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: Injustice in Seattle

America Has Become Too Dangerous

By David Packman

I first started this site when I realized that I would never find justice for what happened to me and my family last year and the permanent injuries we suffer and deal with to this day that were, essentially, caused by my trying to do what I thought was right... all this for simply breaking up a fight.

The site evolved, what started as an attempt to tell my own story became a vehicle to tell other people's stories of injustice at the hands of law enforcement and corrections officers in Seattle and King County. As I started consolidating reports of misconduct and abuse, it became apparent that the problem was more widespread than I thought, and much more dangerous...

I was afraid of what I was reading, I realized how easy it was for the police to abuse or kill innocent people and get away with it. It was then that I thought of shutting down the site and then other people started writing, telling us their stories, sharing their frustrations, and telling us how this site gave them information they couldn't find elsewhere... and others told me that keeping the site up would make me less likely to be a victim next time.

By all standards, for sites that examine police misconduct, this site is fairly tame and even, from time to time, offers opinions in favor of police officials. We don't really even condemn officers or call them names, we simply ask that they accept accountability reforms, for their own benefit and the community's. However, this hasn't prevented law enforcement officers and correction officials from issuing threats or sending intimidating messages... and now it's not just from Seattle.

They've made it clear, we won't be safe anywhere in the United States, all simply because of what they did to me, and for me expressing my opinion about what they did, what they do, and for trying to help others in the process.

When I was falsely arrested and mistreated in custody last year, it turned my understanding of the world upside down, I couldn't understand how this was the America I thought it was, how it was happening to me, here in the US, how I was being punished for doing the right thing. Now, my eyes have been opened, and I now understand just how much unrestrained power the police have in the United States, and just how out of control they are... how many people they punish who didn't deserve it, and how unsafe we all are because of it.

I am not safe in America, and neither is my family. That much has been made very clear. So we are now looking into ways we can try to move abroad, to seek asylum so to speak.

It's odd, I never thought I would have to fear the police. I've always tried to do what was right and be a good person, always tried my best to help others... and indeed, much of what this site has become was a way for me to help others. But now I need help for doing that, because, somehow, doing what is right has become a crime punishable by death here. Speaking one's opinion is forbidden, and there is nobody for us to turn to if we were attacked... because I am honestly frightened by those who I had always thought were there to protect us and our rights.

No, the threats and intimidation will not make me shut down the site, they only prove to me how badly sites like this are needed, just how corrupt and dangerous the police in America have become. But I must protect my wife and children, they do not deserve to be harmed for what I write... and the only way I can do that is to leave.

If you have any advice for us in our attempt to leave the US, please let me know.

Stay safe out there.

Full post as published by Injustice in Seattle on March 26, 2008 (boomark / email).