Important Notice For Law Enforcement Officers Visiting This Site

Log entry for visit from King County Government's network last night. He started writing his comment at 1:02am and his commentary in response to this story about King County deputy Paul Schene was finished at 1:33am.

Last night we were honored by a visit from one of King County's finest who spent over a half hour of taxpayer's time posting a comment critical of how I cover police misconduct but don't bend over backwards to praise officers for doing what they are paid, handsomely, to do. (Experienced officers in Seattle get over $100k a year before overtime, KCSO officers appear to get an average of $80k based on 2006 records)

I'm not replying to that directly, but I am offering a bit of information to all the cops who have felt the need to try and post comments here lately...

First, officers, let me ask you this, do you find articles critical of your fellow officers who have been found to have committed acts of misconduct in your police union newsletters?

Probably not, huh?

Well, do you guys see articles critical of officers who were convicted of breaking the law at the websites run by your fellow cops?

Nah?

Do you expect that any of the thousands of organizations and associations out there dedicated to support police officers to also support the victims of police abuses?

Nope?

Do you see those officer memorial sites also contributing money to make memorials to innocent people murdered by cops?

Unlikely, huh?

Then let me ask you this...

Why do you expect to see one of the handful (I could probably count the legitimate ones that haven't been scared off by threats from officers on my hands) of sites dedicated to helping and advocating for the victims of police misconduct to praise you guys and ignore all the stories of police misconduct and of officers who get away with it?

Why is it that, with all of the billions of dollars at the disposal of all these groups that support police officers, that you feel the need to attack the unfunded efforts of a few to help the people who are victimized by the worst of your profession?

Why is it that you are all so thin skinned and fragile of ego that you feel affronted when articles about acts of brutality performed by one of your fellow officers is posted anywhere in print or on electronic media that you feel the need to threaten those who simply report the truth?

Yeah, that wouldn't make sense, would it?

So, I'll make it clear for you officers, like the one who spent taxpayer time to criticize this site and the one who goes by "Bad Boy In Blue" from Tempe AZ who thinks it's a good idea to try and defend bad cops by slandering their victims...

This site isn't here to sing your praises, you have multitudes of others who do that for you all the time.

It is here to support victims of police misconduct and work towards making it harder for the worst of your profession to keep giving all of you a bad name through their unpunished misdeeds.

So, if you come here to trash someone just because they claim to be a victim of police misconduct, I'll delete your comment.

If you come here to criticize me for criticizing the police officers who do bad things and those who defend those bad acts, I will ignore you.

If you come here expecting someone with rose-colored glasses to fall for your sob stories about how we should ignore police misconduct because cops have it so hard, even when you have so many resources at your disposal and your victims have none... you will be sorely disappointed.

If you want someone to defend you no matter what horrible things you do, go talk to your union rep or your mom... don't come here.

Did the King County Sheriff use this site to make a press release?

Visits from the King County Government network on 03/10/09

It was a weird day yesterday... Now, I'm not sure about this so I'll leave it up to the readers, but it almost seemed like the King County Sheriff's Office used one of my posts and comments as a basis for a press release.

Take a look at this press release given to local news outlets late in the morning yesterday, but only got posted to the Seattle Post Intelligencer's 911 blog and local TV station Q13Fox. Make note of everything after the released timeline...

Then take a look at what I posted yesterday about a proposed protest against the King County Sheriff along with my comments in response to a reader's question...

Is it just me, or did the King County Sheriff's Department just use a post from my site, a site opposed to police misconduct and detainee abuse, as a basis for their press release yesterday that defended their actions in response to one of their deputies being accused of assaulting a 15-year-old girl? After all, they both make the same points, just worded differently, and it came out just a bit after a barrage of visits from the King County Government's network.

Anyway, I honestly don't know what to think about that... because, well, it would be quite ironic if it were the case. Don't you think?

PS: Oh, and as for that protest, I don't even know if they went through with it because, as I unfortunately predicted, absolutely nobody in the local media covered it. Hopefully there's a bit more notice if they do something like that again.

Why Is It Different When Officers Threaten Us?

Results of a poll I did last year.

In my previous post I talked about why it would be wrong for people to make threats or take revenge on police officers who have been accused of wrongdoing since it would make that person no different than that police officer if someone did that.

Well, now I want to follow that up by explaining exactly why I make that point and how it is that, while I would do what I could to ensure an accused officer isn't subjected to illegal retaliation, police officers and the government would never, ever, do the same for us.

Threats and retaliation against police misconduct activists happens regularly, in fact I only know one person who writes about police misconduct who hasn't been threatened, and that person was a police officer himself.

Trust me, the threats often work. Many sites that covered police misconduct have gone silent as a result. But even for those of us who refuse to be intimidated, the threats alter our lives and the lives of our families forever.

For example, because of the harassment I received after starting this site my wife tells me she has anxiety attacks anytime I leave our home for work or anything... and frankly I don't like to leave my home either out of fear of being recognized by police officers.

But, even staying at home is no respite since I jump at any unexpected knock or noise outside my door and my pulse races whenever I hear sirens or even when my phone rings... It's a nightmare of a life, thanks to these officers who are encouraged to harass and threaten us by the same system that protects them from the supposed threats made by others.

Indeed, threats and retaliation by police officers against anti-police brutality activists has been a fairly common practice for ages because it's so tolerated and encouraged in the US... especially since it's completely ignored by the press, the police, the people, and the government. Of course, this is in stark contrast to the sympathetic response police officers who are caught brutalizing others receive when they claim to be the target of a death threat.

For example of how this is tolerated, let's look at a few recent stories:

Activist Larry Hales Raided And Arrested In Denver
Denver Colorado anti-police brutality activist Larry Hales had his home raided and was arrested for "suspicion of interfering with police authority" in December of 2007. He claimed officers threw him around like a rag doll and refused his demands that they give him their identification. When Hales complained the officers just smiled at told him "we could do a lot more".

Only one smaller local paper carried the story of Hales' arrest and mistreatment and there was never word of what became of the charges afterward.

Minneapolis Cop-watch Activist Subjected To Beatings And Harassment
On July 20, 2008 police brutality activist and copwatcher Darryl Robinson was brutally beaten when arrested for allegedly "obstructing a sidewalk" while he was documenting police activity outside of a homeless shelter in Minneapolis were several complaints of brutality and harassment had occurred.

That charge was just one of at least 15 that Robinson had been charged with, and had been mostly dismissed in court, in a form of retaliation for his filing and wining a brutality lawsuit in 2003. No word on what became of this latest round of abuse he's endured.

Minneapolis Activist Harassed And Pulbicly Humiliated By Police
On August 29th last year, Michelle Gross of the CUAPD in Minneapolis claims she was strip searched in front of several other men during a raid where anti-police brutality activists were preparing for the Republican National Convention. She felt that she was specifically targetted for humiliation for her activities as a police brutality activist and while she was detained she claims her garage was broken into and documents of police misconduct were rifled through but nothing of value was taken.

She filed suit, one of several stemming from the week of abuse doled out by Minneapolis and St. Paul area police that was bankrolled by a $10,000,000 insurance policy that promised to pay for any civil rights abuses carried out by police during the convention.

Police-Involved Domestic Violence Activist Threatened By Cop With History Of Making Threats
A Washington state-based Officer-Involved Domestic Violence activist and writer of the Behind the Blue Wall blog received harassing messages and death threats from an officer who had a history of abusive behavior so severe that even other cops felt compelled to get restraining orders against him. Even so, authorities and the media ignored it when she revealed the email threats she received where he kept telling her that he knew where she lived and was coming for her.

