Another cowardly act by this police force. Stomp all over the poorest people just trying to live.
Thanks to the activists that have bravely worked to make other peoples lives better with nothing but roadblocks by this city government and particularly this vindictive mayor.

Thank you Rick for staying on this and letting us know the latest police state activities.

Its time this police force was defunded that have killed 28 people recently. This mayor should have resigned due to her attacks on protestors and incarcerating innocent people while she was a federal prosecutor not to mention taking corporate bribes.

The movement is unstoppable and we will not give up.

4 When people are not able to get decent shelter and basic needs met they have to be helped.
By the way they were not bothering anyone else and were providing a community service which was appreciated by many concerned people.

6 Or are you one of those idiots that can’t stand any one to stand up about injustice?

There are other city services and outreach programs for the "poorest people just trying to live" to get connected with so that our parks can be safe, clean, and a happy places that can be enjoyed by everyone.

"she suspected the police action today was "retaliation from unrelated events"- or, maybe, the breaking and entering, the squatting, etc. Or MAYBE, it was because the stranger reported on it and brought it to their attention. Well done, stranger, you've done a real service for the homeless. And ivy is back from a prolonged alcohol induced coma, as irrelevant as ever.

10th & Union, hi. Been through this all Summer, totally support BLM, totally supported CHOP, haven't seen anything untoward except for Proud Boy saboteurs, but these Every Night Direct people, if that's what they're calling themselves, can fuck the fuck right the fuck fucking off. This could be coincidence, and I don't want to misrepresent a legit protest group, but what I saw from my balcony last night was complete bullshit (people running into establishments to, well, just be stupid, tearing down construction fences, throwing pylons at the windows of neighbors yelling at them to just go the fuck away, and then brawling in the middle of the intersection before all rolling into a big black hatchback before the cops showed up). Again, I don't know if this was just a random group of fucknuts (likely, and again I never saw any malfeasance around the CHOP protests on the part of the protesters) or some kind of false flag kind of thing (equally likely, and maybe more so), but I kind of thought the "troubles" on the block were sort of over. Either way, keep it off my porch, please, assholes.

That said, the closure of the shelterhouse is discouraging and unfortunate. That shit last night just feeds a vile narrative.

"I had a group of ten of them come and stand right next to me like, 'Bitch, move,'" Lucero said. "I wasn't saying anything to them. It wasn't like they needed all this backup, like I was going to get wild with them. And only a couple of these motherfuckers helped. The other ones were standing there I guess just to look good and show muscle."

Well, now we know what police are doing with their free time while they are not lynching black folks ala George Floyd.

5: "This mayor should have resigned due to her attacks on protestors and incarcerating innocent people while she was a federal prosecutor not to mention taking corporate bribes.."

Didn't you know? Here in Washington State, we call corrupt prosecutors who incarcerate innocent people and take corporate and private bribes "reformers." Just ask the ST.

Community could see vulnerable people who were suffering and in an act of mercy fed them. The police could see the same community and launched a violent raid. Expect prosecutors and judges to make excuses for the cops who did this (fuck 'em, homeless people don't vote) and reward the violent thugs that work work 24/7 to violate the poor and vulnerable.

Defund, defund, defund!

Every cop you put out of work is a homeless person who can enjoy a warm meal.

"Every cop you put out of work is a homeless person who can enjoy a warm meal."

No, things don't work that way.

@21: It works exactly that way cop-sucker.

"About a dozen people arrested for feeding the homeless in El Cajon park"
https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/public-safety/sd-me-20180114-story.html

I see a few non-mask wearing cops in this picture. Why is the City of Seattle tolerating this irresponsible behavior?

Defund SPD. I need to spend that money feeding people I care about.

@20: Yes, I work with the homeless, to include the hungry and have offered more than one meal to them "gasp" out of my own kitchen. You should try it some time before you raid them and steal all their stuff.

How about you? Let me guess, in your world, "if Jesus Christ didn't want to be crucified, well he just shouldn't have broken the law!"

If your answer is "yes," you're a cop.

@22: What a strange conflation to make an illogical assertion. Obviously, your passion leads you to think otherwise, so let's leave it at that.

@27: Well, we have a story about SPD shutting down a food kitchen for the homeless because, "it's against the law."

