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Jan 15, 2014 at 4:00 am
SPD Says Officer's "Completely Unprofessional" Threats Against Me—Caught on Tape—Deserve a Relaxing One-Day Suspension
Robert Ullman
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800 Maynard Ave S, Suite 200, Seattle, WA 98134
800 Maynard Ave S, Suite 200, Seattle, WA 98134
Looking at the OPA stats you mentioned above, 12% resulting in discipline is not really a bad number. Having worked with unions in the past in an industry that relied upon customer feedback, I can tell you (because I was the one investigating a lot of the claims), that about 90% of complaints ARE unfounded. Granted, it was not in law enforcement, but complaints are complaints, IMHO.
I think the issue here is twofold: 1)officers with multiple disciplinary actions in their history are not being fired, and 2)managers are not putting forth the proper discipline to match the complaint. In the industry I used to work at, any employee with 7 infractions in their record in one year was terminated. This was a *very* gracious policy, especially since one infraction every 6 months was removed, ensuring that employees who were improving wouldn't be penalized for good behaviour. I don't know what the police union contract has spelled out, but our infraction policy covered everything from being late to a shift, to poor dress code, to accidents with company vehicles.
And yes, for particularly egregious infractions, the employee would be terminated immediately.
This is more a management problem than an employee problem. Bad apples can be weeded out rather quickly - if management does their job.
I don't associate with people with the attitude he displayed, I wouldn't call such a person for assistance, and I do not trust him with the authority and general ass-covering the job of peace officer provides.
People in Minneapolis may soon vote on a requirement that police carry something like malpractice insurance. It would be personal liability insurance, but I like to think of it as "misconduct insurance." This might provide some remediation for victims of misconduct. More significantly, if officers themselves paid for such insurance, there would be real consequences for their misconduct, and if the department paid for their insurance, there would be stronger disincentive to putting a known-dangerous officers like Marion back on patrol.
We require doctors to carry similar insurance. We require taxi drivers to carry similar insurance. It seems reasonable to do something similar for cops, who have a similar potential for causing injury to people on the job. Liberals might be less warm to the idea of letting the market handle this situation, but I think it should particularly sensible to people with more conservative or libertarian beliefs.
You are failing to see the larger picture here which is that this kind of conduct is frighteningly common for the SPD. In THIS instance the stakes were low. But translate this to a heated incident when guns may likely be drawn and we are dealing with the deplorable practice that needs to be remedied in the SPD.
I'm glad that this is being pursued. It is quite possible to be concerned about more than one thing at a time (or at least most of us can multi-task, #1 perhaps not, hence his comments), and abusive police behavior is of legitimate concern.
By jumping through all the hoops to make sure this officer is disciplined, Dominic is doing everyone a favor. Most of us don't have the time, energy, or realistically, high profile, to make this happen.
And just for the record, I come from a family of cops. Many cops are awesome people, doing a hard job, and their reputations are being smeared by the actions of these bad apples. All the more reason to dump them out of the barrel.
Totally agree.
Dude needs a job involving a rake or shovel. Something in line with is intellectual gifts.
"Boo hoo hoo mean bad reporter is MILKING the story!!!!" Guess what sweet pea? Reporters have been milking stories for two hundred fucking years. Why? Because they're R-E-P-O-R-T-E-R-S, genius. It's what reporters do. You were warned.
No excuse for this kind of pathetic bungling. Shit for brains.
... now if only Dominic could do this without sounding like a sniveling little twit.
Oh, the individual officer policies need to name the City and all its officers as coinsureds.
I agree his behavior was unacceptable, I think it has been a bit oversold, but the point about this being an example of escalation of a minor interaction is right on.
Brilliant.
I don't view what happened as assault at all, much less the above definition of aggravated assault. There was no contact.
Harassment is a serious issue, and a two step discipline of suspension on a first offense and firing on a second would be acceptable.
SPD, KCS, and the prosecutor's office are blatantly protecting white male officers over others. It's a civil rights issue and is opening them up to a huge lawsuit, which I hope happens FAST.
