Presenting to the City Council Meeting: Sept. 15, 2010

Earlier this afternoon, the "Energy, Technology, and Civil Rights Committee" with the City of Seattle convened at the city council chambers at Seattle City Hall. A brief, preliminary order of business that addressed energy and technology took a small portion, soon thereafter, giving way to the more contested order of business for the day. In wake of the shooting death of John T. Williams at the hands of a 2-Year Seattle Police veteran, a contingent of community members filled the room to capacity, urging the city to address the situation. The discourse was oriented around testimony given by a brief list of speakers, followed by further dialogue with representatives of Native advocacy organizations at the local and state level. There was common language amongst all entities, as well as allies in the crowd. However, from initial analysis, it appears that more is needed. As one speaker proclaimed, it is almost useless to have police firearm subcommittees when the sole voting members are law enforcement officials, leaving the remaining (non-voting) board positions open to the public. In effect, the question was "who polices the police?" When all accountability mechanisms are mired in bureaucratic entities that give sole enforcement capabilities to police internal investigators, it further illuminates the previous points made. Little can be accomplished with transparency being a word with relatively little value as "investigators" hoard all documentation, including structural documents that show how these procedures take place to begin with. Despite these contradictions, the community presence at the meeting made it known that this is a battle in its infancy, with the cauldron slowly nearing boiling point.