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Apr 25, 2014 at 6:43 pm
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800 Maynard Ave S, Suite 200, Seattle, WA 98134
800 Maynard Ave S, Suite 200, Seattle, WA 98134
San Francisco's former police chief, subsequently appointed district attorney, was from Arizona, I think. He wanted to do some dangerous stuff like bring in Tasers, I think, but was prevented from doing so.
And heck, actually, all three of the men are from Arizona law enforcement. The first candidate on the list, from Eugene, was in Tucson before that.
But read that link for O'Toole. She's gonna bring the drones with her.
Also, Arizona is where Shawna Forde moved to from Washington. Case closed.
Who's fault was it? The kids themselves. "Punks."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Vi…
Well that clears it up for me, the president of SPOG and a member of the Murray administration have never disagreed. Defffffintely proof that Murray isn't just towing the SPOG line.
Doesnt look like a single one is capable (or would even be willing to) whip this overly violent, racist, corrupt and costly Seattle PD brute squad into shape.
What a shame. Im guessing Seattle does the same thing Minneapolis did when it had similar problems with its police department and hire the female candidate. Not because as a female shes less likely to give a pass to officer abuse (as in minneapolis), but because she is a good voter mascot.
"VOTE FOR ME CITIZENS...I choose a female candidate for the broken SPD...nevermind she is no different than the last 3 (4?) male candidates and will maintain the culture of unaccountability, racism and abuse that the SPD have grown...she has a vagina thus she must be progressive!"
Tucson, however, is fairly progressive. The Chief of Police stood up to the right wing gun nuts following the Giffords, et al., shooting and has been progressive on some elements of immigration. The city is actually pretty wonderful in a lot of ways, and the police there aren't as problematic as they are in Tempe, Phoenix, and Maricopa County.
@17 - Phoenix is definitely NOT progressive. I grew up there, and it's gone backwards from what it was when I was in HS and college. Tucson - yes, it is progressive, and to some extent, so is Flagstaff (moreso than Phoenix or Tempe - that's for damn sure), but Phoenix? Ha. AZ used to be a Democratic state, with mostly Dems in charge and some moderate GOPs. Now its all GOP, and those state and local legislators try to out-extreme each other on how far right they can go. GOPs have been run out of office - like my stepfather was - for not being extreme enough.
Sorry, but they all suck. Bring back Jim Pugel.
Any?
Which fired any cop internal discipline head for not disciplining.cops??
Any?
Why did Dick Cheney want to be VP?
You say that as if McGinn (and Nickels before him) were not doing the exact same thing.
How does any Seattleite with good, common sense manage to get a good night sleep, anymore (please don't say it, Arthur)?
Someone opened tags, hopefully this closes them.
And the agreement w/SPOG really limits the ability to get rid of folks.
You suck at being mayor.
@39 Bax: No. Unions are set in place to protect employees, and offer the benefits they deserve. However, Seattle's police force and its union are listed among the most corrupt-as-fuck law enforcement organizations nationwide---NATIONWIDE!!--- have been for decades, and only appear to be getting even worse with help from Mayor Ed Murray's behind-closed-doors city council meetings! If you're a Seattle resident whose experience with the SPD has been more harmful than beneficiary (i.e.: have you ever been harassed and /or threatened by an SPD officer for no valid reason, as in Dominic Holden's episode regarding a well documented confrontation that happened on July 30, 2013?), wouldn't you be alarmed, or even pissed?
Seattle's police system is shamefully abused, and unless major steps aren't taken to remove the serious bad-apples keeping its flaws so stubbornly in place, the SPD and SPOG will remain so.
@40 seandr: Agreed! I feel sorry for the residents of Seattle, and good, morally decent SPD cops stuck in a bad system.
I was unknowingly getting drunk on too much 14 Hands Cabernet Sauvignon in a local pizza bar, celebrating my 49th year on Planet Earth that same day! At least I remembered to keep my beloved car safely parked at home, walked downhill to the restaurant, and amazingly, DIDN'T throw up afterward.
