Bad Cops & Prosecutors

A Weekly Misconduct Roundup

Posted on September 12, 2008
I'm contemplating making this a regular feature, rounding up the news of the week both in Seattle and elsewhere, so let me know what you think. (poll has been added above)Lots of Misconduct In The Year's BestFirst, I've been really busy for the last few weeks, if you couldn't tell, so I missed it when One World Report on KBCS 91...

Navin Sharma - A Good Cop Who Can't Be A Cop Wins Settlement

Posted on September 10, 2008
Navin Sharma was, by all indications, a good and dedicated police officer with the Vancouver Washington police department. Navin's efforts with the department to develop the Tactical Emergency Medical Support (TEMS-SWAT) Unit was instrumental in saving the lives of numerous fellow officers and citizens alike and his efforts to lead charity drives and events were inspirational...

A New Wall Of Silence Around The SPD

Posted on September 09, 2008
The Office of Professional Accountability (OPA) is the internal investigations branch of the Seattle Police Department that is responsible for investigating allegations of misconduct. Part of the role within that department is community relations in order to build trust within the community for the police department and trust in the internal investigative process itself...

St. Paul, A City Unfettered

Posted on September 05, 2008
The last image recorded on AP photojournalist Matthew Rourke's camera before he was shoved from behind and arrested without warning, as documented here. The total arrests for this week's Republican National Convention appears to be around 820, at least 28 of those arrested were journalists and several more were legal observers and medical professionals who attempted to aid injured protesters...

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Losing The Battle Against Police Misconduct

Posted on September 04, 2008
Photo of Kentucky University journalism student, with press badge, being doused with chemical spray. Note that it's clear he, the only one in range with a camera, is being intentionally targeted by the officer. The photo was taken by Matthew Rourke of the Associated Press, who was also arrested shortly after taking this photograph...

Reporting On Police Activities Is Under Fire

Posted on September 02, 2008
interview with Amy Goodman about her arrest "...I was put into a cell, which I later measured to be about nine by eleven paces. And I was in there with seventeen other?seventeen protesters who had been also arrested that day. Some of them were still soaked with, you know, pepper spray, and their skin was burning, and they were asking for a nurse...

This Week In The News

Posted on August 30, 2008
There have been several interesting stories in the news over the last couple days, so let's take a look...Media Feels The Wrath of Police Miconduct?Let's look outside of Seattle for a second first....With the seemingly unlawful arrest of an ABC news reporter and producer in Denver Colorado at a hotel near the Democratic Party's National Convention this week we certainly thought that maybe the media would be a bit more sensitive about complaints of police misconduct and unlawful activities that could have political motivation, such as what occured in Seattle at the Seattle Police Officer's Guild during a Republican candidate for governor's public press conference just a week before the arrest of Asa Eslocker in Denver...

Did Police Ransack Police Brutality Activist's Home?

Posted on August 30, 2008
An interview with Michelle Gross of Communities Against Police Brutality Among the numerous reports of several politically motivated raids taking place over the weekend in Minnesota to preemptively disrupt groups planning on protesting the Republican National Convention was this story of an anti-police brutality activist who's documents were ransacked back at her home while she was detained elsewhere in one of the questionable raids...

Blue Must Be True

Posted on August 29, 2008
"If self-policing worked, then society would not need the police would we? Law enforcement agencies (as miniature societies) are no different - they cannot police themselves." -Karl Mansoor Who is Karl Mansoor? Mr. Mansoor is an ex-police officer and a current law enforcement instructor in Virginia...

Seattle Police Officer Indicted On Multiple Charges In Sturgis Shooting

Posted on August 28, 2008
Originally posted on 08/28/08 at 08:58, updated 08/28/08 at 17:27Multiple charges have been filed today against Seattle police officer and Iron Pigs Motorcycle Club member Detective Ron Smith upon the recommendation of a Meade County grand jury over the August 9th shooting incident where Detective Smith, who was off-duty in attendance at the Sturgis motorcycle rally, had shot a Hells Angels Motorcycle Club member twice inside of a crowded Sturgis bar...

How Dangerous Is Police Work? (and other police misconduct statistics)

Posted on August 27, 2008
I received an email today asking, as many do, whether there are any hard statistics on police related violence and color of law abuses. Unfortunately, as I have to tell many people, there aren't any easy ways to get this kind of information for a number of reasons...

Sturgis Shooting Update

Posted on August 27, 2008
A Meade County, SD grand jury reconvened today in order to determine whether or not any charges would be filed over the shooting that occurred in a Sturgis, South Dakota bar last week by an off-duty Seattle police officer who was attending the annual Sturgis motorcycle rally as a member of the Iron Pigs Motorcycle club...

Monkey See...

Posted on August 26, 2008
Visitors By City For The Last 30 Days The blogger over at Apesma's Lament, a really great local blog I try to make a daily habit of visiting, put up a map of his visitors for the month as a show of his obsessiveness with his blog stats... I share his pain...

