The Seattle Post-Intelligencer today badly botches its coverage of a report by the Seattle Police Office of Professional Accountablity on "use of force" complaints from 2003 through 2005. Nearly half of the complaints are from blacks or other minorities, giving new Seattle NAACP president James Bible a platform to allege racial bias. Heinously, there's no mention of how many complaints were actually sustained, or specifically how often police use force, according to the report. Yet that's mere clicks away.
Page 12 shows that in '03, only 6% of 99 actual "use of force" complaints were sustained; versus %13 of 79 UOF complaints in '04 and 7% of 90 UOF complaints in '05. Nor does the P-I mention that according to the OPA report (p. 8), the use of force rate is less than two-tenths of one percent in each of three years, relative to total police contacts with the public; and just 3.05 % for arrests.
In the larger context, then, Seattle Police use force on an exceedingly infrequent basis, and the vast majority of the few complaints that result are not sustained. Yet based on a poorly-researched and slanted story, the P-I headline blares, "Racial Pattern In Police Abuse Claims," when it ought to read, "Excessive Force Complaints Few, And Mostly Unsustained." The lack of a link to the report, something now commonly done by newspapers at the end of stories based on government or advocacy group reports, also leaves a bad smell. Seeing how clearly the report shows the shoddiness of the story, perhaps it is no surprise, though.
The real law enforcement problems in Seattle, as FBI data show, are high property crime rates and police shortstaffing, versus other cities of population 250,000 and greater.
It has been especially difficult to recruit new officers in Seattle.
Anyone wonder why?
Posted by Matt Rosenberg at January 25, 2007 02:12 PM | Email ThisPeople need to respect and integrate with their police no matter the community.
Posted by: John Bailo on January 25, 2007 02:38 PMWe need fiscal responsibility and fiscal conservatism, as opposed to wasteful programs and continual schemes to hike taxes.
The entire budget of the Seattle police department is only around $212 million - a drop in the bucket compared to what the city leaders would have us waste on the tunnel.
In all spheres of government bureaucracy, we must recognize that there is much wasteful spending on programs that are ineffective, obsolete, or no longer serve the purpose for which they were initially intended. Thus, program-by-program auditing and accountability is necessary, and we will often find that greater results can be accomplished with program reform and less actual spending.
In Seattle, such a program-by-program audit would likely result in deep spending cuts in almost every program, with rare exceptions such as the police.
Such a common sense approach would lead to more police presence, better crime prevention, improved public safety, lower taxes, a better business climate, and a big net decrease in spending.
Unfortuantely, the current city leadership is far from imagining public safety and reduced taxes as priorities.
Posted by: Steve Beren on January 25, 2007 03:09 PMSecond there is huge non-measured contributing factor the number of complaints. The atmosphere the NCAAP promotes. They complain vociferously about excessive force when cops shoot a knife wielding black man, or a black man driving down a cop. They yell and scream racism, murder on and on. When in both those types of cases under any use of force guidelines shooting is justified.
Bottom line the NCAAP encourages complaints, then when more complaints are filed complains of racism.
A self fulling prophesy.
Posted by: JCM on January 25, 2007 03:43 PMThis incorrect and negative attitude towards the police is reflected, on the one hand, in false accusations and the tendency to believe false accusations, and, on the other hand, the low priority given to police presence, crime prevention, and public safety.
Posted by: Steve Beren on January 25, 2007 06:54 PMfirst, reduce crime. then, have a field day slicing & dicing the stats & numbers for race or whatever--
but--get the perps & lock 'em up for a long time--analysis is fine for later. clean the streets first. academia & cocktail party tough guy discussions later.
Posted by: jimmie-howya-doin on January 25, 2007 10:03 PM1. Are there people filing multiple complaints?
If so, who are they and what is their
particular situation?
2. The report says some officers seem to have
more of a problem than others:
a. are these new officers and are they placed
in situations where the err on the side of
more restictive and perhaps even more
provocative responses?
b. Is there a problem with matching
temprament of the officers with their beat
assignment?
