On November 13, the Seattle City Council voted 8-1 to ratify a new and highly controversial union contract for Seattle police. The sole “no” vote came from socialist council member Kshama Sawant. Many groups and individuals attended the council meeting to argue for rejecting the contract. Opponents of the contract were unanimous that it will severely undermine the police accountability measures adopted by City Council last year. The contract was denounced by a range of organizations including the Community Police Commission, the much-celebrated police oversight body that was enlarged and made permanent as part of the 2017 accountability legislation. Other opponents included the Seattle chapter of the NAACP, Mothers for Police Accountability and the Washington Poor Peoples Campaign among about two dozen groups.
Supporters of the contract who spoke prior to the vote returned over and over again to the theme of “Building trust between both parties,” meaning the Seattle Police Officers Guild and the City. Council Member Theresa Mosqueda spoke of the need to preserve “any reservoir of good faith between the parties involved.” This characterization of the dynamic between the police and the City of Seattle is telling; it amounts to appeasement on the part of the city to the SPOG, a “union” that protects its members by obstructing accountability processes.
The contract will now be passed on to U.S. District Judge James Robart, who will review it to determine whether or not the agreement reached is compliant with the terms of the U.S. Department of Justice consent decree that the Seattle Police Department has been operating under since 2012. This direct judicial supervision came in the wake of widespread public outcry over excessive and possibly racially motivated use of deadly force. Robart has supervised the implementation of the consent decree from its inception in 2012, and certified that the SPD had achieved “full and effective compliance” with Justice Department mandated reforms early this year. It remains to be seen whether the contract will be accepted by Robart, who has not offered public comment on the matter in advance of the City Council vote.
The swift, last-minute reversal of gains won through months and years of protracted struggle by a broad range of activists showcases the insecure nature of progressive legislation within a capitalist system. Instances like this SPOG contract vote, or the equally sudden reversal of the hard-won Employee Hours Tax earlier this year, demonstrate that the civil administration that has been established by the ruling class continues to serve the ruling class. Working class pressure through agitation, education and demonstrations in the streets can force the system to take progressive action, but so long as the working class is not the class in control of the state these gains can be, and often are, taken away right before our eyes.
Liberation News spoke to noted attorney, civil rights activist and former President of the Seattle/King County chapter of the NAACP James Bible who summed up the feelings of many of those in the room: “The Seattle City Council has consistently over the years found ways to negotiate away their ability to protect the people that find themselves within the borders of the city of Seattle. Today is no different, with the exception of this: I think that those that care, those that have been dedicated to this issue will redouble, and will be better than we have ever been, and we know that when we step into these rooms and we speak on behalf of people we know that we’re not just speaking for ourselves. There are so many more that can’t find their way into Seattle City Council meetings. But it’s not just something that’s going to have to happen in City Council meetings, it’s something that’s going to have to happen in communities, frankly, in order for anything to change here.”
