FBI Launches Civil Rights Probe Into SPD Stomping of Franklin HS Graduate

The investigation needs to start at the top. Mr. Mayor, it is time to look at the command staff. They set the tone for the department.

All the individual officers who were at the scene should investigated. Why did they not step in? When the suspect is face down not moving, the game is over.

The two officers who were out of control, will cost the city big bucks: break out the check book. The only thing not known is how many zeros need to be added.

The command staff sets the example to be followed by the whole department. “We are investigating” is not the right answer.

We saw rapid response when an officer was shot; as should be the case. This case deserves and equally rapid response.

Mr. Mayor, it is time for action, look at those in charge first.

Mark B, I can’t agree with you. If you’d written “African-American COPS” it would hold water. NAACP stands for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. So, tongue-in-cheek?
Even if your post was meant to be flip and funny, I’m not laughing.

Ellen,
Not trying to be funny at all. I’m just saying that you do not see the NAACP there to denounce crimes when it is someone “of color” that is the perpetrator. Not being racist just something that I have witnessed.

WE ARE HUMAN BEINGS, JUST LIKE THE REST OF YOU. I DOUBT ANY OF YOU COULD HOLD THE JOB WITHOUT FEELING THE STRESS OF PROTECTING A SOCIETY THAT IS OUT OF CONTROL.
IT APPEARS TO ME THAT SEATTLITES JUST WANT THE POLICE TO BE ROBOTS THAT GET TURNED ON WHEN A 911 CALL COMES IN. I AM SICK OF HEARING HOW MUCH YOU HATE US, HOW WE SHOULD ALL BE IN JAIL AND THAT WE ARE ALL DISHONEST POWER HUNGRY THUGS. WHY DONT YOU GO OUT AND POLICE YOURSELVES, GO AND ANSWER THE CALL INSTEAD. I WILL GLADLY GIVE UP THE JOB IF I KNEW MY FINE NEIGHBORS WOULD DO IT INSTEAD. STOP JUMPING TO CONCLUSIONS AND JUDGING ALL COPS BASED ON ONE INCIDENT.

P.S . SEATTLE HAS THE FRIENDLIEST, MOST PROFESSIONAL POLICE DEPARTMENT IN THE NATION. WE GET MORE DIVERSITY TRAINING, MORE STRESS MANAGEMENT TRAINING THAN ALL DEPARTMENTS PUT TOGETHER.

DISCLAIMER: Firstly, this is not a comment on or about the incident at the China Harbor restaurant, so when you sit down to type out an attack against me after reading this, just make sure you know what you are attacking me for. ALSO, this post applies to very few of the RVP readers. But the few on the fringes are often very vocal, which is why I have chosen to respond. If this doesn’t sound like it applies to you, then it doesn’t.

Desi’s other comments aside, which I think are more a product of the media’s lust for ratings than anything else, and I think lead to the long list of her misconceptions about a job where less than 1% of applicants get hired (and that’s just the beginning), she is right about one thing (and only one as near as I can tell): many of our actions are dictated by fear for our own safety.

The same media that rakes in huge rating$, and thu$ huge profit$, by portraying the police as just what Desi has come to believe we are (knuckle-dragging thugs…that about right, Desi?), is the same media that does not make an issue of how dangerous the occupation actually is, or try to explain to the public why we do things the ways we do them. The deadliest year in LE history was 1930, with 285 Law Enforcement Officers (LEO’s) killed in the line of duty. The deadliest decade was the 1970’s with a total LEO body count of 2,286 (1974 total was 279). If you were a number-cruncher, you would conclude based on the stats, that the job is safer now than it ever was before…but you would be mistaken. Assaults against police officers have increased over the years, not decreased, and currently the average is more than 58,000 law enforcement officers are assaulted each year, resulting in approximately 16,000 injuries.

Remember the difference between and “assault” and a “murder” is most often just a matter of aim.

At any given moment in a typical day, a police officer or officers somewhere in the USA are locked in mortal combat with some sociopath ass—- who would rather murder them or leave them bleeding to death in a street or on a remote stretch of dark highway, laying ruin to the lives of their family and friends, than spend a few hours or a couple days in a cell before being released, maybe on a bond, maybe without having to post any bond at all. Yes, any given moment during the day.

The drop in fatalities is actually due to much better tactical training than we’ve ever had before, better (but not perfect) body armor, and vastly improved medical science. The biggest factor is medicine, followed closely by tactics.

