Morning, all. Already feels like a long week, so let’s hop into the weather. Partly sunny today, with a high of 48, and then partly cloudy tonight. Good day to take a long walk and break up with your situationships before Valentine’s Day.
It’s also a good day to go submit a public comment: The City of Seattle wants to expand the surveillance state on a pretty massive level. We wrote a little bit about the expansion of Automatic License Place Readers, but the Seattle Police Department and the City have proposed three other surveillance technologies, including ShotSpotter. Seattle Solidarity Budget put together a great guide to learn about the technologies and how to submit public comment on each. The next public meeting is scheduled for 6 pm on February 27, so mark your calendars. The final day to submit written public comment is February 29.
Speaking of public comment: Members of the LGBTQ+ community showed up to the Seattle Police Department’s LGBTQ+ Advisory Council meeting to complain about a series of raids on several Capitol Hill gay bars, according to Capitol Hill Seattle Blog. SPD told community members not to blame them for the raids, pointing fingers instead at the Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Board (LCB). Cops said the complaint that led to the raid on Cuff came from a disgruntled former employee. Also, apparently Mayor Bruce Harrell has no plans to disband the weird Joint Enforcement Team that conducted the raids. Classic.
Seattle Police Department is bad for women cops: Last week, DivestSPD’s Justin Ward wrote about how SPD has trouble retaining woman officers. On Friday, the KUOW published a story about a report last year that described SPD as an “old boys club” where women struggle to get ahead. The story included a detail about a sergeant telling one officer she looked “yummy.” Ewwwwwww.
Pro-Palestine protesters arrested, accuse SPD of abuse: At a press conference Monday, several protesters accused SPD of escalating a demonstration last Friday outside the World Trade Center Seattle, according to MyNorthwest. At the conference, protesters played video of SPD rushing them, and one woman, Linda Bevis, said she hit her head on the ground after SPD officers pushed her. The impact sent her to the hospital. The department said it would investigate reports of SPD officers slashing the tires of protesters.
Recent actions against protesters hasn’t chilled the movement: Guy Oron at Real Change reported last night that hundreds of protesters gathered outside Husky Stadium to protest the bombing of Rafah, a city in the southern Gaza Strip, as well as to protest Sound Transit for its relationship with Siemens, a German company that does business with Israel.
Hundreds of protesters are gathering outside of the UW Husky stadium in Seattle chanting “stop bombing Rafah now” and “ceasefire now” pic.twitter.com/ivyB7YfsYj
— Guy Oron (@GuyOron) February 13, 2024
Meanwhile: President Joe Biden met with Jordan’s King Abdullah II Monday to discuss a ceasefire in Gaza. Biden said he’s hoping to negotiate at least a six-week-long pause in fighting, according to the New York Times. The Associated Press reported that Israel and Hamas has made progress on a deal.
The death toll in Gaza has climbed above 28,000. CNN recently published the audio of five-year-old Palestinian girl Hind Rajab’s final call for help as she and other family members tried to flee the fighting. CNN says Israeli forces killed Rajab and the ambulance workers who went to rescue her.
Donald Trump asks for more help from the Supreme Court: The former president wants to the highest court in the land to say he can’t be criminally prosecuted for any actions he took on January 6, saying it would really mess up his bid for reelection, according to the Washington Post. The way Trump’s been tattling to the Supreme Court is such loser behavior, honestly. I wish he’d do something more fun, like get caught bribing a judge or something.
Speaking of losers: New York votes on George Santos’s replacement today. The race is between US Rep. Tom Suozzi and Bassau County legislator Mazi Pilip. Pilip is a Republican who used to fight for the Israeli Defense Forces, so I guess we want Suozzi. But I’m hoping for a Santos write-in campaign to emerge.
Fat Tuesday! People plan to celebrate tonight in the streets of New Orleans as the city’s carnival season comes to an end. Not much more to say about that, just wish I could go to a giant, campy street party tonight.
In a few months I’ll get to see Pretty Girls Make Graves in Seattle for their first show in 17 years. Pre-sale tickets start this Wednesday. I know literally nothing about this band, but Megan says she’s a fanatic and she’s got great taste.
