Photos by Andrew Calkins

Only one minute into last night's Stranger -sponsored Police Accountability Forum at City Hall---featuring an eight-person panel that included Mayor Mike McGinn, city council public safety chair Tim Burgess, and Seattle Police Chief John Diaz---people were already  shouting. As Diaz responded to the first question---Is there a pattern of police violence against racial minorities in Seattle?---three members of the crowd started shouting---"These were not fucking accidents!"---and had to be removed by security.

Such was the mood of the evening: A mixture of organized protest rally and three-ring circus.

The forum, billed as a civil dialogue to discuss honest disagreements and talk about how to move forward, broke down into chaos almost immediately, with a large and organized contingent holding protest signs, shouting things like "cops, pigs, murder," and interrupting the speakers with anti-SPD tirades.

Richard O'Neill, president of the Seattle Police Officers Guild (the police union), spent the evening defending the city's cops: "We don't have a systematic violation of people's rights," he said. Listing off the department's achievements over time, O'Neill said to laughs from the audience, that Seattle was a "model of accountability" for departments across the country.

When panel members could get a word in over the constant interruptions and heckling from the crowd, they coalesced around the idea (fueled by comments by Tim Burgess) of outward dialogue and transparency from within SPD itself. Pamela Masterman-Stearns, president of the City of Seattle Native American Employees Association, called for a "citizens review board" with the power to recommend disciplinary actions. Most of the panel's members reiterated the same idea.

The auditor of the city's Office of Professional Accountability (which oversees claims of police misconduct), Anne Levinson, was quick to point out that OPA already does in-depth reviews of misconduct allegations. She maintained "there is accountability in the system," but acknowledged the city does not do a good job communicating it.

Nicole Gaines, President of the Loren Miller Bar Association, responded that OPA's investigations haven't resulted in a single finding of wrongdoing. Levinson followed up by noting that in 2009, 12 percent of cases resulted in a "sustained" finding and 12% more resulted in intervention or additional training from a supervisor.

Speaking to police officers in general, Gaines said that if "you do not admonish" peers who commit misconduct, "then you are saying to the public that you agree with their behaviors." Burgess added that he would "prefer if the police department spoke more openly about their problems." Chief Diaz, however, wasn't quick to admit those problems.

In one of many interruptions, NAACP president James Bible fired up some members of the crowd by calling the evening's panel "political puppetry." The large Native American community at the event was also unsatisfied by the police chief's responses. One man, wearing a yellow jacket with the words "Killerop" and "Mobile Target" painted on his back, spent the last portion of the debate standing in the middle of the room, staring motionlessly at the panel.