I have been told it is customary to open a blog with an autobiographical offering. If ever I get around to it, my story might fascinate. But, there are some very important issues I need to get to, so I will spare some of the ego for now.
The short story is that after the classic “happy days” 1950s early life…with all the usual prospects ahead…I ended up driving a cop car in Seattle, from 1964 to 1988. I was a troop for the first five years and promoted to sergeant in 1970. I did all of my time on the street; when I left SPD (got fired in my 24th year for telling the Chief where to put his telephone) I still heard the call to battle…almost everywhere in town.
My firing resulted from my unwillingness to shut up about the tolerance of drug-trafficking in Seattle. I made my point too well. My patrol squad regularly out-performed the Narcs and embarrassed the Chief (more on that some day soon).
For now, suffice it to say that in my time, I was the best there was. In point of fact, they didn’t take my job when they “fired” me; they just took my paycheck! I have never retreated from the challenges to the safety of folks in my community. I still close drug-houses when police administrators seem unable. I also keep after other threats to public safety, and for the past several years have been focused on the incredible danger in our rivers.
This danger is a direct result of government-gone-amok: agencies placing huge logjams in local rivers and streams, creating greatly increased dangers to recreational boaters and swimmers and surrounding neighborhoods and cities. These agencies also force public safety crews, our cops and firefighters, to ignore the natural wood such as fallen trees that gets in the rivers, regardless of the hazards that these natural placements may create.
All this “for the fish”…never mind that there have been no proven increases in fish populations as a result. But to the point…how many fish would you trade a child’s life for? No one in those agencies has ever offered an answer to that question. Believe me, I have asked!
This story itself might make a good dime novel. I have (among other “sins”) a felony conviction for removing a bunch of stumps out of a popular “swimming hole” on the Cedar River. The County put those stumps in, and refused to remove them even after we documented and reported over a period of four years several near-drownings among youngsters diving and “tubing” there. "Malicious Mischief" they called it.
The river safety issue is absolutely urgent right now. Drownings seem to be occurring nearly every day. What we are going to show you is how several Government agencies are directly responsible, and what we are doing to put things right! There is a role in all of this for you, too…if you come to see the case we make.
Another debacle we are going to speak to is the continuing failure of police management in Seattle to deal with the runaway outrage on downtown streets. Death, fear and other misery are the price the unprotected communities face as a result…and the solution that exceeds their grasp is one you will easily appreciate. And, again, if it resonates with you…you can play a part!
I tend to be a “hip-shooter” so I rely on the assistance of my friends and colleagues to bring some order to all this. They have finally shown me the importance of this effort. I have to say sadly it is necessitated in no small part by a growing decline in the efforts of local media. Both the print and broadcast houses are in a state of disconnect from the informational needs of our cities.
I have a lifetime of contacts and plenty of earlier examples of my work with media, some with truly remarkable results in behalf of the public. But in recent years the moguls have turned our media into a frenzied ratings chase. Virtually no follow-up in the aftermath of so much calamity…much of which can be laid fully at the door of Government.
We will continue to insert essays and reports written in past months and years, along with details of a forthcoming lawsuit against Washington State Fish and Wildlife that illustrate the enormity of conflict and danger in current management of our river systems.
Happy to say the continuum will include reports of victory along the way as we confront this situation…there have been some significant ones. Be talking about them soon.
We are going to move here for the moment back to other public safety issues that also originate in government failure to understand them…and solutions that thus escape our “leadership.” Calamity and death follow that failure, too.
The first issue is regularly in the news. Riot…mayhem… and murder…commonplace in historic festive areas of a beautiful city that deserves better.
