Comments

1

The police (nationwide, not just Seattle) responding to protests against police violence and murder with the doubling down of police violence against protesters made things worse? Gee, who could have predicted that?

2

Has anyone suggested that the cops stop shooting, gassing, beating, choking, and tasing unarmed black men, cause that would help.

3

My little corner of the universe (Beacon Hill Red Apple, Rainier Avenue Bartells) never really gave up masks. Even the Dearborn Goodwill is still mostly masky.

I am fully vaxed, but I go with the flow. If the staff is wearing masks, I'll wear a mask. I'm only in a store for a few minutes. They're there for at least eight hours. Solidarity! (and just good common sense)

4

I skipped the Pier 66 protest and caught the KEXP DJ at Pier 62, cause it was way more fun.

Lots of people wearing masks downtown.

5

@3: A gracious gesture perhaps, but for the vaccinated it's just theatre to wear a mask as there is no epidemiological reason to do so.

6

@5 That's not what WHO says. Universal, mandatory masking/distancing in indoor public and quasi-public spaces (except those where proof of full vaccination is required for admission) is probably here to stay, a permanent part of our social landscape thanks largely to antivax lunatics. Only a nationwide vaccine mandate would bring this pandemic under control, and that's sadly not going to happen.

8

@5 You are dead ass wrong. Vaccinated people are getting COVID and they are getting sick because they are being infected by the unvaccinated. Telling people they didn't have to wear masks anymore just allowed every asshole who refused to get vaccinated and who didn't want to (and probably never did) where a mask walk around unmasked.

Wearing a mask inside places where lots of people go (like grocery stores) where you have no fucking idea if people are vaccinated (even workers in all of these places are NOT REQUIRED) to be vaccinated, is an added layer of MAYBE helping you not get infected.

This guy and his entire family (all vaccinated) got COVID after, even when wearing masks, they went somewhere where people were not wearing masks (ostensibly because they were all vaccinated)

The New COVID Panic
What vaccinated people should really know about their risk from the delta variant.
https://slate.com/technology/2021/07/covid-delta-variant-risk-vaccinated-breakthrough-cases.html

Vaccinations are working in that they are (mostly) preventing people from having to be hospitalized and dying. There are so many variants of the virus because of all of the people who are not vaccinated and at some point there is going to be a point where the current vaccines will not protect people from being hospitalized and dying and we're going to need all new vaccines or we're just going to watch billions of people die (as opposed to the millions that already have).

The only theater going on in this country is the continued denial of the need to get vaccinated by Republicans and now (even more fucking theater) the about face some of them are doing by saying it is all Biden's fault and/or blaming the unvaccinated (you know, the people they convinced not to get vaccinated because {insert stupid ass fucking reason here any Rebublican has spewed in the last 18 months} and now they're all freaked out because so many of their own are dying.

But by all means keep denying reality. Your campaign of misinformation is repugnant.

Vaccinated America Has Had Enough
In the United States, this pandemic could be almost over by now. The reasons it’s still going are pretty clear.
The unvaccinated person himself or herself has decided to inflict a preventable and unjustifiable harm upon family, friends, neighbors, community, country, and planet.

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/07/vaccinated-america-breaking-point-anti-vaxxers/619539/

9

bingo Xina
dewey's an Asshole
his comments fucking Obscene

nyt -- De Blasio Urges New York Businesses
to Require Employee Vaccinations

The debate over mandates is intensifying as the highly contagious Delta variant of the coronavirus surges in many parts of the United States.

“If people want freedom, if people want jobs, if people want to live again, we have got to get more people vaccinated,” Mr. de Blasio said on Friday during a weekly radio appearance on WNYC. “And obviously it’s time for whatever mandates we can achieve.”

“I’m calling upon all New York City employers, including our private hospitals: Move immediately to some form of mandate, whatever the maximum you feel you can do,” he added.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/23/nyregion/ny-vaccine-mandate-workers.html?action=click&module=Spotlight&pgtype=Homepage

end the Mollycoddling

of dipshitters like
dewey too

10

@8: I abide local mandates and CDC guidance, not hysteria.

11

@5,

COVID ain't the only deadly bug out there.

13

@11: True. But what other airborne respiratory deadly infection is making the headlines these days?

14

@5:

Absolutely true. Because of mask mandates, more frequent hand washing and social distancing, last fall and winter the annual seasonal flu death rate in the U.S. plummeted from an average of around 36,000 fatalities per year (the numbers tend to fluctuate quite a bit from year to year: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_influenza_statistics_by_flu_season) down to a mere 700 during this past season (https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/flu-has-disappeared-worldwide-during-the-covid-pandemic1/). That alone is sufficient reason for people to continue to wear masks indoors in public settings.

