Comments

1
The fact that she testified she was prepared to kill him seems pretty damaging to her case.
2
Why isn't the water-deprivation thing for a senior citizen with medical issues more of a concern and outrage.

That wasn't fucking Whitlatch, it involved more people.

So what the shit.
4
While comparatively benign to what many African-Americans have endured , it still reads as bullying, dehumanizing and humiliating. I'm infuriated at his treatment.
5
i'm a little confused about her defense. is banging a stop sign and glaring at someone while wearing sunglasses probable cause to stop someone to begin with? i mean, i'm not saying i believe her, i watched the tape and i believe mr. wingate. but is she even arguing something that justifies her response to him, a over 70 year old man?
6
@1 @3 Not defending Whitlach but considering the use of lethal force when on the job is common among police officers. Partly this is because in course of their jobs they encounter situations in which it is necessary. That is to say, there is nothing particularly unusual about her saying she thought of it. Unfortunately for all of us (not just black people at the hands of white officers, @3) too many police opt for it (or other violence) instead of trying to de-escalate.
9
@8

>Banging a stop sign is "criminal mischief". More commonly known as vandalism (whether you actually damage the sign or not). So what is at issue here is whether he did or didn't bang the sign

An old man banging a stop sign with a golf club he uses as a cane (if he even did) is not worth the attention of any officer of the law or pretty much anybody.
10
Oh please. Go bang on a stop sign without damaging it and see if you get arrested.
11
Does Whiplash use her nightstick on her Starbucks customers?
12
If she's allowed to use her fucked up judgement to justify the brutal treatment of someone then we're allowed to use judgement to fuck her career.

The law and civil codes are written in her favor. Appeals to law are useless.
13
@2

I remember noticing that when the story came out. You look at the time index and recall that it's July, and it took an hour before he was driven to the station, and I wondered if and doubted that anyone gave him any water than whole time.
14
@2: Indeed! That's hororifying.
15
@5,

An officer does not need probable cause to initiate an investigative stop. This type of pedestrian stop can be based on a very weak standard called "reasonable suspicion." Courts have defined reasonable suspicion as requiring an individualized (meaning specific as to whom), particularized (meaning specific as to what), articulable (meaning "just a hunch" doesn't cut it) suspicion that a person may be involved in, or about to be involved in, criminal activity of some kind.

In this case, if Wingate really was aggressively waving his golf club around, banging it on stop signs, and making the sort of threatening gestures that Whitlatch claims he was, she would have had reasonable suspicion to initiate a stop based on the belief that he might be up to various kinds of no good (reckless endangerment, harassment, property damage, etc.)

Practically speaking, the question of whether Wingate was really doing these things all comes down to the credibility of her word vs. his. Given that nobody else was reacting in alarm to Wingate, given that Whitlatch has contradicted herself - she thought he was threatening, but didn't initiate the stop right away and instead drove slowly around the block - and given that Whitlatch said he locked eyes with her in a menacing way while he was wearing large dark sunglasses, given Whitlatch's contemporaneous history of racially-charged cultural disparagement... All of this weighed against Wingate's apparently clear mind, harmless disposition, and consistent claims that he was minding his own business, looks very bad for Whitlatch and the constitutionality of the stop.
16
Yeah I don't understand why no other officers are in trouble for Wingate's mistreatment after he was arrested by Whitlatch.

what's the excuse?

let me guess, they were all afraid for their lives and yadda yadda.
17
@8 for a guy with "facts" in his name, you sure make up a lot of bullshit.
20
Contrary to earlier SLOG appologia —  Whitlach IS "garbage people."
21
Please tell me that this goon has been fired from the SPD. She seems to have the common sense of a rock and is willing to lie under oath knowing there's video to prove her wrong. I do not want idiots on the police force. This woman is short bus material.
22
@21,

She's been fired, but she's appealing her termination to the disciplinary review board, which has the power to overturn the chief's decision and reinstate her as a police officer.

This disciplinary review board, by the way, is a 3-person panel stacked 2:1 with Seattle cops, and it only exists because the Seattle Police Officers Guild persuaded the city to create it as part of their collective bargaining agreement. All the more reason to abolish the DRB and tell the mayor (and city council, and city attorney's office) to quit making these types of concessions to the police guild.
23
Lesbians are horrible people.
24
Have Stranger mods considered using "shadowbanning" (or whatever you kids call it these days) for the more prolific trolls? So much more fun than outright kicking people off.
25
In addition to the total horror show Wingate's interaction with Whitlatch turned out to be, it's interesting to note that to my knowledge she is the sole token "bad apple" weeded out of SPD so far, five years into the Justice Department consent decree. That speaks volumes about the "Code of Silence," SPOG, and SPD's corrupt, racist chain of command right up to the top. And when I say top, I'm talking about Ed Murray.
26
@25: Agreed.

The list I posted in response to previous reporting bears repeating:

  • Benjamin E. Archer #6938, who provided backup at the time of the incident

  • Chris Coles #6940, who wrote the incident report

  • Joe L. Lam #4767, who screened the arrest and approved the incident report

  • Lam's supervisor, who undoubtedly knows that Lam allows his subordinates to engage in fraud and abuse

  • All other SPD employees who have supervised Whitlatch, particularly he or she who allowed Whitlatch to train other cops for 13 years

  • All other partners who observed Whitlatch's on-the-job behavior, such as the one who stood by while she harassed the Metro bus driver who asked her to move her car from the bus lane

  • The OPA investigators who reviewed complaints about the Wingate incident, the complaint about Whitlatch's racist publications, and any other complaints about Whitlatch, resulting in completely ineffective outcomes

  • Those staff who, upon finding this shitstorm brewing a couple days [prior to the January 30, 2015, Slog post], seemingly neglected to present O'Toole with a complete history of Whitlatch's employment history, complaints, and investigations.

  • Kathleen O'Toole, who neglected to demand the aforementioned history of Whitlatch

  • Mayor Ed Murray, who stepped into office and kicked some of SPD's best people to the curb simply because they were associated with former Mayor Mike McGinn, and who appointed a former SPOG vice president as interim chief

  • Murray's advisers on police matters, who like Murray, apparently know and/or care more about playing politics than about the internal workings of our police department

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