Envision Seattle

Seattle Police Department Tactics in Question After Capitol Hill March of the Student Debt Noise Brigade

As Initiative 103 includes the Right to Citizen Oversight of the Seattle Police Department, we take note of reports of concerns of police enforcement tactics.

Information is still coming in from tonight's Student Debt Noise Brigade march on Capitol Hill last night - so it's too early to draw any clear conclusions. However, it does appear that last week the SPD allowed marchers to proceed peacefully down the center of Broadway with bike escorts. Then, tonight, police cars moved in and attempted to arrest one person starting a melee. They eventually arrested a different protester (not the original one).

Last week:  

This Week:

After more than an hour of peaceful marching throughout Capitol Hill ... watch the video below and  you can see radically different police enforcement at work:

It seems clear from the video that the police's decision to first rush one marcher (with the bullhorn) and then begin to make the first arrest rather than allow the march to proceed peacefully instigated the broader disruption. This video shows more.

I marched with this group on June 7th and it was entirely peaceful - and it included the same portion of the route where the police made the arrest. From what I heard and saw pictures of, last week's march was entirely peaceful - even escorted by the Seattle Police along this same section of the route. There appears to be no apparent reason for the change in SPD enforcement ... and the above footage shows the police cars closing in sideways on protesters prior to any verbal warning being announced. The noise brigade has been marching a portion of Broadway before retiring for the evening for a bbq in Cal Anderson Park. It's likely if the police had provided the same latitude as the week before, that this march would have been peaceful for a third week - and it does not appear that there was any violence prior to police engagement.

The Department of Justice has raised concerns of Seattle Police Department's handling of protests and crowd control in the past:

Separately, we are aware of recent incidents involving the use of Oleoresin Capsicum (“OC”) spray to disperse the so-called “Occupy Seattle” protesters on November 2, 2011 and November 15, 2011. Although these incidents concern us, we do not directly address them in this letter because they occurred outside of the timeframe of our review. However, we note that Seattle has previously been criticized for its response to demonstrators, including incidents related to the World Trade Organization meetings in 1999. In reviewing SPD’s response to the WTO demonstrators, the Police Executive Research Forum noted: “There is a balance to be struck between, on the one hand, First Amendment rights and other civil liberties, and on the other hand, the interventions required to protect public safety and property.”

The inconsistency between last week's police enforcement and this week's raises questions about tactics and their ability to communicate their intentions clearly to the public.

Initiative 103 provides the following with regards to police oversight:

Whereas, the United States Department of Justice finds that the Seattle Police Department engages in a pattern or practice of excessive force, in violation of the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 and patterns of racially biased policing which include excessive use of force; 

Section 4 ... (d) Rights to a Citizen Managed and Accountable Police Force. All residents of the City of Seattle have a right to a police force held fully accountable by its citizens. The Seattle Police Department’s Office of Professional Accountability will now report to the Mayor. 

Currently, the investigative and disciplinary arm of the police department reports to the Chief of Police, not a civilian.

Photos from last week courtesy of Alex Garland Photography.

 

How Phonebook Companies Are Wasting Seattle Taxpayers' Money

    Thud... Thud... Thud! That's the sound of phonebooks you opted out from landing on your porch in the near future if Seattle loses a lawsuit brought by phonebook publishers. The case is a perfect example of big business using "corporate personhood" to waste taxpayer money and intimidate the city council from passing common sense regulation.

    Since the phonebook opt out program took effect in May 2011, more than 75,000 homes and businesses have stopped nearly 40,000 unwanted phonebook deliveries, saving 375 tons of paper.

    The city won the initial lawsuit in just two months with help of outside counsel Summit Law Group but the phonebook companies' appeal has dragged on for more than a year. Cost to taxpayers of defending the law to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has likely exceeded a hundred thousand dollars, if not much more. If it loses, the city could be required to pay the phonebook companies' lost revenue and legal fees as well.