3. What did those filing complaints look like
at the time of the contact with the officers?
a. Are the filers middle or other classes and
it that their appearance as perceived by
the officer? For example, was the filer
a CPA in professional attire driving a
vehicle with current tabs and no
mechanical problems like broken tailight?
b. From the perception of officer, did the
filer appear to be a gang member and would
that be the perception of others. In
other words, the interaction was not
that all members of a racial grouping
are perceived as gang members?
4. Are these situations where if the officer and filer were of the same tribe, in other words, a
situation where a warning might be issued to a tribe member instead of further interaction with the system?
Regarding the media:
I read the local papers online, in my opinion, they are not that good. There is an agenda, in my opinion, in the newsrooms of most papers. They are secular progressives and don't make judgements not in accord with that ideology. They are not going to ask tough questions of the police and they aren't going to question some of the cultural dynamics in communities of color, either. They aren't going to ask tough questions because they aren't good reporters. I suppose they will let Dr. Cosby comment on the culture and then be all too happy to print the remarks of the idiots who question his comments.
Posted by: WVH on January 25, 2007 10:30 PM
1) Young predominately black street thugs preying on their neighbors.
2) The police hamstrung by the City a) because of a fear that serious enforcement would bring the likes of Sharpton or Jackson and a rent-a-mob out in force b) most of the Council were died in the wool left wingers who were convinced that the bad actors were that way because of what "society" had done to them c) some on the City Council were ACTIVELY trying to drive property values further down so that they, their family members or their bussiness associates could buy up the property at bargain basement prices and then redevelop it with City sponsored tax breaks (ten years of no property taxes for buyers of the redeveloped properties)
What I am saying is the City government basically allowed and enabled street crime so that elderly, fixed income black residents would be driven out of the area by a) fear for their safety and b) dissincentive for homeowners to maintain a home that's value had been destroyed through City negligence 3) reluctence of banks to lend money to fix up these same homes untill the City declared the area "blighted" and given ten years of no taxes.
Now let's take a look at this ten years of no taxes - who benefits from it? Does a homeowner who fixes up his/her existing home? Not on your life. It applies to land that developers got their filthy theiving mits on at rock bottom price due to the City of Tacoma's deliberate and systematic efforts to strip all value from. it applies to owners who purchased their $500,000 condo in the "redevelopment zone" from a friend, family member or close business associate of someone associated closely with City government.
Tacoma's liberal establishment that controls government consists of closit-racist, blood-sucking parasites who use phoney balloney statistics such as those pointed to in the above article to feather thir own nest or at the very least to further the long range bussiness aims of their contributors.
Posted by: JDH on January 26, 2007 07:57 AM1. I know that someone will correct me as to the author if I am not correct. Was it Mark Twain that said there are lies, damn lies, and statistics? This report was very thin, my point is a truly effective study would have given both quantitative and qualitative information.
2. I am going to state my point again and again as long as I am permitted to post here. Matt is the absolute wrong poster regarding issues involving race, he just doesn't get it. One benefit though, since I can't read everything, I can count on him to bring up anything negative about Blacks.
3. Now, for JDH comments:
a. You are correct that in low income communities of color decent people are preyed on by gangs and street thugs. One only has to look at the situation in LA where Black gangs and Latino gangs are shooting innocent citizens at random.
b. The situation is a bit more complicated than you describe using the example in Tacoma. Aggressive policing does work, but there are problems with aggressive policing just as there are problems with officers left too long in undercover situations. The LA gang unit was disbanded brcause some of the officers abused citizens that shouldn't have been abused and some were on the take.
c. What can I say about Sharpton/Jackson and their ilk. Note, the dem presidential aspirants are kissing his ring for presidential support. Note the favorable media coverage for their antics and the ommission of coverage for clergy of all denominations who preach a stricter interpretation of the Gospel and who hold their flock accountable for their actions. I don't relieve communities of color for personal responsibility, nor does Cosby and many others who are speaking out. The comment is this, leaders and elites who support Sharpton/Jackson and their ilk often have a personal financial stake in their shakedowns. As I recall, Jackson's sons got a Coors distributorship. The situation, in my opinion, is like the elite under Mugabe's rule.
d. What will change the situation is better education which will produce better economic opportunities, assuming we don't elect our own Chavez for president and start down the road to socialism. There has to be a critical mass of successful middle class persons of color.
