Why I did not attend Friday evening’s show…

11 comments on this post so far. Add yours!

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  JimF on May 30 at 7:25 p.m.

  So what’s your excuse for not attending either the Saturday morning or Saturday afternoon sessions? John Olsen was there for the morning session. There was a total of 15 people for the morning session, including the three off duty police officers.

  It may not be the ombudsman that you wanted but it’s what we have. But I’m sure there are people that will be content to sit and complain because that’s easier than trying to work with the system and condemn it before the person has taken the oath of office.

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  ChefGus/ John Olsen on May 30 at 10:29 p.m.

  Hi Jim… et al… just back from ArtFest and the Big Blues Mumbo band..

  I did attend both of the forums today. and I was impressed.. impressed that the three candidates all are extremely qualified.. i do have my favorite and was given the opportunity to ask questions fo all three at both forums…. I’m sorry i did not see you jim to say hi… My comment that the last young man could well be a county prosecutor was taken seriously… he was the brightest and best… but not my choice.. i liked both the ex marine and the man from Fresno… who works with low income housing etc… his personality resonated with mine.. and so i’d prefer him.. but all three were open to my concerns of the low level “over policing” that i’d blathered about here…

  hoping to learn m ore on monday night.. too bad more folks were not there… john

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  ChefGus/ John Olsen on May 30 at 10:42 p.m.

  sorry i mis spoke… not “EX” marine.. there is no such thing… Marine not on active duty…. j

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  Dave Laird on May 31 at 6:53 a.m.

  Good morning, JimF…

  You wrote in part and I quote:

  So what’s your excuse for not attending either the Saturday morning or Saturday afternoon sessions? John Olsen was there for the morning session. There was a total of 15 people for the morning session, including the three off duty police officers.
  It may not be the ombudsman that you wanted but it’s what we have. But I’m sure there are people that will be content to sit and complain because that’s easier than trying to work with the system and condemn it before the person has taken the oath of office.
  Unquote:

  My reasoning for not attending either of the Saturday sessions was sublimely simple: Due to circumstances beyond my control, which often happens in my industry, I had to work, an ugly deficient word for slaving away in a room full of servers. I had originally intended to attend one or more of the meetings, but the fates were simply not in it.

  My only other comment is regardless of what I want, or anyone for that matter outside the realms of law enforcement, is just HOW ordinary citizens are to work within the system when the system is categorized by so many upstanding persons in our community as being broken? A Police Ombudsman must be able to, free of any restraint, to investigate police officers, and if they cannot, then the position is hollow and devoid of purpose, no?

  Problem statements? Saying it may not be the ombudsman we want but it is what we have is a problem statement in and of itself.

  No one has explained whether or not the Police Ombudsman must or should be a sworn peace officer, but upon the face of things, but having “meddled” with that system a time or two, it would stand perfectly clear to me that the Ombudsman MUST be sworn in as a peace officer to hold the position. No one has made that plain, thus far, that I can see. That is troubling, because then they might become part of the problem, rather than the cure.

  For the moment, I’ll side with the Center For Justice’s Berean Beggs in his assessment of the need for a wholly independent Ombudsman. I’ll abide by the Pailca Report, which states in part that the position of the Ombudsman MUST be independent of the Police Department if it is to have any credibility.

  Somewhere between the differing opinions, the problem statement you posed and that of other voices from within our community, is where the Ombudsman must operate. We need a breath of fresh air, in my humble opinion.

  Dave

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  ChefGus/ John Olsen on May 31 at 7:49 a.m.

  Morning team spokane… Doug Clark’s column has the kernel of truth that it always has this morning.. and that has to do with “Backbone” of all three of the offered candidates… worth a read..
  I left a “note” on that page that is pasted below:

  ChefGus on May 31 at 6:55 a.m. on Doug’s column on the Review’s web site….

  Doug, the “notice” about the forums appeared on the city’s web site on the 27th…OF MAY… so i missed the first one on Friday evening…. ( I’d poured my five o’clock whisky already and did not want to waste it(…

  I did crawl on my Triumph Bonneville in time on Saturday morning to attend the West Central forum, and later the East Central meeting.