I point out that if we defund the police it will result in more warm meals for the poor.

You respond that it doesn't work that way.

I include a link of police arresting people for feeding the homeless.

You call that "an illogical assertion" because it exactly matches my original claim.

In other police on homeless news:

https://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/ny-hawaii-cop-homeless-lick-urinal-20200716-4erpdqsrdza7tfxfbidgkzyhya-story.html
"Rabago, 44, threatened to beat up Ingall and stuff his face into the toilet if he didn’t lick the urinal, according to prosecutors. He then held Ingall down and stepped on his legs until he licked the urinal."

Of course, it would be unfair to claim all cops are bad. His partner, the good cops in this story watching and laughing while this homeless man was forced to lick a dirty toilet for his personal pleasure

"The other officer there the day of the incident, Reginald Ramones, has pleaded guilty to conspiring with Rabago after agreeing not to testify against Rabago or report him to authorities."

I have at least a dozen more stories just like example of a typical and representative cop attacking the homeless like the sadists they are. How many more would you like?

Save the weak and homeless from terror, defund the police.

@29: The problem was with the El Cajon City Council and their ordinance on providing meals in a park for health reasons. Firing a cop won't change the ordinance.

You share a unique disposition with Donald Trump I must say, he likes to fire prosecutors at the SDNY as well as an FBI director to avoid unpleasant outcomes when they're just doing their job.

@30: Go ahead, say it: "But these police were only following orders!" There, doesn't that feel good for you? Where have I heard that argument before...........

Firing cops will make unethical laws like arresting those feeding the poor unenforceable just as firing the SPD would remove a barrier to feeding the homeless in Cal Anderson.

The "Hepatitis A" health reason is absolute bullshit from a disease standpoint standpoint, which I happen to know something about. Tell me, how is feeding the poor creating a Hepatitis A problem and how is starving them going to fix that? It's a lie so stupid only a cop would believe it, but it will be fascinating to hear you explain exactly how that disease vector works.

The police pick and choose which laws they enforce. That they decided to dedicate their limited resources to arresting folks feeding the poor in San Dieego, or shutting down a food kitchen in Cal Anderson tells you everything you need to know about police priorities.

Defund.

Why aren't you defending the cop I mentioned who made that homeless man lick a dirty toilet while he and his partner laughed? It's almost as if you are being selective in your responses to gloss over broad based sadistic police behavior. Here's another one for you. These dirty cop stories against the homeless just seem to write themselves on a daily basis:

"Feces Sandwich Given To Homeless Man Gets Police Officer Fired"
https://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2016/11/06/feces-sandwich-given-to-homeless-man-gets-police-officer-fired/
.
As for Donald Trump, like you he wants to increase police pay and he was just endorsed by the biggest dirty police union in the country:

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/national-association-police-organizations-endorses-trump-reelection-after-backing-biden
"National Association of Police Organizations endorses Trump, after backing Biden as VP in '08, '12"

Imagine, the dirty cops you defend are supporting Donald Trump.

I'm sorry, who is like Trump?

Talk about the pot calling the kettle black.

It about time they cleared the chop 2 dirtbags. Do it every night until they go back to Bellevue to live in mommy’s and daddy’s basement or Appalachia.

@36- don't knock Appalachia.

@32: You're not getting anywhere. I can match 10 good cop stores for every bad cop story. And you could then match 100 bad cop stories for every 10 good cop stories. Same with waiters, attorneys, and hairdressers. These are humans doing their jobs. What's the point of this silliness?

Just obey the law and contact your senators and representatives over laws you feel are unethical. And if a cop saves your life, a thank you will be appreciated.

@37: No, Cal Anderson is not an ideal location for a food kitchen, but homeless people are regularly told where they can't be without being told where they can go. Here's an idea, why don't we shut down the highly expensive and useless East Precinct and use it as a homeless shelter and all the money we save on feeding the homeless?

Problem solved, defund.

@39: Your failure to come up with a coherent, adequate response to the issues I raise is not a sign of "me getting nowhere". Perhaps it's a good time for you to evaluate your incorrect premises about policing in America so you can move beyond the copoganda no one is buying any longer. When you fail to address the issue of corrupt policing you become part of the problem and lose credibility.