15

@14 meant for @11.

17

It must be decided what to do when one's personal right to be a jerk and an asshole in the face of a clear and present danger conflicts with public health. You know, almost all of us have a social contract to use a toilet when we need to. It's a matter of hygiene and public safety. Isn't the person refusing the vaccine tantamount to the the person who says, "No, I will not use the restroom. I'm going to shit right here on this sidewalk. It's my right to do so."

If it were up to me? And there was a fatal, highly-contagious, air-borne disease running rampant for which there was a vaccine? I'd see that everyone was vaccinated, and drag the reticent kicking and screaming to the vaccination center.

I've said it once. I'll say it again. Not only should we help re-locate those people in Afghanistan who in some way helped Americans, we should have taken the trillion dollars spent there and offered to re-locate every woman who wanted to do so. They're going to have a really crappy outcome when the Taliban comes to call.

18

"That alone is sufficient reason for people to continue to wear masks indoors in public settings." (@14)

What society should do and what society does are two different things. Possibly reconciled but there's those pesky human condition expectations and liberties to consider under all the associated politics and scientific debate. That could be quelled I suppose by living under an authoritarianism regime which is what some here probably ultimately want.

So pick the bugs you want to die on wisely.

20

apparently dungdrop you’re in good company

Most Influential Spreader of
Coronavirus Misinformation Online

Researchers and regulators say Joseph Mercola, an osteopathic physician, creates and profits from misleading claims about Covid-19 vaccines.

SAN FRANCISCO — The article that appeared online on Feb. 9 began with a seemingly innocuous question about the legal definition of vaccines.

Then over its next 3,400 words, it declared coronavirus vaccines were “a medical fraud” and said the injections did not prevent infections, provide immunity or stop transmission of the disease.

tonnes More @
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/24/technology/joseph-mercola-coronavirus-misinformation-online.html?action=click&module=Spotlight&pgtype=Homepage

this asshole’s
a BIG part of the
Mis- fuck that – MAL-
information campaign
that's killed a million Citizens
so far maybe more why allow it
to Continue? let's move the Fuck on.

you’ve been
Hoodwinked
Freedom-loving
Anti-Vaxxers antivaxists

But you can Recover.
others have.
y not u

@17 -- Great comment
but they're not shitting
on the sidewalk they
shit in our mouths.

getting
the Covid
S U C K S.

to Them
your Life
your Families’
doesn’t even Matter

end the Mollycoddle

21

It's too late, Kay Ivey, to blame the non-vaxxers for all your COVID-related woes in your so-called "Great State" of deep-fried blood-red Alabama. You and all other RepubliKKKan-mismanaged communities, counties, and states are going down with your shit.
So much for fahtin' fer your Free Dumbs.

@3 Catalina Vel-DuRay: Good for you for helping set a good, healthy example. I still use my cloth face masks in public (they're still required when riding public transportation and in healthcare facilities where I live).

@5, @10, @13, and @18: Been to Alabama lately, Mr. Misinformation Superspreader?

@8 xina and @9 & @20 kristofarian: +2 Spot on and SO well said and summarized. Agreed, seconded, and thirded.

@17: +1 Bauhaus I: Well said. Agreed and seconded, too. I share your concerns about countless Afghanistanis, particularly women and girls---now left to the merciless Taliban.

22

Sorry Rich, but I disagree with you on not needing more funding and more cops in Seattle

As I watched George Floyd being executed by the police, I kept asking, why is Derek Chavin forced to work alone? In Seattle we would have had two cops working that gig with at least one of them drawing overtime for a job well done.

Protecting and serving.

23

@22: gratuitous sarcasm

Meanwhile at least three people were dead and four others injured during a series of overnight shootings in downtown Seattle, including a scene where gunfire erupted as hundreds of clubgoers were leaving a nightclub, police said. (KOMO)

24

@23: Sarcasm based on recent events:

"Seattle police welfare check turns into ordeal as man, 74, is held at gunpoint in his own home"
https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/welfare-check-by-spd-turns-into-ordeal-for-74-year-old-retiree-who-was-handcuffed-held-at-gunpoint-in-own-home/

Ah, the old "police said."

Do you have any idea just how much water "police said" carries in journalism? It's an admission that anything that proceeds or follows it has a better than 50/50 chance of being bullshit and that the journalists is admitting they know is bullshit, which is why they apply that legal shield term.

On the change this is accurate, I feel for the victims. When it comes to stopping violent crime, you would be hard pressed to find a group less interested than the cops.

