Murray: Seattle will remain a sanctuary city for immigrants even if we lose millions in fed dollars, bc it's right thing to do.
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Erica C. Barnett (ericacbarnett.bsky.social)
@ericacbarnett
Author of Quitter: A Memoir of Drinking, Relapse, and Recovery
(amzn.to/2OhRood or bit.ly/2BEI0IA), Editor, PubliCola. erica@publicola.com. Latina. She/her.
Erica C. Barnett (ericacbarnett.bsky.social)’s Tweets
"The algorithm is neutral."
npr.org/2022/06/28/110
The letter calling for demilitarization of the Seattle Police Department passes unanimously.
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And, from ANOTHER story: 👏 An 👏 embryo 👏 is 👏 not 👏 a 👏 "baby" 👏
By referring to women and fertilized eggs this way, the Times has consciously selected the language of the extreme anti-choice right.
Seattle is about to begin enforcing its misguided "72-hour rule," which requires people to move their vehicles every 3 days, starting with "abandoned/hazardous" vehicles. The rule is used to crack down on people living in cars or RVs, who make up half of the homeless population.
Exclusive: Andrei Constantin, a officer who was the subject of multiple formal complaints, has been fired for Twitter posts mocking victims of police violence and encouraging violence against protesters in multiple tweets first documented here: twitter.com/WhiteRoseAFA/s
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I broke the story about the city hiring a $150K-a-year "street czar" on Tuesday.
The ran the exact same story today, with a misspelled attribution that does not credit me for the scoop, only for "publishIng the contract first," and NO LINK to my independent site.
Bruce Harrell was on the city council for 12 years.
His homelessness plan was written by a 12-year incumbent.
Sara Nelson was a top aide to a SIXTEEN-year incumbent.
The conventional wisdom that these are "fresh, new" faces with fresh new ideas is really weird.
Hey, , YOU NEED TO CREDIT ME FOR MY WORK. I broke this story yesterday morning, based on a records request, on . I run a tiny, independent website and lack of credit ACTIVELY HARMS MY ABILITY TO EARN A LIVING. publicola.com/2023/06/16/sea
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The officer, who has not been charged with a crime, was responding to an emergency call and was in a 25 mph zone at the time of the collision. king5.com/article/news/l
"The beatings will resume until morale improves"
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If Seattle takes away tear gas, "We're back to batons,” says Seattle Chief Carmen Best. bit.ly/2UNvdJR
Seattle Police Officers Guild has been officially expelled from the Martin Luther King, Jr. County Labor Council
Seattle mayor just said that “one of the best times to treat people with drug and alcohol issues could be when they’re arrested." This is the opposite of evidence-based and the opposite of best practice, unless you're talking about the best way to waste money.
Glenn Thrush, who kissed women without their consent and spread career-killing rumors about them, remains ' golden boy, will be "punished" by inflicting him on a different set of women.
I'm listening to the Mercer Island city council meeting on a proposed ban on unsheltered homeless people in the wealthy Seattle enclave. The first woman says that anyone who doesn't live and pay taxes on the island should not be allowed to testify.
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"My nine-year-old is now afraid to go to his school near the park" is a condition of PARENTS who teach children to be afraid of poor people, homeless people, and mentally ill or addicted people. Plenty of kids who grow up in/near cities are not taught this fear and don't have it.
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Hmm… Haven't seen you up here Matt. Maybe if you had done any reporting on this, or read the reams of local coverage coming out of sites like mine, you wouldn't be so inclined to issue misleading and simplistic judgments from thousands of miles away.
Morgan Spurlock: Addiction does not cause men to rape and harass women. Stop talking. Stop blaming. Take responsibility and don't make excuses. And to everyone who's praising him for being so "brave": You're part of the problem.
Sorry/you're welcome, Seattle; earlier today, 's office confirmed that my March inquiry about whether parking officers had the legal authority to write tickets was the reason they looked into the issue and ultimately decided to refund $5 million in tickets.
Seattle says the requirement that people move their cars (i.e. drive them) every 72 hours is to "encourage transit use."
Not only does this not make any sense on its face, it's not true.
Speaker after speaker has claimed that protesters essentially caused the death of a young man shot in CHOP this weekend by not allowing police to enter. Every account I have seen indicates that the victims had been transported to the hospital by medics before police arrived.
It is also wildly anti-science to refer to an embryo at any stage in ectopic pregnancy as "the baby," since ectopic pregnancies are not viable and the embryo can never develop and be born.