California Police Accountability Activist Repeatedly Sexually Harassed By Police
The author of the Riverside California-based Five Before Midnight blog, which covers issues of police accountability and misconduct in the Riverside area, has had to endure years of harassment by Riverside police officers who make sexually-suggestive and intimidating comments to her because of what she writes about. Also, not so subtly, the keep letting her know that they've been watching her. These abusive tactics have been going on so long that she no longer does anything about them, apparently knowing full well it won't do any good.

....

Do you think legislators stumble over themselves to enact laws to protect us from threatening officers like they do to enact secrecy laws to protect cops from unsubstantiated threats?

Do you think the media bothers to report on the threats made on us like they do when an abusive officer's lawyers whine about unsupported claims of death threats made against them and their clients?

... nothing happens, in fact, when we become the target of threats from well-armed police officers who could easily, and have shown a propensity, of carying out those threats. Nothing happens even in when such a clear pattern of retaliation by police organizations is evident.

Actually, we get told that this is what we should expect as people who write about police misconduct, that we should be threatened, that it's only right that we suffer for telling the truth about what happens in our society... that we deserve it for speaking out.

So, frankly, I have a difficult time drumming up sympathy for the cops and their lawyers who claim to be the target of supposed death threats but who don't back those claims up with evidence.

I also have difficulty summoning up pity for the police union lawyers who cry about those supposed threats when they don't shed a tear over the abuse their clients put us through when they threaten and terrorize us.

So make no mistake, when I say it's wrong for anyone to threaten someone else, especially a cop, for being accused of wrongdoing I don't do so out of sympathy... Because I know they have no sympathy for us and I doubt they truly feel as afraid as we do when they level death threats at us.

But, I do say it's wrong out of principle and because that kind of behavior only makes it more difficult to change the system that allows police officers to abuse their authority and harm others.

Meanwhile, people like me still live in terror, our families still fear for us whenever we walk out the door. And I give way to no hope that anyone will defend us from them like they defend the police by trying to keep misconduct a secret from the rest of society in the supposed name of officer safety.

This is what becoming an activist does, this is how America treats those who exercise their first amendment rights to free speech... even while we use that speech to speak out against wrongs done to police just as much as we do when police do wrong to others.

...but, like I said, I'm told that this is what we should expect for speaking out against police misconduct. That we deserve to be threatened, beaten, and jailed for trying to stop it.

But that still doesn't change the fact that acting outside the law to threaten or attack someone you believe has done wrong is wrong in it's own right... whether it's done by an abusive cop against us or by a civilian against an abusive cop.

Of Being A Better Advocate

Life lessons come at strange times, but the important thing is to be aware of them for what they are and to learn what they are there to teach you.

Today I almost ended up on The Ron Reagan Show which airs on AirAmerica radio. The producer wrote me and asked if I would be willing to talk with them about the Malika Calhoun story and, presumably, the accountability problems in Seattle and King County which enabled deputy Paul Schene to beat up a 15-year-old girl in a SeaTac holding cell.

Well, I'm a modest and very soft-spoken person, especially since I was assaulted and then mistreated by police here in Seattle. That, plus the brain injuries and PTSD from that event affect me still and have all but crumbled any of the self confidence I ever had. This, of course, makes it difficult for me to do interviews, especially live interviews or any public speaking.

It wasn't always that way. In school I had a deep, resounding voice which landed me, for better or worse, in the role as narrator in any school play or choir activity and often had the theater teachers begging me to try out for roles.

But that changed after I became a victim of misconduct, so when I replied to the Ron Reagan show's producer I told her the truth; that I might not be the best pick and I gave her a lot of names to check with instead.

Sure, I still offered to step in if they couldn't get anyone else to represent the victim's side of the debate, but I was honest when I told them I get nervous doing interviews and might not do well live instead of just jumping at the chance and saying "yes".

I wasn't able to listen to the show, but I did pop in to their chat forum for a second to see what the audience reaction to the interviews they did would be.

I knew they were having the King County Prosecutor Dan Satterberg on, which I thought would be ok since the man has the unenviable task of trying to prosecute a police officer in a city that, up to now, has been eternally unwilling to convict one.

But, apparently, instead of any of the people I suggested, they appear to have had a member of the police guild on instead, which seemed to really infuriate the listeners as this ended up being an utterly one-sided story in favor of Paul Schene... again, at least judging by the chat members' reactions to the interviews.

...Disappointing. But, ultimately... entirely my fault.

I've always said here that I know I'm not the best suited person to write this site, but despite my flaws I do happen to be the only person willing to do it and that someone has to do it.

...the life lesson is that I must apply that line of thought to all aspects of being an advocate for victims of police abuse and detainee mistreatment.

Next time, if there is one, I won't be so mamby-pamby about it and I'll do whatever interviews that are offered with all the conviction I can muster.

Even though I deserve heaps of derision for not speaking out when I had a chance to do so. All I ask is that, if I still don't live up to the task, please don't be too hard on me for trying to be a better advocate for police misconduct victims when others wouldn't.

After all, someone has to do it, even if that only someone is as flawed as me.

What Do We Tell Our Children About Police Brutality

From early childhood our children are taught to trust the police. We tell our sons and daughters that if they are lost that they should look for a police officer to get help. Our schools warn our children to be wary of strangers and to seek the police if a stranger tries to lure them away...

But, more and more, I worry that the strangers we should warn our children to stay away from might include those that wear a police uniform as well.

After all, how do we reconcile the contrasts between the picture of a friendly officer helping a child, like illustrated above, and that of the brutal reality of a child, (now identified as Malika Calhoun) being viciously beaten by a sheriff's deputy on the news as we've all seen recently?

Our children give us questioning looks when seeing this or hearing discussions about it. They are confused, they are told to trust the police but here is a police officer harming a child... or other stories that have also been in the news recently:

• Washington DC officers accused of stealing toys meant for underprivileged kids.
• A Palm Beach Sheriff's Deputy wanted for allegedly raping a child.
• A Police chief in Virginia caught in an online child sexual solicitation sting.
• A police officer from Alabama accused of transporting kids across state lines to rape them.
• A King County Sheriff's Deputy videotaped brutally attacking a 15-year-old girl.

How do we explain to our children why they should trust the police after they see or hear stories like these? Should you tell them they should still trust the police when they know of family members who have been abused by the police or even when they see police brutality themselves like these fifth graders did in Seattle?

Or, should we be teaching them something else in the light of this brutality, that they should treat the police as they do any other stranger, as unworthy of their trust?

Seattle and King County are prime examples of how difficult it is to honestly tell a child they should trust police when we know our city and county cannot even fire the officers that they know are dangerous and supposedly want to fire.

For just one example take the case of King County Sheriff's Deputy Denny Gulla, who has been accused molesting three different 14-year-old girls but who remained a deputy even on top of other complaints like assaulting prisoners, making a pass at a high school senior, videotaping a gang beating for his training video and pulling over his lover's husband and threatening to shoot him in the "mother-fucking face."

As far as we know, he's still a deputy in the King County Sheriff's department since it was only last year that they finally put him on a brady list, but still couldn't fire him. How do we tell our children to trust the police when the one they trust could be officer Gulla or the officer who beat that young girl?

All these stories, when also tied to one's like officer Gulla, show that some deeply disturbing people can become police officers and remain in authority even after developing a history of alleged abuses against children.

