The Seattle Police Officers’ Guild, the employees union representing approximately 1,350 sworn officers, publishes a newspaper each month called the Guardian. Written by and for cops, it’s not online, not for sale, and not in newspaper boxes. Most Seattle residents have never seen a copy. But if they had been reading the Guardian over the past year, while the city grappled with several high-profile incidents involving officers using force against racial minorities, they would’ve gained insight into the views of some police officers.
Take, for instance, last month’s issue featuring an editorial by Officer Steve Pomper, who’s angry about the five-year-old program to train all city employees on racial disparities and profiling issues.
“The city, using its Race and Social Justice Initiative, continues its assault on traditional and constitutional American values such as self-reliance, equal justice, and individual liberty,” Pomper begins. “But more to our concern, the city is inflicting its socialist policies directly on the Seattle Police Department.”
What’s that “socialist” program he’s so upset about? Approximately 1,800 officers have taken a “Perspectives in Profiling” class, says Kathryn Olson, director of the SPD’s Office of Professional Accountability. The eight-hour workshop involves officers watching several video clips of potentially suspicious behavior and discussing how they would handle the situations.
Pomper described the experience this way: “The ‘Perspectives in Profiling’ class (or as one officer put it, one of our ‘de-policing classes’) served as a good way to learn what the enemy is up to. (Yes, enemy. A liberal after my money in taxes may be my opponent, but a socialist attacking the Constitution and my liberty is my enemy.)”
Not all of the articles in the Guardian focus on “the enemy.” Many feature nuts-and-bolts fundraising updates or retirement announcements. However, editorials relating to police conduct often contain incendiary themes: disdain for civilian oversight, the idea that city hall is too liberal for its own good, and an insistence that city-sponsored programs pushing for racial and social justice must be stopped.
Pomper says officers should “take the City’s use of Social Justice terminology and implementation of policy seriously and oppose it in every legal way possible.”
Even measured articles, such as one in September by union president Rich O’Neill, express resentment for public scrutiny of police work. He mentions the “media frenzy” after SPD officer Ian Birk fatally shot Native American wood carver John T. Williams. (Williams was shot in the side four seconds after being given commands from the officer, and his legal carving knife was found closed. This week, King County District Court is holding an inquest into the death.) O’Neill lamented, “It is extremely frustrating when individuals with zero police training feel qualified to voice their opinions on police actions.”
Then there’s a November article by Officer Clayton Powell, who works in the South Precinct, discussing the phrase “mother f**ker,” which, he argues, is a “commonly used street term showing endearment to something or someone.” He names a couple more endearing terms: “bitch” and “n***a.” (Asterisks are his.)
“If I can communicate with someone in their primary language… it makes me a more effective officer,” writes Powell. “Learn to accept and appreciate the direct method of in-your-face communication.”
Asked what goal this sort of rhetoric serves, O’Neill says in an e-mail: “It is called free speech and freedom of the press. Officers have those rights, too.”
Likewise, SPD spokesman Sean Whitcomb explains, “You’re always going to find a diversity of opinions in a union newspaper.” But he repeats in our interview, emphatically, that the department—especially the command staff—embraces the Race and Social Justice Initiative and knows that cussing at civilians is strictly against policy.
Still, that chasm between SPD’s brass and beat cops like Pomper and Powell is exactly the concern of ACLU of Washington deputy director Jennifer Shaw. “The messengers who are talking to the people on the streets are the ones reading the Guardian,” Shaw says. “I think comments like that send a message to people of color in our city that they are less valued.” The ACLU has called for a federal probe into an “ongoing problem” of Seattle police officers using force on people of color.
Not that all cops give a shit what the ACLU thinks. In a December article, East Precinct officer Chris Leyba writes patronizingly, “There are ways in which civilian oversight does benefit us. Wait! Please don’t break leather on those guns, ladies and gentlemen! I’m not an ACLU hipster or Urban League lackey in disguise.” He argues—after joking that cops would pull their guns out at ACLU leaders, African-American leaders, or people advocating more police oversight—that civilian oversight is fine, but he calls citizen review boards “sideshows” that lack any disciplinary power and exist only for chiefs and sheriffs to provide an illusion of citizen accountability.
Olson, who runs the SPD’s internal misconduct oversight program, says the articles don’t represent “a widespread culture” but rather “reflect the values of the authors and very few others.” Nonetheless, that is a perspective getting plenty of ink in the police union’s official newspaper.