WOW. GM Rob Gannon confirms that Metro will no longer be assisting police for law enforcement purposes, such as transporting police to protests.
The reason people over here don't love your "factual observation" is that it is the opposite of factual. It's an opinion issued from a vacuum of knowledge that people will nonetheless listen to while ignoring those of us working our asses off to report what's really going on.
I just asked why the police chief and mayor suggested that the death of a shooting victim could have been avoided if police weren't met with "hostile protesters" and how the ability to use tear gas could have saved his life. I didn't get an answer.
I'm reading over emails to the Seattle mayor and council members demanding that they sweep huge groups of unsheltered people, often because of an incident (e.g. yelling profanities) involving one person, and it's surprising how many of these homeowners cc'd ICE on their emails.
This story says Mercer Island banned "camping" on public property. In fact, it banned falling asleep on the island after dark unless you have a house. Calling unsheltered homelessness "camping" is like calling getting knocked out "sleeping."
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It continues. Pro-"life." The "mother." A "baby." The "child." This is journalistic malpractice.
Protests in South Seattle, the Central District, and elsewhere in the city, conducted with NO or minimal police presence, have been entirely peaceful. I'm reminded of the axiom that expectations lead to behavior. Overpolice people, they will react against being overpoliced.
Counterpoint: Seattle never "defunded the police," instead choosing to move positions and dollars from one column to another in a way that no one mistook as "defunding" at the time, and pundits like Danny are sneering in the wrong direction.
Just confirmed that the King County jail in downtown Seattle has not had access to city water since Friday due to discoloration from "increased turbidity"; incarcerated people have been using bottled water for drinking, brushing teeth, and all other purposes since then.
Did you know that the current manager of the parking enforcement division is running for state attorney general as a Republican? A THREAD
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In short: Best commute ever. 5/5 would do again.
Saw today that , which received literal millions of dollars in in PPP loans, is hiring an editor for $35,000 a year, or about 13 cents/hour above the lowest local minimum wage. They "especially encourage people of color and members of the LGTBQ+ community to apply."
A 23-year-old woman, Jaahnavi Kandula, who was struck and killed by a police officer driving a department SUV Monday night, was at the intersection of Dexter and Thomas, where a long-planned protected intersection was put on hold by 's last year.
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The 30-day ban on tear gas, Herbold points out, had an exemption saying that Police Chief Carmen Best can order it, which she says is apparently what happened last night.
The right wing in Seattle thinks homeless people are not entitled to shelter, food, or a place to relieve themselves. Put another way, they believe people who lack a place to live are subhuman and do not deserve human rights.
Seattle Police Officer Was Driving 74 mph When He Hit and Killed 23-Year-Old Pedestrian
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City Attorney Ann Davison's office just announced how they'll be reducing the 5,000-case backlog that was a centerpiece of her law-and-order campaign. The most impactful action: Declining to prosecute almost 2,000 cases involving low-level misdemeanors .
Amazing that the only photo of a King County business they had on hand was the one owned by a city council member whose election and priorities this newspaper has frantically promoted
Mayor’s Office: Cutting Police by 50% This Year Would “Require the City to Abolish the Department”
The contrast between the photos chose for D4 candidates and Alex Pedersen is... interesting. (Scott has plenty of professional photos on his campaign page, in case you were thinking a random blurry candid shot was the only option!)
The landholding class will make any argument to justify their ongoing accumulation of passive income at the expense of everyone else. For example, here's a wealthy single-family homeowner arguing against housing on the grounds that IT (unlike his house) is built by DEVELOPERS.
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The Seattle Times is really on a kick to keep people houseless and its not just the editorial board.
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Attention reporters and fans of transparency: The has eliminated its online staff directory, which contained employee contact information. Speaking as a reporter, one of the biggest changes under the current mayor has been a massive increase in gatekeeping.
This is Mike Carter from the Seattle Times. Earlier, I asked him to credit a story I wrote a week ago about an obscure report, not released to the press, that he covered today. He refused and mocked me, suggesting that I don't understand what reporting is. Then he blocked me.
In a letter sent this afternoon, the Seattle Human Rights Commission has called on to resign.
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Even for people who aren't living in their cars, the 72-hour rule is discriminatory: Property owners with driveways or garages can keep their cars in one spot for eternity, while renters who have a car but lack private parking must be constantly vigilant.