  The aforementioned “Backbone” is clearly , readily visible in all three of these men. I made the comment to the young ex prosecutor that if he was to choose to run for our County Prosecutor that I’d help him run his campaign..( a serious offer and serious thought,… cause most of the “perception” problems with the police could/would be easily altered if we had simply prosecuted those issues that deserved prosecution. I want Tucker out of a job.

  My vote, and yes we did get to vote, was to go to the old hippie from fresno… he noted my peace medallion around my neck and shared that he had one right under his shirt and his tie that had an image of Rodin’s Thinker spread on it.

  Me thinks the camel might have its nose under the tent…. and the police guild may have not gotten what they tried to engineer.

  Keep after em.. john olsen

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  lewis8457 on May 31 at 8:57 a.m.

  I attended the Saturday morning and asked what questions we had time for. The one question I wanted to ask of all three comes in line with Doug Clark’s column this morning. Why would candidates with such good credentials even want such a puppet position?

  I also agree with Dave the position really has no meaning with out independent investigative powers, basically he will be a scapegoat. Stuck between the mayor and SPD cover-ups and trying to satisfy the citizens that want answers they will accept.

  Steve Corker made a comment to Mr. Burns in that the public does not understand contract law. Which we don’t that is why we employ high paid professionals to know it for us. If I have to know everything then I probably don’t need a 16 grand a year council member.

  One if the police men at the meeting asked the question if the SR makes a wrong statement about a police situation can the ombudsman make the SR correct the statement? As usual the poor beat up SPD needs confirmation by the SR to feel righteous. How about the citizens that wanted an independent ombudsman? They did not get that thanks to the police guild so Mr. cop get used to misinformation the citizens of this community have to, get used to it.

  Sadly the more holes the guild puts into the process of giving the citizens justice back will most likely sink the boat for both sides.

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  JimF on May 31 at 10:56 a.m.

  I thought any of the candidates would be good as the ombudsman based on their performances at the forum that I went to. The ombudsman will not be a sworn police officer, Dave. My own personal opinion is that we do not need an ombudsman but that’s just me. Another personal opinion is that the Spokesman Review just keeps driving the issue regardless of what the majority of the public thinks. Let’s hear from them instead of the malcontents.

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  lewis8457 on May 31 at 11:41 a.m.

  That is a lot of the problem a lot of the people have not voiced their concerns with the banging of drums like the malcontents. But the concerns are out there all you need to do is talk to your neighbors or the people at markets or really anywhere, everyone is upset, but there really is no voice here in Spokane.

  Most people, in the city are working their backsides off just to stay above water so many just don’t have the time for these blogs, or extremely dangerous demonstrations. There are a lot of senior citizens in this town and most of them I have talked to will stay on the side of the police because they are loyal folks and back in their day the cops were righteous.

  You wont see the average Joe on here he is at work right now, Honestly when I was working 40 hours a week I didn’t have time to blog either, and would have never even thought of it except for Otto getting killed.

  Where can I voice my concerns? I can go to the city council meetings and wait until 11pm to voice my concerns after sitting through 3 hours of boredom, yes, I can write a letter to the mayor which she will never answer, yes, I can write a letter to the governor which she will never answer, yes, I can go down and pay enough money for a permit to walk up and down Broadway with a sign in my hand (dangerous), yes, I can write a letter to the editor, no, or I can blog.

  Society needs us malcontents to be watching and asking the questions they have no time to ask. If we had no malcontents in this country we would all be showing our IDs just to travel from state to state, or worse.

  I am not surprised a cop doesn’t think we need an ombudsman he is a cop! Heck if I was a cop I wouldn’t think we needed one either. Even though I think we desperately need one, I don’t agree on getting one neutered and blind! He will just be a scapegoat as well as 100 grand a year poster boy. Just save the money for the lawsuits.

  And quite frankly all three of these final candidates are such fine examples of American strength and experience it would be a disgrace for any one of them to take this position.