Which leads me to wonder whether I would be a responsible parent for telling my children to trust the police instead of fearing them like they should any potentially dangerous stranger on the street.

After all, it's been proven that even the strangers in uniform can harm our children as much, if not more than, any other stranger who offers candy to children in a dark van could.

Perhaps it would be more responsible for us to instill in our children the cold hard realities that most of us already understand... that the police are not here to protect and serve us...

the police are here to protect and serve themselves.

Until that changes, until a real system of accountability and disciplinary transparency is created, none of us are safe... not even our children.

So, what do you plan on telling your children?

Building Bridges To Today

I grew up in Ohio during the 1970s while neighborhoods were still somewhat segregated and some still showed scars from riots that occurred just a few years prior to my birth. Since my parents were separated I would spend time between them in some very separate worlds. My mother, who came over to the US from a small Greek island in the Aegean Sea called Mykonos as a small girl, lived with her mother in a very mixed neighborhood while my father lived in an almost exclusively white suburban neighborhood with his parents.

It was an odd existence for me, at least in the terms of race relations, since I never really grew up having any real prejudices that I can think of. I had friends of all different backgrounds from the time I spent with my mom, but when I lived with my father my friends there were all white… at least until Tim moved in a few blocks away from my father's house. Tim, as it was, happened to be part of one of the two sole African American families in my father’s town.

I never really thought much of it, Tim and I hit it off pretty well from the start for some reason and I spent a lot of time over his house, but he never really came over to visit me except for once, and never came over again… I wasn’t allowed to bring him into the house even though my other friends were welcomed there. But that didn't really seem to change our relationship, even though my father's and grandparent's attitudes confused and upset me at the time.

Tim was a good kid and his parents were always warm and welcoming to me, despite how my family might have treated him, I was always welcomed at his house and would spend the night from time to time even. I never really thought much of the arrangement back then, but I marvel at it now that I'm older, that they would welcome me even when they themselves weren't welcomed.

Tim, his older brother, and his parents would take me to the stores they go to on the side of town I never really knew about. The store was much different than the one my parents went to, and the neighborhood was much more similar to the one where my mother lived than my father’s… and I was the only lighter colored person there.

Same thing at the church where Tim’s family took me once, one of those Baptist churches, that more resembled a warehouse filled with folding chairs than anything else. It was one of those churches where everyone sang and jumped up to dance and shout at the drop of a hat, eager to bear witness loudly to their faith, and much different than the tame churches my mother would take me to from time to time.

Still, everyone was very nice and they did their best to make sure I understood what I was seeing and made me feel comfortable about joining in a bit… something hard for a shy kid like me to do back then. It’s one of the very few memories of my childhood that I’ve held onto all these years, one of the warmest ones among all those times that Tim and his family made me feel welcomed while my family would do their best to make Tim feel unwelcome.

Today, now, I’m watching as President elect Barack Obama is about to be inaugurated as president and I wonder what Tim is doing at this moment and what he thinks of all this. I lost contact with him many years ago after we both moved pretty far away…

But, I can’t help think of how his family sought to bring people together even while others still made efforts to push them apart… and I can’t help but think that, perhaps, this historical day is the result of people like Tim’s family, who quietly built bridges where those bridges weren’t wanted, and connected with people even when they didn’t want to be connected, and showed grace and forgiveness in the face of adversity and outright racism.

It’s easy to be angry in response to anger, respond to hate with more hate, and respond to racism with more racism. But they showed me that responding instead with reason, understanding, patience, and forgiveness, in the long run, bears much sweeter fruit… and that it is better to build bridges than to burn them down.

As I watch our new president being sworn in, I can't help think that a day like today is proof of that... proof of the bridges that people like Tim and his family built to today.

When An Anti-War Protest Becomes A Pro-War Protest

I heard there was going to be a protest march today against the war going on in Gaza so I decided to go and take a few pictures...

The bulk of the protest march in Seattle, cited in the news as 2,000 but seemingly more like 200.

It really did seem to be an anti-war protest, intermixed between the Palestinian flags were some of the stock protesters that seem to be at any given anti-war protest of any stripe. Personally, I'm not a big fan of war or violence as I'm the overly optimistic type and like to think most people are the same way and would rather be left to their own devices like I do... though I too know there are people out there who's devices include a unfathomable desire to hurt others.

Protesting parents coax their children to take place in a mock funeral march carrying a baby doll made up to be a civilian casualty of war.

I digress though... except for the tactic of using children who probably had no idea of the role they were playing out for their parents in this spectacle of a protest, I generally supported what I thought the point of it was, that Israel and Palestine should just stop shooting at each other and try to give peace another try.

However, after the march came and went through where I had set up to take pictures, I found out the protest was about something else entirely... something I just can't support.

A lone Pro-Israeli counter-protester and one of the hundreds of Pro-Palestinian protesters face off.

My wife and oldest son left afterward to do some shopping and on the way home happened into a few groups of these protesters... their chants of "Stop The War" earnestly delivered for the media had changed into angry shouts of "Death To Israel" and "Death To The Jews" once the cameras had left, and my wife and son were caught in the crossfire.

My wife, who does happen to have some Jewish ancestry, never thought she looked that Jewish... neither did I. But the protesters did, and they made their anger known with louder shouts of "Death to Jews!" as they glared at her and started following her and my son down the street... not once, but twice when she got away from one group only to run into another.

She got away, a bit shaken and angry, but that's only part of the point.

Antisemitic signs intermixed with anti-war signs, ultimately a call for peace through more killing.

It wasn't a peace march, it was a war march. They weren't asking for Israel to leave them alone, they were telling us that the only peace they can accept will come from the death of others... through more war, not less.

They weren't asking for acceptance as humans, they were asking for hate towards those they considered as less human than themselves... which included my family apparently.

It was a point that the media here, who put a good bit of sympathetic bias towards the protesters in their stories, apparently missed... but one I would have too if they didn't let their hate bleed out in front of my son and wife. It was a message that said "The only peace we can understand comes with your death..."

It was a message which only asks for more war, not less.

Strangers In Strange Lands

A friend of ours had just come back into town yesterday from his tour of duty in Iraq so I took him out for some dinner in a quiet little restaurant so we could catch up for a bit. Of course, there were a lot of stories about what he had seen and experienced there, but there was also talk of how it was difficult to adjust to being away from all of that.

Being back stateside, he said, felt alien to him… there was a newness to the experience of being in the places where he had previously spent so much time. That experience, he said, that feeling of not belonging here and of not fitting in made him feel like he wanted to go back to Iraq, back to the things he was accustomed to, even though that experience was so dangerous and difficult.

Mind you, my friend isn’t one of those gung-ho soldiers who got into the army because of any love for fighting or anything like that. He told us he was pulling for Barack Obama to win and was hopeful that the change from Bush would eventually improve the situation there and for his fellow veterans. He was happy to be home, but still, there was that feeling that he just didn’t belong here.

It’s a common feeling really, something I hear from many of my friends who are veterans who had just returned from the military who had difficulties adjusting to civilian life again and from coworkers who had a hard time translating the closeness of working with fellow soldiers in that close-knit military society to the, often, backstabbing ways of working in private industry.

Strangely enough, such feelings of alienation and culture shock are similar to those that ex-prisoners feel once they’ve been released back into the world of the free, and part of the equation that leads to the high rates of recidivism in the US for criminals who have spent time in prison. In fact, I felt the same way after being released from jail a few years ago.

