At the start of 2014, Anna Minard interviewed Ron Smith, the new president of the Seattle Police Officers Guild, a union that represents about 1,200 local police officers. Smith promised that SPOG would not stand in the way of federally-mandated reforms at SPD.

But Smith is capping the year by accusing President Obama, Attorney General Eric Holder, and Reverend Al Sharpton—together, in one fell swoop—of stoking racial tensions over Ferguson. He lays out this accusation in the pages of the December issue of the Guardian, the union's newsletter. It's something of a return to form for the newsletter, which has been known for its back-asswards, tone-deaf rhetoric on race and social justice.

In Smith's view, expressed in his President's Message column, "the uproar in Ferguson undoubtedly stems from long simmering racial tensions in that community. Those tensions were further stoked by the divisive political agenda played out by the U.S. Attorney General, President of the United States and the Reverend Al Sharpton well before any true facts of the case were known."

"Chanting catchy slogans such as 'hands up don't shoot,' make [sic] for colorful theater," Smith writes, "but also show [sic] that the published forensic evidence and credible witness testimony doesn't matter at all, as it is a phony narrative in Ferguson case."

Credible witness testimony? Right.

Smith also argues that peaceful protests in Seattle were "hijacked by a group of radical, violent Marxist indoctrinated, anti-capitalism thugs bent on mayhem." He doesn't cite any evidence for this claim. Later, he calls the thugs "reprehensible radicals devoid of any human decency."

I've contacted Smith by phone and e-mail to ask him to elaborate, because it's not clear to me how Obama, Holder, and Sharpton have inflamed racial tensions or what they have in common except that they are black public figures. Obama has told protesters to respect the law. I haven't heard back from Smith.

Also in the December newsletter, Officer Tom McLaughlin, who sits on SPOG's Board of Directors, takes aim at Mayor Ed Murray. The column touts the reversal of an eight-day suspension, ordered by former interim chief Jim Pugel, of officer Eric Faust for punching a man under arrest in the face in 2012.

Faust is white; the man he punched is black. (The incident was captured on dashcam video.) Pugel said Faust had "unnecessarily escalated the confrontation." But in October, the Discipline Review Board (DRB) unanimously threw out the suspension.

The DRB is a closed-door panel, created to hear disciplinary appeals, made up of two members of SPD—one commander with the rank of lieutenant or above, and one officer representing the union—plus a mutually agreed-upon outside arbitrator. The mayor, McLaughlin writes, wants to "rid us of the DRB process and replace it with one they can control."

"SPOG feels the DRB process is a fair one," he adds, noting that union prez Smith has already filed a demand with the city to bargain on the issue when contract negotiations begin in January.

A mayoral spokesperson said he couldn't confirm that Murray wants to scrap the DRB, because of confidentiality agreements surrounding the labor negotiations.

But according to official police watchdogs, the DRB is a messed up system. Both the Community Police Commission and former municipal judge Anne Levinson, who acts as an auditor for the Office of Professional Accountability, say appeals should only be heard by the Public Safety Civil Service Commission, whose hearings are open to the public. The CPC and Levinson recommend that the commission members be impartial—i.e., not police officers.

The DRB's decision to throw out Faust's suspension, which SPOG is touting as his "vindication"? Levinson called that "reform in reverse."