Comments

1
Jokela?!
2
I'm sure he's learned to do better.
3
Institute some minor, common sense reforms while interim Police Chief, get forced into retirement.
Act like the Ferguson Police, no prob.
Got it.
4
Ok, I'll be the first person to say I hope there are some consequences for his ticket-writing spree, but for fuck's sake, writing $55 tickets is "acting like the Ferguson Police"? What a fucking drama queen.

5
That's great news!

...not sure why the Stranger insists on missing this story, steadfastly looking at nothing but the paperwork, but if Cienna or any of the other staff get out from behind their computers and actually talk to folks on the street, on the beat, they may actually get it right instead of continually rolling out the pre-fab liberal pablum on this one.
6
I'm sure he won't do it again.

Anyway, the point wasn't so much that he wrote all those tickets; it's that command didn't know.
7
Fuck this clown. He lives in Puyallup and drives into our city to thumb his nose at our City Attorney and the legal system he is sworn to uphold. The fact that he made $172,000 of taxpayer money in income last year makes me sick.
8
He's welcome to come to the Cowen park playground.

Seriously, people, don't smoke at the playground.
9
@4: a history of targeting disadvantaged communities for police harassment is the opening chapter of the ferguson story. What's going on now is the climax.
For what it's worth goldy at horsesass called this cop out on his blog during the occupy protests for being a particularly dickish authoritarian.
So, fair enough, he's not busting heads at the moment, but he has a history of disrespect for the community and his superiors. I would put him high on a list of cops most likely to go full ferguson.
10
Hate to admit I've never noticed this before, and I'm currently out of town so can't check myself: are SPD standard issue bikes Volcanic, or is Joker once again freelancing?

http://www.volcanicbikes.com/
11
This asshole should be fired immediately.
12
I love that our Police Chief is named Kathleen O'Toole. That's as Irish as the day is long.
13
Correction: This asshole lives in Enumclaw.
14
If you are back as a Stranger writer, Cienna, yay
15
@7: The legal system he is sworn to uphold bans public consumption of marajuana. It appears to be the city attorney who is confused about the law.

I have never seen any indication that the people who got tickets from this guy were not, in fact, smoking weed in public. Nor has anyone presented any evidence that the "disproportionate" number of minority offenders were not, in fact, proportionte to the number of minorities commiting the offense on his beat.

Like a good libertarian I voted for stoners' right to put pot into their own bodies But also like a good libertarian I voted for a law written to keep their quite literally obnoxious pot smoke out of mine. Here's hoping this guy continues to enforce that law, and maybe gives some training to the rest of the force so they can start enforcing that law, too,
16
@15: You might want to read this story, which includes this paragraph:

Jokela wrote descriptions on the citations that called the state's marijuana-legalization law "silly." On many of the tickets, he added, "Attn Petey Holmes" (an apparent reference to City Attorney Pete Holmes, who backed the "silly" legalization law and the ticket). And there are other concerns with Jokela's citations. City law says that whenever practical, officers are guided to provide a "first warning" to people smoking pot in public. But fewer than 10 percent of Jokela's pot tickets mention giving suspects a warning. Finally, Officer Jokela wrote on one citation that he used a coin toss to decide which of two suspects would pay the fine.
17
People who talk about the law being enforced should ask themselves if the police are following the law. The law applies to them as well. Did he give those people warnings? It's the law.
18
i saw this cop yesterday downtown near westlake. A very bloodshot-eyed and overly happy old man walked up to him while I was waiting to cross the street and challenged him to write him a ticket.... I didn't hang out to see how that ended...
19
@10: Yes. The *only* people who ride Volcanic are cops. It's the Crown Vic of mountain bikes.
20
@16: The snide comments on citations are definitely unprofessional, you'll get no argument from me there.

The warning issue is, I think, being misrepresented. The legalization law, which bans public consumption, is a state law and has no such clause. There is an old city law making pot enforcement the lowest priority, and I believe the warning clause being quoted is from that. But that law was about enforcement of the total ban. It's pretty gutsy of pot supporters to first argue that we should loosen enforcement of the ban, then when they get the ban lifted, argue that we have to loosen the enforcement of the regularity framework that we put in place in order to lift the ban.
21
@20: Jokela is no different from a cop who continuously pulls over black motorists for going 5 mph over the speed limit. This is targeted policing, both toward certain individuals and one specific law.

Jokela is a bad cop, who made $172,000 in taxpayer money last year. I point to his income because there is a false argument that Seattle cops don't live in Seattle because it's too expensive. It's not.

Seattle cops don't live in Seattle because they don't like our kind. Jokela should go back to Enumclaw and stay there.
22
I do think it's a bit disingenuous to blame the disproportionate number of tickets going the poor and people of color on some sort of bias on the cop's part. It's quite possible that this cop's beat just happens to bring him into more contact with the poor and people of color than is representative of the city as a whole. If you bust every single person you catch smoking pot in public and your beat is primarily pioneer square, guess what, you're not gonna be handing out a lot of tickets to rich white folks. And it's kind of shitty reporting to imply that this makes him racist without some sort of evidence. Maybe he should request a reassignment to greenwood so he can satisfy us by busting some white potheads too.
23
What's the big deal? he's giving out tickets for something that people shouldn't be doing in public. Seems to me that he's doing his job, regardless of where he lives or how much he makes.
24
How dare he give out tickets to deadbeats who were breaking the law we all agreed to!
25
@21

Nobody who could be an effective LEO likes your kind.
26
@21 etc. etc.. DOUG took the bait and ran with it...

Doug (as well as Stranger staff) would do well to do some real research. Get off your chairs, go talk to Jokela and the people on his beat. That's where the real story is.
The people he wrote those tickets to are the ones who wanted him back on the beat. That's the REAL story, not all this liberal bs posturing... Please, inform yourselves.

Please wait...

Comments are closed.

Commenting on this item is available only to members of the site. You can sign in here or create an account here.


Add a comment
Preview

By posting this comment, you are agreeing to our Terms of Use.