Seattle Police Union President to Cops: Get With the Times or Get Out of This City

[n2doc]

Ron Smith, president of the Seattle Police Officers Guild.

Last week the Seattle Police Officers Guild, which has often been resistant to necessary changes to the SPD's culture, wrote on its Facebook page: "Times have changed and we must also change to adapt to societal expectations."

Today, in an interview at SPOG's South Seattle headquarters, I asked union president Ron Smith to expand on what that meant—particularly in light of incidents over the past year in which officers have taken to social media to use racially inflammatory rhetoric, defend the militarization of police, and rant about gay people.

Smith said he's repeatedly told some of his members—particularly "the ones who complain about it"—the following: "You applied here. And you have to treat people all the same. You have to serve the community. If you don't like the politics here, then leave and go to a place that serves your worldview."

The tough talk, Smith said, usually continues with him saying something like this:

"They hired you because they thought you were going to be able to work in a diverse community. And if you can't, well then, I guess there are still places across the country that aren't diverse, so go work there. But those won't last forever."

more
http://www.thestranger.com/blogs/slog/2015/02/18/21739167/seattle-police-union-president-to-cops-get-with-the-times-or-get-out-of-this-city

About Frickin' time!

[joeybee12]

1. Good for him...and compare that to the asshat

NYPD Union president...knr

[eridani]

5. Comparison with his predecessor is also instructive

Outspoken head of Seattle police union to step aside

http://seattletimes.com/html/localnews/2022445485_spogpresidentxml.html

Sgt. Rich O’Neill , the Seattle police- guild president known for his contentious and colorful comments, says it’s time for change and has announced he will not seek office again.

O’Neill, 55, popular with troops but a sometimes polarizing figure, has served as president of the Seattle Police Officers’ Guild (SPOG) for the past eight years.

“I feel the organization is in much better shape now,” he said Wednesday. “It’s grown in all ways, we’ve delivered two very good contracts and I’ve accomplished everything I intended.”

Although O’Neill, who joined the Police Department in 1980, said he is old enough to retire, he would like to work another four to five years.

He said he’s not sure where he will be assigned but noted that as a sergeant he will be working in some supervisory position. He plans to start his new assignment March 1, while remaining on the guild board for 12 months in the position of past president.

[FreakinDJ]

32. Yet he'll still defend the shooting of innocent unarmed civilians

"I was in fear" trumpts all

[GP6971]

2. Good for him. eom

[99th_Monkey]

3. At first I didn't know how to read this

I'm so used to police union presidents being totally assholes like Pat Lynch at NYPD.

[99Forever]

4. Bravo!

May his philosophy spread like wildfire.

[eridani]

7. I wish him luck, but history is against him

Way back in the sixties, after a couple of black kids got shot in the back, there was a similar outcry and calls for major reform. Fifty years later, a Native American woodcarver got the same treatment.

http://www.seattlemet.com/news-and-profiles/publicola/articles/about-that-controversial-article-in-the-spd-guild-newspaper

A Seattle police officer, writing in his union newspaper, disparages the anti-bias training the city employees are required to take, and calls city leaders a "quaint socialist cabal."

Under the headline, "Just Shut Up and Be a Good Little Socialist," Officer Steve Pomper calls the city's 5-year-old Race and Social Justice Initiative an attack on American values and calls its supporters "the enemy."

This attitude is NOT going to go away any time soon. You might wonder why he can't just fire all the assholes. The reason is that very few of them live in Seattle--because they can't afford to. He would not be able to find replacements who can afford to live here. Officers who don't live here, regardless of what training they get, see it as alien to their own suburban neighborhoods, and apply policing standards that they would never tolerate for a second in their own communities.

[cascadiance]

25. Maybe new socialist Seattle council member will have his back to help make a difference!

Kshama Sawant I have to believe welcomes this newer mind set in the police force.

[Warren Stupidity]

6. There are good cops, they are generally drowning in a vast cesspool of toxic cop culture. nt.

[SoLeftIAmRight]

8. WOW

"But those won't last forever"

I hope he is correct.

[jwirr]

9. Thank you Ron Smith. Someone needed to say this.

[slumcamper]

10. Not prone to cursing much (leave that to Rude, the master), but---

fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck YEAH. Somebody with a goddamned brain and a keen sense of the contextual dimension of institutional adaptation to the course of social history--admittedly geographically contoured--speaks out. This is one of the most profound "lines in the sand" that has been drawn on the matter of police/public interface.