“The intended audience is the police department,” says Whitcomb. “It’s very police-y. It’s specific jargon. They are writing to a specific audience.” 
At the request of the police guild, links to full articles from The Guardian have been removed from this article.
The long 2003 PI story #20 refers to covers several cases and the PD habit of circling the wagons. The entire article is a stunning indictment. Following is the section on Clayton Powell.
Monica Hunter, 41, the spokeswoman for the Washington State Patrol, contacted Internal Affairs in September 2000 to report that her ex-husband, Seattle police Officer Clayton Powell, had harassed and threatened her.
Hunter said Powell drove by her house repeatedly, even after Hunter moved to escape him, according to documents filed in their child-custody case.
She accused him of leaving “threatening messages” on her answering machine, including one that he “was going to get me.” She described her ex-husband as “abusive,” “demanding and controlling” and “demeaning toward women.”
SPD internal investigators interviewed her, then referred the complaint to Powell’s supervisor, deciding it was a minor dispute. Powell was not disciplined.
Powell, 42, refused to comment on the allegations. Hunter also would not be interviewed, citing her position as agency spokeswoman. She now has a permanent restraining order against Powell.
Asked by the P-I about the department’s handling of the complaint, Evenson agreed to review the file.
Evenson then contacted Hunter, telling her he believed the matter had not been properly investigated.
“I don’t think I would have made a supervisory referral,” Evenson said. “Unfortunately, domestic violence is just recently surfacing as a serious crime. I think departments are becoming more serious about it.”
I echo the many posters who point out that we pay Pomper and Powell’s salaries. We have a representative government charged to hire and fire public servants. It’s time to lean on our representatives a little harder.
Pompert is a racist,he just wants to arrest more minorities,that much is apparent.He shouldn’t use big words he doesn’t understand either,it is publicly embarrassing and it makes him look poorly educated.Which I am sure he is.
This whole Police situation is a management problem.Diaz is a lousy leader,fish rot from the head out.
Maybe the Mayor needs to take a lesson from Ronald Reagan and fire all union members.No union lives without the blessing of management.
It could well be argued that the Mayor has every right to disband a Police Department that exhibits a malignant,hostile group psychosis.
It is in the interest of public safety to hire public contact employees who exhibit empathy in their personalities.After all we are their employers,we shouldn’t be victims of publicly employed sociopaths as we are now.
The Stranger and the ACLU love diversity up until the moment when there’s a diversity of opinions and someone dares to disagree with them. Those people are labelled as racist, ignorant, or unevolved. I call that Progressive Fundamentalism. It’s about time someone called BS on all the social justice brainwashing. Steve Pomper for Mayor!
@Pelosi Facelift: You have no idea how valuable programs like those that these officers deride really are, and how important it is to have effective civilian regulation of the police force.
It’s not “social justice brainwashing” to ensure that cops don’t waste their time on methods that have been proven to be counter-productive and ineffective (the racial profiling I’m imagining that one officer loves.)
The fact that the very concept of “social justice” has come under attack like this is despicable and immoral.
I’ve spent a lot of time around these types as a firefighter and most of them are mentally disturbed either from what they deal with or they were attracted to the force for mostly sociopathic reasons.
I say we find a nice 95%+ white city to sent them to locally (on a lateral transfer all these A-holes want) and hire with more RIGOROUS Standards like the Seattle Fire Dept. Unlike the SPD, we don’t need to hold “Police Job Fairs”! RAISE the standards for the SPD and guys like Officer (F***-Tard) Pomper won’t pass the exam!
I’ve spent a lot of time around these types as a firefighter and most of them are mentally disturbed either from what they deal with or they were attracted to the force for mostly sociopathic reasons.
I say we find a nice 95%+ white city to sent them to locally (on a lateral transfer all these A-holes want) and hire with more RIGOROUS Standards like the Seattle Fire Dept. Unlike the SPD, we don’t need to hold “Police Job Fairs”! RAISE the standards for the SPD and guys like Officer (F***-Tard) Pomper won’t pass the exam!