Corporate Personhood and Free Speech

    The companies allege in their complaint that the phonebook ordinance, "denies [their] rights guaranteed by the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution." (free speech and due process). If not for the legal concept of "corporate personhood", the phonebook companies wouldn't be able to sue Seattle to assert Constitutional rights originally written only for people.

    The word corporation doesn't appear in the Constitution but the U.S. Supreme Court first granted personhood protections to corporations in 1819 and then began extending human rights to them under the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment in 1886.

    The Fourteenth Amendment was actually added to the Constitution to remedy discrimination against freed slaves and was the legal basis used to end segregation in Brown v. Board of Education (1954). In other words, the phonebook companies are using anti-discrimination laws of the post civil war era as the legal foundation to sue Seattle.  

    The rules of our legal system are now rigged to favor corporations. Rather than ask the question, "are the phonebook companies people?" and "do they have the right to free speech?" the courts have focused largely on whether the content in the phonebooks (advertisements and phone listings) represent free speech which can't be regulated or commercial speech, which can be.

    The phonebook lawsuit is ridiculous on its merits as well. The companies claim, "The First Amendment to the United States Constitution prohibits government from ... enforcing the desire of citizens to avoid communications [and] from prying into citizens' preferences regarding communications they seek to avoid." Oh, really?

    Dex, Supermedia and the Yellow Pages are trying to use law made in the 19th century to force their failing 20th century business model down the throat of our 21st century city.

Making Law in Seattle the Corporate Way

    These kinds of cases put the city council in a defensive posture concerned that its actions could provoke other expensive lawsuits. What kind of democracy do we have when the city council is afraid to regulate local nuisances and environmental harms?

    In the past month, the city council issued advisory resolutions on two major issues (Citizens United and escalating coal train traffic) rather than write binding legislation which would actually protect our community.

    Over the past few years, we've seen corporations take several approaches to influence what happens in Seattle:

• When the Seattle City Council created a 20 cent fee on plastic bags in 2008, the American Chemistry Council spent $1.4 million dollars sponsoring a referendum to overturn the law. 
• When Costco wanted to privatize liquor sales in Washington State, they spent $22 million promoting Initiative 1183.
• When Chris Hansen wanted to build a new NBA arena, he secretly lobbied Mayor McGinn for months to garner a pledge for $200 million in city funds.

    The phonebook lawsuit is just one more way corporations leverage "corporate personhood" and free speech "rights" to sue the city or spend money on elections to manipulate the law in their favor. 

How Initiative 103 Reigns in Corporate Abuses

    If Initiative 103 is enacted by voters, corporations wouldn't have personhood rights or free speech rights. They wouldn't be able to spend money on elections or pay signature gatherers on initiatives within the city limits. And, they wouldn't be able to lobby public officials behind closed doors. 

    I103 emphasizes our Right to Self Government and the elevation of peoples' rights over corporate rights:

5. (e) Corporate Preemption Powers. (1) Corporations in violation of the rights or prohibitions established by this ordinance, or seeking to engage in activities prohibited by this ordinance, shall not possess the authority or power to enforce State or federal preemptive law against the people of this municipality, or to challenge or overturn municipal ordinances adopted by this municipality, when that enforcement or challenge interferes with the rights asserted by this ordinance, or interferes with the authority of the municipality to protect the health, safety, and welfare of its residents.

I103 also provides Rights for Nature which would provide additional authority to stop the production and delivery of unwanted phonebooks.

    If I103 passes, it would be the first time 300,000+ voters in a major metropolitan city tell the courts to eliminate corporate personhood and judge-made constitutional "rights". 

    Please help qualify Initiative 103 on the ballot: print out the petition and gather signatures from your family, friends and colleagues, volunteer with us at summer festivals and share us on Facebook. Questions? Check out our FAQ or email us.

Who's hiding the coal train from Ballard?

Ballard Loves Coal!