At the risk of goring a sacred ox, Obama was wrong. In fact, there ARE two "Americas." I realize that he was speaking from a 2004 vantage of "HOPE" (I still have the barn sign "HOPE" that was prominent in my yard months prior to the 2008 Iowa caucus). But any semblance of hope for one America has long since passed. The GOP politics of resistance, defiance and confrontation have negated that hope (for the moment); I'll concede that. The coiled serpent that adorns the Gadsden flag is a fitting symbol for this "other" America which refuses to tolerate anything other that its white, evangelical, conservative conception of what this nation should be (you know---the "I want my country back" types).

The Gestapo police mentality and frankly racist antics that social media has exposed in its ugliest forms is not "one America." It is an other America. It is a fearful, cruel, and intolerant America. And as Ron Smith rightly acknowledges, it isn't wanted in the America that you and I strive to build.

The work goes on. Obama was right on this count...change occurs brick by brick, block by block, town by town... It's incremental. How we bridge the current divide is an intriguing question. Keep fighting my friends...the long arc of history bends inexorably to the side of justice.

[calimary]

15. Welcome to DU, slumcamper!

Glad you're here! Greatly appreciate your post! Love His Rudeness too. A LOT. And I join you in that "fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck YEAH". I love this guy! Seattle certainly has its great points (and people)!

I love this part, too:
"They hired you because they thought you were going to be able to work in a diverse community. And if you can't, well then, I guess there are still places across the country that aren't diverse, so go work there. But those won't last forever."

I must admit, though - I do feel a vague sense of fear every time I think about the reality and inevitability of this statement - "I guess there are still places across the country that aren't diverse... but those won't last forever." What I fear is what racist America will do in response, upon the moment when it realizes there are no more of those "wonderful" segregated places. What happens when they have to face that diversity and GET USED TO IT???? I fear that day won't come without a world of hurt.

[Veilex]

23. That world of hurt actually happens daily right now... and gets downplayed, usually by the media.

Those in positions of power, such as law enforcement, perhaps more than anyone else, need to be sensitized to diversity... rather than trying to fight the inevitable. Particularly in the liberal leaning Pacific Great Northwest.

[niyad]

11. my goodness--he actually gets it.

[mountain grammy]

12. Now there's a little welcomed fresh air.

[Dyedinthewoolliberal]

13. Wow!

That's great. I hope it lasts.

[sakabatou]

14. K&R

[DeSwiss]

16. Well, I suppose that's one.

- Don't imagine he has much future in his job as union president with that attitude. The point of police brutality is to scare and intimidate people so society doesn't change.

Duh.

K&R

[Heidi]

17. Kick, kick, kick!

[eridani]

18. Referring to post #7--it is going to take WAY more than this to change Seattle policing

Officers Pomper, Whitlach and Burke are going to be very, very careful about their social media footprint from now on. Do you think that will make them feel differently about minorities? If you were a parent of less that white-on-white teenagers, would you stop worrying about them?

[Enthusiast]

19. K&R! This post should have hundreds of recommendations!

Encouraging!

[Cha]

20. This is a like a Dream statement! Wonder if

Mayor de Blasio would like to say something similar to the NYPD?

Ron Smith-president of the Seattle Police Officers Guild

[riversedge]

21. "But those won't last forever." ---good comment. I await that

day--It will come! I do fret over the RW lately though with their guns and Religion--they are so vocal and mean.

[damnedifIknow]

22. More like get out of this country

See, this is still America and if you don't get that then kindly leave.

[HappyMe]

24. Talk is cheap.

While I think this is a good thing, this shouldn't have even had to be said.

[VanillaRhapsody]

26. Obviously It DOES need to be said....

repeatedly...and from all over the country!

[HappyMe]

27. Saying something is one thing.

It's the follow through that matters.

The police union chiefs have been taking a lot of heat, and deservedly so. It stands to reason that they would come out with some tough talk as a PR move. I'll wait for actual action before I pat this guy on the back much more.

[VanillaRhapsody]

28. sigh...whatever....

curmudgeon's gotta curmudge I suppose!

[HappyMe]

29. What is so curmudgeonly about

expecting concrete action behind the words?

Words aren't a magic wand that automatically change the hateful cop culture.

[VanillaRhapsody]

30. curmudgeonly about complaining about EVERY sign of positive momentum...

never have anything productive or positive to say about any issue....you too might be a curmudgeon!

[HappyMe]

31. I am not complaining.

I did say that this is a good thing. I just want the words to translate into actual action. I think it's rather naive to woot! over this as if it's all settled and good now.

edit to add --

This, right here.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10026245768#post18

[Mr Dixon]

33. WOW

Nice we need more Cops like him on the Force Seattle leading the way GO HAWKS.

[demigoddess]

34. K&R

[uponit7771]

35. OMFG, the fact that this even needs to be said is sad... glad someone said it though