It's Saturday night and RantWoman should probably just cue up some snarky parody song or give her designated earworm of the week another listen.
For readers who just want to flee and go find the earworm
Breiliang Zhu Bach Cello Suite no 6 in D Major
RantWoman also is not reading her Twitter feed about how many more police shootings there have been in the last few days or how many of them involved a person with a disability. Instead RantWoman is tending a blog post she already started. RantWoman is feeling cavalier about the possibility that by the end of this post, she will have pissed off people in many strands of her life. Go big or go home! Wait. it's the #pandemic and even though the weather is glorious and RantWoman is 4 days out from her second shot, RantWoman is already home. Onward.
RantWoman gets grumpy when #DefundThePolice chatter creeps into for example reports of #TrafficViolence. Recently the Seattle area has seen multiple hit and run accidents involving pedestrians and cyclists. Police need to knock off the low-level harassment of people of color AND they need to remain an important part of the picture for investigating and ending #trafficViolence
Next, maybe the officer who thought she was reaching for her Taser when she fired her gun is onto something. What if all officers were required to keep their tasers on the side of their non-dominant hand? What if officers had to reach across their bodies to get their guns? RantWoman KNOWS that would be a huge training shift. RantWoman also thinks this adjustment in gear placement could prevent a large percentage of the "Good grief, that is not supposed to be a death penalty offense" police-involved shootings roiling the nation's souls. Just a thought.
Next we come to
Seattle Police Lieutenant Retires after investigation...
RantWoman appreciates the Seattle Times crediting Publicola coverage that started the investigation. RantWoman appreciates the OPA investigation.
The above item showed up on a link that supposedly was about Acting Chief Diaz and an invitation of some sort to an event with Franklin Graham's name on it. It's Saturday night. RantWoman swims in currents that cross both faith communities and queer communities. RantWoman has not fully sussed out issues with use of taxpayer dollars, the event itself, and a police department email.Here are bits RantWoman has previously gathered.
RantWoman has no desire to be police chief. And RantWoman believes police officers also have a right to freedom of religion. RantWoman is not sure a police officer who shares Franklin Graham's views would have a really good time working in queer friendly Seattle. However, just as police officers participate in Gay Pride events, RantWoman personally would have no problem with police officers attending the Franklin Graham event. In fact, RantWoman might specifically direct visible queer officers to represent the police department at this event. RantWoman would send more than one officer and would prefer to send people, queer and non-queer who can project professionalism even in an environment where there might be hostility. But that is RantWoman
Speaking of police officers and first amendment rights, RantWoman is now still wondering about the 6 officers known to have been in Washington DC on January 6, the day of the #CapitolRiot.
RantWoman is not exactly charmed by one City CouncilMember who wants to throw all the details and considerations about the investigation out into the public. RantWoman wishes that CouncilMember would start by just holding a hearing about all the public's concerns. For instance RantWoman has been to enough protests and watched enough cop shows to imagine there might be several views of the situation.
RantWoman particularly notes the Seattle PD protest that they cannot search for the six officers among all the miles of video footage. SeattlePD cannot do this because of the surveillance ordinance bar against using any kind of facial recognition software. M'kay. In this case where the issues is what 6 known faces were seen doing, RantWoman without benefit of legal advice or deep familiarity with the current ordinance would suggest Seattle PD should have the option of getting a warrant. That still creates the problem of what to do if, incidental to the investigation of the 6 known officers, other officers, public employees.. were also identified adjacent to the faces already known to the investigation.
There. That is probably more than enough controversial points of view for one evening. RantWoman will now attempt to settle down and drink in the rest of the cello suite.
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