Tag Archives: seattle police

News, Politics

SPD Provides Pepper Spray Boost to Occupy Seattle’s Popularity

Previously, if you searched on “seattle” and “pepper spray” you just got this Yelp thread about where a good place to buy pepper spray might be. And a poll taken November 10 through 13 showed public support for Occupy Wall Street-style protests dropping: “33 percent voiced support for Occupy Wall Street, down from 35 percent in a previous poll.”

But as of this morning, Seattle’s police department has made an 84-year-old woman into the chemical-irritant-caked face of the movement. Occupy Seattle actually would like you to know others pepper-sprayed included “a priest and a pregnant woman who as of this writing is still in the hospital.”

Still, it’s activist Dorli Rainey who has netted the AP interview dedicated to her hosing with law and order:

Rainey is a former school teacher who is well known in local political circles. A self-described “old lady in combat boots,” she briefly entered the 2009 Seattle mayoral race. She quit that contest, saying she was too old.

She said Wednesday she’ll still be taking part in the local Occupy Seattle movement.

“I’m pretty tough, I guess.”

The police department’s vigorous response to the protesters occupying a downtown intersection comes in contrast to other news out of City Hall, where the Seattle City Council unanimously approved Resolution 31337 “committing to a number of actions in response to the Occupy movement.”

Councilmember Nick Licata was quoted as saying, “I am pleased to work with my colleagues on a comprehensive approach for Seattle that can also provide a template for other cities to adopt as we all struggle with how to best respond to the Occupy Movement. The Occupy message is one of a broken economy due to a growing disparity in this country’s wealth, and we can at the very least review the City’s banking and investment practices to ensure that public funds are invested in responsible financial institutions that support our community.”

UPDATE: Mayor McGinn released a statement this afternoon, saying in part:

To those engaged in peaceful protest, I am sorry that you were pepper sprayed. I spoke to Dorli Rainey (who I know personally) to ask how she was doing, and to ask for her description of events.

I also called in Seattle Police Chief John Diaz and the command staff to review the actions of last night. They agreed that this was not their preferred outcome. Here are the steps we are taking in response, to achieve a better outcome next time:

  • Reviewing with our officers the deployment of pepper spray last night
  • Developing a procedure to ensure appropriate commanders are on the ground at these kinds of events.
  • Making sure that we have appropriate levels of police resources at protest events.

Elsewhere, Rage Against the Machine’s Zack de la Rocha was quoted as saying: “This poem is dedicated to the Occupy movement whose courage is changing the world. Stay Strong. We are winning.”

The beginning spills through city veins
Into the arteries
And under powers poison clouds
We move like the shadows
Through the alley ways
Through nightmares bought and sold as dreams
Through barren factories
Through boarded schools
Through rotting fields
Through the burning doors of the past
Through imaginations exploding
To break the curfews in our minds

Our actions awaken dreams of actions multiplied
A restless fury
Once buried like burning embers
Left alone to smolder
But together stacked under the walls of a dying order
All sparks are counted
Calloused hands raised in silence
Over the bonfire of hope unincorporated
It’s flame restores tomorrows meaning
Across the graveyards of hollow promises
As gold dipped vultures pick at what is left of our denial

And the youngest among us
Stare at us stoned like eyes determined
And say
Death for us may come early
Cause dignity has no price
At the corner of now and nowhere
Anywhere
Everywhere
Tomorrow is calling
Tomorrow is calling

Do not be afraid

Crime, News

Talking Crime Rates and Seattle Police Deportment

The same day Westneat's article ran, I saw an on-view occur at lunch. (Photo: MvB)

Columnist Danny Westneat had a much-maligned piece in the Seattle Times this week, where he “investigated” claims of depolicing–the idea is that, much like a 7-year-old who has been called onto the carpet, the Seattle Police Department is “showing you” by refusing to do anything but the necessary required to their jobs.

It’s an impression actually fostered by the head of the police union, who can’t tell the difference between proactive policework and shooting a well-known public nuisance/wood carver to death in the street.

As it happens, this latest accusation of depolicing is internal, and stems from the ongoing Department of Justice investigation of the SPD for civil rights violations. So even though the outburst is hyperbolic and disgruntled on the face of it–“You have only maybe 20 or fewer officers in patrol that are doing any proactive work right now,” said Officer Ernest DeBella, Jr., suspected loudmouth–people are reacting to it: My god, is this true?!

Westneat asked for data, and found this:

Seattle police released figures Tuesday showing that officers have done 101,058 on-views through nine months this year. That’s down 6 percent compared with the same period a year ago — a drop, but not one big enough to indicate widespread job-shirking.

So maybe DeBella, Jr., got it turned around; maybe it’s 20 or fewer officers who are depolicing.

That said, when Chief Diaz points to 2011 major crimes being down seven percent, even compared to the low rate of 2010, it’s worth looking into major crimes more closely. It’s not as good as it may sound.

Downtown is where the SPD is under the microscope–as south Seattle residents often complain–but it’s hard to shake the impression that there’s a fairly persistent base rate in both property crime and violent crime in downtown the past four years. (So it’s not “the worst it’s ever been,” but you can forgive people for getting fed up with a chronic, dangerous problem.)

When you look at citywide data over the past ten years, you see 2010’s violent crime was down nine percent from a 10-year average, and property crimes down 15 percent. Violent crimes ranged from a high of 4,150 in 2001 to a low of 3,447 in 2008, property crimes 46,306 (2003) to 32,820 (2008). So far, 2011’s violent crime rate is in step with 2010, and property crimes are “lagging” seven percent to 2010’s finals.

You might feel better about that but let me ask you this: Would you rather be robbed than assaulted, raped, or killed? Because, individually, aggravated assault, rape, and homicides are up; only robbery is down, but sufficiently so that in aggregate, violent crimes haven’t risen.