Community members hold a press conference addressing an upcoming Seattle City Council vote on an agreement between the Seattle Police Officers Guild and the city of Seattle at City Hall, Nov. 13, 2018. (Dorothy Edwards/Crosscut)
As anti-racism protesters filled city streets this past summer with calls for a radical rethinking of public safety, a majority of Seattle City Council members responded by committing to cut the city s police budget by 50%. But making good on that promise has been difficult.
In this, the final episode of This Changes Everything’s focus on efforts to defund the police, host Sara Bernard and reporter David Kroman discuss the political pain and potential ramifications that have come since the council members committed to those cuts.
Torin Bracey chants during a ‘Count Every Vote, Protect Every Person’ rally in Pioneer Square, Nov. 4, 2020. Hundreds of people peacefully marched through Pioneer Square with limited police presence a noticeable difference from the night before, which ended in multiple arrests of protesters. (Dorothy Edwards/Crosscut)
In the midst of the anti-racism protests that followed the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police last spring, a new cry went out: Defund the police! And in the weeks that followed, Seattle city leaders appeared to be listening.
Members of the Seattle City Council, responding to strong advocacy from inside and outside government, pledged to cut the police force by 50%. Cuts did come, but in the end they were less than revolutionary and the debate became muddled and complex.
Proponents of the nation s Defund Police movement have argued that some police funding could be redirected to fund community programs, which would help improve policing, lower police interactions for at-risk populations and lead to better job satisfaction for police and results for taxpayers. (Matt M. McKnight/Crosscut)
Many activists leading the call to defund the police say the answer to disproportionate policing is to take money from the cops and give it to communities. But change is never as easy as writing new lines in a city budget.
In this episode of This Changes Everything’s look at efforts to defund the police, host Sara Bernard and reporter David Kroman examine emerging community programs that are seeking to take the place of police as a way to dismantle the systemic racism that has long been part of the American criminal justice system.
Here’s a video from my personal snapchat. pic.twitter.com/jle0fkzrJM
It’s been nearly a year since Tacoma police were implicated in the death of Manuel Ellis. Video shot in March of 2020 shows Tacoma cops beating Ellis and aggressively restraining him; Ellis died at the scene of what the Pierce County Medical Examiner’s Office found was “hypoxia due to physical restraint.”
A new variant of COVID has been found in Snohomish County. It’s the same highly contagious variant that was recently identified in the UK, and it’s shown up in nearly two dozen other states. Wash your hands, wear your masks, stay home you know what you need to do. I know it’s tempting to go out to bars and to shop and to visit friends and to take off those INFURIATING straps around your ears, but just don’t, just don’t, just don’t.
by Nathalie Graham • Jan 15, 2021 at 2:30 pm
The key to this? Restricting police union contract negotiations on discipline. Lester Black
This year the legislature is going hard on police reform. One bill calls for a ban on chokeholds, no-knock warrants, and tear gas. Other bills would establish a statewide body to review use-of-force cases.
None of those bills would mean anything and officers could still get away with breaking those new rules, Sen. Jesse Salomon argued in a committee meeting yesterday, if we don t change the accountability system.
Currently, police union contracts can negotiate any disciplinary action and can use an arbitration process to contest discipline. All of this creates the environment we see today where cops are very rarely fired for misconduct, let alone held appropriately accountable for their actions. Nationwide, around 52% of cops see their disciplines reduced or overturned.