1. The Seattle Police Department has fired controversial officer Andrei Constantin, who created a fake Twitter account to harass and mock protesters and make fun of victims of police violence, including George Floyd and Breonna Taylor.
According to the SPD disciplinary action report explaining why Constantin was fired, the officer posted dozens of “extremely unprofessional, offensive, derogatory, and entirely unacceptable” tweets that “celebrated violence against protesters, ridiculed human beings who were injured or killed, taunted the family members of deceased individuals, and publicly accused SPD of hating its employees, blamed victims of assault, appeared to celebrate a homicide, and stated George Floyd ‘got justice.'”
Constantin’s tweets, originally uncovered by Twitter user @WhiteRoseAFA in October 2021, included posts calling people who participated in the 2020 protests against police violence “antifa terrorists” who should be “napalmed”; mocking the death of the young activist Summer Taylor, who was struck by a driver in a section of I-5 that had been closed down for a march; and telling the mother of an activist who was murdered in Portland, “Rest in piss bitch.” Constantin posted as @1SteelerFanatic under the name “Bruce Wayne”; he deactivated the account last year.
4. Meet Officer Andrei Constantin of the Seattle Police.
Andrei trolls grieving mothers, but that's far from all he does. pic.twitter.com/Izs7W39oDj
— CARP (@WhiteRoseAFA) October 8, 2021
Constantin was previously the subject of at least nine other Office of Police Accountability complaints. Those complaints, detailed on the SPD.watch website, included: Pulling over a driver without justification, pointing a gun at him, and handcuffing him; threatening to use his Taser on a man who was not being threatening; and detaining a homeless Black bike rider and for nearly an hour. Last year, as PubliCola reported, Constantin received an eight-day unpaid suspension after shattering the driver-side window of someone’s car while they were sitting at a gas station.
In his written decision to fire Constantin, SPD police chief Adrian Diaz acknowledged Constantin had received “counseling” for the mental anguish he claimed to have endured as the result of the 2020 protests, but said that in light of his long disciplinary history and the “inexcusable” nature of his posts, Constantin could no longer work at SPD. Constantin last day at SPD was September 22.
2. The union representing Seattle Public Utilities’ 85 call center employees has reached an agreement with the city that exempts these workers from the mandate that all city employees come in to the office a minimum of two days a week, PubliCola has learned. As we reported in July, many call center workers preferred working from home because it was a huge improvement on commutes that could add up to hours of unpaid time in the car or on the bus each day.
“The City shall exempt the employees in the SPU Contact Center from any in-office minimum requirement, in acknowledgement of the substantial expense compliance would cause that department to incur,” the agreement says.
As we reported in July, call center workers have been more efficient and effective, by the city’s own metrics, since representatives started working at home instead of a crowded room in downtown Seattle.
The agreement allows SPU to require workers to come back to the office if management decides it will “improve operations.” It also requires call center employees to live within a three-hour drive of the Seattle Municipal Tower so they can get there if needed—a change that narrows the possibilities for true telecommuting.
In addition, other city employees who are subject to the mandate—part of Mayor Bruce Harrell’s “One Seattle” effort to bring workers back into a still-struggling downtown—will be allowed to spread their in-office days across a two-week pay period, instead of coming in two days every week. The agreement also clarifies what counts as “in the office” (field work, including inspections, public meetings, and trainings will count as in-office time) and give individual departments the opportunity to ask for exemptions from the rules.
No Spin. You’re missing the point here. It doesn’t matter what other local police departments are doing. It’s doesn’t matter there are “there is NO shortage of muscle-heads who are eager to land a job with a gun, badge, and little accountability.” It all comes down to one simple fact. If Seattle Liberals could field 400 candidates for work for SPD, they could change the department overnight. I’d love to see it, but I’m not holding my breath.
“And I sought for a man among them, that should make up the hedge, and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it: but I found none.” Ezekiel 22:30
So here’s the current scorecard of Liberal failures in greater Seattle.
Over 550 unfilled positions in the Seattle and Tacoma police departments.
