Slog

News & Arts

Line Out

Music & the City
at Night

« Reading Tonight: Dead Poets, Talki… | Currently Hanging: Patti Warashina… »

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

City El Centro Calls for More Police Accountability, Rallies Behind Chief Diaz

Posted by Cienna Madrid on Tue, May 18, 2010 at 10:25 AM

At 11:00 a.m., El Centro de la Raza executive director Estela Ortega will be announcing the formation of a Community Coalition for Law Enforcement Accountability at a press conference held at City Hall, 7th floor.

The newly-formed coalition is in response to last month's apparent assault of a young Latino man at the hands (or feet) of SPD officers. In a press release for this morning's conference, Ortega is quoted as saying, "we remain unsatisfied with the actions taken to date, beginning with re-assigning the principle offending officers to desk duty.”

Now's a great time to air grievances with the Seattle Police Department—we're on the hunt for a new police chief, and while Diaz is a finalist, he's not the strongest candidate. But what's interesting to note is that despite their dissatisfaction with how this alleged police brutality incident was handled, El Centro is standing behind Chief Diaz.

"He’s had a long history with the Latino community, and communities of color," says El Centro de la Raza spokesman Enrique Gonzalez. "We don’t feel that these issues are isolated to just one person, it’s a systemic problem."

Many would agree with Gonzalez—this is systemic problem, and Chief Diaz is that system's leader. So why not look for leadership elsewhere?

"He knows the department," argues Gonzolez. "He knows the city and the community. We believe that that's the kind of leadership we need right now."

Comments (2) RSS

Oldest First Unregistered On Registered On Add a comment

I'm with Madrid on this one. Its time for new leadership. My friends at El Centro are way off on this one, on the one hand you say you're not satisfied with the response and furthermore you acknowledge that there is a systemic and police culture problem that encourages profiling and turning away at brutality, but yet you support the man leading the department, it makes no sense.

Moreover, Diaz sat on this case for 2 weeks, and only suspended the cops because the video came out.

Many of us in the Latino community don't share El Centro s view.

Posted by SeMe on May 18, 2010 at 12:38 PM

Many in the Latino community DO share this view.

The focus shouldn't just be on one person...even if he is the "top cop." So he doesn't get the job...that still won't deal with the problem...namely the officers that beat up on our folks on the streets. This is a systemic problem and to deviate by individualizing the problem doesn't help the cause.

Diaz seems to have sat on it from your perspective...but have you thought to consider why? Why don't you ask the Guild. We did today. Very disturbing and interesting responses.

I support Obama, but I don't support the racist military that he leads. Am I wrong in that? I so, I guess I should just stop supporting any leader that represents any group that I believe is systemically racist. This goes deeper than just Diaz. Understand this. It doesn't make sense if you think individually rather than systematically.

Think about it.

Posted by enrique.gonzalez on May 26, 2010 at 10:37 PM