Spokane

(Seattle Times):

In the Spokane case, the arrests of Alvarez Perez and his friend were the opposite of what someone concerned about the rule of law would want to see. It sent a powerful signal that rules are for dupes — that the system is there not to reward merit or civic-mindedness, but to ensnare you.

“The basic framework of Trump’s interior enforcement is that it is whimsical and arbitrary,” writes David Bier, director of immigration studies for the conservative Cato Institute. “Under President Biden, no one knew why people were getting into the country. Now no one knows why people are getting thrown out.” Just those two detentions on one day in Spokane so inflamed parts of the town that 30 people got arrested.

Stuckart, the former City Council president, said he got out of jail at 1:30 a.m. Thursday and now is at home, feeling utterly confounded. Several times in our interview he choked up out of frustration. Was his legal ward, Alvarez Perez, hustled away in part to incite controversy? Or was he just the collateral damage of a blundering attempt at hitting political deportation goals?

Both the Spokane mayor, Lisa Brown, and the state attorney general, Nick Brown, had cautioned Stuckart about his civil disobedience of sitting in front of the ICE van, he says. They worried he was poking the bear, giving the belligerent Trump reason to call out Washington state’s National Guard.

“But what are you supposed to do?” he cried. “Are you supposed to sit there and let it happen? Just let the ICE van sweep away people who have done nothing wrong? Or if you object, they’re going to call in the military?

what happened in Spokane this past week — the detentions and the backlash, the cruelty and the chaos, all of it — was the point.

cross-posted from: https://reddthat.com/post/38404455

Cooperation with federal authorities tests bounds of law and policy, stirs fear in immigrant communities

An officer stationed outside Saturday’s protest wrote of seeing Powell speeding through the Tesla parking lot in a blue Volkswagen Beetle. The officer started following Powell until she entered another parking lot across the street at a high speed, the police report says. The officer turned on his lights and sirens in an attempt to stop her, but said she entered the main roadway without slowing down.

A separate officer documented Powell speeding and weaving in and out of the roadway, yelling out the window and flipping off protesters. She made a sharp right turn onto North Bitterroot Street and then a wide, illegal U-turn, which “nearly caused what would have been a significant accident,” according to the police report. When Powell came back, she was allegedly driving towards the sidewalk, swerving towards the center lane at a high speed and still making gestures at the protesters.

Liberty Lake Police Chief Damon Simmons was traveling south in his patrol car and tried to intercept Powell with his emergency lights on, the report states. Powell initially tried to drive around him, but there was no room to keep going. At that point, she was asked to exit her car and placed under arrest, the police report says.

Powell, pictured during her arrest wearing a top emblazoned with Trump’s “You’re Fired” slogan, had no valid driver’s license, according to the report. She was taken to the Spokane County Jail for booking, but jail staff advised they could not take her due to a medical issue, so her brother was called to pick her up. Her Volkswagen Beetle was also towed and impounded for blocking the roadway.

Spokane Valley might approve a resolution declaring the city is not a sanctuary city and, counter to state law, direct its police department to start helping “other” agencies enforce federal immigration law.

Spokane Valley is also holding a public hearing for a proposed public safety sales tax of .1% to pay for increased law enforcement costs and to hire more cops.

The more than 500 flu hospitalizations already exceed the number of such visits in any year since before the 2020-21 flu season when cases dramatically lowered amid COVID-19 lockdown efforts. Nationally, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has classified the flu as “high severity” for all age groups, which it has not done since the 2017-18 season.

Spokane flu cases are slightly outpaced by statewide data showing the disease at 4.9% of hospitalizations through Feb. 22 versus 4.8% locally. There have been 177 influenza-related deaths statewide this season.

Spokane Regional Health District health officer Francisco Velazquez said influenza was in “full force” in Spokane.

Spokane County also remains in a whooping cough outbreak, with 101 cases reported so far this year. That’s the most cases of any county, beating out even King County, where only 60 people had fallen ill with the sickness also known as pertussis. Per capita, Spokane also has one of the highest rates of whooping cough cases of any county in Washington at 18.2 cases per 100,000 residents, second only to Adams County at 18.9. It also far outpaces the state average of 5.5 cases per 100,000 residents.

Velazquez said he anticipates whooping cough to continue at that rate for the near future.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/26593934

Thomas Preston, C. O. Johnson distinguished professor of political science at Washington State University, said in an interview Friday that Baumgartner’s position was “shameful” and the administration’s actions that morning were “disturbing.”

“It’s just an utterly disgraceful comment, and it seems that very few Republicans have any sort of courage or fortitude to actually stand up to what is clearly just a vile and disgraceful performance that we saw today in the White House,” Preston said.

Preston characterized the mineral rights proposal as grossly transactional – pay to use Trump’s fire hose or he’ll let Ukraine burn down – and ultimately a “smokescreen” meant to give Trump an excuse to pull out of Ukraine altogether. He argued acquiring the minerals is significantly more uncertain than Trump has claimed and that there appear to be few guarantees for the security for Ukrainians if they sign a deal.

On Monday, the Idaho House voted 46-24 to pass House Joint Memorial 1.

Although it does not carry the force and effect of law, House Joint Memorial 1 says the Idaho Legislature rejects the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in the case of Obergefell v. Hodges and calls on the U.S. Supreme Court to “restore the natural definition of marriage, a union of one man and one woman.”

Which church/religion was he ordained by? Name and Shame.

An ordained minister accused of drugging and raping a woman and molesting a child was arrested in Spokane Friday.

Russell Anders, 55, was arrested Friday morning at his home on the 1800 block of West Gardener Avenue in Spokane by a United States Marshals’ task force on an outstanding federal warrant.