Turns out “you gotta hand it to Hitler” is a bridge too far for the Seattle Times
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After almost 3 years of dogged coverage by , the Seattle Public Library has reportedly decided to reverse its policy on the use of Narcan, allowing staffers to use the overdose reversal drug to save patrons' lives. I've reached out to SPL for more details./1
Periodically, I am reminded that the longest-serving member of the King County (Washington) Council lives in Arizona and has since well before the pandemic, and my mind is blown anew.
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It took significant reporting—hours and effort—for me to get this scoop. When wealthy legacy media don't credit small, independent reporters for our scoops, underplay them as mere document acquisitions, and don't even LINK us, it damages us both financially and professionally.
Just in: vetoed legislation that would have provided the city with information about rents in Seattle, a bill opposed by landlords (and ), who said it was overly burdensome to reveal what they charge in rent.
Your regular reminder that homeless people didn't cause the economic downturn, and that COVID, not the visible existence of suffering human beings, is what decimated the travel, hospitality, and retail sectors nationwide and in Seattle. bizjournals.com/seattle/news/2
The front page of the Seattle Times right now is basically a giant ad campaign smearing one of the candidates they cover, with none of the legally required information about who is funding the ad (link is to PDC requirements). pdc.wa.gov/learn/publicat
Raise your hand if you bike or walk in—gasp!—JANUARY, and don't consider these commute options a "hard sell" compared to sitting in traffic.
"Using only a $10,000 loan from dad and the gift of a Bluetooth-operated SmartBoat, Adisson and Madyson run an unpermitted floating Italian ice shop. A fraction of the profits go to charities that work on problems that could be fixed by taxing people like their parents."
Appalling: Danny Westneat of the blames the death of Jahnavi Kandula—killed while walking in a crosswalk where the mayor canceled a safety project by a cop rushing to an overdose call that the fire department was already handling—on "the drug epidemic."
Incredible to watch the Seattle Times editorial board complain about government interference into journalism, then call for government action to suppress protests.
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It's well-established that many property owners see the street in front of their houses as "their" parking. This rule, and the request to report "abandoned" cars, encourages richer people to complain about poorer people's use of public streets even more than they already do.
Durkan is currently suggesting that activists have asked the city to "simply quit responding to 911 calls," which is not accurate.
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Here is my piece from Tuesday—not a document acquisition, a fully reported story that scooped the Times. Please, please support truly independent media like PubliCola. If the behemoths are all that's left, the kind of stories I cover will go away too.
Definitely did not have “Seattle Times editorial board member defends Hitler, then says neo-Nazis and modern Leninists are the same thing” on my bingo card for today
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A bonus feature of this system is that people who don't own private garages or driveways have to drive more, full stop, and can't go on vacation without the risk of heavy fines or actually losing their car to impoundment.
So I was just riding the bus from downtown, and this young white dude with mirror shades and professional clothes was having a loud cell phone conversation about some service he was using to meet "foreign girls."
Dori Monson sent a reporter to break into a trailer owned by a pregnant homeless woman who had parked it near Lisa Herbold's house. The woman's trailer was vandalized with graffiti that included "Dori for President," which he said he "enjoyed immensely."
"I'm really questioning what's happening in our city right now... People are suffering, some are dying, and our mayor is allowing the police department to act with impunity as if we are in a police state," says.
yes the "epidemic" in Seattle is definitely minimum wage workers trying to scare middle-aged schlubs into tipping them 50 cents
Durkan is being booed roundly, an experience I don't believe she has had many times as mayor, largely because she doesn't do many events where people can yell at her.
This is an absolutely extraordinary story about what a journalist witnessed and experienced when he was arrested for trying to cover the protests against police brutality in Seattle.
Seattle police chief Carmen Best has covered her badge with a mourning band, one day after saying the city would end the practice.
Plenty of people have pointed out the issues with using a protest as a photo op after the city used violence to disperse protesters night after night. This is also an attempt to redefine the protests as being about lofty American ideals, not the local issue of defunding police.
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Today at the @BLMSeattleKC silent march, community walks to abolish the school to prison pipeline, end biased policing, and undo centuries of systemic racism in our country.
The march may be silent, but the message is loud and clear: #blacklivesmatter
At the very last minute, Seattle mayoral candidate said he would pull out of a mayoral forum today, which the hosts at have been advertising for weeks, if I'm the moderator.
The Women's Political Caucus of WA, not a group known for jumping headfirst into political controversy, just wrote a letter declaring that they have lost faith in , citing "actions that continue to
perpetuate harm" against Black Seattleites. thecisforcrank.com/wp-content/upl
comfy smugness is the prevailing attitude of Seattle.