Steve Pomper violated the Supreme Court’s 2006 decision that restricted public sector employees free speech when such speech is related to an employee’s work. Officer Pomper disparaged the required training, his superiors, and members of Seattle City government. The National Police Guild wrote in 2006 a statement outlining this free speech limitation. Both Officer Pomper and Sgt. O’Neill, President of the Seattle Guild, need some further training, perhaps by the King County Prosecutor’s office, on what is legal vs illegal speech.
I would suggest, if Chief Diaz won’t address this employee violation, that the US Justice Department which is now investigating “misbeavior and excessive force by the SPD, add this infraction and attitude that goes with it to its investigation.
becoming a cop changes people. a friend i used to have back in my hometown got a criminal justice degree (because he couldn’t hack the sciences he needed to get into forensics, which is what he wanted). this guy used to sit at my house and smoke so much weed, i had to leave the room because i had to do random piss tests at work. fast forward a couple years, he got his degree, went to police academy XLI, and metamorphosed into a no-necked buzz cut-wearing redneck southern cop. turned into an instant asshole he did, this once soft-spoken son of a university librarian. officer friendly died a long time ago.
Congratulations to the Stranger for breaking this story. The Seattle Times finally got to it two weeks after your reporting.
Its pretty frightening living in a city and county for that matter where the police act the way they do here. I am not used to this. I am pretty shocked by it all.
Chief Diaz and Sue Rahr have both been in their positions quite some time and they are ultimately responsible.
Am I the only one that noticed that with all these incidences that have happened these past few years have the same thing in common?
Every report filed by the officers had problems. With the girl beaten in the cell they lied on their reports.
With the stomping video not one of the officers reports coincided with the video evidence.
With the wood carver the statement “He lunged at me” was omitted by the supervisor when witnesses accounts contradicted him.
I thought not being truthful was like lying under oath. We have people in jails and prisons based solely on what police write in their reports. Any officer that lies on his report should put all his past arrests into question.
When YOUR freedom depends on them telling the truth we should all be demanding accountability!!!
The brutality captured is also disgraceful. with that shove downtown that put that kid in coma. If that isn’t over use of force what is? At the very least take this guy off the street.
He is a proven liability and his “depth perception” or lack there of could hurt another person out there. Sue Rahr put him back on the beat the very next week although the criminal investigation went on for months.
Its amazing to see how much these officer get away with.
Have you ever wondered just how much all these lawsuits and settlements for police violating rights, abuse or causing unintended death has cost just these past couple years alone?
I would like to know on the city, the county and the state level.
Millions and Millions in settlements and many lawsuits yet to go to trial.
$418,000 just awarded because they were actually stupid enough to trail students protesting and make up bogus reasons to arrest the driver. Their conversations while perusing the students were recorded… DUH! The whole story is on the front page of the ACLU Washington website.
Unfortunately with all these occurrences the officers aren’t paying a price. The rest of us are
“It is extremely frustrating when individuals with zero police training feel qualified to voice their opinions on police actions.”
Apparently this officer seems to think he works for himself and not the citizens who pay his salery.
That alone is pretty outrageous . The pack dog mentality shows
And with all this “Socialist” and “they are my enemy” talk can you imagine all those poor individuals targeted, pulled over and ticketed because they have an Obama bumper sticker.
Did you here that one of our states reps in Olympia want to propose a bill that will make it illegal to video tape police officers? Unbelievable.
What I would like to kno is why hasn’t all the police haters applied to do the job. the way I see it the only way to effect/afffect/change/impact the system is to do it from the inside.
To all the police haters, please sign up to protect and serve me. PLEASE I beg you do something don’t just sit there I need you. I can’t do it formyself. Thank god somene is willing to to a job that is essential in keeping a society civilized. Imperfect as the system/people are e can not say that that all police are thugs. Have you forgotten the ones ho have died in an effort to protect. Come on be sensible and judge fairly.
I love how people come here to accuse others of being cop haters for talking about their crooked disgraceful past.
Its too bad that officers feel the need to come here anonymously and bash others.
Its absolutely cowardly. You do realize you make your fellow officers look bad don’t you?? How Pathetic!
Oh the Irony. I think it’s hilarious that a cop is ranting about socialism in a UNION paper! I would bet dollars to donuts that the f*cktard cop who wrote the rant in the unions paper is a registered Democrat and voted for Obama because he wants to protect his fat union paid ass. If he wants to start pointing fingers, he can point them at his own union for supporting and funding the Democrats leftist/socialist agenda.
@81: Well said!
