News of police abuse continues to filter in as a recent change in leadership at the Seattle Police Department has some police reform advocates nervous.
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January 31, 2013
City Continues Reform Efforts in Vain
November 28, 2012
The Problem That Won’t Go Away
Taken from the Stranger, by Cienna Madrid:
The day after being slapped with a lawsuit, the Seattle Police Department capitulated by publicly releasing a controversial dash-cam video Tuesday that appears to show three officers restraining, choking, and then punching an uncooperative suspect. The video’s release after six weeks of delay is a heartening victory for transparency, albeit one that exposes yet another explosive case of police using force.
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June 20, 2012
Will the Department of Justice Get Their Way in Seattle?
Seattle firefighters walk toward a torched Seattle Police Department vehicle.
Seattle City attorneys officially threw down the gauntlet with the Department of Justice last week, filing court documents which challenged the “reliability and trustworthiness” of a recent DOJ report on the Seattle Police.
The DOJ report, which “finds a pattern or practice of constitutional violations regarding the use of force… as well as serious concerns about biased policing,” has been offered as evidence in an ongoing court case brought by Martin Monetti Jr. against the City of Seattle.Monetti, a Latino man, had his head stomped into the pavement after being told by then-Detective Shandy Cobane that he would “beat the [expletive] Mexican piss out of you, homie.”
This is just the latest move by Mayor Mike McGinn and the Seattle Police Department in their escalating strategy of resistance to the Department of Justice, who have repeatedly called for reform of the city’s embattled police department.