Brittany Howard released a new album: This is the second solo album for the former vocalist of Alabama Shakes. I’m still listening to it all, but my friend Kevin, who recommended it, said “it pulls off that musical magic trick of feeling omnivorous and a pinch experimental while also feeling very rooted in the voice of the artist who made it.” Grateful for my more musically literate friends.
Editor’s note: KUOW put their story up before the Seattle Times about the report on women hating to work at SPD. We made an update to reflect that.
License plates are legally required for all motor vehicles operating on public property. An automatic system for tracking already-required identification tags in public spaces is merely a labor-saving device.
(Also, who is more unhealthily obsessed with “Shot Spotter”? Mayor Harrell, or the Stranger?)
Excellent action in Gaza recovering two of the hostages.
Want it to stop?
Release all the hostages.
Gay bars are upset about being expected to follow the same rules as everyone else?
I highly recommend everyone goes to Nola during Mardi Gras season at least once in their life. I was there for work a couple weeks before Fat Tuesday and accidentally found myself caught in the middle of two of the smaller Krewe parades. Was an absolute blast and the locals were so kind. I love Nola in general so I might be a bit biased, but five stars would recommend.
I will say, the irony of Ash Wednesday coinciding with Valentines Day this year is not lost on me.
Kind of interesting TS has an issue with shotspotter which only triggers when it thinks it hears gunshots but no mention of HB2485 working its way through the legislature right now that would install speed cameras on all WA highways similar to France. Which application do you think will have a bigger impact on privacy?
Regarding the pro Hamas protestors that complained yesterday. It’s been so long since there has been any consequences for their childish behavior they are now throwing a tantrum like any toddler when the rules start to be enforced again. It’s amusing to watch and I look forward to more displays like this occurring as there is less and less tolerance for them violating others rights as part of their antics.
No mention of TS’s writers vote to unionize last night? That would seem like something they would want to trumpet.
Why in TF would The Stranger want Santos to be re-elected in a write-in campaign? Oh, wait, Slog once had a writer (can’t even remember his name now) who wrote that Hillary Clinton is “the worst person in the world,” so I guess I know why.
“… I guess we want Suozzi”?
Yes, the Dem, who foolishly ran against Hochul in 2022 and paved the way for Santos, is the better choice over a Republic.
@7 Given what the Republican Party stands for now, yes I think that any Democrat is a better option than any Republican. I mean, unless you think The Handmaid’s Tale was an instruction manual instead of a cautionary tale. Or you base your foreign policy on what Putin likes. Or you loooooove Supreme Court justices to be bought and paid for.
Souzzi is an anti choice “moderate.” He’s going to lose. He probably would’ve won against Santos. Fantastic strategy as always by Team Blue
@1:
So, if every vehicle is already legally required to have an identification plate, what is the actual purpose of being able to record the information? We have this thing in our legal system called “presumption of innocence” whereby someone who is following the law is not assumed to be potentially breaking it. This sort of technology exists for no other purpose than for LEA’s to have the ability to track the movements of anyone, anywhere at any time, regardless of whether they are obeying the law or not. If I wanted to live somewhere law enforcement had that same unchecked power over the citizenry, I’d move to Hong Kong or North Korea.
As for ShotSpotter, despite the company’s extremely dubious claims of a 97% accuracy rate, the technology has been proven to be rife with problems: not being able to detect gunshots in certain blind spots, mistaking fireworks and car backfires for gunshots, and employees have been caught altering and falsifying evidence gathered by the technology. Additionally, independent studies have shown that, on-average, some 89% of deployments initiated by ShotSpotter turn up either no gun-related criminal activity, with only a slightly lower percentage (86%) turning up virtually no criminal activity whatsoever. And yet, the company continues to tout its own numbers, while at the same time trying to block any widespread independent analysis of its “proprietary technology”, even to the point of performing their own “internal audit” intended to verify the system’s accuracy, but which, upon outside examination, was determined to be based, not on actual gunshots recorded, but rather on the number of complaints filed by LEA’s reporting potential errors. It’s simply another tool with no practical value that LEA’s nevertheless employ to justify their own egregious, and frequently unwarranted escalation of force.
@10: “…what is the actual purpose of being able to record the information?”