Just defund the police and hope someone has a phone camera the next time the police lynch someone they way they did George Floyd, or someone brakes into the house of a city council member and tries to rape her while telling her that "now she's learned her lesson" after she voted to reduce police budgets. https://imgur.com/gallery/cSYcl9y

Which police department should that council member send her thank you card too?

@40: Let's test your credibly. Tell me a time when you were glad the police were called. It can be any event, with you personally, or an event from the news.

We're waiting.

@44: My understanding is that it's far more complicated than that, although I know the police like to push the "they want to be homeless" narrative.

There is drug addiction, mental illness (those two are often combined). We are a society that over criminalizes petty lifestyle crimes that create a background check making it impossible for some homeless to get a lease or be accepted into highly restrictive housing units.

These are just a few of the many reasons. The one thing those who work with the homeless and the homeless themselves agree on is that the police are an obstacle to correcting the problem as they are in every other area.

The money we waste on the police criminalizing poverty could house and feed all our homeless with money left over. Do you know how incredibly expensive it is to maintain a police force with all the salaries, pensions, militarized weapons, health insurance, prisons, prosecutors, prison guards, probation officers, not to mention all the tax funded payout to families for police criminality and corruption......

Defunding the police is the first step in fighting poverty. As I stated, fire a cop means more warm meals for the homeless that they can enjoy without constant police harassment.

A lot of words to not say much at all. As per usual with our buddy Rich.

@49: You do make some good points and I agree that policing can be an obstacle in some scenarios, but you don't get to toss out a function of government just because it doesn't meet expectations in all situations.

So, instead of "defund" say "reform".

I know, I know, you say reform doesn't work. You gotta throw it all out and start anew. But reality dictates that is not possible and would result in a lot of hurt and damage to our society that would far exceed the issues you're addressing.

We never really tried police reform with the public attention the matter requires. The "defund" canard is really just wasting everybody's time, mostly the Seattle City Council.

@51 From "its my understanding" to calling people roaches in one easy step.

@40: It's a canard to imagine finding an honest cop is somehow vindication of my credibility, but I can name many good cops that are not just good, but are cops I admire.

For instance:

Frank Serpico:
"The circumstances surrounding Serpico's shooting quickly came into question. Serpico, who was armed during the drug raid, had been shot only after briefly turning away from the suspect, when he realized that the two officers who had accompanied him to the scene were not following him into the apartment, raising the question whether Serpico had actually been brought to the apartment by his colleagues to be murdered. There was no formal investigation.[10] Edgar Echevarria, who had shot Serpico, would subsequently be convicted of attempted murder.[12] On May 3, 1971, New York Metro Magazine published an article, "Portrait of an Honest Cop", about him, a week before he testified at the departmental trial of an NYPD lieutenant accused of taking bribes from gamblers."
Norma Jean Almodovar:
When her disability benefits ended, Almodovar began working as a call girl in Beverly Hills. When asked by others why she chose to work in the sex industry, she often replies that she
wanted to make a social statement about the moral hypocrisy of our society, a society which seemed completely untroubled by the police corruption that permeated the LAPD, and yet demanded that law enforcement spend a significant portion of its scarce and valuable resources to set-up and arrest women whose sole crime was to accept money from men for acts of sex in which they could otherwise legally engage, even with thousands of men, provided the sex was free.
Cariol Horne: A Police officer 'fired after 19 years on the force for trying to stop fellow cop from choking and punching handcuffed black suspect in the face'Police officer 'fired after 19 years on the force for trying to stop fellow cop from choking and punching handcuffed black suspect in the face'
Cariol Horne claims that she was fired from the Buffalo Police Department after 19 years for trying to stop an assault on a black suspect
Horne says that Officer Gregory Kwiatkowsi 'choked and punched Neal Mack in the face while he was handcuffed'
What's more, Horne claims that Kwiatkowski then punched her in the face when she attempted to stop the assault
Horne, a mother of five, now works as a truck driver
Kwiatkowski was recently indicted on federal civil rights violations after an incident in 2009 when he and two cops 'shot a black teenager with a BB gun while the boy was handcuffed and in their squad car'

And locally:

Norm Stamper:
Since his resignation, Stamper has called for the legalization of all drugs and the case-by-case release of persons incarcerated for nonviolent drug offenses.[5] He serves as an advisory board member for Law Enforcement Against Prohibition as well as the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.[5][6] He has also starred in the documentary The Union: The Business Behind Getting High.