Anders is charged with second-degree rape and first-degree voyeurism in Spokane.

On multiple occasions, a woman woke up after having drinks with Anders feeling off, according to court documents. She eventually was able to access his laptop and found videos of Anders having sex with her while she was unconscious after putting sleeping pills in her drinks, according to court records.

She also found sexually explicit videos of children on the laptop, she told police.

Anders was indicted last year in federal court in Seattle on one count of producing child pornography, along with possessing depictions of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct.

He also has pending Seattle cases, including charges of child molestation and sexual exploitation of a minor, among other similar crimes.

While the Gender and Sexuality Alliance is a student group, Serrott says it's become a safe community space for all queer folks at the college, not just the students — which is why it was especially painful for the club's sole annual event to be canceled.

To Serrott, the cancellation is indicative of the larger anti-queer rhetoric that's growing in North Idaho. It's become more common, especially online, to baselessly accuse LGBTQ+ people of being "groomers" or pedophiles.

"We have allowed a certain political group, or certain political ideologies, to define what it means to be queer in a way that is not true," Serrott says. "I see us bowing to these political pressures as giving fire to those definitions. We're not groomers. We are not obscene. It's almost unfathomable to me to think otherwise."

Serrott says that just underscores the importance of the event for NIC's queer community.

"For some students and faculty, it's their first time ever getting to experience or play with ... not only drag, but gender expression, too," he explains. "It's really a space for creativity, expression and belonging."

Jeff Noble, who owns Noble Consulting and Expert Witness Services, was hired by Spokane police to evaluate Hilton’s actions. When investigating fellow law enforcement officers, it’s not uncommon to outside use of force experts.

Deputies are trained on a U.S. Supreme Court ruling, Graham v. Connor, that requires officers to balance the intrusion into an individual’s right with the government interests at stake, Noble wrote. They must consider the severity of the crime, whether the suspect poses a threat to officers or others and whether the suspect is actively resisting or trying to flee.

Hilton mistakenly believed that being in a Spokane Valley park after dark was a misdemeanor when in reality it was a civil infraction that does not warrant an arrest. Regardless, Noble found that Hilton’s “uses of force were objectively unreasonable and inconsistent with generally accepted police practices.”

The sergeant did not engage in de-escalation tactics, including slowing down the interaction, the report said.

“Here, the violation was very minor, did not involve weapons or violence, and there was no need for haste,” Noble wrote. “Sergeant Hilton radioed for back-up deputies and while Mr. Hinton did not cooperate with Sergeant Hilton’s demand for identification, he did not present any imminent threat. Any reasonable officer would have attempted to engage in de-escalation techniques to slow the situation.”

Instead, Noble wrote, Hilton made comments to escalate the situation, such as telling Hinton he would probably end up in jail and that he was going to get hurt.

The sergeant said he used force on Hinton because he was scared the man was reaching for a weapon. Noble noted that Hinton never appears to reach for any kind of weapon in the video and did not make any verbal threats to the sergeant.

Hilton continued to punch Hinton after forcibly removing him from his vehicle.

“There is no evidence that at the moment Sergeant Hilton delivered those strikes that Mr. Hinton presented anything more than a low level of active resistance by not giving Sergeant Hilton his hands,” Noble wrote.

Hilton had no standing to make any arrest, Noble found, and therefore any force used would be excessive.

“Even if Sergeant Hilton was making a lawful custodial arrest, I am of the opinion that his uses of force against Mr. Hilton were excessive, objectively unreasonable and inconsistent with generally accepted police practices,” Noble wrote.

In February this year, Spokane police investigators concluded there was probable cause to charge Sgt. Hilton with second-degree assault. The charges were referred to the Yakima County Prosecutor's office, which is still investigating.

The chat logs — which were obtained through a public records request and viewed by the Inlander this week — shed additional light on Sgt. Hilton's demeanor immediately after the violent arrest.

Joshua Maurer, an attorney representing Hinton, says the tone of the chat messages is "pretty sickening."

It's concerning that any officer — especially a sergeant — would make fun of and laugh about a citizen they had just assaulted and arrested, Maurer says.

"Sgt. Hilton was proud of his actions," Maurer says. "He told the dispatcher to look at the booking photo because that was evidence of the 'lesson' Sgt. Hilton taught Mr. Hinton."

Maurer says it's also troubling that Sgt. Hilton saw Hinton's perceived status as a "No Person" as justification for assaulting him to the point of breaking his ribs and puncturing a lung.

Despite knowing the communications would be recorded, Sgt. Hilton "shows no remorse, or even concern over being disciplined," Maurer says. "Instead, he is laughing and bragging about what he had done."

I'm happy to see the city doing something to help people instead of punishing them. I am especially excited to see the expansion of Spokane Fire Department's CARES program

A permanent location for a Spokane farmer's market would be fantastic. The article mentions possible space for several vendors. I just hope the vendors will be selling actual food and produce, not candles or jewelry.

Also, does anyone know where this scale house in question is located?

Hi. So yeah, I think I’ve got a fuel leak in my 31 year old Volvo wagon. Just wondering where y’all get your cars worked on.

I just replaced the radiator myself after having gone a few months not driving it and when I moved it out of the garage I got that multi color shine in the driveway that says gasoline spill. I’m not super enthusiastic about attempting to tackle that myself.

Spokane's new USL League 1 team is revealing their new name and crest July 21st at Brick West Brewing

What market do you like to frequent in the summer? My go to is the one on Perry, but I want to check some of the others out before summer ends.

Welcome to a (the?) Spokane, WA community. Looking for fellow Spokanites to moderate the community, so please reach out if you're interested!