The drop IS NOT the result of a decrease in efforts by the criminals.

By the time I graduated WCJTC (the police academy), through incidents captured by police car video cameras, news camera, and ordinary citizens, I had seen literally hundreds of police officers murdered in every way imaginable. The purpose of this wasn’t just to scare me (although it is important to let recruits know just what they are buying into) but also so that each video and case study could be examined closely and picked apart to see the common physical and verbal warning signs transmitted by attackers (called Pre-Attack Indicators), and also to learn the common traits and bad habits of officers getting attacked/killed (Fatal Tendencies). We examine videos to see the undeniable proof that action ALWAYS beats reaction…every time. It’s human psychological and physiological fact. I was shown that no confrontation/attack looked remotely like how they are portrayed on TV: they go from Andy Griffith to Gunfight at the OK Corral to Newhall California in the blink of an eye…yes, literally the time it takes to blink. You have to rewind and replay in slow-motion, frame-by-frame, to even see what happened.

We learn about Boyd’s Loop (the OODA Loop) and how it plays into action vs. reaction. And it helps explain why if an attacker holding an edged weapon (most common tool used by humans to kill each other across history until recent centuries) and standing even 21 to 35 feet away, if he/she charges at me, I will not be able to draw my gun, aim, and fire in time to stop the attack. We see it demonstrated in simulations, and in tragic videos of real life.

I see the many different ways offenders suck officers in close by lulling them into a false sense of security, and then attack viciously and without warning. I have seen grandmothers as old as in their 80’s pull guns out of purses, and one who drove a 9-inch knitting needing through an officer’s neck after he had given her a courtesy-ride to her house after a minor traffic collision she was involved in. I saw a seven-year-old who had stolen a car get pulled over by a Highway Patrol Officer, and then shoot the officer dead-center in his chest with a handgun when the officer reached the driver’s side door.

During the past ten years, more officers were killed feloniously on Friday than any other day of the week. The fewest number of felonious fatalities occurred on Sunday. Over the past decade, more officers were killed between 8:01 p.m. and 10:00 p.m. than during any other two-hour period. While you think about that statistic, then remember that four Lakewood PD officers were executed around 8:30am on a quiet Sunday morning.

99.9999% of attacks on officers do not make it into the “news” you are spoon-fed by a for-profit business trying to sell airtime or advertising space in a paper. It doesn’t pay and sell airtime/ad space to be perceived as “cop-friendly”. But even the most outlandish allegations, made by people who have not the faintest clue what statute and case law actually say about use-of-force, investigational detentions, criminal law or criminal procedure, the definitions of reasonable suspicion or probable cause or the applicable court decisions, or what the Criminal Court Rules are regarding review of probable cause, will get full airtime the top of the broadcast, and front page of the paper.

So if I pull you over and am lighting you car up with my spotlights like an incoming airplane, it’s because I know that behind that “curtain of light” you can’t see me, and that gives me an extra chance to live long enough shoot back. I know you don’t like the light in your eyes, but I have an aversion to being shot at, stabbed, and bludgeoned. And you’ll get over the light. It’s not personal. If I seem to be interested in the interior of you car, it’s because I have been taught and also seen for myself where the hidden weapons tend to pop out from. It’s not personal. If you start to get animated and loud and I decide you need to sit down for my safety, it’s because I have seen how animated and loud can easily slip into violent and bloody. It’s not personal. You’re having a bad day? I get it, just sit there and cool off for a minute. It’ll be alright. It’s not personal. You might be an absolutely law abiding citizen, but contrary to popular media, criminals don’t have “I’m a criminal thinking about killing you” tattooed on their foreheads! (I know a few of you are surprised to hear that, but it’s true). You might be perfectly happy to have me in your house, but when I ask you to step out of or away from the kitchen, it’s because so many police officers have been attacked with kitchen carving knives. Do you think if the person who attacked them “looked like a criminal” they would have let them near the knife drawer? No! But until they were trying to carve up a police officer into flank steaks, THEY LOOKED JUST LIKE YOU! It’s not personal.

If I tell you “If you look at my gun one more time I’m, putting you in handcuffs”, it’s because years of intense training and experience have taught me what a “target glance” looks like, and what happens next. And I am not about to get in a tug-of-war with anyone over my own gun, because research shows that if I lose my gun to an opponent, chances he/she will use it against me are 100%, and the chances I will die as a result of that loss of the gun fluctuates between 90-99%, depending on the year in question. Maybe you stared at my gun unconsciously, maybe not. But I am not going to roll the dice with my or my family’s future to find out. It’s not personal.