Amber alerts, stolen cars, ticket scofflaws, to name just a few.
‘We have this thing in our legal system called “presumption of innocence” whereby someone who is following the law is not assumed to be potentially breaking it.’
You don’t actually have a right to operate a motor vehicle on public property. That’s why you must apply to the state for a license to do so.
“This sort of technology exists for no other purpose than for LEA’s to have the ability to track the movements of anyone, anywhere at any time, regardless of whether they are obeying the law or not.”
I’m pretty sure tracking a car’s license plate only allows tracking of the car when it is in public, not of the owner. (Unless you walk around with a license plate fastened to your head, which, come to think of it, would explain your comments here really, really well..)
@9: Suozzi held the seat for several terms prior to Santos. “Anti-Choice Moderate” is what sells in that district. I hope he doesn’t lose.
“… protest Sound Transit for its relationship with Siemens, a German company that does business with Israel. ”
Ha, ha, ha. Siemens is a giant engineering company, with multiple business lines worldwide. It would actually make far more sense for these protesters to start complaining at Boeing for supplying aircraft to El Al. (It would have exactly the same effect, though.)
Also, what are these protesters going to do to Sound Transit? Continue not paying fares when they ride? Reduce train service downtown without providing alternate busses? Somehow cause ST3 to become even more idiotically useless and over budget?
“Speaking of losers” – how many basic facts can The Stranger get wrong in one paragraph?
“The race is between US Rep. Tom Suozzi…” – no, Suozzi is not a “US Rep.” – if he were, he couldn’t run for a different seat in Congress. He’s a former Rep.
“…. and Bassau County legislator Mazi Pilip.”
Bassau County??? Is that on Bong Island?
You can’t even type “Bassau County” without autocorrect fixing it for you. You need to go out of your way to get that wrong.
For fucks sake.
“But I’m hoping for a Santos write-in campaign to emerge.”
You know what? I bet he is, too. Not much that’s alarming in politics these days, but there are many Trumpers out there saying – even after all that we know, “He’s no worse than the rest of ’em.”
Mazi Pilip. The Long Island Pawn. Actually, I don’t mind her being in the Israeli Army at all. How she got there is more the story, I think. No, I dislike her because she forgets the breaks she got along the way – and she’s rabidly, rabidly anti-choice. Women who are anti-choice puzzle me, frankly. I know religious indoctrination early and often has much to do with it, but so many anti-choice women, should they find themselves with an unplanned issue, would be up in those stirrups, like, so fast. Or taking that week’s vacation in France. Anyway, she’s shady and has tax problems. What better way to clear all that out than to take RNC money and become a member of the House? Why the people in that district are so challenged to find candidates with unquestioned integrity is a mystery to me.
At my age, the only thing that Carnival Time makes me want is to enjoy a killer bowl of gumbo – and having it with a cute guy who has a N’awlins accent would be nice as well.
Q: Why can’t the SPD recruit women officers?
A: Trump level boys’ locker room misogyny.
What woman of sound mind would ever work for the SPD or law enforcement agency with such a corrupt and chauvinistic workforce mentality like that?
No further questions, your honor.
@16 Bauhaus I: Women who are rabidly anti-choice—with or without RWNJ “beliefs”— puzzle me, too.
Also, nothing mentioned in SLOG, but it sure was good to see Jon Stewart back on The Daily Show last night – even if only on Mondays. We don’t totally agree on everything all the time, but the boy has a good heart, is quick on his feet, is so smart, and my love for him knows no bounds.
Tom Suozzi wins! Whew! So far, he’s even carrying Nassau County by 58%. Sort of Archie Bunker country. Nassau County has gone for every Republican candidate for president except when it went for Woodrow Wilson and LBJ.
a missive I
recieved today:
kinda L O N G
but it’s pretty
Fucking Im-
Portant.
Dear kristofarian,
This morning, at 5am, the Senate voted to pass a $95 billion dollar foreign aid bill.
I voted NO.
I will not support giving $10 billion to the right-wing Netanyahu government to continue its horrific war against the Palestinian people.