When I was released, just prior to being found innocent back in 2006, everything was surreal to me and it was as if I was a stranger in a strange land, even though I had walked these same streets for years before being locked away against my own volition.

I felt lost and as if I didn’t fit in, and the fact that I didn’t even have my own clothes and still had slippers from the jail only added to that feeling of "otherworldliness", garnering me frequent stares from other people on the street as my pants didn’t fit and I only had a loose-fitting shirt on in the dead of winter… all articles of clothing given to me from the unclaimed pile at the jail since my own clothes, splattered with my own blood from the beating I received when I was arrested, were still in a police evidence room elsewhere.

Needless to say, even seeing my own family, who I hadn’t seen for at least a month, felt strange to me and they seemed barely recognizable. Perhaps some part of that was due to my head injuries I sustained from the attack I suffered, but in large part it was also just due to my being locked away from them for so long…

Of course, I did have similar feelings of alienation and culture shock as he did, but I didn’t have that same desire to return to what I had grown used to when I was released. Part of that was due to the mistreatment I suffered, but certainly that couldn’t be the only thing since my friend had suffered some traumatic times in Iraq but he thought about going back.

Perhaps it was because I didn’t fit in with the jail culture, that there was no feeling of camaraderie for me in jail since I stuck out like a sore thumb there and other prisoners treated me different than they treated each other because they knew right away that I didn’t belong. I was, after all was considered, a stranger in a strange land while I was in the jail in addition to feeling the same once I was released.

As I explained this I also came to the realization that the other big difference between my friend who entertained those feelings of wanting to go back, and me who never entertained such thoughts of wanting to go back to the jail where I was mistreated, was ultimately that he had some part in the choosing of where he went. He did join the army after all… but I never committed the crime that put me in jail, and perhaps that’s why I never had those feelings of wanting to return to what I had become accustomed to.

It was a strange discussion and ultimately the topic shifted to something else and other stories of cultural differences in different lands. But it was a conversation I didn’t expect, and now I’m stuck thinking back to that time and how it’s still changing the way I see the world… of how it’s still making me feel like a stranger in a very strange land.

Sharing Thankfulness

Despite all that I’ve been through I have a lot to be thankful for and perhaps because of all I’ve been through I tend to be more mindful of those things I am thankful for than I would otherwise be. I am thankful for the simple things, the seemingly small things that most take for granted maybe, simply because many of those things were taken from me or nearly lost.

So I appreciate that I’m alive, that I’m free, that I can spend time with my family, that I still have a job (two actually), and many other things really… for me, every day is a thanksgiving filled with the laughter of my children and the loving warmth of my wife… I am truly blessed.

So, each thanksgiving I’ve made it a tradition to share our blessings and the warmth of our home with those who don’t have anyone else to share that with on this holiday that normally celebrates family as much as it celebrates thankfulness.

This year it’s been tight though, we barely had enough to pay for the food we’ve prepared for the dozen people that we’ve invited over, which is about the same number as last year. But we made do, emptied the coin jar, and went without with what we could sacrifice, and I know I’ll be thankful for that as well tomorrow when I get to share my holiday with the smiles and warmth of a full apartment.

But, I’m not alone in that, in fact what I do is rather small an insignificant, hardly worth mention really. Just down the street from where I live is a restaurant called Amore that also shares it’s bounty of thanks with those who would otherwise not have much to be thankful for.

It’s a place I’ve passed by on occasion to or from the bus stop, and I would see the owner and we would smile at each other or nod heads in passing and not really thinking much of it other than that the man seems like a nice guy who has been through his own share of trials that make him thankful for the small things too.

Well, what I didn’t know was that he also has a habit of sharing his holiday sharing his spirit of thanks with others… about 500 others in fact, and this year made it hard for him to do the same as well, by the tune of about $4,000 from his own pocket in fact.

I wish I had known… but now that I do, hopefully I can share my thanks for his work with him next time I see him when I walk down the street… and maybe add a few people to those whom I get the opportunity to share my thanks with next year by helping him out.

Maybe I'll see you there and share some thanks with you too.

Adding Insult To Injury

As some of you might remember, back in February of this year I broke down and finally went to a doctor after the problems I had ever since I was badly beaten and then denied medical care in November of 2006 just wouldn’t go away and was really affecting my work. As a result I was referred to specialists and they diagnosed me as having a Traumatic Brain Injury and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

The problem was that I work as a contract employee, so I don’t get medical coverage from work. I really didn’t want to go but my wife persisted in making me go get looked at… and of course this resulted in my trying to find “self-pay” medical coverage before I could get seen.

Well, I did that, but it appears as though the plan I got didn’t cover what I was going in so I was stuck with over $3,000 in medical bills while I’ve still been struggling to make payments on the nearly $10,000 in bills I was stuck with from that disaster.

I tried to work out a way to make payments, but talks of that seem to have dropped through the cracks and the next thing I knew I was sent to collections. For the last few months now I’ve had this debt collections agency, Merchants Credit, calling me three times or so a day and threatening to call my employers and freeze my bank account. It’s frustrating and frightening because if they did either of those things my family would end up without an apartment to live in and me without a job. They have me scared to the point that I refuse to answer my phone anymore.

It’s been tough since all this happened to me, my hours at work were reduced so much that I had to get a second job and even then my income never got back to what it was before that incident. Making matters more complicated is that my wife can’t work because of her own chronic medical condition, so my income supports my whole family… if I lose my income we’re all done for.

Doubly frustrating was that I wanted to pay and was working towards doing so but they just passed me off to these people who refuse to take payments. I just don’t get why they would rather threaten me and punish me for this and not get anything rather than just accept payments and get the money they’re demanding.

Some lawyers I talked to recommended trying to get assistance through the Washington State Office of Crime Victims Advocacy but since the police never considered the beating I suffered a crime that ended up being a dead end.

This whole thing is just so damn frustrating, that my family and I are still suffering from what happened two years ago, something that I didn’t do wrong, is just insane. I just feel like my back is up against the wall and I’m still being punished for what I thought was nothing more than doing what was right. I'm about to be financially ruined and left homeless just for trying to stop a fight, it really seems like the world is trying to tell me that I should have minded my own business and let that guy I saved get stabbed to death.

I just wish I knew when all this punishment I never deserved was going to end.

About That Election (and other stuff)

Seattle celebrates Obama's election on Nov. 4, 2008.
Photo courtesy of The Stranger Flicker Pool

First, I want to apologize for not posting over the last few days, I took Tuesday off to deal with some family health issues and to make sure I also had the chance to go vote. As a contract employee I don't get paid days off so I had to make up for it somehow and got buried with work at both my jobs as a result.

So, speaking of voting, I happen to be pretty happy with the results overall and was particularly pleased to see that Barack Obama will be our next president. I think that, overall, the general direction our nation has been heading in will shift back towards the center as a result, which is a good thing.

But... will it change anything in regards to police misconduct and prisoner abuses?

Well... I think an Obama presidency and majority count of Democrats in both houses may stop the trending we've been seeing of less transparency from federal authorities and local police departments that was a hallmark of the nation's move to the right, and it may well help level out the steady increase in cases of abuses that we've noticed over the last few years.

I don't see Obama nor the legislature doing anything to directly address either issue as cracking down on police brutality or civil rights abuses has never been a "sexy" political platform on anything but the local level, and even then it's usually not a significant factor that gets votes in an election.

