Public outcry after the shooting of First Nations member John T. Williams has stirred something in Seattle that some feel may change how this city looks at law, power and politics.
In just 29 days, Williams' death has reached martyr-like proportions. Friends, fellow carvers, native drummers and activists marched somberly in his name through rainswept streets. Mayor Mike McGinn built a platform around the shooting upon which he wants to establish change.
Williams' untimely death on a sunny August afternoon at the hands of police officer Ian Birk, also led to major departmental changes in the Seattle Police Department. The changes culminated in a two-hour press conference Sept. 15 at City Hall where the mayor, police Chief John Diaz and high-ranking officers fielded dozens of questions from the media and citizens alike.
Hours later on the same day, just on the other side of City Hall's indoor river, the same citizens joined by more than 100 others filled the voluminous city council chambers and insisted change happen.
Though a Rodney King-sized riot was unlikely in polite Seattle, it seemed somebody's head would have to roll.
Or would it. This is where power, politics and process collide.
"It's the same everywhere that there's a police union. The mayor is powerless, the city councils are afraid of their own police, the police chief can't do anything about the force," said Ramona Bennett, former chairwoman of the Puyallup Tribal Council, addressing the crowd at City Hall, according to the PubliCola news source.
"Most of the police are decent, they're there to protect all of us. It's those bad apples that get through the screening and get through the training ... they're the other gang in blue. What we need is for the police who are decent people to put their union in check and quit exonerating killers."
Immediately after the shooting-Birk shot Williams four times, a fact both eye-witnesses and police confirm, a police investigation began. In its investigation, police taped off the area, gathered evidence including Williams' 3-inch carving knife, video and photos (though the small totem he was working on has since disappeared) and questioned more than 16 witnesses.
The yellow tape is gone. In its place are flowers, sprigs of red cedar, a heart with wings spray-painted on the sidewalk, and posters with likenesses of Williams.
Family friend and lawyer, Connie Sue Martin, who has been advising family members, said they understand that people are upset, but they don't "want their private loss to be a political hot potato or cause.
They understand the Native American community wants take this opportunity to make social changes, but they don't welcome the attention."
Martin added, "To see giant pictures of John as yet another picture of police brutality causes the family further grief."
Closed doors
Though the closed police investigation is near completion, the public will not see the results as on Oct. 4, the report goes directly to the Firearms Review Board (FRB) and to King County Prosecutor Dan Satterberg. King County code requires that any death involving a member of any law enforcement agency while on the job have a formal inquest. Jurors from the regular Superior court juror pool empanel the inquest.
The FRB though, is made up of four high-ranking police officers and two non-voting observers. The observers can comment during the review but cannot vote and must leave before the panel deliberates.
One observer is Sgt. Rich O'Neill, who is also president of the Seattle Police Officers Guild. The other is attorney Rebecca Roe, who feels outnumbered and wants to usher in change.
Last week, the City Council public-safety committee met to discuss Roe's report in which she wrote that the board was too "lenient" with officers who go before the board that decides whether the weapon discharge was within policy.
Roe has been an observer since 2007. In that time, she said, every case of a fired weapon that went before the board was considered within policy.
"None of them have come out any different than that," she said. Roe has asked that the City Council bring on another civilian observer and allow her to submit her opinion in writing to Chief Diaz before he makes a decision on the board's recommendation. She also wants the observers to be present during the deliberation, which was the way the ordinance of the FRB had originally been set up. Both the mayor and Diaz like the idea. O'Neill does not.
O'Neill told The Seattle Times that he sees no reason for change, and the guild would have to rubber stamp the idea before it gets passed. O'Neill did not return phone calls before News press time.
"Whether or not we can vote is not as important as being able to express my point of view," Roe said. "There are other people's points of view which are incredibly important which is so lost in this day and age where you can have a meaningful discussion and actually change people's points of view."
The Seattle Police Officers Guild (SPOG) is the largest police labor union in the Northwest with more than 1,250 members. It's top priority, according to its mission statement is "to protect the benefits, working conditions, training and equipment" of its members. Last November, SPOG backed mayoral candidate Joe Mallahan and favored either Diaz or candidate Rick Braziel for the job of police chief.
To serve and protect
The SPOD mission, to support its own, is not unusual among unionized organizations. But it has stirred cynicism among residents such as Ramona Bennett and Seattle-based defense attorney Peter Friedman, the latter who said the guild has too much power.
"The mayor and chief of police need to have the guts to wrest control from the guild," Friedman said. "But it's politics. They want the guild's endorsement."
That power, according to Friedman is preventing the mayor or chief from weeding out troubled officers. All too often, officers are moved through an inquest process then reinstated, he said.
He pointed out officer Zsolt Dornay, who in 2006 got into a widely disputed altercation in Post Alley that left him badly beaten and a Kent area lawyer shot in the abdomen. Dornay kept his job on the criminal investigations bureau then and may still after a drunken driving conviction Sept. 10 in Grays Harbor County. He is scheduled to be sentenced Oct. 1. The SPD has not commented on Dornay's future.
Some officers, as in King County, are not getting the support they might have once expected. The King County Police Officers Guild has decided not to give King County Deputy Sheriff Paul Schene his job back after he was tried twice on a misdemeanor charge of fourth-degree assault. On Nov. 29, 2008, Schene was charged with assaulting a girl in a holding cell - an incident that was captured on surveillance video. In the video Schene can be seen kicking, grabbing and punching then-15-year-old Malika Calhoun.
Lots of unknowns
A decision on Birk's future is months away as he is still on paid administrative leave and the inquest into the shooting may carry into 2011. But while Birk's future may be in a holding pattern, preparation for a wrongful death lawsuit against the Seattle Police Department has already begun.
Timothy K. Ford, a 30-year law veteran for Seattle-based civil rights firm MacDonald Hoague and Bayless, has been hired by John T. Williams' brother, Rick Williams, to represent the Williams' estate. Ford is set on gathering information needed to conduct an investigation. "We're not just accepting something put together by police investigators working in the same department as the officer," he said.
Last year, Ford represented Nicomedes Tubar who was struck by a bullet fired by Kent police officer Jason Clift. Nicomedes was riding in the passenger seat of a stolen car. He said he didn't know it was stolen. Clift was on foot and fired shots at the car, striking Nicomedes. Instead of entering an expensive retrial, the City of Kent awarded Nicomedes $400,000.
Ford said it's premature to liken the Tubar case with Williams.' He said Seattle police officers are well defended and indemnified in terms of any civil or criminal action that may occur - never mind the unusual dismissal of Schene from the King County Sheriff's Department.
"This was an incident that was witnessed by a fair number of people and that should help in terms of getting to the bottom of things," Ford said. "With Tubar, there was nobody there except the officer. So the officer's account was hard to counter. But here [Williams' case], it may be possible to get a more objective view."[[In-content Ad]]
