SPD to "Fuck up" protestors.

A Seattle police officer was caught on bodycam saying he wanted to “fuck up” some protestors. 

Last summer, when a far right group showed up to agitate against LGBTQ+ people in Capitol Hill, Seattle showed up to counter-demonstrate. The Seattle Police managing the event were mad that the counter-protestors weren’t willing to nicely stand behind a fence, separate from the hate rally. The police proceeded to use excessive force.

The officer was practically squealing with glee when he said:

Sound familiar? That sounds like the crap the ICE-militia would say. 

We are not safe when we are policed by people who think we are the enemy. 

Unfortunately, he’s unlikely to be fired, because reactionary people like Martiza Rivera and Bob Kettle on the Seattle City Council have championed the conservative crusade to prevent Seattle Police Officers from ever having any sort of meaningful accountability when they violate people’s civil rights. (To be fair, the conservatives aren’t aiming for violations of our rights. They are just choosing those violations because they think the lack of accountability will make the police union happy).

That is despite the history of repeated, notorious violations in Seattle, alongside scandals like the “laugh heard round the world” - where the second in charge of the police guild laughed about a police officer running over and killing a pedestrian in a crosswalk. 

Through the two labor contracts, our most conservative council members have made it so the police are practically untouchable. After the first contract, Seattle police became the highest paid in the state without getting any meaningful accountability in return. And even though we are not having trouble with recruiting anymore, they came back and gave SPD another HUGE raise, without any real tradeoffs in terms of accountability. 

This means all the city’s bargaining leverage is gone (which was clearly the point) and will remain absent for many years. So there is almost nothing that can be done at the city level to protect civilians from officers like the guy in the video.

In other words, politicians like Rivera and Kettle, as well as the now turfed-out Sara Nelson, have worked tirelessly to make sure a badge and a gun is a permission slip to violate civil rights with impunity. 

But the state legislature can thwart their reactionary efforts. 

The legislature needs to remove the ability of reactionary city leaders to pull this crap. All city power is granted from the legislature. Cities like Seattle have failed to use it wisely. So it needs to be taken back. 

City officials should not be able to bargain away the safety of our community members and any such bargaining to date should be null and void. Labor unions absolutely deserve the right to bargain over a broad array of matters pertaining to their own safety, compensation, and job experience. But at no point should our civil rights be on the table. 

The state needs to also form an independent oversight body, with full subpoena power over departments and the power to pursue serious remedies in the case of violations. It should be staffed by civil rights experts and when a case comes up, should include a panel of citizens from the impacted communities. 

Not only will this create more accountability, but once it is off the table, perhaps unions like SPOG can start behaving like some of their far more reasonable brethren around the state and stop acting like they are at war with our populace.