Here is a speech I gave on the floor of the Senate expressing my views. Thank you for reading. – Bernie
[he’s always sending me shit
’cause he Knows I LOVE him.
anyways]:
“Mr. President, I’d like to take a few minutes to discuss a matter of enormous consequence that is not being adequately covered in the mainstream media nor here in the Senate.
And that is that right now, today, in Gaza, we are witnessing one of the worst humanitarian disasters in modern history. It is unfolding before our very eyes and we must not run away from that reality.
And I am very sorry to say but we in the United States are deeply complicit in what is happening in Gaza. What we do in Congress right now could well determine whether tens of thousands of people live or die.
Let us very briefly review what has happened in the last four months.
On October 7th, Hamas launched a horrific terrorist attack that killed 1,200 innocent Israelis and took more than 230 hostages and more than 100 of those hostages still remain in captivity today.
That is what started this war. And as I have said many times, Israel has the right to defend itself against Hamas terrorism.
But it does not have the right to go to war against the entire Palestinian people. And that, tragically, is what we are seeing.
As of today, Israel’s military campaign has killed more than 27,000 Palestinains and injured some 68,000; two-thirds of whom are women and children.
Unbelievably, 1.7 million people have been driven from their homes; nearly 80% of the population. That is more than twice the population of my own state of Vermont.
These people displaced have no understanding as to where they will go tomorrow or whether in fact they will ever return to their communities. That is where they are now. Pushed out of their homes, hungry, desperate, no understanding of where they will be in the future.
The devastation caused by Israeli bombardments is unprecedented in modern history. Some 70 percent of the housing units have been damaged or destroyed.
The Israeli bombing attacks have destroyed most of the infrastructure in Gaza. There is no electricity there and very little clean water.
There are virtually no places where people can buy bread or other basic necessities as most of the bakers have been destroyed or shut down.
Raw sewage is now running into the streets and communication is very difficult because there is little or no cell phone service.
Despite the tens of thousands of Palestinians who have been injured, there are no fully functional hospitals in Gaza and just one in three is operational at all.
Amid repeated attacks on health care facilities, doctors and nurses – with extraordinary courage – are bravely working to save lives, even with inadequate and sporadic electricity or basic medical supplies.
Israel bombing and the onerous restrictions placed on aid entering Gza means that only a tiny fraction of the food, water, medicine, and fuel that is needed can get into Gaza.
And even when supplies get across the border, very little of that aid can reach beyond the immediate area around the Rafah crossing from Egypt.
Mr. President, let us take a deep breath and understand what all of this means for the men, women, and children who are in Gaza today, right now.
Not only have they been driven from their homes, not only have those homes been damaged or destroyed, not only are they unable to access the medical care or the clean water they need, but – unbelievably, horrifyingly, hundreds of thousands of children today in Gaza face starvation.
Let me repeat: hundreds of thousands of children face starvation.
The United Nations says that 1 in 10 children under the age of 5 in Gaza is already malnourished, and the entire population is at imminent risk of famine.
What every physician knows is that malnutrition in small children causes permanent physical and cognitive damage. It stays with them for their entire lives.
In other words, even if the world ended today, large numbers of children in Gaza will have suffered physically from what has happened for the rest of their lives.
And that’s not to mention the extraordinary psychological damage that these kids have gone through.
Can you imagine what it means to be 5 years old, seeing buildings collapsing, people dying, suffering from hunger and thirst?
That’s what these kids are going through today.
Mr. President, if nothing changes, we will soon have hundreds of thousands of children literally starving to death before our very eyes.
And, believe it or not, the situation could become even worse.
Right now, 1.4 million people – more than half of the population of Gaza – are squeezed into the area around Rafah right up against the Egyptian border.
Rafah was a town of just 250,000 people before the war.
Now, there are 1.4 million people there – more than five times the original population. These people are packed into crowded UN shelters or sleeping out in tents. It is a daily struggle for them to find food or water.
And in the midst of all of this horror and suffering, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, the leader of Israel’s extreme right-wing government, has announced that Israel will soon launch a major ground offensive against Rafah – where 1.4 million people are located.
What that means is that Netanyahu will soon be forcing these people – already living in extreme desperation – to evacuate once again.
And nobody has any idea as to where they will go.
These families – already exhausted, traumatized, and hungry – will once again be displaced, with no plan as to how they will survive.
