Goddamnit, I actually had a positive interaction with a police officer earlier today.

Yet still, this story makes me want to say, "Fuck the police".

Police should be held to a higher standard than the general public, not a lower one.

@-1. The simple law of averages says it’s unsurprising you had a positive interaction with the police today; plenty of people did. It’s outrageous absurdities like hiring this asshole back that casts a pall over those interactions, as you pointed out when you noted this makes you want to say “fuck the police” nonetheless.

“...Mayor Jenny Durkan negotiated a union agreement that appears to maintain the DRB as a favorable avenue of appeal for police officers.”

“Mayor Jenny Durkan said that SPD Police Chief Carmen Best was already looking for a way to reverse Shepherd's reinstating.”

Cognitive dissonance much, Your Honor?

Or, more plainly, maybe our Police Chief wouldn’t now need to go look for a work-around to block this reinstatement if you yourself hadn’t first retained the route by which this reinstatement took place?

This shit's Important.
Thanks, Lester!

Whatever happened with the racist cop who had the man using the golf club as a walking stick arrested? I remember she was fired and then she was going to be reinstated. Did that happen?

@3

Whoever runs against her in the next election is going to use that SPOG contrast against her.

And Sawant is going to boast of her lone opposition to the contract if she runs again.

Lester wrote: "termination of the DRB was contingent on the city's largest police union agreeing, and Mayor Jenny Durkan negotiated a union agreement that appears to maintain the DRB as a favorable avenue of appeal for police officers."

This is not correct. The Seattle legislation passed in 2017 scraps the DRB and replaces it with a new Public Safety Civil Service Commission which would be made up of City employees who are not police, have more rational and transparent procedures, and whose hearing would be open to the public.

In the newly approved SPOG contract that system is maintained, however officers will now have the choice to appeal to that body or a private arbitrator (always changing and not accountable to the local community) in a private hearing. You can bet that every officer mounting an appeal of discipline will choose the latter option.

This is a serious threat to police reform, but will seem trivial when internal problems with police training and leadership are revealed in the coming weeks (problems that no journalists in Seattle are tracking).

@6 got any dirt to blog? Always appreciate your comments on police regulation HJGale.

8.

"To be fair, she first kicked the cop, and then he punched her. Assuming his general record was good, he didn't deserve to be fired for that."

Ah, yes, the Mad Mother Defense:
Do Not MAKE Me Hit You!
(Do they not have Anger Management classes over to the Po-Po?)

Retribution -- is THAT in the Police Manual, facts2?

Regardless, Police and Prosecutors absolutely DO
need to be held to a much higher standard --
they have our LIVES directly in their hot little hands.

John T. Williams's killer Ian Birk was rehired in the State of Washington, so was Cynthia Whitlatch-the officer who arrested William Wingate for carrying a golf club. Lets not forget Che Taylor's death by two officers Michael Spaulding annd Scott Miller who are still employed by SPD. Charleena Lyles? Can we say all there names??