Tag Archives: police brutality

Labor council to Seattle police union: Address racism or get out

Posted on by

From today’s Crosscut Online:

The largest labor coalition in King County is giving the Seattle Police Officers Guild an ultimatum: acknowledge and address racism in law enforcement and in their union or risk being kicked out of the group.

In a vote Thursday, executive members of the King County Labor Coalition — a sort of union of unions — passed a resolution laying out tasks for the police guild, which represents over 1,000 rank-and-file officers.

SPOG must state that racism is an issue in law enforcement and within its own organization. The union must participate in workgroups focused on addressing racism in the union. It must commit to police contracts that do not evade accountability. And there must be consequences when professional standards are not followed and harm is done.

Jane Hopkins, executive vice president of SEIU 1199, said she wants to hear the head of the union, Mike Solan, say, “Black lives matter,” and to mean it.

The labor council is basically giving the police union one last opportunity to reform itself. SPOG has until June 17 to meet these demands, or the council will vote on whether to throw it out of the organization.

The resolution, which was brought forward by health workers’ SEIU1199 and grocery workers’ UFCW 21, also calls on Mayor Jenny Durkan to move swiftly and prioritize strong police accountability in the next round of labor negotiations with the union and to reconsider investments in law enforcement. It calls on City Attorney Pete Holmes to not prosecute protesters. 

The resolution is a dramatic turnaround for the labor council, which welcomed the police union into its ranks in late 2014 and had fought on its behalf ever since. Labor council representatives even hosted a press conference in 2018, calling on the Seattle City Council to ratify a new contract with the police union.

Read the complete article here.

Here’s how to hold police accountable: Don’t let their unions give money to prosecutors

Posted on by

From today’s Los Angeles Times:

Amid reports from across the country about escalating clashes between protesters and law enforcement, it’s worth looking underneath the images for the roots of the outrage. It is the extrajudicial killings of unarmed people by police, and not the protests against them, that too often spark the cycle of violence and death in the United States. It is the cruel and unyielding knee on the neck of George Floyd in Minneapolis, and thousands of other police officer knees, fists and trigger fingers that undermine public safety and instill fear.

That’s why we need to demand accountability and change from law enforcement and the criminal justice establishment that too often shrugs at police violence.

The ties that bind elected officials to police unions must be broken. District attorneys and other elected prosecutors should reject campaign donations and endorsements from law enforcement labor groups, because union support compromises a prosecutor’s independence and clouds the decision over whether to criminally charge police who abuse their power. It diminishes a D.A.’s incentive to seek out and share with defense lawyers — as the 6th Amendment requires — the names of officers whose past misconduct undermines their value as prosecution witnesses. It undercuts a D.A.’s impulse to fight laws that hide from the public the names of problem officers.

Bar associations should revise their ethics rules to forbid candidates for district attorney (and city prosecutor and state’s attorney) to accept police union money. Lawmakers should adopt laws to likewise prohibit the practice — although they will find it easier to do if they, too, say no to police union largess.

Police unions have every right to advocate for the pay, benefits and working conditions of their members. But one of their tasks is to defend officers in misconduct cases, and that makes the conflict of interest readily apparent. An elected official considering whether to prosecute officers should not be, in essence, on the political payroll of the agency defending the very same people.

Read the complete article here.

OWS attempts to shut down Stock Exchange, hundreds arrested

Posted on by

Hundreds of protesters marched on Wall Street early this morning to prevent traders, financiers, and technocrats from reaching their jobs at the Stock Exchange. So far, 100 people have been arrested as the Occupy Wall Street movement vows to keep up its visible presence in New York, highlighting the greed and injustice of the American financial and political system.

84-year-old Dorli Rainey was brutally pepper sprayed by Seattle police, and has become a symbol of the brutal tactics used by law enforcement to suppress democratic dissent.

Protesters clogged the streets around Wall Street, blocking traffic and halting people from reaching the Exchange. Police in riot gear moved in quickly, telling the marching crowds to disperse or face arrest. When dozens of people began sitting down in the intersections, they were quickly arrested. Similar protests and marches are scheduled to continue throughout cities across the nation.

The tactics of law enforcement have come under increasing scrutiny as video footage is leaked to the public and press, showing police pepper spraying and beating otherwise peaceful protesters. In Seattle, the police are being heavily criticized for unjustifiably using pepper spray and truncheons on its own citizens including 84-year-old Dorli Rainey, who has come to symbolize the protest movements nationwide.

As law enforcement moves to evict occupiers in cities across the country, more attention should focus on police tactics, which all too often rely on the brutalization of citizens and the violation of their civil liberties. The police are supposed to “serve and protect,” but their role in suppressing these democratic protests raises the question whether they have become an instrument for the wealthy and powerful to preserve the status quo. Mayors, police commissioners, and officers who are implicated in these brutal tactics should be held accountable for their actions.