Still, the situation is a bit more complex than is portrayed.
Posted by: WVH on January 26, 2007 10:15 AMI wonder if half of all police contact incidents in Seattle involve minorities.
I'm just askin'
Posted by: Eric on January 26, 2007 10:16 AM1. I don't know the answer to the question which you posed. It has a racial component which is exactly what I think the original poster wanted.
Is the assumption if all the contacts were from persons of color then all persons of color must be involved in some type of criminal activity?
2. Let we ask the question in a qualitative way, is a lot of the involvement with police by persons of low income, by persons with mental illness, by persons who have not obtained a high school diploma, and by persons with substance abuse problems? I am not excusing behavior, just asking a question.
Posted by: WVH on January 26, 2007 10:25 AMMake absolutely no mistake about it, the police have their hands tied by a City government that is predominantly corrupt/incompetent/ideologically leftist. City government does have some honest people in it but even they are cowed by prospect of Jackson/Sharpton/Farakan techniques being used.
In Tacoma OFFICIAL CORRUPTION as outlined above factors into the indifference to the suffering of long time homeowners who have lost everything, as I assume it likely does in other cities. Make no mistake there is a cabal of opportunists in Tacoma with close ties to City Hall who have been setting up this fleecing of Hilltop property owners for decades and certain of them have gone out of their way actively egging on those who scream racism every time the police have tried to crack down on gangs and other punk-asses.
It is my understanding that civic corruption in Tacoma and Pierce County goes back decades. The first purveyors of the corruption were not people of color, but others. In my opinion, you have focused a racial component solely on what is a decades long system of corruption. That doesn't excuse it. Once a culture of corruption is ingrained in the politics and the system of politics, this corrupt system is used by corrupt people of any race or religion.
Posted by: WVH on January 26, 2007 11:26 AMThat being said my problem has nothing to do with race except that a veil of racial oppression protected effing gang members and other thugs that were destroying the lives of some great people some of whom were friends of mine (who by the way happened to be black).
The filthy corrupt City protected the first group of victimizers by preventing the police from cracking down on them and furthermore make no mistake the City was acting partially in the interests of the second group of victimizers.
Yes, by the y, Tacoma has a long history of political corruption.
Interesting to read Chris Bailey's piece in today's Times http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/opinion/2003540132_bayley25.html regarding the history of police corruption in Seattle/King County. It's good to see that there have been significant changes in police oversight and that the police are no longer in charge of their own accountability.
Oh.
As to down there in Pierce Co, the history of law enforcement is far more appropriately called a history of, well, basically just plain old evil.
From the Feds having to step in in the 1950's because of institutional corruption, through the 1970's when George Janovich's ilk (Pierce Co Sheriff's Dept) had their hands in all the criminal enterprises in the County (racketeering, gambling, arson, extortion, revenge murders. etc, etc) through his successors: Shields (forced to resign because he was supplying underage girls for his deputies), to French (kiddie pornographer), and associated entities like the Tacoma Police Dept ("the City of David Brame") with its current, ongoing police scandals, little has changed.
The biggest obstacle to decent/reputable police departments is the constant: THEY REFUSE CIVILIAN OVERSIGHT. The Nazis (Police state), the Soviets (Police state), and all the police-state dictatorships throughout history share that constant.
It is anathema to true conservatism to turn over, blindly, responsibility for our governmental agencies to any entity, no matter how "innocent" (odd word to describe police agencies) they appear.
Since the review panel judging police behavior is made up solely of police and/or their associates, it is incapable of being honest and objective.
Posted by: cmiklich on January 26, 2007 05:19 PMI think you are correct. I want all children and families to have safe neighborhoods. I want all children to have the opportunity for a good basic education. I don't want a Chavez clone elected president. Hillary, Soros, and Sharpton/Jackson will prove to be a uniting force for a lot of us.
