SPOG Reaction to OIG Lisa Judge / Gay Pride Parade Ban

The Seattle Police Officers’ Guild (SPOG) strongly disagrees with the Office of Inspector General Lisa Judge’s recent open letter to Seattle Police Chief Adrian Diaz advocating that SPD stop conducting traffic stops within the City of Seattle. SPOG also condemns in the strongest language possible any entity involved in scheduling events for Seattle’s Gay Pride Week that has already decided to ban Seattle Police officers from participating.

In reaction to both of these decisions, SPOG President Mike Solan said the following, “Inspector Judge’s stance advocating that Seattle Police officers no longer conduct traffic stops in our community is absolutely ill advised, reckless, bizarre and non sensical. It is not rooted in facts and contradicts city data. It reeks of activist virtue signaling and perpetuates the false narrative that Seattle Police officers serve our community through a lens of bias. Inspector Judge should know that our courts decide what is an infringement on civil liberties and not a City of Seattle employee. As we all know, one year ago Mayor Durkan and City Council President Gonzalez boasted that SPD was the model reformed police agency. Can you imagine what will happen if police stop enforcing our city and State traffic laws in our community? What the Inspector General is advocating for could result in more crime impacting our community which has already seen an extraordinary increase in crime. Does this now signal people to stop registering their vehicles and completely disregard the rule of law? I’m sure the insurance industry will view her position as derelict and deeply troubling.

Solan added the following on the banishment of Seattle Officers from Pride Week, “Banning Seattle Police officers from Pride Week events is disgusting, bigoted, discriminatory and contradicts our community’s beautiful inclusive LGBTQ message. Our LGBTQ members serve our community with distinction and pride. They value inclusiveness and demand respect not only for proudly being LGBTQ but for serving our community as police officers. Anyone that believes in their banishment has no place in Seattle and does not believe in the inclusive LGBTQ message. To date, close to 300 police officers have left our agency. The Inspector General’s position pertaining to traffic stops and the bigoted decisions banning officers from Pride Week events do not aid in stopping this mass exodus of cops. All we ask as SPOG members is some reasonable messaging of support from our elected officials and people in positions of power/influence. Police are fantastic human beings especially SPOG members.”

The Seattle Police Officers’ Guild is the largest police labor group on the Pacific Northwest. We represent line officers and sergeants.

 

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