This is 1,000 subtweets.
. said this week that people arrested for minor misdemeanors at protests won’t be charged. It’s clear from videos like this why that unofficial policy does not address the actual problem.
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Small scuffle. SPD claims the person they arrested crossed the line. From my perspective he was even with it. #seattleprotest #seattleprotests #seattleprotestscomms #seattlechop
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Seattle police chief Best, who just announced her resignation, says she decided that she was "done" when she realized she had to cut all the most recently hired, most diverse officers on the force. In fact, she has the authority as chief to request out of order pay cuts.
This is an absolutely sociopathic way of looking at the prospect of a deadly outbreak among our most vulnerable neighbors.
For the record (and for the next time the mayor, police chief, and others say "the reason we're all here" is George Floyd's death and nothing else), people are currently chanting "defund SPD." Earlier, they chanted the names of people who have been killed by police in Seattle.
Buried lede alert: Seattle police chief Carmen Best admits that there was no specific threat to the E Precinct; reports it was "a generalized assessment of threat to 'police and government structures' in Portland, San Francisco, and Seattle."
I swear I will not make a habit of tweeting about this suburban King County podcaster, but her CONSISTENT inability to spell the word "y'all" correctly (while using it to try to seem like a down-home real American) is indisputably hilarious.
The idea that negative growth means it's time to put the brakes on plans to build more housing (and transit) implies that Seattle has taken meaningful steps to build enough housing to accommodate everyone already here, which we have not.
But so many people who don't live here told me on Twitter that they were leaving Seattle because it's dying
seattletimes.com/seattle-news/d
At Sawant's press event, is laying out demands for the city, including a 50% funding cut to police, to be redirected toward community-based alternatives to incarceration and community investments, and demilitarizing the Seattle police force.
Best, who makes $294,000 a year, says "nobody joins the police department to get rich" and that if she had wanted to be wealthy she would have "picked another profession."
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The city is encouraging residents to complain about "abandoned" or "hazardous" vehicles on their street, re-establishing the system in which housed people complain about unhoused people, and property owners complain about renters' cars staying in one place "too long."
When I talk about perception vs. reality (e.g. homelessness causing the economic downturn vs the downturn increasing homelessness), part of the issue is lazy, one-source stories blaming vaguely defined "crime" for businesses closing during a time when foot traffic declined ~100%.
It's amazing to see Seattle's newspaper quoting Carl Haglund (my former landlord, who once served me a fake eviction notice and was infamous for mistreating and evicting his low-income immigrant tenants) as a reputable "developer" source.
Just popping in from one of the world’s most vibrant, thrilling cities to remind anyone who needs to hear it that graffiti does not cause crime (and probably shouldn’t be a major budget priority).
how in the year of our lord 2023 did this classist, sexist shit get published in a major American newspaper
forcing women into "overcoats" ffs
seattletimes.com/life/travel/co.
Listening to a council member have to remind a homeowners group that homeless people "are still people" is really taking me back to every other debate about homeless people's humanity for the last 20 years
. notes that it was protesters, not police, who managed to stop and apprehend the man who drove into the protesters and shot someone, in part by using a piece of the unsecured hard barrier set up by police to stop his car.
Hello food lovers of Twitter; here is a map of your recommendations of Asian- and Asian-American owned places in Seattle (I believe some are international chains). I will be updating as more come in; send corrections/omissions via Twitter or email. drive.google.com/open?id=1xWhI3
A Seattle livestreamer bro fired by a Sinclair station for being too right-wing for them spent the day trying to convince his followers that a pro-choice rally was actually an "antifa" riot. My favorite part was watching him try to make the phrase "pro choice abortion" happen.
Ar least four escalators out of service at Westlake Station in Seattle, including these three at the Pine Street entrance, plus at least one elevator. Not a novel point, but the challenges for people with limited mobility who want to use the train here are staggering.
Please don't interpret silence from anyone impacted by today's decision as complicity or lack of caring. Many of us whose lives were made free by access to abortion have been screaming our heads off about this for years, and no one listened. Today, I'm mourning, not yelling.
Breaking: Compassion Seattle's challenge to a King County Superior Court order striking Charter Amendment 29, an unfunded mandate to spend 12% of the city budget on homelessness while ensuring public spaces are encampment-free, has been denied by the state court of appeals.