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  ChefGus/ John Olsen on May 31 at 12:44 p.m.

  Well a couple of comments… all three of these fine men are quite ok by my measure…

  Oversight was a given in my medical practice… peer review, pharmacy review, sureon’s review boards etc etc.. and an independent ombudsman at Group Health to assure an open process and a method for the lay person with no medical knowledge to approach for help.

  With regards the lack of “clamor” I hear clamor every day of the week from the people i serve in the shalom program and from the youth who are glbt at odyssey youth center.. just because they do not have the perseverance and umph to sit through city council and then be abused by the leaders there… ( one night while I was giving testimony two of the council members were having a chat with each other. I just stopped and called them out and asked for their attention right there at the time on camera… they were certainly surprised and one of them actually apologized which i accepted…

  I’ve not looked at the council agenda .. and do not remember who/how the final person is actually selected.. Jim can you help me here?? i think it is the mayor’s call subject to council approval?? or++?? off to art fest again now.. music at 1400… gus

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  George_Sands on May 31 at 9:26 p.m.

  I was one of the two attendees at Friday night.

  I also am not satisfied with the Ombudsman Lite that was foisted upon us by the Guild. Pailcas’ document had oversight about 99 times were ombudsman occured 16 times. It gave a good framework as Mr. Laird describes.

  WE want to hold our Police officers Accountable and Responsible to those whom we place them in authority over us. That requires a complete, separate civilian OVERSIGHT to investigate and report to the Citizenry of any complaint or wrong doing of our public servants. Nothing more, nothing less.

  We didnt get what WE the Citizens want. Thats a pure shame to our democratic system.

  That being as it may, I would not freeze out what we got. Obviously if it doesn’t work out, there will be clamor to change it to what we DO WANT.

  Something is better than nothing. And the best we can do now is to work within the faulty framework that we have been yoked with by the Guild. We/I dont like it one bit as on paper its a hoax and a waste of money, on the other hand I’m willing to give the Ombudsman a chance. They didnt have a say in it. I’m sure they are going to be like Daniel in the Lion’s den from day one. Everyone wanting to pull them in their direction.

  I am a fan of our Police Chief. She has her faults, just like we all do. But she has been sandbagged, diverted, lied to by the officers whom serve beneath her. The guild and senior officers protects these blue suited hoodlums. The Officers who Hand Pumped (while on duty) during the Jay Olsen Kangaroo court should have been called onto the carpet and made to apologize personally and publicly to the Citizenry before the City Counsel if not fired on the spot. Where was the SPD leadership then?

  When we have SPD officers stalking people on the internet. Posting personal information from results of classified investigations and friviously abusing the cities policy on internet use for personal gain, and posing themselves as Official Spokespersons…and the response was a flimsy excuse by the Chief…they we need a clear and concise independant investigation w/o police interference. Anything else is tainted and unacceptable to a free and democratic society.

  In some way it is sad that the Ombudsman position is a paper tiger and I feel sorry for the candidate that gets selected. If they assume the position with the desire to clean out our rats nest of corrupt police officers, they will be sadly disappointed until we pry the death grip of the Guild off of OUR Government.

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  ChefGus/ John Olsen on June 01 at 5:42 a.m.

  Good George et al l

  my considered view after thinking and chattin with like minded friends over the long weekend is that we at least have a credible start here….

  Officers in our force will benefit by having a strong ombudsman… and the force shot themselves in the feet by not putting forth a more credible oversight plan…. but the three men each in their own way will make it work… and open the edge of the tent for our Camel to put the nose in further…

  I have personally encouraged Liz Moore of PJALS to bring herself and any of her “protesters” down to the meet and greet tonight…. standing outside and throwing epithets at this juncture will not help, and indeed may compromise the compromise… the time for activist protest was two or three years ago….

  And MR Clark is the single most consistent “fire plug” here in the media…. still no story in the mainline stream of reporting here… we’ll see what Kevin at the Inlander has to say this week…

  Hope to see you tonight.. john

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