Mr. President, I struggle to find words for this cruelty.
And let me state once again that what is happening in Gaza now is funded by U.S. taxpayer dollars.
These are our bombs and our military equipment that is being used. We are complicit. This is not just an Israeli war. It is an American war.
Mr. President, Prime Minister Netanyahu says all of this is necessary.
He says that Israel will only accept “total victory” in this campaign.
Yet asked recently what “total victory” would look like, he said – chillingly – that it is like smashing a glass “into small pieces, and then you continue to smash it into even smaller pieces, and you continue hitting them.”
The question that we must ask ourselves is: how many more children and innocent people will be smashed by Netanyahu in the process? And why is the United States helping to fund this humanitarian disaster?
It is quite clear that, beyond total destruction of Gaza, Netanyahu has no plan.
This week, President Biden acknowledged the severity of this crisis. He said that Israel’s response in Gaza “has been over the top,” and added that “there are a lot of innocent people who are starving. There are a lot of innocent people who are in trouble and dying. And it’s got to stop.”
The President is absolutely right. It does have to stop. But if that is the case, then why in God’s name are we now contemplating legislation that provides $10 billion to the Israeli war machine to continue Netanyahu’s war?
President Biden and Secretary of State Blinken have been trying to negotiate an agreement where Israel pauses its military operation, Hamas releases the remaining hostages, and massive humanitarian aid comes in to help desperate people.
We all hope this deal comes together.
But Netanyahu is resisting this proposal. In my view, he is trying to prolong the war to cling to power. Most Israelis rightly blame him for creating this crisis and want him out.
But if Netanyahu prolongs the war, he can avoid accountability for his disastrous leadership.
And that is why Netanyahu is ignoring almost everything that President Biden and Secretary Blinken are saying.
He, this week, dismissed the hostage deal as “delusional” and brushed aside U.S. concerns about expanding the ground offensive to southern Gaza.
There is a simple question that must be asked: how does it happen that, despite waging an horrific war which has caused massive suffering; despite ignoring the wishes of the President of the United States and, in fact, virtually the entire world community; how does it happen that the U.S. Congress is about to send another $10 billion of unrestricted military aid to Israel – no strings attached?
It is beyond comprehension to me that Congress would reward Netanyahu, even while he ignores everything the President of the United States says.
Netanyahu is the leader of the most right-wing government in Israel’s history, a man who has dedicated his political career to killing the prospects of a two-state solution.
And yet, this bill will give him a blank check, paid for by the American taxpayer.
It’s hard to believe, but that is exactly what this bill will do.
And what’s even harder to understand is that, in the midst of this almost unprecedented humanitarian crisis, this legislation before us actually contains a prohibition on funding for UNRWA, the largest UN agency operating in Gaza and the backbone of the humanitarian aid operation. UNWRA is the organization that actually gets food across Gaza.
Israel’s allegations against the agency are serious, and they are being investigated seriously.
But you don’t starve two million people because of the alleged actions of twelve UNRWA employees.
Mr. President, the whole world is watching. Netanyahu is starving hundreds of thousands of children. We in America cannot be complicit in this atrocity.
As long as this bill contains money to fund Netanyahu’s cruel war, it must be defeated.
Thank you, Mr. President, I yield the floor.”
Senator Bernie Sanders (I) VT
suspected Jew
gosh!
who Knew
Bernie reads my
comments here tS?
“But Netanyahu is resisting this proposal.
In my view,
he is trying to
prolong the war
to cling to power.
Most Israelis
rightly blame him for
creating this crisis and want him out.
But if Netanyahu
prolongs the war, he
can avoid accountability
for his disastrous leadership.
And
that is why
Netanyahu is
ignoring almost every-
thing that President Biden
and Secretary Blinken are saying.”
if BiBi can only just
HANG ON till El
trumpster can
declare his
Ass Dic-
tator
they’ll form a coalition
with Pooty that’ll form
a 10,000 year Reich and
bring us a Modern Mordor
so
Exciting
to watch!
Popcorn:
Invest!
“We
in America
cannot be com-
plicit in this atrocity.”
I suppose it
just Depends
on whom you
Converse with.
