City Hall
PubliColaTV: Tim Burgess on the Fatal Police Shooting of John T. Williams
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vnWmJ1WmL7A[/youtube]
On Friday, Seattle City Council Member Tim Burgess sat down with PubliCola to discuss police use of force which resulted in the death of Native American Woodcarver John T. Williams.
We had talked to Burgess, who's the chair of the council's public safety committee, immediately after the shooting and considered giving him our daily loser award (our Afternoon Jolt) when he told us he'd spaced the public vigil for Williams. (We ended up making Mayor Mike McGinn a winner instead for showing up to the potentially hostile scene.)
Burgess seems to have made some progress on his push to have a separate law enforcement agency review the incident. However, that ad hoc suggestion seems to miss the point of calls for police accountability reform. The idea is to have independent review options in place like Seattles' Office of Professional Accountability Review Board (OPARB) which citizens should trust to watch dog the SPD's internal investigation.
The Williams shooting—and subsequent calls for accountability—has also suddenly shifted the political dynamic between McGinn and Burgess, who is widely seen as a potential McGinn challenger in 2013. Burgess, a former cop, has a tough-on-crime image while McGinn, a classic liberal, is seen as touchy-feely, and has lost some support in the South end over the perception that he's not focusing cop dollars there. Recent neighborhood concerns about crime had buffeted Burgess' political hand. However, as accountability concerns displace crime concerns (it always ebbs and flows), McGinn has benefited.
We asked Burgess to comment on his public role.
On Friday, Seattle City Council Member Tim Burgess sat down with PubliCola to discuss police use of force which resulted in the death of Native American Woodcarver John T. Williams.
We had talked to Burgess, who's the chair of the council's public safety committee, immediately after the shooting and considered giving him our daily loser award (our Afternoon Jolt) when he told us he'd spaced the public vigil for Williams. (We ended up making Mayor Mike McGinn a winner instead for showing up to the potentially hostile scene.)
Burgess seems to have made some progress on his push to have a separate law enforcement agency review the incident. However, that ad hoc suggestion seems to miss the point of calls for police accountability reform. The idea is to have independent review options in place like Seattles' Office of Professional Accountability Review Board (OPARB) which citizens should trust to watch dog the SPD's internal investigation.
The Williams shooting—and subsequent calls for accountability—has also suddenly shifted the political dynamic between McGinn and Burgess, who is widely seen as a potential McGinn challenger in 2013. Burgess, a former cop, has a tough-on-crime image while McGinn, a classic liberal, is seen as touchy-feely, and has lost some support in the South end over the perception that he's not focusing cop dollars there. Recent neighborhood concerns about crime had buffeted Burgess' political hand. However, as accountability concerns displace crime concerns (it always ebbs and flows), McGinn has benefited.
We asked Burgess to comment on his public role.