Over 400 unfilled positions in non-profits doing direct outreach with the homeless.
Over 300 openings in public transportation as drivers, security and customer service.
And the list goes on and on. I’ve been a volunteer at public schools for over 10 years and I can tell you there’s never a shortage of jackasses who think the public schools are doing things wrong, and never enough people willing to do the work to promote change.
You fail to notice that we “liberals” do not participate in systems that are deeply flawed and inherently racist. You are asking us to work in a system we don’t think should even exist.
Is there any progress on a national database that follows disciplined or terminated police officers as they move on to their next jobs? Do the local police departments have the ability to research why the officer is changing jobs? Does how they left their last job make any difference in their prospects of being hired at another police department?
Ever hear the saying. “Any port in a storm”? That’s sort of how hiring cops is these days. It’s a tough job that draws a lot of public hate that nobody really wants to do. Cities can’t really afford to be picky about who they hire or they’ll not have a police force. Plus you have to add in community standards. Constantin is the sort of cop many communities want around… a guy not afraid to punch a homeless drug addict in the groin a few times and drive him to 3rd and Pine for a drop off. How do think that mess on 3rd ave really got there in the first place?
While its true other near by communities have pushed a lot of social problems into Seattle, Seattle’s police problem is 100% manufactured by the Liberals who live there. The Left spends a huge amount of time demonizing cops and zero time signing up for the force or even supporting anyone who wants to be a cop.
Remember, on the left, all cops are bastards. The end. In a civil, rational city, Liberals would realize they need good cops. A Jr. Police program would be started in high schools and a beefed up criminal justice program would be grown at UW. Seattle could be the tops at law enforcement in the USA. But naw, that’s a great deal of work and doesn’t involve hating or muck raking, so the Left-wingers won’t do it. Pointing out what’s wrong with the city is easy. Fixing problems? Not so much.
“It’s a tough job that draws a lot of public hate that nobody really wants to do.”
Yes, law enforcement draws lots of public hate – but it draws equal admiration based on generations of glorification on TV and in movies, and how many ‘thin blue line’ flags and decals can be seen even in liberal Seattle.
Meanwhile, there is NO shortage of muscle-heads who are eager to land a job with a gun, badge, and little accountability. Any perceived shortage is due a loss of officers to other jurisdictions paying more (a problem SPD and WSP have faced for years) and too many cops refusing to enforce laws ‘because we can’t do our jobs the way we want.’
“Constantin is the sort of cop many communities want around… a guy not afraid to punch a homeless drug addict in the groin a few times and drive him to 3rd and Pine for a drop off.”
Seriously? You’re coming across as more of a caricature and less of a person with every passing day.
“It also requires call center employees to live within a three-hour drive of the Seattle Municipal Tower”
So sending city tax dollars to neighboring counties, due to Seattle’s housing affordability crisis, is all fine? I mean, I get it…a lot of the rents paid to commercial or residential units gets siphoned out on the first of each month so it’s nothing new. Look who owns commercial property around you in the King County tax database, where the tax bills are sent. All those locally-earned wages going to California or New York or in care of a hotel conciege in Bali, for all we know…
Jeeze, this is not some planned economy like the old USSR. Capital and people are free to come and go as they wish in America. Not matter the Mayor thinks, it’s not part of anyone’s job to “save downtown Seattle”.
The real story, the one that’s never told here, is how the movement of capital and people remade Seattle (both good and bad) over the last 30 years and continues to this day. Seattle’s housing woes may not ever be fixed as long as there are thousands and thousands of out-of-state folks with more money than locals who want to live in the Emerald City. For every apartment built, there are two Californians who want to rent it. I’ll admit it’s pretty unfair on the locals, but life just isn’t fair sometimes. I’m not sure why more young people who really have zero stake in this City continue to hang on here thinking that there’s a political solution to an economic problem, but there’s plenty of space in the Midwest right now. America was built by people on the move, great migrations, of communities lost and communities built.
Andrei, you might want to review “When you love your job, it isn’t work”. It might be antisocial personality disorder or A SPD. Ironic, isn’t it?