Surrounded by dozens of Latino and African-American community activists at city hall this morning, El Centro de la Raza’s Estela Ortega announced the creation of a new group called the Community Coalition for Law Enforcement Accountability and called on the Seattle Police Department to immediately fire the two officers who kicked and yelled racial epithets at a young Latino man last month and put under criminal investigation “as soon as possible.” A bystander caught the incident on video, which was subsequently aired by KIRO TV.
Ortega also demanded that a supervisor who witnessed the incident be put on unpaid administrative leave, and that two other officers who allegedly stood by and did nothing be put on “unpaid leave for a minimum of two weeks” and then subjected to an administrative review.
“The mayor’s office, the Seattle City Council, and the [Seattle Police Officers Guild, the police union] should endorse the establishment of the recently formed Coalition for Law Enforcement Accountability and work with the coalition to develop policies and procedures to ensure that there is zero tolerance with regard to raical profiling,” Ortega said. Her remarks were echoed by community leaders including state Rep. Phyllis Gutierrez Kenney (D-46), the Rev. Aaron Williams, senior pastor at Mount Zion Baptist Church, and James Kelly, head of the Urban League of Seattle.
However, at a press briefing shortly before El Centro’s press conference, Mayor Mike McGinn and interim police chief John Diaz said that because of the police union’s collective bargaining agreement with the city, it is not in the city’s power to simply fire police officers suspected of misconduct. Their statements were echoed, notably, by city council member Nick Licata, a longtime police-accountability proponent on the council. The officers have been placed on paid administrative leave.
McGinn said that all the information that the city has gathered in its investigation so far was forwarded yesterday to a criminal detective within the police department and will go to the King County Prosecutor’s Office soon.
“We did have a very good meeting with representatives of the Latino community last Friday to talk through their issues and understand their viewpoints,” McGinn said. However, “We have a collective bargaining agreement with the police officers’ guild that sets forth procedures for investigating and acting on disciplinary proceedings, and we’re following that process. … I was deeply disturbed by what I saw [on the video tape], but it is important that we move forward thoroughly and deliberately.”
