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Renton’s 11th District Legislator Steve Bergquist (center, in blue) is co-sponsoring a bill to restore police pursuit authority. Last week he was given encouragement by six Renton Council Members and the Mayor: from left Council Member Alberson, Mayor Pavone, Council Members Van, Perez, O’Halloran (not shown, CMs Prince, and McIrvin); Near Rep. Bergquist’s office in Olympia
The City of Renton has a long, important partnership with the Association of Washington Cities (AWC), a respected professional organization that lobbies on behalf of all 281 cities and towns in our state. AWC just urgently informed cities that the Police Pursuit bill needs everyone’s help (bolding is theirs): “AWC is encouraged HB 1363 is continuing to move forward. Cities still need to reach out to legislators and ask them to support this bill because it still faces opposition and a difficult path to full passage”. Mayor Pavone and six council members are helping as requested.
But one Renton Council Member is doing the opposite, actively lobbying against the bill. Real Change just published an extensive interview with Council Member Carmen Rivera.
Italic statements are from the Real Change interview:
Rivera also refuted some of the arguments made by proponents of HB 1363. “People were driving drunk and driving away and not stopping for police before this legislation,” she said, “That didn’t just magically start happening with this legislation.”
Rivera said that she supports the police pursuit restrictions and argued that it is necessary to help shift the culture around policing to be less aggressive.
At one point in the lengthy interview, Council Member Rivera, who teaches criminal justice at Seattle University, even appears to disagree with her Seattle University Department Chair Matthew Hickman.
From Real Change: “One of the criticisms to Morris’ study (data used by the legislature) came from Seattle University criminal justice professor and department chair Matthew Hickman. In a Jan. 22 letter to Rule, he argued the study lacked “methodological rigor” and that, if it was submitted for peer review, it wouldn’t be published. “I understand and applaud the desire of Legislators to make data-informed decisions about law and public policy,” Hickman wrote. “In this case, however, the data are inadequate and the analysis insufficient to draw valid and reliable conclusions.”
Later in the story: “However, Rivera said that Hickman’s (her department chair’s) critique focused only narrowly on Morris’ study and did not look more broadly at the existing research on police pursuits.”
In taking her position, Council Member Rivera is not just jabbing at her SU department chair, but also going up against Renton’s two 11th district House Legislators that are co-sponsors of the bill that would restore some police pursuit authority, Steve Bergquist (D) and David Hackney (D). She’s also working against the interests of over 100 Washington cities and towns that have signed a letter asking for revision to this bill, and police chiefs and sheriffs across the state.
While Council Member Rivera claims in the article to be using data, she primarily points to a 17-year old meta-study of even older studies, while dismissing real-world current data from Washington Traffic Safety Commision (WTSC) showing that since the 2021 limitation on police pursuits, highway fatalities have quickly shot up to a 20 year high, representing up to 200 new highway deaths. WTSC has found a disproportionate number of these highway fatalities are BIPOC residents.
The major problem with the meta-studies Council Member Rivera uses is they can only look at police pursuits that have occured, and then retroactively determine how many of them resulted in safe apprehension vs. an unsafe incident; this limited data can sometimes be inconclusive overall for safety. What these post-incident evaluations can’t know, and don’t even consider, is how many police pursuits did not occur, because a crime was deterred by a criminal’s certainty he would be pursued. Without this information, Council Member Rivera’s data is myopic, and far less valuable than Washington’s actual deadly and tragic experience of 20 months with a non-pursuit law.
The authors of her cited studies have solid credentials, as did engineers at the National Transportation Safety Board that insisted airplane lap babies should be buckled into seats, as described in my post a few days ago. But like the history I shared about FAA stepping up to save the lives of these lap children when FAA determined many real-world parents would “divert” to cars and then would crash, we need to similarly look at the whole picture with police pursuits.
In keeping with the Association of Washington Cities request for assistance, you are encourage to contact your legislators to support HB 1363. You can also contact Carmen Rivera at crivera@rentonwa.gov
I know she fooled people into thinking she was a dutiful daughter of a beloved SPD officer, but Renton is starting to see what Carmen really is.
Please pay special attention to the upcoming election.
We have two council members that could be easily swayed that are up for election. Both of them signed Carmen’s crazy letter.
You’ll notice that we didn’t increase the police budget even remotely commensurate with Renton’s new population increase this last budget cycle.
Video of Carmen without the boring bits:
Are we ever going to call out that yammering “white cis males” is a form of bigotry?
Oh sweet zombie Jesus. This video is terrible.
Where was our local newspaper in reporting this? I saw nothing about Carmen wanting to defund the police! Get rid of jails?!?!? You got to be kidding me.
“But my dad is a police officer”
I was wondering when you folks would gang up on Carmen.