However, a focus on restoring civil rights, increasing the transparency of government and law enforcement on a federal level, and reducing the trend of increased incarceration in the US may well have an impact on the level of abuses that have gone up in recent years as a side effect of such actions.

So, while I don't think it will solve all of our problems with abusive law enforcement in this country, the shifting of the political landscape may help halt the increased level of human rights abuses we've seen as an ancillary result of other policy shifts.

Of course, this may well be negated by the economic decline if it becomes significant or becomes long term. We've already seen the scrapping of police accountability programs on the local level here and in other places around the nation where local governments have had to cut costs to deal with budget shortfalls.

In addition to this, we've also seen programs that were planned to address civil rights abuses in jails halted and steps taken to cut costs that jeopardize detainee safety and health.

Furthermore, a declining economy may spark a reversal of the trend of lower crime that has occurred in recent years, which generally results in more aggressive police policies and legislation.

So, it may well be that any improvements that I can foresee as a result of the political shift in the US may be negated by a decline in the economic conditions here. In other words, if the number of cases of police brutality and detainee abuses increases under an Obama administration, it wouldn't surprise me, unfortunately.

Sure... The election of Barack Obama is historic, and I am proud that I could play a VERY small role in that history. I was just as elated at the result as were the people who took to the streets here in Seattle in spontaneous celebration at his election. Even my children, too young to vote, were excited to stand witness to the event.

But, even with my hope, I know I must temper that newfound optimism with realism that the people I advocate for, the victims of abuse and brutality, are often those who are overlooked as deserving less rights than the rest of us just for being accused. So, unfortunately, my work is not yet done... though I wish it were.

So, congratulations America... you took a big step this week, but don't forget that it's just one step in that long journey we still have ahead of us.

Light Posting

Sorry for the light posting this week, been busy working two jobs and now I'm faced with yet another medical dilemma. Our 19 month old son has some sort of infection; what started out at first as a small pimple on his arm has erupted into a half dollar sized rash that we first thought was an allergic reaction to something... but now it's been a few days and it hasn't gotten better, just worse, despite constant bandaging and antibiotics.

So, while uninsured, I can either take him to a doctor and pay up front with money we need for food for the month, or take him to the ER which we can pay later but expose him to everything everyone else has... Either way, it's frustrating and worrisome... and either way I have to get him looked at soon, so it sounds like the ER for us.

So, no posting today either, and maybe longer depending... my apologies.


Update 9/23/08: I took out a payday loan and got him in at the doctor's office instead. They said it's a staph infection but we're still waiting on the test results. He's on antibiotics and we've been hard at work disinfecting everything each night and have bought a majority stake of stock in whoever makes generic bandages for the local pharmacy because, well, toddlers love to remove bandages as often as possible so I have been re-bandaging him every half hour or so.

As of today his arm is much better but his finger still looks bad, we're still watching closely and keeping in touch with the doctor but hoping we don't have to take him back in. In the meantime, I had time for a quick post today and an update here.

Yet again, an enormous thanks to those who wished him well, I truly appreciate it.

For Nigel

Hold those you love close to you and treat all the moments you share with them as if they are fleeting and only momentary... I say this only because they are.

For Nigel, you are dearly loved and dearly missed.

Undue Process

There were a few articles I was going to write over the last few days, but I've not been doing well lately... my headaches have been bad lately and one spot on my side has really been hurting where that gang of neonazis broke my ribs when they attacked me... needless to say that I've not been sleeping well because I jump up awake several times a night dreaming and feeling like I'm being attacked all over again because of the pain.

...So, I'll just put together some random thoughts on this dreary Sunday.

I Love A Parade
First, yesterday was Seattle's Seafair Torchlight Parade and we tend to go a bit all-out for it. We love the parade, as cheesy as it sounds, because we also have a strange "love-hate" relationship with Seattle... if it weren't for what happened to me, it'd be all love. In any case, our balcony has a great view of the event and we decorate it so the people in the floats always point and wave and several people took pictures.

Anyway, the police chief and his wife were in one car, she pointed up and said "oh my goodness" loud enough that I could hear her over the noise of the parade. She smiled and waved enthusiastically and, well, since she had nothing to do with what the SPD did to me I smiled and waved back... then she nudged her husband who also smiled and waved... I'm not a mean-spirited person so I kept waving, but I wonder what he would have thought if he knew who he was smiling and waving at.

Innocent Until...
A story in the news recently evoked some sympathy from me for a police officer, even though I'll be hated by cops and cop haters for admitting it (I have no friends in Seattle, so no loss). Seems a Seattle police officer was fired after he was accused of a felony involving him allegedly bursting into his soon-to-be ex-wife's home and threatening her boyfriend. The police department insisted that it is their policy to fire any officers accused of a felony so he was fired without even an internal investigation being completed.

Well, a public employee commission recently found in his favor and forced the city to give him his job back along with back pay. Seems that the first trial resulted in a mistrial when the jury couldn't decide on the case and the prosecutor then offered a reduced misdemeanor plea, which he then accepted.

Seems a lot of people responding to the article thinks he should have stayed fired and that this shows how little control the city has over it's police officers while SPD officers come to his defense by trying to justify what he was accused of instead of focusing on the real matter at hand, the fact that he should have been treated as if he were innocent until he was found guilty... at most he should have been reassigned to desk duty until the case was done, otherwise he was being punished before being found guilty.

Now, sure, the SPD didn't treat me like I was innocent when they denied me medical care when they arrested me, when they taunted me in my cell, when they interrogated me under duress, and when they kept me long after they knew I was innocent and cost me my jobs. But, perhaps it's a lesson they need to learn through experiencing the other side of that gavel; that there is a reason for presumed innocence... I know it's misguided, but I just hope they apply that lesson to how they treat others instead of just how they want to be treated.

Raging Roads
Then there's the bicyclists vs motorist incident all over the news. Seems that there are two sides to the story but the media and the police only want to let people know about one side and not the other, (meanwhile The Stranger has some excellent coverage of it from both sides)... One bicyclist was hospitalized when he was hit by the motorist involved but the news paints the motorist as the victim since the bicyclists chased him down in a vigilante rage to disable his car and hit him as well.

Honestly, I think there's plenty of wrongdoing on both sides of that altercation. The driver and the bicyclists should both face charges, if anyone does at least. The motorist shouldn't have gunned his engine and run down the bikes and the cyclists did more than was necessary to stop the driver... Both sides were wrong so if one side is charged the other should be too. That's the way it should work when both sides stand accused, but the police don't work that way here, they pick sides and never admit they were wrong about anything.

Ah, Birthdays

I wasn't going to post about it, but it's my 38th birthday today.

How did I start it out so far?

Well, found out a friend was stabbed when he was mugged while he was walking home from work and he refused to go to the hospital because he didn't want to be hassled by the police and he doesn't like doctors... I called him up to make sure he was ok, but got nervous when he told me people were telling him to let the wound air out and keep it uncovered and that he planned on washing it with soap and water tonight.

So, I let him know that he shouldn't let it get wet, that he had to keep it covered and why, told him how to properly clean it and dress it, that it was too late to try and close it with glue or sutures when he asked if there was a way to keep it from reopening all the time, and what signs to watch for with a deeper wound like that. I offered to go and take a look at it to make sure he'll be ok, but he said it was alright... hopefully he'll call if it gets worse.

I thought about telling him that even if he would have gone to the hospital and they would have called the cops that all he would have to do is tell them he didn't want to talk to them, but I knew if he did that the cops would have treated him, the victim, like a criminal. Most of the police around here are like that, they tend to be rude to victims of crime, especially if they aren't well-to-do. Not that they would have helped him anyways, they certainly didn't help me when I was the victim of a crime.