“But
you don’t
starve two million
people because of the alleged
actions of twelve UNRWA employees.”
well sure ya do!
just ask tS’s
Illustrious
commen-
tariat: it’s
All Very
Logical.
“It’s potentially national suicide to remove the application of overwhelming force before Israel’s enemy has lost the capacity or will to fight.”
oh.
yes!
all that
‘Potentiality’!
so
fight
ON, Nutnyahoo!
(& stay OUTTTA Jail!)
Fight til thee
Very Last Gazan!
oops!
till the
last* HAMAS!
*Nutnyahoo:
but HALF of them
were HAMAS! we’re
pretty sure! there’s Another
One! Kill them ALL! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAh!
@19: “Why can’t the SPD recruit women officers?”
Hounding SPD’s only female BIPOC Chief from that office probably didn’t help. For that, you can thank the “progressive” majority on the Seattle City Council in 2020. Good riddance to CMs Gonzalez, Herbold, Mosqueda, and Sawant!
@28, ad nauseum: Business Insider recently took a tour of a Hamas tunnel — a command post, complete with computer servers! — really close to a school run by UNRWA. Hamas is now using not just Gazan schoolchildren as human shields, but UN Relief agency employees as well. Please continue not to notice this as you excoriate Israel, and only Israel, for all deaths in Gaza.
@29
ad Vomitas
Bernie and I Both
Excoriate the Nutnyahoo
far Far FAR “right” extremists
in their possibly inadvertent attempt
to Destroy Israel. try and keep it “straight”
Wormtongue.
@11:
So how, pray tell, did cops manage to DO ALL OF THESE things: track down kidnappers, scofflaws and car thieves; in the days before the advent of this technology?
@wormmy
@cap’n
ok.
but
choose
to Ignore
Bernie at yours
and Israel’s Peril.
oh and
nevermind
the Genocide.
it’s merely just a
little Genocide
“lite.”
20,000 Dead
women & children.
your
“BUT HAMAS!!’
will Only go so far.
@COMTE — it don’t take
no Sherlock fucking
Holmes:
obv.
Po-pos
them Days
hadn’t Ever heard
thee Most Dreaded Word
in thee english language: defund.
how could Anyone solve
Anything under such
Enormous Pressure?
@32: This makes it easier, especially in time-crucial cases, like Amber and Silver alerts. Again, you’re complaining about faster collection of information which has already long been legally required for public display.
@33: While you did provide some small amusement value, treating a Bernie-bot’s transcription of the senator’s floor speech as if it was personally written to you, overall your pathological refusal to condemn Hamas for the current situation is really just sad. If the IDF had destroyed that tunnel with a bomb, both killing Hamas leaders and destroying a nearby school while it was in session, you’d now be screaming about how “Israel” had killed the children and relief workers. It’s like you want to be the poster boy for equating pro-Palestinian with pro-Hamas.
“… protest Sound Transit for its relationship with Siemens, a German company that does business with Israel. ”
Siemens makes all kinds of medical equipment. If you are intensely pro-Palestine, be sure to reject any and all diagnostic tests done with any kind of machine made by Siemens. If you die as a result, at least you’ll die with the pure soul of an activist.
@22 Yaay that Tom Suozzi won the special election in Nassau County, particularly if it has an Archie Bunker country reputation! That is good news.
Go, Dems, GO!!!
@29: The toxic masculine work environment associated within the SPD and SPOG certainly doesn’t help, either, teenie. It’s like recruiting offices trying to increase the number of female military enlistees, only for women to face the systematic sexist bullshit of “This Man’s _”* (*fill in the blank: Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, Coast Guard, or Space Force).
No matter how fat her retirement pension is, I’m confident this is among top reasons why ex SPD Chief Carmen Best left the SPD, however close her ties with ex Seattle mayor, Jenny Durkan and hounding from Seattle City Council members notwithstanding.
@38: I don’t doubt for a moment SPD still needs real reform, and that plenty of toxic masculinity needs removal as part of that reform. That noted, the first female BIPOC Chief of SPD was hounded from office not by racist good ol’ white boys, but by “progressive” women on the Council. Believe whatever you want; Chief Best made her reasons very clear in her announcement.