Tim Burgess Wages War On... Social Disorder?

Posted on August 25, 2008
Seattle city councilmember Tim Burgess has recently released his plan to combat "social disorder" within Seattle. While admitting that crime rates in the city are the lowest that they have been in several decades, he has come up with a new way to justify a call for more aggressive police tactics and additional hires for the most expensive police force within the state...

From The E-Mailbag

Posted on August 24, 2008
I received this message last night from an anonymous reader in regards to the Sturgis shooting story that's been in the press lately and I thought I would share it with my readers to see what they thought about it... "Sir, you should check your facts before printing things on your blog if you want legitimacy...

About The Seattle Public Safety Civil Service Commission

Posted on August 20, 2008
The city of Seattle was recently forced to rehire a police officer who was charged with felony harassment and then plea bargained down to a misdemeanor harassment conviction after a jury deadlocked over an incident where the officer was accused of barging into the home of his ex-wife, shoving her, and then threatening her boyfriend while off-duty...

A Tapestry Of Abuses Redux

Posted on August 19, 2008
I haven't posted for a while on purpose as I wanted to leave the last post about how Seattle Police misconduct complaints are bypassing the OPA process and being dismissed without oversight or investigation by SPD brass at top for as long as I could...

Seattle Police Brass Excusing More Misconduct

Posted on August 14, 2008
An interesting trend appears to be developing at the Seattle Police Department's "Office of Professional Accountability", or SPD OPA for short. Not only are complaints taking longer to investigate, but it appears as though fewer complaints are actually making it to the actual investigation process itself...

Seattle Media Intimidated Into Silence?

Posted on August 12, 2008
An interesting aspect of the Sturgis shooting story seems to have made a lot of people wonder why all the media and blogs in Seattle kept silent about the name of the Seattle police officer who shot a Hells Angel Motorcycle Club member in a South Dakota bar while off-duty this weekend...

Off-Duty Seattle Police Officer Involved In Sturgis Biker Shooting

Posted on August 11, 2008
An off-duty Seattle police officer and member of the "Iron Pigs" motorcycle club, a biker group comprised of law enforcement officer and firefighters, is being investigated after being detained as a result of a shooting in Sturgis South Dakota this weekend...

A Tapestry Of Police Abuse Tales

Posted on August 09, 2008
Some sad and frightening stories of police brutality and misconduct from across the nation to thread together this week... While not all from the same place, they still weave the same pattern...Let's start with the terrifying tale of Mr. Andre Thomas:...

Man Shocked 12 Times By SPD Files Suit

Posted on August 07, 2008
Jury selection began Tuesday for the civil rights lawsuit filed by Michael Watson against several Seattle Police officers over an arrest that occurred during the February 2005 Mardi Gras in Seattle?s Pioneer Square. The incident arose over allegations of theft made by a reportedly aggressive street vendor against Watson, who was accused of stealing a $5...

Around The Net Again

Posted on August 07, 2008
Some interesting stories, some of which I'll write more on later... but for now:?I don?t have to show my papers on demand; I don?t live in that kind of world? says Olympia attorney Legrand Jones about his fight against charges of obstruction for not showing his identification when Tacoma Washington police officers demanded it...

Out Sick

Posted on August 06, 2008
Sorry I haven't been posting much lately, haven't been feeling well.There's plenty to catch up on so I'll be back at it as soon as I can....and thank you for sticking around!

For Nigel

Posted on August 05, 2008
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.

The News Around The Net

Posted on August 01, 2008
Here's some of the news items going around the interwebs for this week:Washington Criminal Defense linked over here in an interesting post about a new rating site. Remember RateMyCop? Well, seems like there's a new rate your judge site up. Somehow I get the feeling that isn't going to end so well...

The Governer Was Carded... So What?

Posted on July 30, 2008
The big news making the rounds today is about Washington state's Governor Christine Gregoire being turned away from an Olympia bar because she didn't have her ID with her when she, her compliment of political friends, and police escort went to have a few after an event...

Allegations Of King County Jail Abuses Continue

Posted on July 28, 2008
The King County Jail, located in downtown Seattle Washington, serves as a detention center for both pretrial detainees and convicted felons in the greater Seattle and King County area. In November of last year a Department of Justice investigation into that facility found, what it termed, egregious and deadly constitutional rights violations that directly caused the death of at least one detainee, if not more...

Undue Process

Posted on July 27, 2008
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...

Seattle Loses Police Misconduct Lawsuit Appeal

Posted on July 24, 2008
Jonah at The Stranger reports that a federal judge has denied the city of Seattle's appeal in the Bradford v. City of Seattle case which found in favor of Bradford who was wrongfully arrested and hit by an SPD officer in 2006.A jury awarded the Boys and Girls Club volunteer $268,000 in the case and the city of Seattle appealed...

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