It's akin to asking a drunk whether another drunk really did anything terribly wrong by driving home drunk or asking a lifelong gang member whether a fellow gang member is really deserving of punishment for his crimes.
As long as the thugs in uniform are allowed to serve under a lower standard the honor and reputation of the whole force will suffer. It is long past time for good, honorable officers to stand up with the conviction of strong character and integrity and demand that these thugs on the force be relieved of duty permanently.
So, what we've learned is that SPD police accountability is pretty much like we all watched in The Wire and early seasons of Treme.
I'd bet a few bucks that he probably does a "private side gig" as bouncer or motorcade duty on this off day.
Who are you Dominic, KANYE WEST?
Christ, the man got a black mark, now it's time for you to walk away.
Unless you are holding out for a fucking BLOW JOB from the fuck-ee in question.
Give it up.
The strategy of being terrible may not be the best approach to avoiding this.
These are the people whose job it is to make us feel safer. Why the hell should they keep their job when they're doing just the opposite? When they show a complete lack of the maturity that should be required of anyone in their position?
I agree that anyone who's wearing a badge and a gun for their job should be held to a much higher behavioral standard, and that the last thing we should do in the face of such reprehensible conduct is just "let it go."
Nowhere on Earth are there people more enamored with victimhood than Seattle. You're a snotty-nosed, white kid. You aren't the poster child for the oppressed, no matter what buttons you push to try and be that.
That said, if I had gotten all fighty and confrontational during an incident like this twerp did, I would've been fired on the spot. And rightly so, because this sort of pointless escalation is the last goddamn thing you want to do in any situation. The job is to make problems go away, not cause more.
Anyone in any kind of protective service, private or public, who doesn't understand that doesn't deserve to have their job. Plain and simple.
Thicker skin, Seattle. Grow some. Pansies!
In life, sometimes one must shrug the shoulders and carry on (without pouting or running to tell mommy). And maybe even fuck off and take a hike when it's deserved.
This whole "story" says way more about what a bunch of pansies we are in Seattle than anything about the SPD.
I think the point is, people are assholes sometimes, and assholes should not be allowed to go unpunished no matter what domain they are working in, but especially if that domain is one where the public pay their wages with their taxes, AND look up to them in times of stress or need and vulnerability, only to be met with such asshole behavior.. I don't want to pay this guy's wages with my taxes, personally. I work hard for that money, I'd rather spend it on decent cops who don't do that sh*t.
1. Logging workers
2. Fishers and related fishing workers
3. Aircraft pilot and flight engineers
4. Roofers
5. Structural iron and steel workers
6. Refuse and recyclable material collectors
7. Electrical power-line installers and repairers
8. Drivers/sales workers and truck drivers
9. Farmers, ranchers, and other agricultural managers
10. Construction laborers
So learn this lesson, Mr. Policeman.
1. qualified immunity. Ever hear of it? it's an excuse cops can make in a court of law -- but not you.
2. the city indemnifies them for anything. ANYTHNG. ian burk didn't pay a fucking dime to the family of john Williams.
3. they get "Free" lawyers courtestesy of taxpayers. Do you?
4. they have special union rights that limit supervision and review by superiors.
5. they get to be supervised by an organization that the DOJ found engaged in pattern of unnecessary force. IOW "illegal violence en masse, harming hundreds of citizens." What we'd call a huge gang? Their supervisors "missed" this pattern of illegal violence. They got sued by the feds. Remarkably, in the settlement, NOT ONE COP IS DISCIPLINED FOR ANYTHING and all supervisers continued in their jobs, with just one or two here or there resigning due to age or moving on; then some who failed to note the hundreds of cases of illegal force are still hired to you know, monitor the use of force.
does that sound like a standard that would be applied in your company? if it was found to have broken the law hundreds of times, with management complicit or utterly blind? fuck no. the directors would fucking fire about 10 managers and about 100 employees and clean the house.
the difference in standards is this:
we are accountable.
they are not.
Nobody I call for paid assistance with anything would likely do it were they not paid for it.