MAYBE YOU DO have a permit to carry that perfectly legal firearm for personal protection. GOOD FOR YOU, I actually wholeheartedly support that. But while we are conversing during a response to your call, traffic stop, street contact, etc…that gun is MINE. The courts have ruled this legal under the 4th Amendment. Don’t worry, you’ll get it back. Whether you get it back from me directly, or have to pick it up in 72-hours at the SPD Evidence Unit, is up to how I perceive my safety and your behavior. “But I have no criminal history!” you protest? Neither did Christopher Monfort, until last Halloween. And if unbeknownst to me you just suffered some personal/financial hardship and the strain is wearing on you, I’m not about to be the outlet for your angst, rage, and hatred of the world for all the ways it’s wronged you. It’s not personal.

Don’t want to tell me you have the gun? That’s your right. Just be forewarned that if I detect it’s presence on my own, what possible scenarios do I have to consider as reasons why you chose to conceal that gun FROM SOMEONE YOU KNEW WAS A POLICE OFFICER? Think about it. Yes, you might suddenly find yourself horizontal flat on the ground or the hood of my car, or staring down the barrel of my gun, and it might not feel good. But that was your fault, not mine. I am going home to my family when this shift is over. It’s not personal.

If I ask you to please step back (depending on how things are going, I might not say “please”), it’s because I know about something called the Reaction Gap, and how it plays into the action vs. reaction equation. Even if I say “please”, don’t mistake this for a request. I’m going home at the end of my shift. It’s not personal.

If I have you stand here, stand there, stand like that, put your hands here, it’s NOT for my personal entertainment. It’s tactics I was taught, and know that work, because I DON’T KNOW YOU. It may also be a test of your compliance. It’s not personal. Yes, I HAVE seen a gunfight erupt at a minor traffic collision. NO, we don’t know what it was that set the one driver off who started it, because he didn’t live through it. But that IS why you need to go back to your car and wait for me, not hover next to my car while I gather vehicle and driver information on my computer screen. It’s not personal.

If one officer maintains some degree of control over you while you’re a–hole significant other is led away in cuffs, IT’S BECAUSE IN MOST DOMESTIC VIOLENCE ARRESTS, IT’S THE VICTIM WHO ATTACKS US after we arrest the abuser. Yes, I know they do it because they are making a show for their abuser. But that changes nothing when I am the target of the attack. And I have no idea if you have spiraled that deep into the “DV-cycle” or not just by looking at you. It’s not personal.

I may have sounded brusque when I told you to step back when you wanted to trot up and ask me something while I was contacting someone(s). But what you didn’t think of is you were dividing my attention at a critical time, and that is a critical moment offenders look for to make their move. Offenders are CONSTANTLY reading officers to see which ones are vulnerable, and when. It’s not personal. And NO, while my gun is in my hand and I am clearly involved in a potentially deadly situation, I AM NOT GOING TO STOP TO ANSWER YOU WHEN YOU COME OVER AND ASK “OFFICER, WHAT’S GOING ON?” It’s not personal. Have people walked BETWEEN me and the dangerous felon I was holding at gunpoint until help arrived? Yes they have, and it still mystifies me.

NO, I did not just jump out of my car and randomly snatch someone off the street, or pick someone at random to pull out of a bar. Ever hear of a radio? Ever hear of an area check for suspects? Ever hear of warrants for arrest that I might know about that you don’t? Yes, chances are you are looking at THE END of the story, not the beginning.

I am not here to tell the world what our tactics are that keep us safe, and there’s not enough room on the RVP to give a class in all the ways things can go bad in the blink of an eye. What I have written here is not comprehensive. In fact, it barely scratches the surface.

Wondering where Andy Griffith went?

You know what makes some officers cynical and bitter? It’s not the old BS from Hill Street Blues that we don’t like dealing with criminals all the time…we LOVE dealing with criminals! Why do you think we’re here? It’s not because we ONLY deal with criminals, the fact is we are one of the few professions that deals with EVERYONE: criminals, victims, witnesses, bystanders, etc…the whole spectrum. We are one of the few groups that see the whole picture.