I've also been worried about a person who was corresponding with me about his case, it went to trial last week and I haven't heard from him since. Hopefully all is well with him too. So, if you're reading this, you know who you are, just drop me a line to let me know you're ok.

It's probably not a good sign when one's birthday starts out like this. Hopefully it gets better... but right now my ever-present headache is much worse than usual.

Thank You

It's been yet another busy weekend for me and Monday is looking pretty full as well, so I apologize for the light posting again. Since I don't have much time for a full story now, I just wanted to make a quick post about thanks...

First I want to mention the people who write to tell us their own stories of police misconduct or detainee abuse. In most cases readers share their stories of being abused or of knowing someone who was abused in order to ask questions about what they can do about it. But sometimes they also write to reach out for someone who understands what it's like to go through that uniquely isolating and frightening experience... and a few times they even decide to share their story with the public in the hopes that it helps stop this kind of abuse.

Going public with your story can be a very frightening thing, it takes a lot of bravery to do it and even when someone is willing it still might not be the best thing for someone to do. So I never blame anyone who ultimately decides not to go public because I just want to be here to help since there was nobody to help me when I went through it and I don't want others to go through that alone. So whether it's answering someone's questions or publishing someone's story, I'll try to do what I can.

So, first I want to thank all the people who have written to share their stories, whether or not we publish them. By sharing your story with me you help me know that I am making a difference and, in turn, we can hopefully make things better together.. so thank you for writing!

Next, I've been really taken aback by some really kind things some people have said about this site lately. There are some things about the site that I wish I had time to make better, and I know I need to work on my writing style as I'm too wordy for the blog format, but it's nice to know that there are people out there that like what the site is doing. So I want to thank all of you as well, in no particular order, for letting your readers and listeners know about us and for saying such nice things about us!

Over at Five Before Midnight they really seemed to appreciate our article about the frustrations of being an advocates for better police accountability and civil rights protections, it's a subject they focus on over there as well so I'm sure it's a feeling they're familiar with... So thank you for keeping up the good fight even though it can be frustrating to see missed opportunities for change.

Over at Blogging Georgetown it's nice to see someone not just taking the NIMBY front in their opposition to the city of Seattle building it's own jail given the city's track record on civil rights abuses and while the currently used King County Jail hasn't yet cleaned up it's act either as we addressed in our story about the jail previously. With 1 in every 99 Americans behind bars we've become a nation of prisons, so this is a subject that needs much more attention than it's received so far! So, thank you for reading, for the support, and for talking about the problems with building so many jails from several different perspectives!

Over on Western Massachusetts Copwatch they called our site "superb" while talking about quality of life policing and all the problematic elite crime fighting police units that we addressed in this post. Wow, what can I say, thank you so much for the compliment, that means quite a bit coming from such a well thought-out site full of great content like yours! Keep up the great work!

The ever thought-provoking Seattle Crime Blog did a story looking at the issue of vigilantism from different perspectives and cited our story about a recent vigilante-style beating at a Capitol Hill nightclub by saying I made a good point about vigilantism. Thanks for reading and thank you for favoring honest discourse over controversy! (I'm planning a controversial sequel to that story myself actually).

I also really want to thank, again, Joaquim Uy with One World Report at KBCS 91.3 for having me on his show to talk about some of the missing police accountability reforms in the new Seattle Police contract. Also, thank you for making me sound slightly less worse than I really sounded.

The police officer who runs the Iowa-based "Common Sense Has No Place Here" blog still declares that I'm "The Enemy" and should be watched... well... um... thanks for thinking I do such a good job highlighting the need for accountability in a city several states removed from your location that officers in Iowa should keep an eye on me.

And, finally, I would like to thank all of you for reading this... even though I'm afraid I went and got too wordy on you once again.

Some Advice For Those Looking For Justice

The Vice of Injustice and Virtue of Justice
frescoes at the Arena Chapel in Padua by Giotto

Ever since I started this site I've received letters from people who have had their rights violated or have been through similar or worse abuse than I was put through. So I try to help them find the resources they need to find justice even when I don't write about their cases, (which happens a lot actually). So, in the course of all this, I found myself giving the same pieces of advice over and over again... So I decided to make a list.

First, I am not a lawyer, please keep this in mind. The following advice is based on my experiences and my experiences helping others prepare to contact lawyers in regards to their own case. The following tips are merely “common sense” recommendations of things you should consider before attempting to contact a lawyer about your case. This site does provide a list of legal experts in the field of civil rights law but has no affiliation with any of the professionals or organizations in those listings and does not represent them in any way. We do encourage you to think about the following pieces of advice before using that list to contact a lawyer in regards to your own situation.

With that out of the way... Let's get started.

Let's Be Frank:

So, you believe your civil rights have been violated… now you want justice and so you’ve started to look for a lawyer to consider your case in that pursuit. Now, maybe your friends told you that lawyers love these kinds of cases or that the ACLU will definitely be interested in helping you because they’re all about civil rights lawsuits, or maybe someone told you that the city is frightened of lawsuits and will write you a check right away at the mere mention of legal action… Well, let’s dispel some of those myths right off the bat.

1. Lawyers Love To Sue The Government:

First, it is incredibly difficult to win a civil rights lawsuit against the government. In fact, it’s incredibly difficult to even get such cases to trial because the government, and their employees, has so many immunities to prosecution and civil action that it’s very rare that such suits ever make it beyond the initial stages of legal action. What’s worse is that government employees have no such barriers to sue you and your lawyer if your lawsuit fails, so lawyers tend to be VERY cautious about what cases they’ll take on.

This doesn’t mean that your case isn’t legitimate or that what you say happened did or did not happen as you say it did, but that lawyers need to consider how difficult it would be to PROVE what you allege really did happen in the face of all the various ways the government can cover up evidence and change reports to favor their position. This is why it’s discouraged for victims of police brutality to file official complaints with the department because such complaints are used to warn the department of possible legal action which gives them a head start in preparing a defense against your potential case.

It’s not that a lawyer might not care about how badly you were wronged or hurt when your rights were violated, it’s just that most lawyers are in this to make a living by getting a cut of winning lawsuits so taking on high risk suits isn’t appealing to them… and even the ones who care about how badly you got hurt aren’t willing to risk their home in a countersuit if the evidence in your case isn’t strong enough.

2. The ACLU Will Help!

Next, the American Civil Liberties Union, or ACLU, only takes on very special cases that would, if won, change the laws or make a case like yours very visible in the press in order to highlight civil liberties issues. So, it is incredibly rare that the ACLU takes on any case of police brutality or detainee abuse… so if you know your type of case isn’t unusual or has been done before, don’t bother, they probably won’t be interested. Sure, if you tried everyone else first and it’s your last resort, go for it… otherwise, it’s not your best chance regardless of what you’ve heard from your friends.

3. The Government Will Pay You To Keep It Quiet!

Next is the myth that the city is quick to make settlement offers to people they think they’ve wronged. Again, this rarely happens and, in fact, the city of Seattle is well known for its “scorched earth” defense against civil suits and they do fight tooth and nail against any civil rights actions. The city doesn't care if it makes the news because, frankly, there have been so many stories of abuses that they figure the public is too tired of them to care anymore. Now, of course, the city does prefer to settle rather than risk losing a suit, but they’ve only lost one suit in the last 25 years, so even when they do settle the settlement amounts are VERY small when compared to other cities because of their fierce defense tactics and the use of SLAPP suits, (Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation, these are suits designed to punish people for making allegations of abuse by suing them when they fail in their legal actions or complaint attempts), to dissuade lawyers from filing such lawsuits. Sometimes the city will issue “nuisance payments” to people who threaten legal action, but these are VERY rare and are very small, the largest I’ve heard of is $5,000.