A recent study by the Harvard School of Public Health estimates that 26% of Americans are affected by mental illness. Seattle cops are Americans. 26% of Seattle cops are affected by mental illness. Their names are in the news.
Hit me. Make me rich.
Wow, such brilliant comments by some citizens who count on the police to protect them in their time of need. These are the ones who will be the first to call 911 when in trouble. The comment by “dueprocess” was typical progressive hate for someone expressing their free speech guarenteed to them via something you may want to read. It’s called the US Constutution. Which by the way superceeds any company policy. Does anyone ever even think that for every several thousand good things police officers do that never get reported, one bad thing gets front page.
Wow, the ignorance is rampid in these comments. As for bayareajim, 100% wrong. Of course since ignorance such as yours is never fact checked, you wouldn’t know the truth if it was stuck in your mouth. Yes they have good pentions and they belong to a union, however, that was not a choice. The only choice the police had in the beginning, was to take and commit to a job that protects and serves people who hate them when things are going fine, but call on them when they need help. As for “dueprocess”, you take the cake. Ever read a document called the United States Constitution? I didn’t think so. There is something in there called freedom of speech. That is guarenteed, which superceeds any company policy. Sure they could get diciplined for not following policy, but good luck in court fighting a guarenteed right. These police officers put their lives on the line every day for all people. Even ignorant uninformed citizens like yourself. I suppose if you woke up to someone robbing your house, you would just shake his or her hand and say thanks? Doubtful, you would call 911 to request an officer you hate so much, who will rush to your aid regardless of how you feel about them. Just remember, for every one bad report on police officers you see on the front page of the liberal press, there are thousands and thousands of good actions never even mentioned. It’s really pathetic that there are some people who think that just because they draw a salery from our tax dollars, that that somehow automatically takes their Constitutional rights away from them.
This just goes to show that cops are by and large cringing illiterates and sobbing, pants-wetting pussies. If they don’t like being held to standards the way everyone else in the world is, I’d be happy to do their job myself.
I can’t find “Protect and Serve” anywhere on their emblem, or in their mission statement. (Don’t throw spears, maybe I just missed it..)
In any event, let’s run with the scenario that the police are charge to “protect and serve”.
My questions would be:
1) Who was the cop protecting when he shot the woodcarver?
2) Who was he serving?
Cause it sure seems to me that in the 4-7 seconds of the event, there wasn’t a whole lot of protecting and serving going on, except maybe “self-serving’…I mean, in just a few seconds he closed a gap and shot a person dead.
The KKKops are the problem!They need to purge the SPD of all the racists who slither around in the precincts!The only way they’ll learn is to fire them(or fire at them).
They can always quit—Oops!My bad;they would have a much more difficult time maiming and murdering Lefists,the Poor,and non-Whites if they were mere non-cops.WOULDN’T WANT TO DEPRIVE THEIR NAZI ASSES OF THAT,NOW WOULD WE?
The cop-haters in Seattle and in these comments call the cops “racist” because the cops want to treat all races equally.
That’s Progressivism for you.
That officer is obviously mentally ill to some degree. The deparment, once they view diatribes such as his, should pull him off the streets and have him undergo a psychologial exam for continued fitness on the force as well as drug testing for probable steroid use or other….Once an officer begins to view the public as the enemy (and many do) they are no longer part of society as an enforcer of law or even to protect as they now view themselves as a combatant thereby rendering their thinking/actions and rationals ineffective as a normal human being. In that sense: It makes sense for the public to be highly aware of the mentally deranged assumptions/presumptions of individuals like this officer…..I call them power pussies—(those who hide behind a badge and gun)………
Just because they all wear a badge doesn’t mean they are all alike and they have the same right to free speech as you do! If we restrict their rights yours will be next!
So we, the citizens of Seattle, are, “THE ENEMY” according to the Seattle police force. It’s good to know what the Seattle police force really thinks of the public. At least now that I am aware that I’m an “ENEMY,” I know not to ever ask the police to do anything for me. All of you ought to say the same. I am not about to ask someone who despises me for help if something happens. Might as well go find the high school bully who used to harass me on a daily basis and ask him if he’ll help me take care of my niece.
Whoa!! I’ve always thought that Seattle was a progressive and welcoming city. But the SPD is tainting that image specially in Boston where I live and where the Boston PD, though not perfect, is an example of repect and professionalism.