Week in Review: Politics, Police, and Mariners

Bill Radke discusses the week’s news with political analyst and contributing columnist Joni Balter, Seattle Times Jonathan Martin and Publicola’s Erica Barnett.

The Republican Governors Association is asking potential donors: “Where should GOP governors send Biden’s Buses of Illegal Immigrants?” San Francisco, Seattle, Minneapolis or Philadelphia. This comes after elected officials from red states have been sending asylum-seekers to blue states. Do you think Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell and King County Executive Dow Constantine are preparing in any way?

The Seattle Police Department has fired officer Andrei Constantin, who created a fake Twitter account to harass and mock protesters and make fun of victims of police violence. Is this a no-brainer, any chief would have fired him, or does this tell us something about Diaz? Seattle police recruits are now participating in a training program designed to counter the stress and trauma they will experience as officers before they learn anything about defensive tactics or de-escalation techniques. Is there an interesting debate about the program? Staffing shortages at Children and Family Justice Center have led to an increased use of solitary confinement. Why are a quarter of the juvenile detention officers’ positions unfilled? Saleem Robinson was on the sex offender registry. His county-contracted nonprofit is called Renegades for Life Youth Outreach and its website promises “youth mentoring, therapy, and after-school activities” but he says those activities are still in the “research and development” phase, and do not, in fact, exist. “We don’t deal with minors here.” Does that speak to a lack of county oversight of its programs, beyond this one background-check issue?

The Spokesman-Review reports that “Smiley has been critical of Murray’s support on legislation that Smiley said has resulted in more crime, including broad legislation from 2020 that would have created a national use-of-force standard, banned chokeholds and created more independent investigations into police misconduct.” Is this Tiffany Smiley’s only connection between Patty Murray and crime, or is there more?

Mayor Bruce Harrell’s proposed budget allow the city to use the JumpStart payroll tax fund, which is largely earmarked for housing and Green New Deal programs, to provide about $86 million toward filling the $140 million budget gap. Why are they allowed to “raid” the JumpStart tax?

The Seattle Mariners made the playoffs for the first time since 2001. This ends the longest playoff drought of any team in major professional sports. How will they do?