The citizens of Seattle are not going to pay blackmail for constitutional policing
In a surprise move, U.S. District Judge James Robart declined Tuesday to approve Seattle’s landmark police-accountability legislation until he is told what key items will require bargaining with the city’s police unions.
“The citizens of Seattle are not going to pay blackmail for constitutional policing,” Robart told a packed courtroom filled with city officials who largely expected the judge to approve the long-awaited legislation.
Robart, who is presiding over a 2012 federal consent decree requiring the Seattle Police Department (SPD) to address excessive force and biased policing, said that he wasn’t prepared to approve a work in progress, and that the constitution trumps any single element of the legislation
http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/federal-judge-the-citizens-of-seattle-are-not-going-to-pay-blackmail-for-constitutional-policing/
