Legal News

Feds Investigate Seattle Police for Possible Excessive Use of Force

By Nathan Koppel

We tend to think of Seattle in stereotypical ways: earthy, mellow, panoramic, rainy.

But it’s not all Patagonia and lattes out there, as the news yesterday about the Justice Department’s investigation of Seattle police would indicate.

The DOJ is looking into a possible pattern of the SPD using excessive force and discriminating against minorities, Justice announced here yesterday.

At issue in the federal investigation are several high-profile incidents involving police violence.

Last April, a detective was videotaped kicking a Latino robbery suspect and stating that he would beat the “Mexican piss” out of the suspect;

In June, an officer was videotaped punching a 17-year-old African American girl who protested the arrest of a friend for jaywalking; and,

In August, police shot a Native American woodcarver after he faied to drop his carving knife. (Click here for a  Seattle Post-Intelligencer article on the investigation and here’s one from the LA Times.)

Seattle Police Chief John Diaz told the Seattle Times that he welcomes the DOJ investigation and considers it like a “free audit.”

“We have nothing to hide,” he said. “We’ve been open and transparent with the Department of Justice, which makes for a good working relationship.”

On a separate and lighter note, we would like to point out that our own Ashby Jones, who currently is on vacation, has first-hand experience with the mean streets of Seattle.

Earlier this year, Jones followed modern-day superhero Phoenix Jones (pictured below), as Phoenix patrolled Seattle in a black-and-gold costume in search of drug dealers and other miscreants. It’s a little hard to explain, but we invite you to read Ashby’s page one story about his brush with superheroes.

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on April 01, 2011 (boomark / email).