Also, the kind of person who would help you at risk of their own life likely would do so without payment. I doubt you'd risk your life to help anyone in any situatiom, however.
If cops were all pansies like you and most men in Seattle, there'd be no cops.
*Sigh*
I win when it comes to SPD. I was arrested as I lay dying in a coma on a ventilator. The Cop lied on the stand saying I fought him off and tried to stop him from getting my blood that he coerced a Nurse to draw and then when attempting to get the second vial claimed my veins collapsed so he could not get evidence for me to use should I manage to live. I lived. And did not know for 3 months I had been arrested. Top that
I'm amazed Marion and Saulet and their higher ups letting them off weren't all fired.
Who among the SPD and King County is enabling this shit to continue? Eliminate that source of power abuse, and I would think that would end the SBD / KC corruption problem altogether.
Good night, everybody. I hope it all works out.
Dude, my dad got pulled over by the cops one time (and my dad is 6'4 and white as hell) and the cops were just as white. They were putting their fingers into his chest - that's after they pulled him out of the car and started harassing him - because ... his tail light was out and dad made made a funny about taking up their time and they didn't like it. I guess they were bored. Dad stood their, calmly kept putting his hands up and apologizing. My Dad has ego. I thought he'd hit them or get in an argument at least, but no, as he told me later, they were the law and most of all: they were ARMED. He reported it, but did he EVER see ANYTHING happen about it? No. Now I can bet a million bucks, WE ALL CAN! That all of us, especially minorities, like the one you were surprised to see surrounded by way too many cops, have had stories like that happen all the time.
Now, you come along, with your camera, and the backing of some shitty stuff the SPD has been up to and you have the audacity to think that the whole department is going to go from "Not Knowing How To Handle Police Misconduct On A Major Scale" to "Knowing How to Perfectly Handle Police Misconduct So That Dominic Holden Will Be A Happy Camper" overnight? What fantasy land are you living in? Most of us out there would have loved just have had at least a nod in our direction that something even occurred. You got this dude a day without pay. That's a big deal. That affects his family's finances and their ability to pay their bills, to eat, yada, yada. I don't mean they'll be starving, or going broke. However, I'll bet that most policeman are not living on Upper QA, or in the mansions of Capitol Hill. You all know they live outside of the city where they can afford how much they are being paid.
Get THAT through your brain Mr. Holden.
A "true" journalist would have at least followed the story with photos - Photoshopped or not - of the black eyes and bruises.
Your major injury sound more like a bruised ego.
NEXT TIME, at least get a live shot of your smartphone camera getting shoved up your nose!
I AM NOT DEFENDING YOUR ATTACKER/STALKER, I am defending the rest of us here in the comments section here who claim yours is a "weenie case": No quantifiable harm , no foul, no evidence other than your piss & moan.
So, you pissed and moan, and he got an unpaid day off. A photo of him spending that day watching your home while eating doughnuts and cleaning his firearm would go a long way further.
MAN UP! An article about your day in Harborview having your Smartphone removed from your rectum would be much more interesting, possibly even entertaining.
This IS "The Stranger".
I am sorry , sir, but: you are a "snit", and deserved your treatment, unjust as it may have seemed to you, or to any of us.
Scroll above to see all who concur.
EVERYONE knows the SPD are anything but angels. But they "keep the peace", and that is why they earn more than you.
People on this thread are acting like him seeing a potential story as a journalist (bunch of police around a guy? Might be worth looking into) walking up and taking a picture from a distance is "harassing" the police while they're working.
And this was a minor incident. He doesn't claim it as anything else. And people suggesting it's not worth mentioning if he didn't get a phone shoved up his ass are missing the point. He was doing something perfectly legal and the cops went full bully mode on him.
That should be shocking. And if it's not, and like the people saying there's much worse that they do, why is Dominic making a fuss about them just being bullies, then why defend them? Does anyone actually think that the police SHOULD be bullies and push law-abiding citizens around needlessly?
I appreciated these stories. I appreciated that he had solid evidence of the unnecessary and unprofessional escalation in the most non-threatening ofcircumstances, and how the department deals with it when on their best behavior.