Comments on Mayor's Office Mucking Up the OPA Oversight Process?

I'm sorry but assigning the new Director of the OPA to review the behavior of her boss, without offering her any kind of protection against backlash, was transparently frought with conflicts of interest and a lack of objectivity to begin with. And it was done with the intention of buying time for Nickels and Co. to lash out and say that we don't yet have all the facts-- as if anything the OPA Review Board documented was inaccurate.

It hardly matters anyway. This servile City Council has, with the exception of Nick Licata, shown itself completely unwilling to consider the content of the OPA Review Board's report on its own merits. Nickels will say that there has been "distortion", but doesn't have the guts to say what that is. That's Olsen's job, clearly. And it's clear that no one has her back. The City Council just follows, also looking for an excuse to not take on the police guild, saying it doesn't want to rush to judge Kerlikowske. Fine. If anyone on the City Council or in the Mayor's office has said anything about it not being ok for police to use excessive force, to lie, to take drugs from people, to plant drugs on people or send them to jail on false charges, I missed it.

Protest this Thursday, 4pm, City Hall.

see also: "Police chief exonerated officers in violent arrest", Seattle Times, June 16, 2007

Kerlikowske did not punish any of the officers involved in the [Maikoiyo Alley-Barnes] incident, even though records show the civilian director of the Office of Professional Accountability (OPA), which oversees internal police investigations, found two were guilty of excessive force and all three were guilty of serious breaches in conduct. She recommended discipline for all three.

[...]

In the Alley-Barnes arrest on Capitol Hill, a patrol-car dashboard camera captured audio but not video. The audio revealed inconsistencies in the officers' accounts, according to court records.

Blows can be heard. A woman can be heard saying, "Oh my God!"

At one point, the 29-year-old Alley-Barnes -- an artist with no criminal record -- pleads with the officers to "please stop kicking me!"

Another voice can be heard saying, "That's way too much!"