You see the pattern? Systemically corrupt police departments punishing, murdering and driving out good cops who report their criminal and sadistic behavior.

This is what you miss. This is not about individual police officers doing good or bad. This is about a systemically corrupt system that rewards violent sociopaths and punishes good cops who either quit, are executed by corrupt cops, or learn to stand by and quietly watch as the Derek Chauvin's in every police department carries out the public lynching of a black man.

When a police officer rapes a sex worker with impunity because he calls her "a victim" while pulling up his pants, or executes an unarmed man for "furtive movements," or has a homeless man lick a toilet seat for his sadistic pleasure, or feeds a homeless man a feces sandwich "as a joke," or makes fun of a mentally handicapped person who calls the police pleading for help before they laugh and make jokes about his mother while choking him to death.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/aug/02/dallas-police-officers-video-bodycam-tony-timpa
Video shows Dallas police mocking man killed as they pinned him down This article is more than 1 year old Tony Timpa died in police custody after calling 911 for help Bodycam video finally released after three-year legal battle.

For the record, they still have their jobs and were protected from civil liability by "qualified immunity," which you support. Care to explain this to their mother?

We are not really talking about individual good or bad police. We are talking about a work environment where good cops are driven to quit, are murdered, or tolerate illegal activity from other cops while dirty cops are rewarded, promoted and are given a free hand with the assistants of police unions and prosecutors who commit to defend their behavior no matter how despicable it is.

We've tried reform for 100 years now since the 1918 riots against police corruption and reform has only given us a more corrupt system because the police are always in charge of the reforms and they refuse to acknowledge anything is wrong other than they are not worshipped enough by the public, are questioned too often and are never, ever given a big enough budget even was we now have cities where close to 50% of the budget goes to policing.

The very things so called "reformers" want like diversity in hiring and implicit bias training do nothing to address police corruption and criminality. Derek Chavin's police force had not only met all the reform requirements you think would fix things, but he was a senior officer and a TRAINER within that department. If you want to see what reform looks like, George Floyd is it.

After WWII the German police acknowledged their role in the holocaust and made reforms from within that make them a model of policing today. The German police force serves the pubic, as opposed to America where the public serves the police. When a police officer lynches a black man such as George Floyd, the consistent message from the police is "unless you are willing to support corrupt policing, you will get no policing at all!"

The American police force believes it's the public that needs to be reformed. Until that changes, reform that matters is impossible.

Defund.

'A spokesperson for the Human Services Department said the Navigation Team wasn't "on the ground" this morning,'

So, this sweep is exactly what our City Council had in mind when they de-funded the Navigation Team, right? Good to know their new policy has resulted in another filthy encampment swept. Please keep up the good work!

"We've tried reform for 100 years"

Not really. Reform takes hard work. We don't have the luxury of tossing out a "systematically corrupt system" to start anew while public safety is in danger.

Those poo-pooing reform are just plain lazy, that's all. They want vengeance, nothing more. They have no respect for their fellow members of society and their safety.

Such people are dangerous when put in positions of power like in the Seattle City Council.

They're a disgrace to Norm Stamper.

@60- "they're a disgrace". Fixed it.

@19: "Community could see vulnerable people who were suffering and in an act of mercy fed them."

Enabling vagrancy and drug use was not 'mercy,' it was an excuse to appropriate public property for private use.

"The police could see the same community and launched a violent raid."

As the story clearly explained, the Parks Department asked the police to remove the trespassers from Cal Anderson Park. What evidence do you have for any violence by the police in their resultant sweep?

"This is what you miss.

This is not about individual police officers doing good or bad. This is about a systemically corrupt system that rewards violent sociopaths and punishes good cops who either quit, are executed by corrupt cops, or learn to stand by and quietly watch as the Derek Chauvin's in every police department carries out the public lynching of a black man."

"When a police officer lynches a black man such as George Floyd, the consistent message from the police is 'unless you are willing to support corrupt policing, you will get no policing at all!'"

Bingo, and THNX, Luddite5.

@60, you have defended everything that is corrupt about policing in America, to include qualified immunity.

