Seattle: Families impacted by police violence protest at U.S. Department of Justice hearing
Seattle, WA – On Tuesday, May 30, around 15 community members came together in protest at the Federal Courthouse at a hearing on whether to lift the consent decree placed on the Seattle Police Department. The consent decree was placed in 2012 after an investigation found a pattern of officers using excessive force. It required policy changes and other measures in order to comply with federally mandated standards on policing.
When asked if the bias-free policing reform included in the consent decree would address racial disparities, the city attorney representing Seattle said that it was not explicitly required.
The Department of Justice has moved recently to lift the consent decree, stating the Seattle Police Department is a model for other departments around the country to look up to. This is in direct contrast with the victims left behind, who organized a protest at the hearing to show they will have their voices heard.
Among these voices was Castill Hightower, who in 2004 lost her brother, Herbert Hightower Jr., when Officer Steve Hirjak killed him while he was in a mental health crisis. She has been fighting for the Seattle Police Department to provide records of what happened that night since then, only to be given changing stories that contradict each other.
“We are calling for an end to the consent decree not because it’s been a success, but because it’s been an utter failure!” says Hightower. In January of 2022, a Latino man experiencing a mental health crisis was brutally shot and killed by police, traumatizing his family. Earlier this year, a student named Jaahnavi Kandula was hit and killed by a speeding SPD car. These instances have been ignored and swept under the rug by the SPD and federal oversight bodies, leading Hightower to call it “a consent decree that endangers the community.” In its place, she demands democratically elected community control of the police, centered around the needs of victims of police violence and their families.
The Community Police Commission was in full attendance at the hearing. The CPC, the latest in the city of Seattle’s attempts to integrate community members into their police reform, includes nobody directly impacted by police violence out of its 15 commissioners. In stark contrast, the protest organized by Hightower contained four impacted people in the small crowd.
After the hearing, protesters rallied and spoke outside of the courthouse. Howard Gale, a representative of SeattleSTOP, had this to say: “It's not that the consent decree is not working, it's that it's made things worse. We can see that in the fact that with the brutal murder of a Latinx in February of 2022, we still have no accountability or identification.”
The speakers went on to address the Affected Persons Program, a $100,000 initiative to provide resources and support to families affected by heinous police violence. “Since the Affected People's Program passed, it has been undermined and undercut every step of the way!” said Howard Gale.
A video recording of the hearing will be available in the near future at https://www.uscourts.gov/about-federal-courts/judicial-administration/cameras-courts