25

@24:

Of course cops aren't interested in stopping violent crime - if they did, many of them would be out of a job.

26

@25: Indeed. No government agency was ever been given more money and power by doing their primary mission well.

The Capital Police were just approved for a 2.5 billion budget and the power to police outside DC based on the bang up work they did not stopping a bunch of right wing nut jobs on Jan. 6.

27

Well, if cops aren't interested stopping violent crime, then stop with the violent crime already (despite its allure) and put the cops out of a job.

29

@25 I guess the same could be said of any service provider whose job it is to solve a problem. Homeless support agencies, drug treatment, child welfare etc etc right?

30

@27: If police rarely pursue violent crime, how would ending violent crime put them out of work?

If you want to put the police out or work, end qualified immunity and asset forfeiture along with the bullshit lifestyle crimes associated with them. Let cops pay for their own visits to see sex workers rather than forcing the tax payers to pick up the cost for them. Let them buy their own drugs rather than stealing them from users.

31

@28: The protests last Summer gave us a window into what a world with police looks like when they abandoned their east precinct like the worthless little bitches they are. Even uglier.

32

@29,

Right, but a key difference is that a significant number of cops get into the profession because they get off on the imbalanced power dynamic that they're on the better end of by virtue of their position and militarized presence. That dynamic doesn't really exist in any other fields, at least not to that extreme, other than in military, security firms, etc... I think those privately contracted rent-a-cops might be even worse, if only because they're subject to even less regulation and oversight.

33

Rich says: "I'm glad the OIG is doing this report, if only for the record."

I am not glad, for any reason, they created this mutant example of "truth and reconciliation" without much truth and reconciliation that didn't involve 99.99+% of the people abused and injured by the SPD. And this creates a terrible and falsified record.

In the end the OIG report recapitulates some stuff from the 1999 WTO protest investigations and some just plain lame and goofy stuff, like SPD officers should be allowed to show empathy/camaraderie with protesters so that the protesters will chill out. One thing is clear: since the OIG set out to not assign blame, and our current policing system has no means to obtain accountability, there remains -- as there did after the WTO in 1999 -- absolutely no incentive for cops to change behavior rooted in generations of culture. There are no misunderstandings here.

The OIG has kept secret -- in public presentations to the City Council and the Community Police Commission -- exactly who made up their panel & participants (aka "SER Participants") and how they were chosen. We now have the answer, at least as to who was chosen, buried in the appendix of the report: out of 23, 13 are tied to the policing system (current or past SPD, CPC, & OIG folks), 5 are paid facilitators or consultants, and 5 are "community" members (4 of those executive directors of non-profits or academics). Only one of these people are identified as a non-SPD officer who was part of the protests: that one person is not someone known to myself or anyone else I have spoken with in the community.

Not a single reporter has even questioned or looked into who made up the panel. If they had they would have discovered that 4 of the 5 SPD officers involved had over 20 years with the SPD and have a long and troubling history with protests and/or policing (not counting the non-publicized complaints that lurk in their disciplinary files). Here they are:

Assistant Chief Thomas Mahaffey, 27 years with the SPD. The guy who ordered the East Precinct to be abandoned, despite claiming days prior that "SPD received reliable intelligence from other agencies of intent to destroy buildings in Seattle" (which was the rationale for the SPD to prevent protesters from getting too close). He also shouted that "I will not give in to protesters" in a meeting with command staff and folks from the mayors office (https://www.kuow.org/stories/we-know-who-made-the-call-to-seattle-police-s-east-precinct-last-summer-finally).
Lt. John Brooks, 29 years with the SPD and in charge of the Community Response Group. He issued the order to unleash tear gas, blast balls, etc. during the Pink Umbrella incident. He is named in numerous other 2020 protest related complaints against the SPD. In 2012 he approved the false arrest of local news photographer Alex Garland (https://medium.com/divestspd/crg-commander-john-brooks-839978627720).
Lt. James Dyment, 28+ years with the SPD. Works privately with Tiger Mountain Tactical (TMT, specializes in police crowd management using bikes as weapons) as lead instructor. TMT describes Dyment as having developed "the first policy and training for bicycle crowd management stemming from experiences during the 1999" WTO. TMT goes on to extoll his experience as "only obtained from applying this training to supervising hundreds of managed events." In 2011 he was involved in hitting a pedestrian with his patrol car and an alleged false arrest. In 2015 he falsely arrested and accused a UW grad student of kicking him at a BLM demonstration.
Sgt. Tyrone Davis, 21.5 years with the SPD. In 2010 he got a search warrant on highly specious grounds, leading to an armed raid on an apartment where a guy was legally growing 2 pot plants (had medical license to grow up to 15).

