Recent Stories with tag john t. williams

A guerilla "Seattle Times" front page found downtown.

What we have here is a failure to communicate.

"If there's borderline criminal or suspicious activity, I say let it go," union president Sgt. Rich O'Neill told Seattle Times columnist Danny Westneat. "Don't go out on a limb. It's not worth it, because if it goes sideways, you're going to be the latest poster child on the news."

This passive-aggressive response is due at least in part to the fate of officer Ian Birk, who resigned from the police force after his shooting of John T. Williams was ruled unjustified by the Firearms Review Board. The Board simply could not make sense of discrepancies between Birk's behavior and his after-the-fact testimony. 

With backup only 20 seconds away, Birk emerged from his patrol car alone to contact a "suspicious person," so far as dispatch knew. Yet his service sidearm was drawn and in a "low-ready" position. He closed distance on Williams, failed to identify himself as a police officer while ordering Williams to drop his knife, and ended up shooting Williams to death, all in a matter of seconds. 

With deference to O'Neill, I want to suggest that--despite all these mistakes or lapses in judgment--had Birk not shot a man to death in the street, he would not have been the latest poster child on the news. That is the takeaway here. Few expect police to be perfect, and a police officer is generally given the benefit of the doubt. People know it's not easy wearing blue; we all read about officers getting jumped and choked in the line of duty. ... (more)

Dan Satterberg

Today King County Prosecutor Dan Satterberg announced he would not be filing charges against Seattle police officer Ian Birk for the fatal shooting of John T. Williams, reports the Seattle Times. Subsequently, Seattle Police Chief John Diaz announced that the Firearms Review Board officially determined the shooting "not justified."

NWCN quotes Satterberg as saying: "There is no evidence to show malice, there is no evidence to refute Officer Birk's claim that he acted in good faith. There is simply no evidence to overcome the strong legislative directive … not to prosecute a police officer under these circumstances."

The Seattle City Council's Bruce Harrell responded with this statement:

I am very disappointed in the King County Prosecutor’s decision not to file criminal charges regarding the death of Mr. John T. Williams. This matter demonstrates that changes to state law regarding the Public Inquest proceedings should be made. The public must have a restored confidence that the inquest process is fair, impartial and thorough. This result erodes public confidence in that process.

Officer Birk should be disciplined to the fullest extent provided under the internal process used by the City of Seattle. Our recruitment and training of police officers must prevent this type of tragedy from occurring again. We must adopt a zero tolerance culture relative to the unlawful use of force.

My proposal that officers be required to wear body-mounted cameras when they are dispatched to potentially violent situations, as opposed to relying on their stationary dashboard cameras to provide evidence, remains a feasible solution to restore public confidence in any process that examines police accountability and possible misconduct.

...

John T. Williams has less than 30 seconds to live in this picture.

At the ongoing inquest into the August 30, 2010, shooting death of Native American wood carver and (I think it's fair to say) chronic alcoholic John T. Williams, officer Ian Birk has testified that he had "no doubt in my mind that an attack was coming" based on his reading of Williams' body language and face (clenched jaw, thousand-yard stare).

Today, witnesses who were in the area are testifying that they did not perceive Williams as aggressive, so much as Birk. At Seattlepi.com, you read that "Birk testified he thought the incident would end with a conversation, but 'it became pretty serious pretty fast.'"

In the video below, taken from the dashboard camera of Birk's patrol vehicle, you can see Williams making his way across the street, in a crosswalk, at 51 seconds in. Birk exits his vehicle and crosses in front of it at 1:03, some twelve seconds later. He's walking with speed and his gun appears to be out and in his hand. So while it is not clear how he thought the conversation would go, the situation seems to have become serious to him very early on, before confronting Williams.... (more)

Two weeks ago, I wrote about "Mayor McGinn's No Good, Very Bad Week," sensing that both his shakedown of MOHAI and deflection of the John T. Williams shooting were going to dog him, in tandem, for some time.

Yesterday, the same day the City Council overruled the Mayor's attempt to withhold $7 million in city assistance for MOHAI's move to Lake Union, and a group of protesters marched on City Hall, unmollified by Chief Diaz's musical-chairs reorganization in response to the killing of Williams. They sang McGinn a song, reports the Seattle Times, "intended to be medicine for his spirit."

The net result is that the Los Angeles Times has gratefully taken a break from reporting on LAPD abuses to cover Seattle's "turmoil over police-involved shootings," and the Mayor is faced with the option of a veto that the Council can easily override.

The MOHAI muddle, despite the Mayor's valiant attempts to play the fiscal conservatism card, is gaining little traction. Carl Marquardt, McGinn's legal advisor and not, despite what you may think, an unemployed collection agent, posted a rationale to the Mayor's blog that includes the assertion, "Given that MOHAI already has $80 million...," which, if you think $80 million refers to money in the bank, is untrue. What MOHAI has is $20 million in donations, a lot of promises, and a large neon "R." Be sure to read the comment in response to Marquardt's post.... (more)