Our live webcast from the former Seattle Anarchist Jurisdiction
The show from May 10, 2021, featured David Obelcz and our co-host Jennifer Smith. Patrons at the $5 and above level get access to our show notes and research documents.
Toyota campaign contribution story made our readers salty
Colonial Pipeline shutdown committed by Russian hackers
No one is talking about the AAHM raid done by the King County Sheriff
Franklin Graham coming to Bellevue and protests planned – controversy explained
Democracy vouchers explained
Jenny Durkan’s Textgate
Seattle Deputy Mayor Casey Sixkiller enters the 2021 mayor race
Angelyiah Lim wins the 2020 Lee Johnson Community Service Award
Our live webcast from the Seattle Anarchist Jurisdiction
WARNIING: This episode includes videos of violence, protest, and discusses domestic violence in detail – viewer discretion is advised.
Editor’s comment: At the start of the show we had a software issue that resulted in about 15 to 30 seconds of no audio. We thank you for your understanding.
The show from January 28, 2021, featured David Obelcz and our co-host Jennifer Smith.
Update on the Tacoma Police Department officer who drove through a group of people on Saturday with a new day-of video
Malcontented Minutes – our new speed round of news
The Echo Project is turning a former Klu Klux Klan museum into a place for BIPOC to meet and a history exhibit
Colleen Echohawk becomes the first prominent candidate to announce she is running for mayor of Seattle
Dr. Joseph Sonnabend, a key figure in the identification of AIDS, passed away
14 states are looking to pass anti-LGBTQIA bills targeting the transgender community
Phil Collins (yes that Phil Collins) has turned into “Florida man” with a bizarre story about his ongoing divorce woes
Pam Anderson announces she is quitting the Internet (if a tree falls in the woods and no one hears it…)
Jason Collier, a former police chief is in hot water for falsifying multiple documents to keep multiple wives and girlfriends from knowing about his bizarre world
A man from Afghanistan is attacked by a racist at a Portland convenience store, forcing the terrified man to lock himself in the cooler as he waits for the police
The Chinook Nation is going to receive monetary compensation and could be taking the first steps to be recognized as sovereignty again by the federal government
In Portland, Oregon the lumber baron and the cattle baron make up after a spicy incident over the weekend
COVID-19 Five Fast Facts
Chad Wheeler a now-former player of the Seattle Seahawks was arrested after a violent domestic violence attack – the NFL and Seahawks reaction leaves a lot to be desired
David and Jennifer provide their insurrection update
Jenny Durkan will not seek re-election, thanks for the memories
After a tumultuous year, Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan has announced that she will not be seeking re-election. Amid multiple calls for her resignation, she has seen her support wane, both inside and out of city hall. While enjoying some early successes, such as negotiating to bring the NHL back to Seattle, the mayor also faced challenges that many felt she was not up to handling.
After a tumultuous year, Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan has announced that she will not be seeking re-election. Amid multiple calls for her resignation, she has seen her support wane, both inside and out of city hall. While enjoying some early successes, such as negotiating to bring the NHL back to Seattle, the mayor also faced challenges that many felt she was not up to handling. By the end of 2019 her leadership was being questioned, and on October 22, The Seattle LGBTQ Commission called for her resignation.
An area where most feel she failed includes addressing the civil unrest in Seattle in the wake of the death of George Floyd. Seattle was catapulted into the international spotlight when the Capitol Hill Occupy Protest, or CHOP, was formed. What she suggested would be a “summer of love” devolved into mismanaged chaos. The Seattle Police spread misinformation and brutalized protesters with excessive force.
There were two murders on the edge of CHOP, street fights with Proud Boys and Three Percenters, and no less than five documented incidents of drivers assaulting protesters by the end of July, resulting in one fatality and one severely injured. There remains controversy over who called for the abandonment of the East Precinct on June 8, 2020. Both the Mayor and now retired police chief Carmen Best deny making the decision. Political watchers have wondered aloud if the Seattle Police Officer’s Guild made the decision, which would indicate a collapse of oversight by the mayor and police leadership.
Durkan, who ran on a homeless advocacy platform and a more moderate approach to area politics, failed to deliver on most of those promises, including thousands of beds through tiny home villages and transitional housing. Even before the COVID or George Floyd protests, homelessness and street violence was worsening. Seattle currently has the third-largest homeless population in America, and during her time as mayor, the homeless population grew. Durkan and City Hall pushed for tax increases, spending over $1 billion a year on area homelessness with no measurable impact. Accusations of corruption overshadowed projects like low barrier housing at Licton Springs. Only the larger cities of New York and Los Angeles have a large unhomed population.