That Advice:

Now that you might be able to see how difficult it is to even get a lawyer interested in your case, let alone make it to trial, let’s focus on what you need to think about in order to improve your chances for at least getting your story heard by a lawyer and taken seriously. Of course, all this advice stems from the assumption that you will tell your lawyer the complete and utter truth, because even worse than a lawyers telling you they aren't interested is if a lawyer takes your case and it comes out that you lied and you get your pants sued off as a result!

1. Remember that lawyers are in this to make money. Just like you work to get paid, so do lawyers, so when you present a case you need to SELL it to them. How do you do this? Well, there are a few steps involved with this:

a. DOCUMENT EVERYTHING!!! Document it quickly, as soon as it happens. Document every little detail about what happened, who saw what, when what happened to whom… even document what color that puppy on the corner was the day after it happened… Document every little thing because you’ll never know what detail that you forgot might be important to remember later.

b. Go over everything you documented and use it to start making your detailed case.

c. Do a little research to see what laws might have been violated or exactly how your civil rights were violated. You’ll need to tell the lawyer how you were LEGALLY wronged, not just ethically or morally wronged.

d. Carefully calculate how much your injuries or the loss of your civil rights has cost you and those who were involved with your case. You need to be ready to itemize your harms to the lawyer and give him an idea of how much damage was caused. This includes medical bills, legal bills, lost wages, loan repayments, and even the harms done to your family while you suffered as well. Come in with a real list of damages and a good estimate of what those damages cost in real terms before you even start calling lawyers.

e. Prepare your case carefully! Again, you’re not going to get far by just sending a bunch of documents and transcripts of what happened. You need to make a concise sales pitch that quickly explains the meat of the problem. This should be a way to explain the situation in a concise and efficient manner so that you could tell it to someone in the time it takes to ride an elevator. This “elevator pitch” is only to get your foot in the door; to get a lawyer interested enough to hear you out, not to explain all the nitty-gritty and tiny details of your case.

f. You also need to be ready to present your case in a way that is easy to understand and covers all the bases and possible flaws that might exist. While people like us might argue on occasion, lawyers argue for a living and make a living by finding flaws they can exploit in a case. So you have to spend quite a bit of time going over your case and considering what kinds of arguments someone might come up with to say your case isn’t going to work and be ready to tell them why it would. Be prepared to defend yourself, be prepared to answer questions of your integrity… If you went through a criminal trial, think of each lawyer call as a potential retrial… Sometimes it can be that hard to get a lawyer to listen and they will question your side of things as well.

g. As part of making your case easy to understand, it’s also important to make sure what you are trying to communicate is legible and articulate. Write down what happened, all your arguments, and everything else and then present it to your family or friends before you contact a lawyer. Make sure that people can understand your case, what you believe was wrong about what happened and what harms were done and how that was the fault of those you believe violated your rights. A lawyer won’t return your calls or agree to help you if they can’t figure out why you want their help.

2. After you’ve prepared your sales pitch, your full presentation, have done your homework to make sure your case has some legal standing, and carefully considered what the case is worth, then you’re ready to start calling. But, who do you call or write? Well, again, remember that it is much more difficult to get a lawyer interested in taking on your case than you could possibly imagine. So be prepared to call or write each and every lawyer that you can find. Sure, it is very emotionally traumatic to tell your story over and over again and face a brutal questioning by a lawyer over what happened to you… But you have to be ready to do this over and over and over again… odds are you’ll have to. Odds are even more in favor of you doing so and still not ever getting your case heard.

3. Be persistent. Keep trying, try and try again, try until your eyes bleed and you’re so frustrated you just want to scream! Then scream your guts out and try again! Keep trying until the statute of limitation runs out on you… Because it really is that hard to find a lawyer that will take your case unless the abuse you suffered was caught on camera and aired on the television, (…and even then it can be hard to find a lawyer that will take your case).

4. Be prepared for rejection. I bet you could see this coming, right? Everything I’ve said so far should have made it clear that the odds are against you ever getting a lawyer to take your case, let alone that case being successful if someone does take it. The laws of this state and city are such to make it nearly impossible to win a case against the government, and this is by design. It’s not that anyone thinks you haven’t been wronged; odds are that you were because there are few consequences for those who violate your rights exactly because it’s so hard to sue for such violations.

Some lawyers told me that they hear HUNDREDS of stories of abuse, some worse than the ones you’ve heard in the media, and they can’t take the cases because they would be so hard to prove, even if they were so compelling that you could tell that person was clearly wronged. That’s the nature of the law in this country, it’s unbalanced against the defendant in criminal trials and unbalanced against the victim in trials against the government… remember, government made the laws so those laws will favor the government. Sure, it’s wrong and it encourages more abuses… but it is the way it is for now. It’s best that you know this up front and be prepared to have to live with what was done to you.

It's also important not to be mad at the lawyers who turned you down, they aren't the ones that hurt you or violated your rights. Their hands are tied by the same system that allowed you to be abused and there isn't much they can do about it. I know it's hard not to see them as participating in the injustice against you by not helping you right it, it was hard for me too... but in the end it's not their fault, it just is what it is. All we can do is try to change the system to make it more just for everyone.

In the end, if you’re case doesn’t make it anywhere… you’re not alone. So many people have been wronged by their own government throughout history that, well, it’s been done since time in memorial. Heck, it’s the reason why this country was formed, because a government wronged the people. If it helps, it happened to me as well, it’s why I’m giving you this advice today. So, in the end, still try to make something positive out of what happened in whatever way you can, and try to live with it as best you can. Because you’re not alone, and there are people that care even if it seems like those you tried to get help from didn’t.

I sincerely hope this helps you find justice where so many others have failed, and if it doesn't I hope it better prepares you for the very real possibility that you will never have justice, like so many others before you. In the end, may all of our efforts and suffering bring about change so that others may not have to endure what we have, regardless of whether any of us have justice for ourselves or not.

I also wish you the very best of luck... Let us hope you succeed where most have failed before you.

The Frustration Of Missed Opportunities For Change

I got a really disturbing report today that I'm working on about a frustrating and utterly appalling case of yet more brutal detainee abuse in the King County Jail . It's occurring at the same damn time that the Department of Justice is still wrangling with the King County government over the deadly constitutional violations it found when it investigated that jail. That the jail is brazen enough to abuse people there in the midsts of negotiations plus a looming class action lawsuit over it's past abuses is appalling and intolerable!

This happened while the Seattle Times and Seattle Post Intelligencer touted the latest contract as fixing Seattle's police oversight problems today while they're still mistakenly reporting that all 29 recommendations have been implemented when they haven't, and they continue to misreport this even when the police guild admitted that they weren't all approved. In the face of the final OPARB report that sites the one recommendation that wasn't approved as a major concern in the disciplinary process just as they are disbanded and the entirety of the citizen's panel report is withheld from the public... they still proclaim the changes as fixing the problems when they don't. They talk about the system needing transparency while the civilian oversight board is being relegated to PR work instead of investigating and reporting on the disciplinary process!

