Steve Miletich and Mike Carter (Seattle Times):City Attorney Pete Holmes has sent a sharply worded letter to Mayor Mike McGinn, warning that McGinn's legal strategy in negotiating police reforms with the Department of Justice has put the city on the verge of a civil-rights lawsuit that could have dire consequences. MORE...
Seattle's "superhero" Phoenix Jones argues with protesters to not face off with a line of police officers. "Its just stupid," he said as he successfully encouraged them to change direction.Marchers took to the streets of downtown Seattle on Friday evening for the second time in a week to protest the decision not to file criminal charges against former Seattle Police Officer Ian Birk, who fatally shot woodcarver John T. Williams last August.Howie P.S.: Here's video (03:18)from KING5 News. Here's a photo gallery from the events on Friday night. The story in Seattle's other daily newspaper concluded with this:
The protest march began about 7 p.m. with about a dozen participants, who were easily outnumbered by police at the scene. After that, the size of the march fluctuated between a few dozen and perhaps 150 participants as it meandered through downtown streets. The march continued until about 10:30 p.m., but as in Wednesday night’s original protest, it appeared to lack solid organization or an actual destination, fracturing at times into separate groups heading off in different directions.
At one point, police drew a hard line against the protesters, moving them out of the street forcefully with mounted and bicycle units after someone smashed out the rear window of a police cruiser. At another point, police used pepper spray on protesters who broke through their lines.
The march came to an end after police, dressed in riot gear, set up a line outside the East Precinct. They were briefly pelted with plastic bottles, but the marchers soon dispersed.
There were protests both at Seattle City Hall and in the streets after Satterberg's announcement, but Friday night's protest seemed angrier.
Cienna and I will be on the Dave Ross show at 9:30 a.m. to discuss the week-long inquest into the shooting of John T. Williams, yesterday's split decision from the jury, that incendiary stuff in Seattle Police Officers Guild's newspaper, the police accountability forum we're holding on February 3, and the correct style of donut to compliment coffee.
That's KIRO at 97.3 FM (with live streaming audio and video---click on the photo of Ross and Burbank).
Charlette Report (seattlepi.com Reader Blog):The Oct. 22 rally at Seattle Central Community College sponsored by the National Day of Protest to Stop Police Brutality easily drew over 500 people to march downtown and stop at the place where John Williams was shot. From there the protesters had a "die in" where they fell to the ground and had a moment of silence.
The message was simple, accountability and a stop to police brutality. From a stage, speeches and microphones, you would think the police would at least be interested in listening to what was being said about their own department but the attitude of police nearby seemed to be apathy and indifference. I asked the police officers standing around getting ready to escort the rally and got comments of "No" and "they don't listen to us, so why should we listen to them?" Apparently there is still an "us vs. them" mentality in the police department with a good measure of disgust in their voice. I'm not sure if its a protective measure, denial or just plain attitude but whatever it is, its definitely there. MORE...