Another failed promise, Durkan signed the Policing and
Community Safety Executive Order (PCSEO) earlier this year. Its purpose was to
identify SPD response areas that could be transitioned to a civilian and
community-based response. The PCSEO did not achieve any of the meaningful policy
goals outlined by the mayor. In sharp contrast, Seattle decided to increase the
operating budget for the coming year, amid outcries from the public.
Seattle will vote for a new mayor on November 2, 2021.
Community Manager, Ty Steele, contributed to this story.
After six months of protests, a council vote, a mayoral veto, and a veto override, The Seattle City Council reversed course again, voting to fund police hiring in 2021. The Seattle Police Department in October reported they had 1,203 uniformed officers. If fully funded, the hiring plan for 2021 could grow the police force to more than 1,300 officers.
Councilmembers Lisa Herbold, Teresa Mosqueda, Alex Pedersen, Lorena Gonzalez, Dan Strauss, Andrew Lewis, and Debora Juarez voted to hire more officers in 2021. The council’s reversal shatters six months of conversations and promised action to the BIPOC community, seeking sweeping changes to the Seattle Police Department. Although cuts to the police budget for 2021 remain, the consent decree coupled with an onerous contract with the Seattle Police Officer’s Guild has made cuts in logical places a near impossibility.
Here are the council members who voted to hire more police officers, despite a looming budget crisis and a historic community uprising to defund the Seattle Police Department:
Lisa Herbold Teresa Mosqueda Alex Pedersen Lorena Gonzalez Dan Strauss Andrew Lewis Debora Juarez https://t.co/bW3nomV6sM
Compared to other west coast cities, only Oakland and San Francisco have larger per-capita police forces and budgets. In San Francisco, the cities approach to crime, drug addiction, and homelessness is mostly considered a failure. In Seattle, backers of the police frequently comment on how they don’t want the city to become San Francisco, yet are often the biggest proponents of a San Francisco approach to policing.
City leaders in Seattle continue to form advisory committees, hire Street Czars, and commit to studies without action. The continued issues of “legal redlining,” underfunded schools in BIPOC communities, and a non-approach to drug addiction and homelessness have gone unaddressed for decades. Despite the police budget growing 50% in the last ten years to the third-highest per-capita on the west coast, there has been no appreciable movement on crime rates. Some crimes, including assault and sex crimes, have increased over the last ten years – with assaults growing dramatically.
Other cities in the United States have been able to make more progress with less disruption and protests. Austin cut their police budget by over 30%, Minneapolis voted to abolish their police force and create a new one from the ground up, and Denver passed a series of reforms. Protests for Black Lives Matter and police reform began on May 26, 2020, in Seattle, peaking in mid-June while the world watched CHAZ/CHOP on Capitol Hill.
The Seattle LGBTQ Commission will announce on Thursday that they are joining calls for Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan to resign or be removed from office.
The public open letter to Durkan and the Seattle City Council reads, in part:
“It is with a heavy heart that we call for Mayor Durkan’s resignation. Mayor Durkan is Seattle’s first out lesbian mayor and only the second woman to hold that office. We believe that LGBTQ+ people and women, along with Black people and others targeted by white supremacy, belong at all levels of the local and federal government. Such representation is important. However, that representation must involve work to protect our community members from very real harm and violence that has been leveraged against Black and brown LGBTQ+ people. Mayor Durkan’s actions in office have not only failed to create meaningful change for our community but have indeed undermined other efforts within Seattle to create a more just future.”
The advisory body of representative residents of Seattle advises the Mayor, City Council, Seattle Office for Civil Rights, and other Seattle City departments on issues or policies and their ramifications for LGBTQIA residents of the city.
The mayor herself identifies as a lesbian. She and her partner Dana Garvey have two sons but remain unmarried and are not registered as domestic partners.
The Seattle Human Rights Commission had sent out an open letter on October 7, 2020. It reads, in part:
“As the Commission charged with amplifying the human rights concerns of the Seattle community and providing the City’s leadership with recommendations on improving the rights of all the people of Seattle, it is our duty to speak up and speak out for our least privileged community members and not to be complicit in the harm done to them by City leadership.
Given this, it is our belief that we cannot wait until November of 2021 to remove Mayor Durkan and replace her with a servant-leader who will uphold the duty to protect the rights of all citizens, to hold their humanity above all else, and to live up to Seattle’s designation as a Human Rights city.
“We call on Mayor Durkan to immediately resign, and in the absence of her resignation, we call on the City Council to begin removal proceedings for willful violation of duty…”
The total number of current Seattle LGBT Commissioners was not available but 12 commissioners took part in a vote on the matter. The Commission can have up to 21 members; eight appointed by the Mayor herself. The City Council can also appoint eight members. Four are appointed by the Commission itself. The final Commissioner can come through a leadership development program for 18-29-year-olds.
Journalists, activists, and researchers defending the First Amendment
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