Comments

1
THANKS & WELCOME to SPOG PRES SMITH! The citizens of the city are TRULY looking forward to some reform of civil rights actions, police accountability, access and communication. This interview is, indeed, a nice step by the new union leadership.

I am sorry to say I have not always viewed the political voice of spog as being as much "pro officers" as it is "anti citizen" and dare I say tiptoe-ing towards "anti government".

We are a union household and know there is a big difference between advocating for your membership and obstructing the mission.

WE DEFINITELY VIEW THIS FIRST STEP with HOPE.

2
Kudos. We'll wait and see, but this has me cautiously optimistic about him. It by itself is a first step to mend some of the broken bridges of the past.
3
Enjoy the openness. Your editor (Holden) will undoubtedly do or say something offensive or misinformed about SPOG. When challenged, he will double-down on stupid.

If given any tedious claim to righteousness, no matter how tangential to the original subject, he will bang his one-man marching-band drum for far too long. Thank goodness his echo-chamber (the comments boards) is one of the casualties of his obtuseness.

SPOG is not meant to advance Seattle's agenda. Its main purpose is to negotiate for and protect the rights of the line police officer. The people you malign have families and other things to lose. How can you honestly be surprised when they shy away from talking with you?

You deserve a better job, Ms Minard.
4
I hope this interview is a sign of real improvement. In the past the officers of SPOG have always presented themselves as a kind of weird immunized half-gangster/half-occupying force with a persecution complex, and acted quite proud of it. This is a very different tone. When I saw the headline, this is the last thing I expected to be writing.

Funny thing, reading this interview is the first time I have anything but skeptical about the SPD reforms talked about over the last two or three years.
5
@3: See, that's the sort of comments we expected to hear from the SPOG President. Thanks for providing that context.

SPOG may not be meant to advance the agenda of the City of Seattle, except where IT IS THEIR JOB. The job of police officers is to advance the agenda of the city they live in. SPOG has to advocate for people, but at the same time it needs to work with members to help them do their jobs. Part of their job is NOT VIOLATING THE CIVIL RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE OF SEATTLE.
6
Well. All righty then.

Seattle needs to put a $500 million levy on the ballot to create a police strike fund. The law should say the fund may be tapped in any police strike where the police union behaves in any way, shape or form that obeying the consent decree, the US Constitution, and all state and local laws, are bargaining chips. Or hints that they are negotiable, rather then taken for granted.

The city should be forbidden by law from entering into any contract that gives the police any concessions whatsoever for respecting civil rights or obeying the laws of the land. These things are non-negotiable and if the police try to make them negotiable, the city strike fund becomes available to win a strike, or blue flu, or any other heinous cop guild bullshit. And anyone caught thinking about "de-policing" should be prosecuted for malfeasance. Conspiracy to commit de-policing should draw a racketeering charge.

Does anyone else remember that Sturgis incident? This dude is a nasty piece of work. Can't believe they kept him around but I can see why the SPOG wanted him.
7
A Hardley-Davidson #1 shirt. That and the biker-bar fight tell a lot. Harleys are, after Urals, hands down just truly awful excuses that the knuckles draggers think are motorcycles.

The Hardley crowd are all image and no substance, and they all know that Milwaukee Iron is the living embodiment of the tale of The Emperor's New Clothes: Their bikes suck, they all know it, and they are too afraid to say so for fear of being cast out of the club.

Welcome, new SPOG president! How about you ditch the poser gear and get a motorbike from the Twentieth Century. Or newer.

Cause nothing brands you as an out-of-touch lout as much as shilling for Hardley by plastering their brand all over your person.
8
Just as now matter how touchy-feely he is, Pope Francis still stands for the Church, this guy still stands for the SPOG.
9
Officer Ron Smith attacked me in an alley in Belltown in 2002, with a team of five others. They attacked me because they saw a wooden pipe up to my lips- yes, pot. They wore all black no police insignia and were yelling "Security", specifically Ron Smith was. He was the first one to make physical contact with me, by driving my head into a nearby brick wall as he was running at me full speed. I was nearly knocked out but had the sense to think I was being kidnapped as they dragged me towards an unmarked gold minivan with sliding doors on both sides.

I asked for police ID and I asked who they were when I was in the car. Silence. Ron Smith asked me about my political background, my perceived opposition to George Bush, and he mocked that I was a "peaceful protester", which didn't make sense to me but that's what he said. I asked for a lawyer. Silence. Then Smith asked me about where I "bought my crack." I asked for a seat belt to be put on me (I was handcuffed by then). No answer. Nothing. No seat belt. Speeding around Belltown, accelerating, braking, whatever.

I was driven around for fifteen minutes, during which time Officer Smith, who was driving the minivan, rolled down the window to yell at a motorist once, then kept driving. He took me to Denny and 4th where he transferred me to a city Police car. It was at that time I was informed I was under arrest (what a relief I not being kidnapped). It was only at that time that I was read my rights.

Two weeks later the police report finally identified Officer Ron Smith- who said he was the one who drove me around in his official car, and that in the alley he was ever-so-politely asking me to show him the wooden pipe in my hands, all the while identifying himself as a police officer while wearing his officer blue uniform. (Not "Security" which is what he did actually say while wearing all black). Much of the police report was full of lies.

I was released the next morning and went to Virginia Mason hospital with head trauma and a CAT scan. Within a week, the City's charge for possessing .028 grams of pot was dropped- dust in my wooden pipe that they scraped. This was 2002 before it was legal, but the City wouldn't charge you for pot resin I guess.

I complained to the OPA in the weeks that followed, and they absolutely buried my complaint. The OPA sergeant never even talked to my doctor and never met with me in person even once, insisting on taking my entire complaint over the phone. He told the OPA Director that I was lying before my case was even resolved, and the Director conveyed this assertion to the Seattle Weekly reporter who was investigating my case for an article he was writing.

The OPA also would not look at the Police Station video to see that my wrists were bloody and dripping on the floor from the handcuffs.

After 11 months of delay since filing the complaint Officer Ron Smith was absolved of all wrongdoing based upon "lack of evidence." Recall that the OPA Sergeant never reached my doctor for any evidence, so it was totally circular.

Another bad apple leading more bad apples. If I ever see Ron Smith again I'm going to exercise my First Amendment Rights and call him a coward for hiding from oversight and accountability, supporting the ridiculous positions of the SPOG, and generally being the type of officer who got the DoJ all up in the SPD's business. The DoJ is here for a reason- unaccountable excessive force -- and Ron Smith is an emblem of that excessive force. He's a weasel and an untrustable person. And the City OPA has already protected him and his black-uniformed Belltown team.

I do not expect anything to change besides a further circling of the wagons at SPD.

Please wait...

and remember to be decent to everyone
all of the time.

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