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: Injustice in Seattle

Hope For Some Better Day

By David Packman

Nearly 200 days ago I filed a complaint with the Seattle Police Department's OPA at the suggestion of one of the lawyers I contacted about my case in regards to my mistreatment at the hands of Seattle Police officers. I never really expected anything to come of it, but I was hopeful that maybe they would be honest about what happened, about how they wrongfully tortured an innocent person.

Call it optimism, naivety, stupidity... but I was hopeful that what happened to me would be acknowledged, that I would get answers as to why officers felt it was necessary to stop medical personnel from treating my injuries. Maybe explain why they thought telling guards at the jail to ignore my requests for help was a good idea. I hoped that I would hear why officers felt the need to bash my head into a police cruiser's door while I was still knocked out from being assaulted by a gang of a dozen racists, why they felt it was necessary to not read me my rights, and why it was so important to interrogate me while I stood there naked and still bleeding after being stripped...

More than that, I suppose, I had hoped that they would have realized how wrong it was to do those things to an innocent person and apologize for it, promising not to do such things in the future because they realized that it wasn't their job to punish people... like I said, call me naive... but I was hoping for something good to come from this... somehow, some way... I was hoping for change.

But, today... 200 days after filing a complaint, I've been told that what happened to me wasn't even investigated. That it was declared "Administratively Unfounded/Exonerated" which means that some higher ranking officer somewhere along the line decided that their officers didn't do anything wrong by making me suffer needlessly like that, without even bothering to investigate my claims.

It's frustrating... more painfully so than I can describe... to know what they did to me really did happen. To know that only a few other people saw the proof of it when I limped into the courtroom, three days after I had been arrested, my open wounds still without bandages and still bleeding. To know that the officers themselves know what they did to me and know it was wrong... but lack the honor to make it right. To know that they will do it to others over and over again in the future because they will not be held accountable for it.

It's painful to know the people who mercilessly and repeatedly tried to crush my head against the pavement will never be held to account...

That the venue who's security staff egged the crowd on with chants of "kill him" will never be held accountable...

That the officers who decided to punish me before finding out the truth will never be accountable...

that the guards and medical staff at the jail will never be held to account for forcing me to suffer without medical care...

that the person who committed the crime for which I was wrongfully punished will never be brought to justice...

To know that ultimately me and my family are the only ones who are being mercilessly punished for something I didn't do... I don't think I could ever explain how painful that is to any of you... not that I think anyone would care to understand it either.

But, at least I know I tried, I tried to turn what happened to me into something positive, I tried to make something good happen from something so horrific and evil... and I'll keep trying... Not for myself, because there is no hope left for me. But for others, in the hope that maybe I can help others who will be victimized after me... to give them help and support where I had none.

...maybe, someday people will be more humane. Maybe, someday... what I do here now will help make the people we entrust to protect our society more worthy of our trust. Maybe too, I can help ease the pain and isolation of those who suffered abuse as I did. Maybe I can help them find justice where I couldn't...

But until that better day... today there is still no trust... no justice... and no peace.

Full post as published by Injustice in Seattle on April 29, 2008 (boomark / email).