The NAACP Seattle King County President, Carolyn Riley-Payne, read the below Statement on Motion to End Consent Decree to the Seattle City Council today, May 11, 2020
The Seattle King County NAACP opposes the City of Seattle and Department of Justice motion to release the police from remaining Consent Decree oversight. The NAACP-SKC will work in collaboration with the office of Councilmember Kshama Sawant and other community organizations to respond in opposition to the City of Seattle and Mayor Jenny Durkan’s collaboration with the Trump Justice Department. The SPD should not be released from oversight while its police union contract rejects accountability measures. Accountability failings in the Seattle Police Officers Guild (SPOG) contract mean court mandated oversight is still necessary. The SPOG contract appeals’ process evidenced by the case of SPD Officer Adley Shepherd, highlight the accountability failings that are still on-going. Recall that in 2014, while the SPD was under the oversight of the Consent Decree, Officer Shepherd punched a handcuffed and defenseless woman in the back seat of his patrol car. He was rightfully terminated for use of excessive force, but his job was later reinstated through a convoluted arbitration appeal process. The City has yet to address mechanisms in the police union contract that allow for officers like Shepherd to have seemingly more rights than the citizens they are sworn to protect. The NAACP-SKC condemns the premature motion to end the Consent Decree and its police accountability oversight.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Media Inquires:
|