As for the places some came from, * would be more specific about what the department itself was likw (they were not with the sheriff's officem after all and how did they deal with whatever was going on at the time?
I've since learned that Robert Lerner has points for that; the Oreogon Police were under fire for a couple of incidents; he came in, took over, handled it very well. And they were disciplined as they should have been. But just his whole demeanor and calm rational approach and presentation made a big difference, they said, for the city.
Milread looks better to me today than yesterday, looking at his influenced on Mesa as a safer city, but I would be concerned -- with his technology emphasis about any overemphasis on terrorism or spying on citizens (while of course wanting a cnadidate who can deal competantly with crises of that natiures. I would like to know about increasing community policing, getting police on the parks and trails on bikes, on foot in places like the univerisity district at night (not to stop pot smoking but to stoop the rash of assaults that ssem to take place), having them ride the bueses at times, and increasing 911 response time. I would like them to hire a lot more police officers and provide the needed training in psych along with any ohter number of needed areas.
I am concerned that they are overly enamored with technology and futurism, and the real solutions to me seem much more down to eacth - needing more police "out there" in the communities and making them safer.
The real problem that nobody wants to really delve into has been that the city has failed for decades to be an effective counter negotiator to SPOG. They have taken the path of least resistance and given SPOG just about everything they wanted at the bargaining table. I don't really blame SPOG for that - asking for the moon is a negotiating strategy, and it's what a union should do to adequately represent its members. My guess is that at times SPOG has asked for stuff they never expected to get, only to be stunned that the city said yes. That seems to finally be changing, which will wind up solving a lot of the problems in the agency. The city needs to not be afraid to hold firm.
A woman would be nice, but she hasn't stayed anywhere all that long. She only changed jobs back in December 13. Reforming SPD might take a little longer than she's willing to put into it.
What is clear, is it does need new blood. Hopefully some with some less right wing politics than that crop potentially have.
Second, I can say that I never experienced anything negative at the hands of TPD (and I'm a person of color!). TPD has generally been a fair organization that worked hard to balance the needs of the community with law enforcement, and to work with the community to implement solutions. Barring one or two incidents (most recently post-UA basketball loss), we also did not have incidents like those that have been documented with SPD. The TPD officers I did interact with were nothing short of courteous and professional, which I can't say for SPD. They also tended to be more diverse, but that's probably reflective of the demographics of Tucson and the surrounding area.
I'm willing to bet that Chief Lehrer would be able to use his background working with a highly diverse community in Tucson, as well as a more socially progressive community in Eugene to bring effective policing to Seattle.
What I'm more interested in is what O'Toole was doing as a private consultant.
Second, I can say that I never experienced anything negative at the hands of TPD (and I'm a person of color!). TPD has generally been a fair organization that worked hard to balance the needs of the community with law enforcement, and to work with the community to implement solutions. Barring one or two incidents (most recently post-UA basketball loss), we also did not have incidents like those that have been documented with SPD. The TPD officers I did interact with were nothing short of courteous and professional, which I can't say for SPD. They also tended to be more diverse, but that's probably reflective of the demographics of Tucson and the surrounding area.
I'm willing to bet that Chief Lehrer would be able to use his background working with a highly diverse community in Tucson, as well as a more socially progressive community in Eugene to bring effective policing to Seattle.
What I'm more interested in is what O'Toole was doing as a private consultant.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/sh/jms…
Here's hoping things change for the better, and soon.
The benefits of unions are numerous, but the drawback is that they are obligated to provide representation to their worst members, not just the best. Otherwise a union will get sued for not providing adequate representation. It often seems like people forget that. It means that SPOG -- or any other union -- has no choice but to make sure its member is represented, no matter how much they may personally disagree with the person's conduct, or how repugnant that conduct may be.
So-o-o-o-o-o....it sounds like some unions, for the most part, are a little like the employers who love to boast about their Equal Opportunity hiring status, when in fact all they're really doing is just filling quotas and playing "we take care of our own"?