Originally posted early Saturday

One day after KIRO News aired footage of Seattle police stomping on a man in a racially charged incident outside of a Lake Union nightclub, an SPD gang detective at the center of the case has apologized for his actions.

The April 17^th incident captured by a freelance photographer, Detective Shandy Cobane can be heard shouting “I’m going to beat the fucking Mexican piss out of you, homey. You feel me?” at a Hispanic man laying face down on the pavement. Cobane and another female patrol officer can also be seen stomping on the man in the video. Police believed the man might have been connected to an earlier robbery at the China Harbor nightclub. He wasn’t.

While Detective Cobane almost certainly faces discipline for his actions, the racially charged incident could possibly have an unexpected impact on SPD’s current Latino police chief.

---

At a last-minute press conference this evening at Seattle Police Department headquarters, Detective Cobane’s told reporters, his voice shaking as he spoke, that the words he used during the incident were “offensive and unprofessional.”

“I wish I could rewind the events of that night,” Cobane said, struggling to hold back tears. “I am committed to doing everything I can to right this wrong. My comments that night do not reflect who I am or what I am. Not as a person, nor as a member of the police department.”

Cobane also apologized to community members in Seattle, and his fellow officers in the department.  Seattle Police Officers Guild President Rich O’Neill gave Cobane a gentle pat on the back as he rapidly lost his composure.

While Cobane’s decision to address the media came as a bit of a shock—SPD Chief John Diaz and Assistant Chief Nick Metz both repeatedly stated that Cobane had not been urged or forced to issue his apology—Metz and Diaz made it clear it would have no effect on the department’s internal investigation.

So, what’s the fallout from all of this?

Ironically, Cobane’s anti-Hispanic outburst could have a dramatic effect on SPD’s current interim chief, John Diaz, who is Latino.

Diaz is considered to be a top candidate for SPD’s police chief position, which has been up for grabs since Gil Kerlikowske took a job as Obama’s drug czar last year. And he just might be the guy who takes the fall for the department’s handling of this incident, if tensions between community group and the department boil over.

Although SPD was aware of this incident well before KIRO called in an airstrike on this incident, Cobane was not put on administrative leave until videotape of the ugly racially-charged encounter hit the airwaves and news sites.

Cobane will undoubtedly face discipline for his remark—and possibly for his use of force—during the incident, though he’s not going to lose his job. The Seattle police guild is strong, and has kept some really, really truly awful cops on the job so I highly doubt Cobane—who, according to several sources, is generally respected and well-liked within the department—will need to find a new line of work after this.

However, the fact that the department, and Chief Diaz, failed to immediately put Cobane and the other officer involved in this incident on leave could put the hurt on interim chief Diaz’s chances of making his position permanent. That, coupled with Chief Diaz’s storied past, which I can’t say much about without potentially facing a libel lawsuit, although I will say that he’s earned the nickname “Shotgun Johnny," anyways.

Diaz is a cop’s cop, not a politician—exemplified here during an ambush interview with KIRO today, where Diaz looked like a deer in the headlights—which just won’t cut it at the top of the department.

Diaz has an opportunity here to spin this and make a point about how the department needs a Latino chief now more than ever, but I don’t think he’ll politicize this (and that's not to say that there's necessarily anything wrong with that).

SPD’s chief position is just as political as it is practical, and the department needs someone who can walk the walk as much as he can talk the talk. For as much institutional knowledge as Diaz has and as well liked as he is, I don’t know that Diaz is that guy.