No, when cynicism creeps in it is when an officer is slapped in the face with the harsh realization that the media only treats the profession as something honorable, and us as honorable, when we are being killed. The rest of the time, reporters will go out of their way to find someone, ANYONE, who will say something negative that can be used for/twisted into a headline. Even when it’s Leonard Haywood, long time Valley 74-Hoover Crip, complaining to The Stranger about being harassed in his favorite bar, or the founder of Mother’s Against Police Harassment, who raised two career criminals who ended up getting locked up on their 3rd strikes…nice job, Mom.

If any Griffith were on SPD, his bullet riddled body would be found probably on one of the major intersections along S Henderson St, E Union St, California or Delridge Way SW, or up on Aurora or Lake City Way.

You’ve been fed a myth about police, and how most don’t even take their guns out of their holsters during their careers. Don’t know where that myth started, but it’s damn sure a myth. And whatever the actual stats on that are, remember stats are based on national figures. Remember that nationally more than 70% of communities in America are policed by small rural police departments where a raccoon breaking into a general store, or a coyote stealing someone’s cat, makes the local paper. And folks, THAT AIN’T POLICEWORK IN THE BIG CITY.

In Tacoma, roughly 30% of their officers have been involved in a shooting. No, that was not a typo. Roughly 1-in-3. What is the stat in Seattle? Don’t know, and in this political environment I doubt SPD wants to know, or would be forthcoming if they did. Tacoma has 397 officers to Seattle’s 1300+. The point being: what you unconsciously perceive the danger to be based on a lifetime of false input through TV, urban legends, etc…is an underestimate. Some people quit during their training when this stark reality sinks in, and it conflicts with what they had come to accept over a lifetime about the reality of the world we live in.

NO I DON’T know how many times I have looked over the sights of my gun, my heart pounding, adrenaline oozing out of my pores causing that metallic taste on the tip of my tongue, and realized: this is it, I am about to kill this guy/gal. Only to have the situation change (again, in the blink of an eye) and somehow in the middle of squeezing the trigger I was able to slack-off in time before the gun went “Bang”. I don’t know because I quit counting. All I do know it that it feels like it takes about 2 years off my life every time it happens.

I will make no apologies for doing what I need to live to retirement. It’s not personal. But as of today there are 18,983 names on the National law Enforcement Memorial Wall in Washington DC, among them friends and even family, who are calling out to me telling me this is not the time or place to let my guard down.

Do I wish you understood this? I mean REALLY understood it? Yes, I think if you understood me, you might like me better, and might see th police profession in a whole new light. And contrary to what TV or other people with an axe to grind may have led you to believe, I really do want you to like me. Do I wish some honest member of the news media would make the effort to learn this and explain it to the masses whose perception (sadly) of reality is shaped by TV? Yes, the change that understanding would bring to police/community relations would be nothing short of earth-shattering.

But I’m, not holding my breath until that happens. Too many people have vested interests in not allowing that. What I AM DOING is making sure I live to serve you another day. But I won’t apologize for doing what it takes to make that happen. It’s not personal.

But for Desi, it is personal. Desi has made it so.

Desi, by your own admission, you look at me and make a laundry list of negative (erroneous) assumptions, many of which you aren’t even aware you are making. You make judgments about my motives, my education, my morals, my integrity, indeed judge every aspect of the content of my character, all based on my appearance and your biases. You do that same thing regarding my training, and my profession.

And you do this not because I am African , Asian, Caucasian, Latino, Native, etc…because I am black, brown, red, yellow, or white. You do it because I am blue. You make generalizations about me, based only on the slanted view you have absorbed through media and other questionable sources, and my appearance. Sound like anything familiar? But what’s the difference?

There is none.

Desi, you ARE the thing that you say you believe police are.

The interesting thing I noticed is that you are aware of your prejudices, ignorance, and bigoted attitudes, and even have some idea where they come from and how you have let individuals affect your perception of an entire group of people. Yet even knowing that, you hold on to your views.

So that IS personal. It’s a personal problem. But it’s your problem, not mine.

To the rest of you: see you on the streets!

To South Seattle Cop,
We are blessed having you protect us. We are also honored to have you share your extremely well reasoned and well written thoughts with us. Stay safe out there!
All the best,
Tom T

PS – Did you hear that Angies is not getting their liquor license renewed?

Thank you for sharing your perspective, South Seattle Cop. It’s always interesting to hear your point of view. Every time I see a vehicle with darkly-tinted windows (why is it legal?) I wonder how it must feel to have to approach that as a cop. I certainly wouldn’t want to have to do it.

Wishing you a happy retirement when you’re ready for it!