Who's keeping Ballard residents in the dark about the approaching coal train and why can't they take a joke?

One of the things we've learned working on Initiative 103 is that Seattleites are turned off by negativity ... so, we set up two opposing coal train web sites to poke fun at our own activism while trying to raise awareness for an important issue (18 mile and a half long coal trains preparing to cross through Ballard for the next five decades):

1) BallardLovesCoal.com - a dating site "profile" for the coal train "I'm a small town girl from Montana planning a long trip to China, it's gonna be smokin hot!"

2) StopTheBallardCoalTrain.org - an earnest anti-coal train site. (I103's rights for nature would help the city fend off Montana's coal trains from state and federal regulations which fail to give the community the power to say no.)

On Wednesday, a couple of I103 volunteers posted opposing flyers on telephone poles and light posts all over central Ballard. Within a few hours, they were mostly gone.

Undeterred, we did it again Saturday night - hours before the Ballard Market began, we posted Ballard Loves Coal flyers on all the surrounding telephone poles. By 10 am this morning, they were gone.

It may have been market personnel "de-politicizing" the Ballard Market. We've run into resistance with signature gathering around the market perimiter in a couple of neigborhoods. It may have been Ballard enviros stripping down the signs without actually looking at the site to realize they were educational. Or, it may have been frustated band promoters. 

In any case, they seem to have missed the joke...and in doing so, have contributed keeping Ballard in the dark... That light at the end of the tunnel, it's an approaching coal train.

Or, of course, it could have been the pro-coal response team concerned about the effectiveness of our action (note to Ballard residents, this is called sarcasm).

 

 

Rights are for People, Corporations Aren't People - Tshirts For Sale

We've got a new t-shirt design. Rights Are For People on the front, Corporations Aren't People on the back. You can order them directly through Zazzle.com.

 

Seattle City Council Passes Resolution Opposing Coal Train

Here are the remarks presented by Initiative 103 co-organizer, Jeff Reifman, at the Seattle City Council hearing on the coal train. See also Seattle City Council passes resolution opposing transportation of coal through Seattle. We were asked at the last minute to limit comments to one minute each - grey grafs were skipped.

Can we acknowledge for a moment what a dumb idea this coal train is? ... We are already above the safe upper limit for CO2 that science says would preserve our ecosystem. This coal train is a 19^th century idea for a 21^st century city.

I grew up in Los Angeles smog. I first learned of Seattle as a child, reading about the Wheedle on the Needle. I was captivated by the imagery and couldn’t believe a place like this existed.

You may remember that the Wheedle makes it rain in Seattle to quiet the noise of the city’s growing industrial workers. Now, we’re planning to allow 18 miles of long, noisy coal trains per day through the city for decades. We’ll send coal to China and it will fall back to us as acid rain.

I live near Green Lake. Occasionally when conditions are right, I hear train whistles from the waterfront echoing over Phinney Ridge. It’s a quaint reminder of the industrial side of our city at its current scale. I can’t imagine what life will be like closer to the tracks if you allow these coal trains through our city.

I’d also like to take a moment to question the wisdom of advisory resolutions.

The residents of Seattle have empowered you to make law. Yet, this advisory resolution includes the phrase “The City of Seattle will request” five times.

For a second time in weeks, on the most vital matters of our time, this council seeks to advise rather than legislate. The Seattle Times thought so little of your resolution on Citizens United that it didn’t report it.

Our legal system currently treats nature as property. It affords corporations human rights based on the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause… whose actual purpose was to remedy slavery and racial discrimination embodied in our Constitution. Our legal system also allows coal companies to sue cities that seek to regulate coal trains using the Commerce clause of the Constitution. These are 19^th century ideas.

I103 seeks to give Seattle voters the opportunity to establish Rights for Nature in our city. This would give the city additional authority to stop harmful environmental practices that can’t be mitigated, like this coal train. Rights for Nature is a 21^st century idea in line with the forward thinking people of Seattle.

