This Week On PubliCola: July 20, 2024
Monday, July 15
Former Police Chief Adrian Diaz Threatened PubliCola Over Post Describing His Coming-Out Interview
The former police chief and his Washington, D.C.-based lawyers threatened to hit PubliCola with a costly libel suit if we didn’t remove a piece describing his interview with right-wing talk show host Jason Rantz, in which he came out as gay and suggested that this was a defense against allegations that he sexually harassed women in the department or behaved inappropriately toward them.
Although the premise of Diaz’s threat was baseless (we did not libel him, and the post remains up, we still had to hire attorneys to fight on our behalf, and we’re seeking help from readers to recoup our costs and help rebuild PubliCola’s small budget.
Tuesday, July 16
Pierce County Declines to Charge Deputy Seattle Police Chief Over Domestic Violence Allegations
The Pierce County Prosecutor declined to charge Seattle Deputy Police Chief Eric Barden in a criminal case involving an allegation of domestic violence by his ex-girlfriend. In a memo explaining the decision, the deputy prosecutor said the woman’s testimony would be in question because she told prosecutors she wanted to make Barden pay by losing his job.
Wednesday, July 17
Seattle Nice: Is Civility Dying in Seattle?
On this week’s episode of Seattle Nice, we discussed whether recent graffiti targeting Seattle City Councilmember Tanya Woo things, is another sign of what Sandeep has described as a new era of “toxicity” in Seattle politics. Sandeep thinks so, but I argued that using naughty words to yell at city officials is a tradition that goes back decades—it didn’t start with Kshama Sawant, the 2020 protests, or the most recent city council.
Interim Police Chief Sue Rahr Fires Officer Who Joked About Death of 23-Year-Old Pedestrian
In a surprisingly swift decision, interim Seattle Police Chief Sue Rahr fired police officer Daniel Auderer, whose laughter and jokes about the death of 23-year-old student Jaahnavi Kandula were caught on body camera footage last year. In an all-staff memo, Rahr said she was well aware Auderer thought his noxious comments were “private,” but said the impact of his comments was more important than his intent in making them.
Thursday, July 18
Council Members Approve Fine for Street Racing, Claiming It Will “Deter” Racing, Save Lives
The council passed legislation sent down by Republican City Attorney Ann Davison that creates a civil infraction for street racing and allows officers to impose increasing fines that range from $500 to $1,500. Street racing is already a gross misdemeanor that carries a fine of up to $5,000 and a jail sentence of up to 364 days, so council members’ claims that their bill will “deter” street racing seemed a bit far-fetched.
Harrell Installed Gym in Basement of City Hall for Himself and His Security Detail
Shortly after taking office, Mayor Bruce Harrell had the city convert a disused room in the basement of City Hall into a gym for his personal use, along with his security team. Harrell’s office says the equipment (which isn’t visible behind the locked gym door) is donated and old, and that he stopped using the gym a while ago, preferring the Washington Athletic Club to solo workouts in the basement. PubliCola has filed records requests to find out the cost to set up and rent the space, and how often it’s used.
Saturday, July 20
Listen: PubliCola on KUOW (a Three-fer!)
PubliCola was on three KUOW podcasts over the past 8 days, including an appearance on KUOW’s Week In Review with Bill Radke and two appearances on Seattle Now’s Casual Friday edition with Patricia Murphy. Between the three shows, we covered basically everything anyone was talking about this week, so tune in!