Lazy is supporting the status quo and suggesting performative reforms that make no difference. Reform actually doesn't take that much work, but it does take a commitment from those who are to be reformed. All I hear from SPD and their sycophant is that Derek Chauvin is a "one off" and all reform require bigger budgets and less accountability. Basically the Dan Westneat cop sucking theory of reform designed to enshrine police corruption as a permanent state of being.

So far, the only reform I have heard from you and the police department is more money to keep things as is. That has been the argument for 100 years and has led to bigger budgets and less accountability. Do you think we should wait another century to hold police accountable? That's not just lazy, it's embracing corruption and anti-democratic.

If the police want a a bigger budget, and they always do, they need to do more than pay lip service to reform as they have for 100 years, taking the constant pay raises while reforming nothing.

It's time for the police to start earning their oversized budgets. So far they have shown we give them far more money than they have earned.

Defund

@65 kris, I second your sentiments - great posts by Luddite5.

@67 L5, so true, Republicans always want simple to be complicated and complicated to be simple. It's their MO.

@67: Looks like you have one or two who share your opinions.

So we can conclude that you feel that 100 SPD officers, and the Homeless Navigation Team, have received far more money than they have earned and their jobs should be scrapped.

@60: Here's an excellent story about ICE systematically raping immigrants in detention, meaning those in charge knew and at least tacitly condoned this.

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/adolfoflores/ice-guards-sexual-assault-complaint-immigrants
"ICE Guards Have A “Pattern And Practice” Of Sexually Assaulting Immigrants, A Complaint Says"

I know you support reform, which you claim requires more funding. After we give these ICE agents a big raise as you suggest, how do you suggest we fix this through your version of reform?

Do you think it will be fixed through diversity in hiring, or implicit bias training?

@69: You can conclude that there is currently very little accountability in the SPD, that they are largely focused on the lifestyle crimes no one cares about to the exclusion of the violent crime they should be focused on and that the pay raises and continuation of qualified immunity you suggest as "reform" will keep them insulated from the accountability they're already hostile too.

The police never should have been part of the navigation teams to begin with because social work and police have fundamentally different missions.

A social worker seeks harm reduction and often places the safety of those in need before themselves.

A police officer is trained to believe giving someone a felony is the highest good, are trained from day one to place their own safety before the community

"I was afraid for my safety"
"Justices Rule Police Do Not Have a Constitutional Duty to Protect Someone"
https://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/28/politics/justices-rule-police-do-not-have-a-constitutional-duty-to-protect.html

and believe cooperation is about twisting arms until people comply.

Who would be stupid enough to imagine those two groups could work effectively together without the social workers agreeing to be subordinate to the police? I come from the world of social work and I can tell you as a group social workers despise the police. Social workers will tell you that no matter how bad a crisis is, the police get paid to make it worse.

Do I really need to provide the hundreds of links to those in mentally crisis who called the police for help, only to be gunned down like dogs? The qualified immunity you support as "a reform" ensures they are not held accountable in civil court. Corrupt prosecutors typically ensure they are never held criminally liable either.

"Do I really need to provide the hundreds of links to those in mentally crisis who called the police for help, only to be gunned down like dogs?"

No, Luddite5, redundancy won't help. You've made your case.

I am so tired of the Marxist libertarian shitbags and drug vagrants taking over our neighborhood. Pull up the welcome mat and get them and the city council the fuck out of here.

@67, @70: Still no evidence the SPD engaged in violence during their sweep of trespassers from Cal Anderson Park.

@71: "The police never should have been part of the navigation teams to begin with because social work and police have fundamentally different missions."

You got your wish: our City Council has axed the budget for Navigation Teams. From now on, sweeps of illegal encampments will have police, not Navigation Teams, calling the shots. Since you still won't provide evidence the SPD engaged in violence during their sweep of homeless trespassers from Cal Anderson Park, it appears we have a win all around.

@71- "A police officer is trained to believe giving someone a felony is the highest good"- you really don't know how this works, do you? Cops don't "give" someone a felony. Cop arrests, prosecutor charges.

Sorry, not your park to decide what to do with. Run for city council if you want public parks to be full service homeless shelters. Doesn't the Lutheran Church serve hot meals right there?