Scouring the 110 page report for any indication as to who else participated or was interviewed reveals Rev. Harriett Walden from the Community Police Commission (CPC) and Omari Salisbury (from Converge Media & Rev. Walden's son). This is especially problematic given that I have heard Rev. Walden state repeatedly in CPC meetings over the last 7 years that she believes many problems at local demonstrations stem from "outsiders" creating problems.

It is unclear what other protesters, especially those brutalized and falsely arrested by the SPD, the OIG spoke with. There is reason to question the OIG's honest engagement here: on August 13, 2020 the OIG held a "listening session" for folks abused by the SPD over the prior months and allowed protestors who spoke out about the abuse to be ambushed and demeaned by people working for and with the SPD. It was so horrible the OIG refused to make the video public and only released it to me after numerous public records requests (see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sASOvpaX140 ).

Rich also says: "no amount of training will stop the cops from flipping out if the cops are the subject of the protest."

This is a partially true statement.

As someone who has organized dozens of protests in Seattle over the last 22 years it is overwhelmingly clear that the nature of the protest is almost wholly irrelevant: the SPD has acted with wanton abuse and violence during protests over free trade, climate change, the Iraq war, income inequality, etc. Are they worse when they themselves are the subject of protest? Possibly. But the inherent nature of police culture -- racist, fearful of differences, authoritarian, conservative, and hyper-macho -- gives rise to abusive and violent reactions across a broad spectrum of issues when those issues involve questioning the status quo.

Looking over the SPD officers that participated in the OIG panel, 3 of the 5 have been with SPD since before the 1999 WTO protests and been heavily involved with policing protests. So the notion that their abuses were just mistakes or miscommunication is obscene. So too is the notion that these folks can some how learn to do better: they are doing exactly what they believe is necessary, then telling false stories after-the-pact to rationalize their behavior.

Assist. Chief Mahaffey is of particular interest here. The OIG report looked at events between May 29 to June 1, 2020. In evaluating the events of June 1 (the "Pink Umbrella" incident) the OIG takes into consideration that tear gas was used because the "SPD’s stockpile of 'less lethal' or crowd control munitions had been largely expended in the past three days" (p. 60 of OIG report). The OIG fails to question this assertion -- easily done by looking at SPD inventory records. Mahaffey gave a declaration to the US Federal Court in the Western District of Washington on June 11 that attempts to rationalize the abusive use of less-lethal weapons on demonstrators and fails to make any mention of this shortage (this was in response to local groups successfully getting an injunction against the SPDs abuse of these weapons). Seems like the "we ran out of other shit to hurt people with" excuse was invented after June 11, 2020.

Similarly the OIG fails to question the repeated assertion that the reason the SPD had to keep folks away from the East Precinct was because the "SPD received reliable intelligence from other agencies of intent to destroy buildings in Seattle." In KUOW's analysis as to how the East Precinct was abandoned there is the claim from Seattle Fire Chief Scoggins that if the precinct burns the whole block would go up, including over 100 apartments ( https://kuow.org/stories/we-know-who-made-the-call-to-seattle-police-s-east-precinct-last-summer-finally ). If the entire block going up in flames was a genuine concern, why did Mahaffey abandon the precinct? And if fire could so easily spread from the nearby apartment to the precinct why didn't anyone try to burn those apartments? Why weren't police protecting the apartments?

34

I've never been a cop.
But I've been a soldier.
And I know what I see.

The cops have turned Seattle into a Free-Fire Zone.

NOT the way to "serve and protect".

35

@34: The news reports otherwise.

36

@29:

Careful, your whataboutism is showing...

37

The really sad part is that COMTE thinks it's a clever retort.

39

@37:.....said the resident braindead troll. Glue is not among the four basic food groups, Elmer.

40

@17 - I could not agree more. Horrible things are about to happen in Afghanistan when those Taliban assholes take over. They're no better than our Moral Majority types.

Bring out the good people and resettle them here, and then replace them with all of the American vaxx refusers. And before anyone calls me inhumane for suggesting that, I would agree to tie parachutes to them before kicking them out the back of the cargo plane.

41

@40 dvs99: +1 I like your thinking, dvs99!
I keep imagining a desolate island somewhere, like Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, or any film location of "Survivor". Anti-vaxxers and climate change deniers will be transported and left on their own, and have to scrounge for their own food and water. If COVID wipes 'em out, oh, well.
For the rest of us doing what we can stay healthy and save the Earth, welcome to paradise. Finally.


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