I urge the council not to pass this resolution but to go back to work and pass more binding legislation. Either we live in a democracy which provides lawmaking authority to protect our communities and our environment or we do not.

Initiative 103 Provides Tools Seattle Needs to Protect Our Community

    Issue after issue in Seattle pits corporate power and influence peddling against residents and our environment. Initiative 103's Community Bill of Rights provides the tools residents need to protect and manage what happens in our city. 

    Take a quick look at some of the issues emerging in Seattle to see how I103 seeks to put people first in decision making processes:

Ending Corporate Personhood

• The phonebook companies' appeal of its failed lawsuit against the City of Seattle for its opt out program is wasting taxpayer money and they may just win. The entire suit is based on their claim of corporate personhood and free speech rights. Read more 

Restricting Corporate Lobbying to Public Forums

• Mayor McGinn and hedge fund investor Chris Hansen announce a privately hatched plan to build an NBA arena with $200 million in city funds. I103 would require these discussions happen transparently, in public from the beginning.
• Washington State has a huge tax fairness problem related to corporate influence peddling in Olympia and tax breaks. In the past twelve years, Microsoft's lobbying and Nevada tax dodge has saved the company $4.3 billion. As a result, Gov. Gregoire has had to cut $4 billion from K-12 and Higher Education since 2008. I103 would require the company to be public and transparent about its efforts in Seattle and its a first step towards a state lobbying restriction.
• Increasingly, business interests are seeking to control public schools and privatize public school funding through charter schools. Recently, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce launched public attacks on the Seattle's School Board and a school charter movement effort (funded in part by wealthy technology families such as Microsoft's CEO Steve Ballmer's wife) has launched a state initiative.

Eliminating Corporate Spending on Elections

• In 2011, Costco spent a record $22 million to pass a liquor privatization initiative. I103 would prevent companies like Costco from advertising state initiatives to Seattle residents.
• In 2009, the American Chemistry Council spent $1.4 million on a referendum to repeal Seattle's plastic bag ban. I103 would outlaw corporate contributions to city campaigns.
• Each year, Tim Eyman uses corporate funds to pay signature gatherers to qualify state initiatives. This year, BP and Conoco contributed $250,000 for Initiative 1185. I103 would prevent any of this money from being spent in Seattle.

Rights for Nature

• Peabody Energy is pushing a major expansion for coal trains on the Seattle waterfront (see also Railroad Union Stretches Truth About Coal Dust and Climate Solutions). No state or federal regulations give Seattle the ability to say no to fifty years of 18 daily mile long coal trains. I103's Rights for Nature gives both the City of Seattle and Seattle residents the right to stop this kind of environmental pollution. See also Coal Found Along Washington Waterways.

Citizen Oversight of Police

• The United States Department of Justice finds that the Seattle Police Department engages in a pattern or practice of excessive force, in violation of the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 and patterns of racially biased policing which include excessive use of force. Nothing in the Mayor's 20/20 settlement proposal addresses the issue of citizen oversight. I103 would move the internal police Office of Professional Accountability from reporting to the Police Chief to the Mayor. And, I103 establishes a right of citizen oversight of the police. 
• The Mayor seems comfortable spending $200 million of public funds for a private NBA arena but unwilling to spend $41 million to begin implementing a more publicly accountable police force.

Rights for Workers

• Seattle-based Amazon has been accused of operating sweatshops and treating its workers poorly) as well as tax dodging and funding right wing lobbying group ALEC). I103 reinforces state and federal rights to collective bargaining and Constitutional rights in the workplace, which will support whistleblowers.

Neighborhood Rights to Approve Zoning Changes

• The Capitol Hill Community Council rejected the Mayor's proposed zoning changes for the neighborhood. Similarly, SODO area businesses have serious concerns about the new NBA arena proposal. I103's Rights for Neighborhoods ensure that local residents have majority approval over any commercial zoning changes.

