. I won't make that mistake again.

P.S. Please, have the decency to stop insulting us with your bullshit about reform! Your candidates for chief were all vetted by the union, and they all suck. They won't change a thing, and you know it.

@2, Motofly wrote, "Didn't a citizen observer acting in an official capacity just get escorted out of a crime scene recently?"

I suspect you're thinking of OPA Director Pierce Murphy, who on April 3, 2014, was removed from the scene at which an SPD employee killed a bank robbery suspect. The excuse reportedly given was concern over protection of evidence, but I understand that at least one lawyer for for the police guild was allowed to roam freely at the same scene from which Mr. Murphy was banished by SPD staff.

So George HW Bush's Department of Justice praises SPD and Ed Murray takes that as a good sign? Sounds about right for a mayor who has a proven liar as his police chief.

If the new contract isn't used to bludgeon the union into compliance, then it will be worth nothing as a tool of reform. Money talks and bullshit walks.

That's nice you can write a bunch of words, but your actions speak louder. So far those actions have involved nothing but giving into SPOG, some process BS, and lying to the public.

If you really want to show a commitment to reform, dispense with the bullshit and do this next time a cop fucks up
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morni…

Until that happens, no one will give a shit about your promises and platitudes.

I couldn't get through this past the first paragraph because it's just blahblahblahblahblah. Nothing Murray says matters because he does what he says he isn't going to do, and he doesn't do what he says he is going to do. All you need is three months of that empty dissonance and you don't pay attention anymore.

My witheringly low opinion of you sinks lower each day.

Word to the wise, Ed: you're already screwing up more than Schell at this point and without a fraction of his achievements.

Ok Ed, wake me when you actually do something.
Talking about a meeting about vowing to do something… is all talk.

Several paragraphs of empty rhetoric completely devoid of specifics. You would think the author spent several years in the legislature, it's so vague.
Mr. Murray, you really have no credibility left in this matter. We all hope you really mean it this time, but we all also know that it is more likely you're just trying to obfuscate and provide cover, like you used to be able to in Olympia.
Thanks for the apology. Let's hope it's sincere and that you have actually learned something.

Murray just met with NYPD police chief and architect of "stop and frisk" William Bratton a couple weeks ago to get ideas about police reform. Obviously, this is stupid if reform is on Murray's agenda.

It's not.

THE QUESTIONS THAT DETERMINES WHETHER THIS IS ANOTHER NEW PAINT JOB OR ACTUAL ATTEMPT AT CHANGE

- WHO will staff this Compliance and Professional Standards Bureau?

Will it be like the useless OPA, which was staffed with cops...and lead by hand picked civilians who showed serious bias problems themselves (Former OPA head Olsen), or will it be lead by civilians?

And not 'hand picked rubber stampers', an actual democratic committee set up to select membership in a district fashion, in order to ensure all or most groups and parts of town get representation?

2- Will it have the power to terminate officers against the will of the Union Boss (O Neill) or the SPD leadership, without having to get permission from the SPD?

If the answer to #2 is anything other than YES, this new office means nothing. And its been done already, its how the OPA came about via the Seattle HRC.

It's a New Column! right? "What's your hurry, by Mayor Ed Murray?"

Like @2 and @15 said, this sure is short on specifics. Has the Mayor in fact addressed and apologized for the "mistakes" me made regarding the disciplinary process? Would the Mayor please explain why getting rid of Acting Chief Pugel was the right move, and why hiring Acting Chief Bailey was the right move? Or explain why they were wrong moves and apologize for them? What about ex-Mayor McGinn's stated long-term policy to establish a police force made up of officers who live in Seattle? Did ex-Mayor McGinn take steps toward such a policy, and does Mayor Murray pursue the same policy?

How do we know that this is not a fake post?

How do we know that he's not a fake mayor?

Hope that like under Mayor McGinn, Mayor Murray allows in more media voices than the usual suspects. He says he wants to work with Seattle Schools - it would be good to have media representing those interests. Policing experience with school districts and working with youth is a good point to cover with police chief candidates.

Fuck your bullshit. The stranger should feel bad for publishing this without critique.

Mike McGinn to be rehired as Mayor. Thank you.

Clearly you people just don't understand how being mayor works. You promise to do the right thing, point out that your political allies are standing with you, and the public is supposed to fall in line in awe at their amazing leaders. What is so hard for everyone to understand?

What we really need is to spend our Seattle tax dollars on cops who are Seattleites. We're tired of exporting our tax dollars to bros in Arlington and Puyallup and Sumner who have contempt for Seattle and view this as a jungle. Do what it takes to get cops who work here to live here, raise their families here and send their kids to our schools.

*sigh*

Keep f**king that chicken. I'm sure it'll all work out eventually.
Christ he's revolting.

Hello,
Police reform is great. But we also need leadership reform along with citizen education reform.
I am disappointed that our leadership is missing one of the basic tenets in police work: The public has designed the police-concept to make sure that laws are enforced. As a consequence, when the public is addressed/accosted by the police, their immediate answer must be: " yes sir, no sir". No running, no shooting, no foul language, just straight civil behavior. Any issue that the behavior of the police officer may cause can always be resolved later under the heading of police reform.

I am sorry that that our leaders at all levels are not emphasizing that point. It ought to be brought up at every meeting about police work. It ought to be taught in schools.

Heinz

@27

"The public has designed the police-concept to make sure that laws are enforced."

No. Sorry, that is no longer the case, and (they would argue) can not be the case in high population density environments.

"The public has designed the police-concept to make sure that control is exerted over situations detrimental to public well being" would be a much more accurate statement.

The difference between the two is what the public needs to understand. Controlling whatever situation they are put into is what is drilled into every officer. Not "law enforcement" not "protecting and serving" - controlling.

Why is this? How can that be right? Well you either have a person who has just introduced a gun, taser, handcuffs, mace, etc into a situation that is under their control... or not.

What are the consequences? Pretty obvious. Police forces attract those who find the idea of controlling others attractive.

Watch the video of a Stranger writer getting harassed by a couple cops. Was he breaking any laws? Nope. Was he refusing to meekly surrender control? Yup. Is that Officer unique, or rare, in seeking 100% control 100% of the time? No, not even close. Even if it requires escalation.

That is the current culture and psychology in SPD (and elsewhere), the culture and psychology of control.

When you get around to addressing that problem Mr. Murray, perhaps you can do some real reform.

Ed Murray is a Privileged, off-handedly racist, Classist Piece of Excrement & I can NOT Wait to campaign against and Vote against that asshat!

The police must do what they do to keep us safe from criminals. In my country they were not held down by newspapers from protecting.