Black Lives Matter Organizer Wants 'Utter Abolition of. This morning, black lives advocates assembled outside Uptown Espresso in South Lake Union to decry the treatment of #BlackLivesMatter protesters by Seattle police.
The location was important: this was the spot where, exactly one year ago today, teacher Jesse Hagopian was randomly pepper sprayed by a panicked SPD officer while talking on the phone to his mother. Hagopian was joined by several others including lawyer Nikkita Oliver and photographer Jay Trinidad, not to mention city councilmember Kshama Sawant. But perhaps most interesting was the call by Marissa Johnson, one of the two #BlackLivesMatter organizers who shut down Bernie Sanders’ speech last year, to abolish the Seattle Police Department. (It was not clear how many of the other activists agreed with this goal.)
Here’s the full transcript of her speech: I said this six months ago to presidential candidate Bernie Sanders: that Seattle is our nation’s Mecca of white hypocrisy. Seattle hates black people. Seattle’s first cat café finally opens doors in Wallingford. US cops trained to use lethal Israeli tactics. US police officers are being tutored by Israel on how to employ the tactics that have brought death and serious injury to huge numbers of Palestinians in the past few months.
Officers from 15 US police agencies recently traveled to the Middle East for lessons from their Israeli counterparts. For 10 days in late November, police officers from New York, Miami, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s department, the Drug Enforcement Agency and US Customs and Border Protection observed the daily operations of the Jerusalem police, the Israeli Border Police and the Shin Bet secret service, all of which play a vital role in administering Israel’s system of control over Palestinians. The training junket was hosted by the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs (JINSA), a neoconservative think tank that claims to have organized Israeli training sessions for some 9,500 law enforcement officials since 2004 through its Law Enforcement Exchange Program (LEEP). Summary executions Snuff films Tags. King5 footage of Seattle protest arrest. Seattle Is Now One of the Richest Cities in the United States. There used to be an old and rather ugly Greyhound bus station somewhere around here.
Charles Mudede According to Bloomberg's analysis of government data for the 100 largest metropolitan areas, Seattle's Gross Metropolitan Product (GMP) is only behind that of San Jose (number one), San Francisco (number two), and some Connecticut suburb beloved by Wall Street bankers (number three). Seattle White Supremacy, Inc.
Seattle Is Helping Drug Addicts Instead of Locking Them Up — and So Far It’s ... Seattle's revolutionary approach to treating drug abuse has changed Wade Johnson's life.
A self-confessed addict, the 35-year-old Johnson has lived in the city since 1988 — minus time spent in prison for robbery and drug charges — and joined the Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion (LEAD) program three years ago after talking with a case manager on the streets of Belltown, a neighborhood in the shadow of the Space Needle that is a popular haunt for junkies. "They threw me a life preserver," Johnson told VICE News. "They helped me build bridges back with my family, I'm very employable now. I have a lot to live for. They put me on a platform. " After Johnson expressed interest, the LEAD case manager, Chris Gates, consulted with local cops who knew Johnson and reached a consensus that he was a good candidate for the program. M.truthdig. Kshama Sawant outside Seattle City Council chambers shortly before she was elected in November 2013.
(AP / Ted S. Warren)
Jenny Durkan: Cop who killed Native man wasn't charged either. Electromagnetic Warfare Training coming to Washington Coast and Rainforests. Electromagnetic Radiation: Coming Soon to the Olympic Peninsula’s Most Beautiful Areas?
Updated 10/18/2014 The rugged, beautiful Washington Coast and the rainforests of the Olympic Peninsula will soon be the site of War Games conducted by the United States Military. In 2015, the United States plans to test and refine our ability to use and maintain electromagnetic weapons in National Forest lands. Pumping radiation out of towers at 14 locations, including stations on the Quinault, Queets, Hoh rivers and rain forests, the US military is saying that there is little to no risk to humans or large animals in the region. Census: Seattle saw steepest rent hike among major U.S. cities.
Click to enlarge Seattle apartment-dwellers: You thought your rent was high — well, you’re right.
Data released Thursday by the Census Bureau rank Seattle — for the first time — among the 10 most-expensive cities for renters. To achieve that dubious honor, we had to claw our way past Oakland and Long Beach, Calif., on the list of high-priced places to live. So how’d we do it? Simple. Seattle is the only large city where rents jumped by more than $100, and by more than 10 percent, in this period.
The median amount paid by Seattle renters, across all size units, reached $1,172 in 2013. Last week on FYI Guy, we explored data about people leaving Seattle — maybe they’re in search of cheaper rent? Doctors unsure what's behind dramatic increase in birth defects in rural Washington.