greenspun.com
greenspun.com
and my personal favorite which will cause SPD more trouble than they can imagine:
Seattle City Councilman says, "I had on a $400 suit, but last night, I was just another nigger."
seattlep-i.com
Councilman McIver yanked from car in melee
Witnesses say police were overly aggressive
Friday, December 3, 1999
By KIMBERLY A.C. WILSON
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER
A Seattle City Council member said city police officers yanked him from his car, pulled his arms behind his back and started to cuff him as he drove to a World Trade Organization reception Wednesday night.
The incident, which involved second-term Councilman Richard McIver, occurred as police and National Guardsmen tried to restore order to downtown Seattle after 36 hours of demonstrations and sporadic mayhem. It was witnessed by a U.S. congressman.
McIver was driving to an evening reception to honor Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., Sen. Slade Gorton, R-Wash., and Gov. Gary Locke when he was twice accosted by uniformed officers who ordered him to leave. On the second occasion, McIver tried to explain that he was an elected official attending an event at the nearby Westin Hotel.
"I don't want to aid the hooligans who are raising hell and I don't want to take on specific officers. . . . But there are huge flaws with the officers when it comes to people of color. I'm 58 years old. I had on a $400 suit, but last night, I was just another nigger."
McIver, who is African American, said police did not use the term.
But Deputy Mayor Maud Daudon said the mayor has launched an investigation.
"If this behavior is going on in the Police Department we have to address it," she said.
McIver said he had his business card in his hand when police approached him.
"I would think when you see the gold crest on (a councilman's) card, a Seattle police officer would know what it is," he said last night in disgust.
Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, witnessed the incident near the intersection of Eighth Avenue and Seneca Street as a passenger in a sport utility vehicle that pulled behind McIver's white 1992 Olds Cutlass.
"What he describes is what I saw," Kucinich said last night from a speaking engagement in Southern California. "Four to five policemen converged on him and kind of spun him around. I thought the people who handled it were overly aggressive. I'm sure given the tension that existed in the city, there might be many cases where in hindsight they might do things differently but that seemed excessive."
Bill Lambrecht, Washington, D.C.-correspondent for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, also was in the car with Kucinich and had a bird's-eye view of the exchange between McIver and the officers.
"It was clear that he was telling them who he was. They seemed unpersuadable," Lambrecht said. "One of the officers pulled him out of the car and not gingerly."
Learning about the incident yesterday morning, Capt. Nick Metz, who leads the Police Department's internal investigations section, called McIver and offered to take an official complaint.
But while angered at having been detained, McIver, who has been a recent critic of the department's internal investigation process, said late yesterday that he was beginning to lean away from filing a complaint with the Police Department's internal investigations section |
