Official stories about SPD’s violent week are falling apart
The Seattle Police Department had an extraordinarily violent week recently, with an in-custody death and a non-fatal shooting six days later. The official stories about both incidents are crumbling. Outside investigators initially reported that Keenan Pearson died suddenly of an unknown medical emergency while handcuffed on Sept. 12. But DivestSPD interviewed a witness who saw four officers kneeling on Pearson shortly before he died. The witness said that the man stopped moving and responding while the officers were still on top of him. This contradicts police claims that he lost consciousness minutes later, while a medic was evaluating him. Days later, SWAT officers shot and critically injured a woman in a Beacon Hill apartment. Police stenographers played up a false narrative that there was an “exchange” of gunfire. This unraveled when SPD released the video, showing SWAT officers making a series of unforced errors.
Officers made only a minimal effort to overcome a language barrier. Instead of finding an interpreter and negotiating with the woman from a safe distance, officers moved into the hallway outside her bedroom door. When she opened the door, one SWAT officer further escalated the situation by pushing the door open. She swung a tire iron at him, and he shot her. SPD’s press release hyped the danger, describing the woman as “barricaded” and noting that the officer who shot her was injured. However, she was in an unlocked bedroom in an unlocked apartment. In the video, the tire iron doesn’t appear to strike the officer, and he doesn’t look hurt in the slightest. Thankfully, she survived, but somebody has to answer for this.
SPD wins this budget season and the next and the next
Seattle budget season has begun. The big winner is, of course, the police department. The loser? Everyone else, including firefighters, who are facing a $7 million trim. Mayor Katie Wilson’s proposal includes a nearly 14 percent bump for the police, while other departments will see cuts of up to eight percent. Wilson is increasing police funding by an even larger percentage than Harrell did on average throughout his four-year term. In the coming weeks, pro-cop city council members like Bob Kettle, Rob Saka, Debra Juarez, and Martiza Rivera will no doubt try to funnel even more money to SPD, as they haggle over the finer points of the city budget.
The cops’ big lesson from the Bite of Seattle: Give cops more money
Seattle police are continuing to milk the Bite of Seattle shootings for more stuff and more staff. At the public safety committee, the department gave another presentation on the shootings. SPD’s overall recommendations included “preauthorizing drone protocol“ for “mass casualty incidents and active-suspect scenarios.” They maintained that SPD’s response to the mass shooting was fine, that any errors were because of other departments, and that they need more staffing and gear, per usual. They patted themselves on the back for “stopp[ing] the threat in seconds” and having “one shooter in custody within 20–30 seconds.” (Unfortunately, it was the 15-year-old shooter that didn’t hit anyone, and the third, who probably did, is in the wind). As always, it comes down to money. The presentation concludes by saying, “The instincts were right. Now resource the rest of the response the same way.” It’s the only department in the city getting a double-digit increase next year, and they still have their hand out.
Big Dan’s RV bills are rolling forward
This week, the public safety committee advanced a package of bills designed to push RVs out of residential neighborhoods. Councilmember Dan Strauss, who represents some of the city’s most rabid NIMBY freaks, is behind this legislation, which goes after visible poverty through a punitive permitting process based on a one-time RV census. The permit requires RVs to park in “industrial zones” while limiting parking elsewhere in the city to two hours. When Councilmember Dionne Foster proposed an amendment to allow possible future counts, Strauss argued it would encourage people from other states to bring their RVs to live here. At the last meeting, Strauss said this bill was “not intended” to target people living in RVs, but that it is “no longer appropriate” for RVs to park on city streets. With these platitudes, Strauss is trying to convey that this is a compassionate approach rather than an outright parking ban like other cities—but a slower bureaucratic ban is still a ban. The bill goes to full council in October and would take effect next summer if approved.
A rare Council W is marred by a typical Council L
In a rare W, City Council passed legislation banning algorithmic price fixing at grocery stores (nice!). Unfortunately, Council President Joy Hollingsworth’s carve-out amendment for “loss prevention” surveillance also passed. The ongoing media panic over “organized retail theft” continues to drive massive expansions in police tech. Hollingsworth said this amendment wasn’t targeting desperate mothers stealing diapers. No, it was aimed at a hypothetical organized crime ring stealing from grocery stores, a nuance not shared by retail stores with their own state-of-the-art forensics labs.
KSCO pursuit ends in a crash—again.
KIRO reports that, once again, a King County Sheriff’s Office pursuit ended with a rollover crash this week in South Seattle. Crashes like this are still regularly occurring at the department, which started using StarChase GPS launchers in 2025. These GPS trackers that fire from the front of police vehicles are sold as an alternative to dangerous chases like this. Seattle police circumvented a mandated Surveillance Impact Report to implement StarChase GPS in the past year. Late last year, King County killed someone in a vehicle pursuit. Deputies crashed again in January, and another chase involving a horse trailer resulted in a crash in May.
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