Rights to Network Neutrality

• The City of Seattle pulled the plug on its municipal WiFi pilots and has abandoned its efforts towards a citywide broadband network. Comcast is already violating network neutrality through its private deals with Microsoft. I103 would make present day network neutrality law in Seattle.

Contact us if you'd like to help place Initiative 103 on the ballot: Download a petition, join our Facebook page, sign up for our mailing list or come to one of our upcoming events.

Media Watch: The Seattle Times Silent on City Council Resolution Regarding Citizens United

As I mentioned here earlier, The Seattle Times has yet to mention anything about yesterday's unanimous city council resolution regarding corporate free speech and Citizens United. I've searched and searched and can't find anything.

This seems to break practice at the paper which previously reported on meaningful city council resolutions:

• Albeit late, city council backs troops 2003
• Seattle City Council to Bush: Bring troops home 2007
• Seattle City Council welcomes seagulls, supports ending wars 2011
• Seattle's Antiwar Resolution 2011

The Supreme Court's Citizens United decision seems nearly as important if not more important than our involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan. Nearly 65% of democrats and republicans disapprove of the Court's decision. 

I raise this as a concern because of my experience with The Seattle Times on Microsoft's Tax Dodge. The paper publishes unchallenged editorials by Microsoft's Brad Smith on revenue problems and education while failing to report on the company's revenue-depriving tax practices. See also Dummies Guide to Microsoft's Tax Dodge. 

Unlimited campaign spending obviously has a huge impact on the bottom line at The Seattle Times and other local media.

Note: The Seattle Post Intelligencer did report the council's vote.

 

Seattle City Council Passes Resolution Calling for Amendment to Reverse Citizens United

The Seattle City Council unanimously passed a resolution yesterday calling on Congress to amend the Constitution to repeal the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision. Story in the PI here and post by Councilman Harrell (photos here & here). There seems to be no mention of this in The Seattle Times, Crosscut or The Slog - not even in Crosscut's new publicola-powered Morning Fizz (note: Crosscut's Fizz and Slog seem overwhelmed by King County Executive Dow Constantine's anatomy).

Congratulations to the Get Money Out of Politics Occupy working group and Craig Salins which led the petition drive to push the council forward on this issue. Resolutions by cities around the country do make a difference in supporting the longer term Move to Amend effort.

Thom Hartmann interviewed I103 co-organizer Jeff Reifman yesterday on the council's effort, which is viewable here at 52:28 - 59:52.

Seattle City Council to Vote on Advisory Resolution Related to Citizens United

On Monday, the Seattle City Council will vote on a non-binding advisory resolution to call on the Washington State Legislature and Congress to make law which would supersede the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision. Essentially, the resolution says that corporations are not people, do not have constitutional rights and thus do not have the rights to speech or spending in elections.

This vote calls attention to the issues created by corporate constitutional rights and corporate influence in government and should help raise awareness for Initiative 103.

The event starts at noon at Seattle City Hall, 4th Ave Plaza, 600 Fourth Ave, Seattle 98104. The council hearing starts at 2pm. RSVP on Facebook.

Police Chase at the Phinneywood Art Walk Tonight - SPD Officer Executes Backwards 180

While I was gathering signatures for I103 outside Bluebird at 74th & Greenwood, there was a pretty major police chase. I saw a small white car fleeing northbound and then a SPD car backing up Northbound at about 40 mph with sirens blaring ... at the point the SPD car reached 75th, the officer executed a pretty impressive 180 and sped North after the suspect. Apparently, other bystanders told me that the white car bumped into the SPD car, backed up and hit a pedestrian beside the new firehouse at 73rd and then began to flee. I'm told the pedestrian was able to move his extremities after the incident - so hopefully, they are not too badly injured.

Luckily the art walk had just begun, so there were not more people out as it otherwise could have been an extremely dangerous chase.

Here's the Phinneywood run down.