Am I the only one that sees this as a problem? Is the mainstream media going to just keep regurgitating flawed press releases as fact without investigating the claims to ensure they are accurate and truthful? I'd prefer that this site wasn't necessary, it's depressing having to write these articles about the failures in our justice system, but since others won't look into these problems in an honest and earnest way, I'm left to do it alone.

...and it's frustrating to see the chance to improve the system and improve relations between the police and the public get thrown down the drain like this. To pretend that the problem has been fixed when it's just been thrown under the rug in the hopes that nobody notices it until the next time the public is outraged when misconduct goes unanswered because of the loopholes that were left untouched.

Indeed... it's frustrating beyond belief that all these chances for redemption, these wonderful opportunities for positive change, are all being thrown asunder and wasted... and nobody at all seems to notice or care one bit!

So much for any faith in government that I had... and I wonder, am I really the only person in Seattle that cares about justice and the constitution? Damn it all, damn it all to hell!

All this while other cities are taking steps to stop the public from using it's own voice to speak out about misconduct and failures in oversight systems in cities like Boston , Riverside, and even in small town USA as police vow to investigate bloggers who report on alleged instances of police misconduct... all while police here have made it clear they hope to shut this site down and have me arrested for what I write. Even reporters at daily papers in Seattle have been threatened over writing stories about police misconduct here.

I suppose the answer to misconduct and abuse everywhere is the same... cover it up, punish those who report it, and then ignore it... and it certainly seems clear that there are too few of us who care enough about justice and what America was supposed to stand for to do anything to stop it. I wonder, in the end, what will be the ultimate cost for all these missed opportunities for real change?

Answering An Injustice With Injustice

I'll be the first to admit, despite learning first hand that no good deed goes unpunished, that I don't like seeing bad things happen to people and I am usually the first to intervene in order to stop something I think is wrong. This problematic behavior on my part isn't limited to what happened a bit over a year ago, it goes back quite some ways and even continues today. But there is a difference between doing a good deed in response to a wrong and answering a bad deed with another bad deed.

Let me explain...

When I worked my way through college in the 90's I did a stint of time as security at a local bar. It wasn't in the best part of town and most of the bands were better ignored, but it was work and the people I worked with were nice enough. When the occasion arose that I needed to throw someone out, I would always try to reason with them, and in failing to do that I would only use the force necessary to get them out. Again, I don't like to see people suffer and I'm of the firm belief that answering suffering with more suffering only makes things worse... that revenge is not something to be confused with justice.

For example, one time while working the door I saw a woman being attacked by some guy. While not part of my job to intervene, I did anyway and ended up having to chase the guy down and detain him when I found out he stole the woman's purse. When I caught him I didn't beat him up, or even punch him, I got him in an arm bar and leveraged him to the ground where I held him until the police came. It wasn't my job to be judge, jury, and executioner... It wasn't my place to determine what punishment he deserved even though the police seemed to have hoped I roughed him up before they got there... those things are for the justice system to determine and do, not for a single person in the heat of a moment to decide and act upon. I did what I had to, got the purse back, put the guy off the streets, and everything was better in my small part of the world that night.

In Seattle, it's different. Out here it seems that lynch mobs and vigilantism is commonplace and encouraged... apparently being part of a drunken angry mob makes one qualified to determine someone's guilt and what punishment is merited here. It wasn't just my case that showed me this, there are others. Consider the case of what happened to Zsolt Dornay that was published below this post. Sure, Dornay has a questionable history with the police department, but was the crowd really justified in beating him down for what they claimed he did, even if he did do those things? And, in the process of taking justice into their own hands to hurt him more than was required to stop what he was doing they put events into play that resulted in the off-duty officer shooting a person who, by all witness accounts, wasn't even a party to the assault. A wrong wasn't righted that night, one wrong was answered with another to make a bad situation even worse.

Just today there was yet another example of Seattle's love of drunken justice, Jonah at The Stranger wrote about another case of lynch-mob justice in Seattle. Seems a young man was tossed out of a local bar for pinching a young woman's butt. The drunken patrons of the establishment convicted the accused and sentenced him to a brutal beating in the middle of the street that even included the use of a nearby folding chair. Seems that mob justice determined that the crime of pinching a buttocks is heinous enough to deserve attempted murder. Of course, anything done that results in a beating by an angry mob in Seattle is considered as a crime worthy of attempted murder by the law here.

The police won't likely do anything about it, they support vigilantism as evidenced by how they treated what happened to me when it turned out that I was an innocent victim of mob-justice. Even if they did do something, which they only do when it's one of their own that is the victim of mob-justice, the prosecutor would likely refuse to do anything about it because any accusation of crime gives an angry mob legal justification for acting as judge and executioner in this city. Even so, the people of Seattle see nothing wrong with it as well. After all, the responses to Jonah's article range from "he deserved it" to "why is this even worth posting?" as if mob rule by a group of angry drunkards were a sufficient replacement for a justice system with checks, balances, and a presumption of innocence until trial.

I suppose that Seattle is so far northwest that it's still backwards and firmly in the old west, where mob rule was the law of the land and if you were strung up on a tree you must have deserved it somehow. The problem is that... sometimes, the angry mob is wrong and the drunken pursuit of justice is easily transformed into an injustice that was worse than the alleged crime. When that happens, not only does the drunken mob punish an innocent victim, but they also let the real culprit get away and become accessories to the crime themselves.

A beating from a lynch-mob is every bit as unjust as a beating done by a bad cop, and in many ways, it's worse. But in Seattle, while citizens may complain about police brutality the angry drunken mob is revered by them. Such vigilantism is encouraged by the city through it's tolerance of such beatings and the people accept the occasional beating of an innocent person a worthwhile price to pay. So long as this type of behavior is tolerated and encouraged in Seattle, it's only going to continue unabated until some angry mob administers a death sentence on an innocent person... and when that does happen, the city will be just as much to blame as the people who administered the fatal blows.

Because, in the end, a brutal beating at the hands of an angry mob should never be confused with justice, that's not the intent of an angry mob. The intent is retaliation, the intent is to cause harm under the alibi of an accusation, and a wrong answered with a wrong only multiplies the suffering caused by the first wrong. Ultimately, adding an injustice to an injustice in such a way never gives us justice as a result.

Happy Independence Day

First, I want to wish everyone out there a happy and safe Fourth of July holiday weekend.

Many of you, I hope, have never experienced how frightening and oppressive it can feel to have your freedom forcibly taken away from you. I know it's something I never expected to experience in my lifetime, and something I hope that you do not experience either. It's a dehumanizing and soul-crushing thing to be treated as if you were inferior to everyone else, as if you didn't deserve the same rights as others, as if you were less than human even.

But, one thing it does teach you is that freedom is a precious thing, something that we take too much for granted and give up too easily these days because freedom is much more fragile and tenuous than we realize... something I'm reminded of every time I hear someone say I deserve to be imprisoned, or worse, just for what I write. It's a sentiment that seems so utterly incompatible with the concept of America to me, but apparently it's a palatable idea to most Americans in the freedom-hating security conscious mood that most Americans have these days.

So, during this holiday that marks the day our country won it's freedom, I ask you to not only celebrate your own freedom, but cherish it, contemplate what it would be like if you didn't have it, recognize how dear this thing called freedom really is, and how worthy it is of defending... because, the way I see it, America is in desperate need of people who cherish freedom enough to defend it like the founders of this country did.

Enjoy your holiday weekend...