Unfortunately, that last word in the headline, "beat," was a verb, not a noun - at least in the case of the now-notorious April 17 incident in which two Seattle officers kicked and stomped on a non-resisting suspect on Westlake Avenue (who later turned out to be innocent) while several other officers stood around and watched. Just another day at the office.
Except that it wasn't, because unlike countless other such beat-downs, a freelance videographer for a local TV station happened to video the scene.
And after the videographer's usual employer, KCPQ-13, sat on the tape for weeks (in order, says the cameraman, to protect its cozy relationship with the Seattle Police Department (SPD) - a decision that has since cost two KCPQ staffers their jobs), the footage showed up on KIRO-7 TV instead on May 7.
It has probably played a major role in the selection of the next Seattle police chief. Or rather, who will not be the next chief.
Political policing
That would be interim chief John Diaz, one of three finalists announced by Mayor Mike McGinn just after the story broke. Diaz didn't do himself any favors by, first, claiming he hadn't seen the footage (for example, via his friends in the KCPQ-13 news department), then by defending his officers before finally cottoning to the "full and thorough investigation" mantra suitable to a PR disaster of this sort.
It's not like Seattle police chiefs should need any kind of primers in the political nature of the job. Gil Kerlikowske, the previous chief, had a relatively quiet, efficient tenure, putting an end to a rash of SPD shootings of unarmed black men in the '90s, and now he's President Barack Obama's drug czar.
Kerlikowske's predecessor, Norm Stamper, had some of those shootings, the anti-WTO protests and a Mardi Gras death on his watch, and now he's writing books about policing (and the insanity of the War on Drugs) rather than doing policing itself.
Being a police chief - especially in cities with deep chasms of police mistrust in their non-white communities (a description that fits Seattle as well as most other big U.S. cities) - is an inherently political job. It requires balancing the trust and loyalty of your officers, your supervisors (i.e., elected officials) and the general public.
Having an officer tell a suspect, later proven innocent, that he'll "beat the (expletive) Mexican (expletive) out of you, homey," is not a good way to build bridges with a lot of that public - especially when it's caught on tape.
Especially when the first reactions of the interim chief, who's up for the permanent gig, are to equivocate and make excuses.
Fortunately, the other two finalists - police chiefs Rick Braziel of Sacramento and Ron Davis of East Palo Alto, Calif. (a largely poor, non-white city in the midst of Silicon Valley) - don't seem to have any sort of similar baggage.
By next month, McGinn will select one of the three finalists for City Council approval.
And another recent McGinn decision suggests that he'll take what critics of the public-safety establishment have to say seriously.
Policing priorities
Last week, McGinn cancelled city plans for a controversial new jail project for misdemeanor offenders. The previous Nickels administration had insisted a pricy, new facility was necessary because the city's agreement with King County to house such offenders was set to expire in 2014, and the county, citing its own rising jail population, didn't want to renew the agreement.
Critics claimed that such offenders (mostly nonviolent drug users) could be handled more effectively and inexpensively through diversion and treatment programs than with a new jail - and McGinn, apparently, agreed. He cut a deal with new King County Executive Dow Constantine to extend the city/county agreement, based in part on the city's ability to reduce its number of jail referrals.
It's a refreshing departure from the automatic political impulse in recent decades to build ever-newer, more elaborate facilities to warehouse people who often don't need to be there.
The new police chief will need to implement those priorities. That won't happen with cowboy cops on the sidewalks of Seattle. The acid test for relations between the mayor, City Council, SPD and the new chief will continue to be police-accountability issues - a weak reform (the Office of Professional Accountability) pushed through more than a decade ago has so far proven ineffective as a balance to SPD's tendency to investigate and absolve itself.
The police culture
To be fair, urban police officers in a city the size of Seattle often have a thankless and impossible job: interacting on a daily basis with some of the worst humanity has to offer, along with a substantial portion of the community that views you as the enemy, while remaining objective and professional.
It's far too easy to become jaded and cynical - to view all civilians as the enemy, and yourselves as having and deserving any license to stop "the bad guys." Just ask all those officers who stood around and watched on Westlake Avenue.
One or two officers misbehaving can be chalked up to bad judgment. A half-dozen? That's not an aberration: It's a culture. And it must be challenged - and changed.
Geov Parrish is cofounder of Eat the State! He also reviews news of the week on "Mind Over Matters on KEXP 90.3 FM.[[In-content Ad]]
