by Luna Reyna
Tuesday evening, the Seattle City Council Public Safety and Human Services Committee held the only public hearing where community members could give input on the upcoming Seattle Police Management Association (SPMA) contract before closed-door negotiations.
Continue reading Public Hearing on Seattle Police Union Contract Considered a ‘Sham’ by Some, Progress by Othersby Vee Hua 華婷婷
by Kari Plog
(This article was originally published on KNKX Public Radio and has been reprinted under an agreement.)
It’s been more than a year since Chief Avery Moore moved from Dallas and took over the Tacoma Police Department. Since then, he has hired more officers and launched a phased plan to address violent crime.
But concerns from the public remain, among them the stalled internal investigation into three Tacoma officers charged with killing Manuel Ellis.
Continue reading A Year After Taking Over, Tacoma Police Chief Talks Violent Crime, Morale and Officers Awaiting Trial
“Who Keeps Us Safe?” is a podcast by Asian Americans living in Seattle that explores safety, policing, and abolition in our communities and beyond. Join us monthly as we speak with organizers in the Seattle area, and reflect on their work and learnings. We hope that our listeners will use this podcast to begin and/or supplement their own conversations about safety and policing in their own communities. This is a project of PARISOL: Pacific Rim Solidarity Network, a grassroots anti-imperialist, anti-capitalist, Hong Konger, Taiwanese, and Chinese* diaspora group based in Seattle. PARISOL is dedicated to local & international solidarity, community building, cultural & politicized learning, abolition, and anti-racist work.
Who Keeps Us Safe? (WKUS) is a podcast by Asian Americans living in Seattle that explores safety, policing, and abolition in our communities and beyond. In each monthly episode, we speak with organizers in the Seattle area, and reflect on their work and learnings.
In partnership with the South Seattle Emerald and KVRU 105.7FM, WKUS is relaunching a previously recorded podcast each month at the Emerald.
by Luna Reyna
Washington State is grappling with police violence and accountability issues. Over the past year, we have witnessed citizens’ frustration spill into the streets, many demanding to defund the police entirely. Meanwhile, more than $24 million in cannabis taxes are going to the Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Board (LCB) whose Liquor Enforcement Officers (LEO) are issued uniforms with police patches and jackets with “POLICE” plastered in front and back despite not having adequate training or the authority these things allude to. LCB vehicles have also been modified with the same red and blue strobe lights as typical police cars. Until a security risk management firm review in 2019, all agents carried a mandatory firearm. Another $5.6 million goes to an actual drug enforcement task force run by Washington State Patrol.
After Initiative 502 (I-502) passed in 2012, which made Washington the second state in the country to legalize recreational cannabis, it was largely celebrated. Many supporters had hopes that Washington’s recreational cannabis industry could be a template for other states that weren’t far behind. In the excitement to legalize cannabis, the existing regulatory body, the Washington State Liquor Control Board, was renamed the Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Board (LCB) and tasked with the licensing and regulation of all marijuana production, processing, and sales. Within weeks, the newly appointed LCB leaders violated open public meetings law by meeting at least 17 times with local police and prevention groups privately.
This has colored the ways in which the LCB has operated since. Just a few months after I-502 was passed, the LCB attempted to classify LEO as a general authority Washington law enforcement agency through proposed legislation HB 1876, which would have amended current law to include a “peace officer or enforcement officer of the state liquor board” in the definitions of both “criminal justice personnel” and “law enforcement personnel.” The amended language would have changed what was largely intended to simply be a regulatory agency into an agency with the authority to arrest lawbreaking individuals, write search warrants, access criminal databases, or perform similar key functions in conducting criminal investigations like any other state police officer.
Continue reading OPINION: Liquor Cannabis Board Agents May be Operating Beyond Their Legal Authorityby Kevin Schofield
This weekend’s “long reads” include a close look at a local political survey; the Washington State Health Department’s biweekly status update on the spread of COVID-19 in the state; and a guide to how Seattle’s foray into participatory budgeting might take shape.
Continue reading Weekend Reads: Surveying Seattle Voters on Policing and Homelessness