Posted by: WVH on January 26, 2007 11:22 PMSo long as they maintain their majority they maintain all the power, they are not dumb in that regard. They have their "shoe ins" that they support but what they concentrate on is getting their "up and commings" elected to maintain their grasp. This is a very efficient methodology, as I said they are not dumb.
Outsiders who could form a coalition are their menace and they know it, as I said they will allow a certain number of outsider buffoons to get in just so they can concentrate on maintaining their majority. They really watch out for someone who would gather a coalition around them and will put their efforts toward keeping a person such as that out.
John Hathaway of the New Takhoman is in the race to unseat Julie Anderson , this is good. He has name recognition (broke the Brame scandal) and would make a difference here. John is a friend of mine, I ocasionally write an article for New Takhoman regarding transportation issues. I put this out in the interest of disclosure. What John offers is a unflinching willingness to say "this just isn't right." The big joke arround Tacoma is: "do you feel safe saying the things you guys do."
Let me tell you this is a good question and it is not a joke, John has actually been threatened (do a google and you will see). also post #21 above by Cmiklch is also germain. No I do not feel 100% safe - Tacoma, and Pierce County, insiders can be a particularly nasty and vindictive lot (see the above post by cmiklich). But what is ...is and as my brother says I have a willingness to say what everyone else is thinking. There is such a thing as right and there is such a thing as wrong and in Tacoma doing what is wrong has gotten a pass for a century. Questioning it is the right thing to do and John and I and a few others are among those who do. We are a small minority but John's website gives us a forum to get our concerns before others. Mostly what we do is ask the questions that have not been entertained ??by design?? you will have to make up your mind on that one. What I am saying is decisions are made in a vacuum here, if you want someone who will ask probing questions as the decision making process moves forward consider John as a great candidate for the position. He isn't an expert on every topic, no one is, actually he may not even have a solution for any one issue...but he is willing to question what the rammifications are to any policy or practice by the City. Furthermore he will communicate the issue to the public and will make sure that both sides are known.
Posted by: JDH on January 27, 2007 06:57 PMSo long as they maintain their majority they maintain all the power, they are not dumb in that regard. They have their "shoe ins" that they support but what they concentrate on is getting their "up and commings" elected to maintain their grasp. This is a very efficient methodology, as I said they are not dumb.
Outsiders who could form a coalition are their menace and they know it, as I said they will allow a certain number of outsider buffoons to get in just so they can concentrate on maintaining their majority. They really watch out for someone who would gather a coalition around them and will put their efforts toward keeping a person such as that out.
John Hathaway of the New Takhoman is in the race to unseat Julie Anderson , this is good. He has name recognition (broke the Brame scandal) and would make a difference here. John is a friend of mine, I ocasionally write an article for New Takhoman regarding transportation issues. I put this out in the interest of disclosure. What John offers is a unflinching willingness to say "this just isn't right." The big joke arround Tacoma is: "do you feel safe saying the things you guys do."
Let me tell you this is a good question and it is not a joke, John has actually been threatened (do a google and you will see). also post #21 above by Cmiklch is also germain. No I do not feel 100% safe - Tacoma, and Pierce County, insiders can be a particularly nasty and vindictive lot (see the above post by cmiklich). But what is ...is and as my brother says I have a willingness to say what everyone else is thinking. There is such a thing as right and there is such a thing as wrong and in Tacoma doing what is wrong has gotten a pass for a century. Questioning it is the right thing to do and John and I and a few others are among those who do. We are a small minority but John's website gives us a forum to get our concerns before others. Mostly what we do is ask the questions that have not been entertained ??by design?? you will have to make up your mind on that one. What I am saying is decisions are made in a vacuum here, if you want someone who will ask probing questions as the decision making process moves forward consider John as a great candidate for the position. He isn't an expert on every topic, no one is, actually he may not even have a solution for any one issue...but he is willing to question what the rammifications are to any policy or practice by the City. Furthermore he will communicate the issue to the public and will make sure that both sides are known.
Posted by: JDH on January 27, 2007 06:58 PM