Professor Carmen Rivera is the daughter of the first Puerto Rican police officer in the Seattle Police Department. She acknowledges that not all police officers are bad, but also recognizes that the institution of policing has a problematic history, with police officers historically being predominantly white cis males who were at the forefront of enforcing politically changing laws and maintaining what they saw as order.
The excessive force and brutality experienced disproportionately by Black and Brown people cannot be dismissed by simply saying that things are getting better.
WE SAY that the institution of policing is not immune to bias, prejudice, or racism and that we cannot discount the very real experiences of bias, prejudice, and racism that exist today.
“Defund The Police” is NOT asking to take all police funding away, but to redirect funds from the police to other government agencies and community organizations funded by the city.
WE KNOW that defunding the police is not only necessary but the first of many needed changes for criminal justice reform.
Radical change is needed. We must stop the racist institution of policing and its practices. For over 200 years communities have been marginalized, brutalized, and killed. ENOUGH IS ENOUGH.
While the idea of defunding the police may seem radical to some, it is necessary for meaningful change to occur.
“The excessive force and brutality disproportionately experienced by Black and Brown people cannot be dismisses by simply saying things are getting better.”
“daughter of the first Puerto Rican police officer in the Seattle Police Department”
Would that be the same Seattle Police Officer, Eddie Rivera, who Councilmember Rivera is so very proud of who was also cause of a criminal inquest of the Seattle Police Department and is featured in this video of SEATTLE POLICE DEPARTMENT BRUTALITY after he was involved in beating up a 17 year old jaywalking??
So is she is proud of her fathers actions as an exceptional officer but other officers and departments should face consequence for systemic violence and be defended?
https://www.seattlemet.com/news-and-city-life/2010/08/queen-anne-jaywalking-joe-wilson-0910
Or maybe it’s that officers, if they are the first Puerto Rican officer with the Seattle Police Department, are immune from scrutiny if they are found guilty of sexual harassment of younger, subordinate female officers?
Is that another action Councilmember Rivera justifies in her father’s exceptional career? Because rhe poor female officer who left the force and moved out of state after (married) Sgt Rivera kicked in her houseboat door after he found out she was dating another man and refused his advances didn’t. Nor did the Seattle Police Department after review and investigation.
https://www.seattlepi.com/news/article/Former-Seattle-officer-claims-sex-harassment-1081728.php
If I remember correctly, SPD paid about a quarter million to settle the sexual harassment case alone.
“My dad is a good cop” is only true for really weird values of “good.”
And don’t forget about the Dept of Justice inquest and investigation of the Seattle Police Department prompted by Sgt Riveras escalations and police brutality.
Police brutality is not ok.
But neither is throwing stones at others, pointing out their deficiencies and criticizing departments of systemic and historical racism and brutality all while standing proud of your own family members career and behavior when he has demonstrated some of the worst behavior imaginable in a position of power.
This hypocritical approach is a blaring example of the self-derving agenda of double standard that Councilmember Rivera demonstrates in her emotional leadership of feel good causes without merit or approach.
https://www.justice.gov/sites/default/files/crt/legacy/2011/12/16/spd_findletter_12-16-11.pdf
Councilmember Rivera is sheltered. It’s the working poor that have to pick up the pieces when crime hits them.
I suspect it’s because she’s a trust-fund kid herself that crime is mostly an academic concern to her.
She was sent to England for University, lives in her parents home, and even has a family trust setup for very nice vacation home on the Washington coast.
Absolutely DO NOT EMAIL CARMEN RIVERA directly
She will bully you and send her Seattle minions at you if you go against her. Stop trying to reason with them. Stand up to bullies
We need to:
1) Speak up and assert ourselves. Tell our council and tell Rivera “NO” to defunding the police.
2) Build a Renton based group to tell our representatives that we’re not going put up with nonsense.
3) Document the Carmen’s behavior and what she writes. Let keep a record of everything she does so we can catch her telling people one thing and doing another.
4) Tell everybody about Carmen’s plan for Renton. We should not let this dangerous stupidity spread because nobody is willing to speak up.
5) Support Renton and support each other. Many of us have had to deal with Camren’s bullying behavior alone. Let’s give each other a boost.
Renton is still unsafe for marginalized people due to ongoing hate crimes and speech. Recent incidents have exposed the underlying fear that many marginalized people live with every day, which is reinforced by the lack of action and support from white and white-passing leaders in Renton.
Carmen Rivera knows that strong stance against using the Red Lion Hotel as a homeless shelter, which disproportionately impacts people of color, was founded on racism. Supporting systems that marginalize people goes against valuing them.
Rivera has been subject to bullying from the Renton Crime and Safety Facebook page by actively deleting her posts and labeling them as political and going against “community guidelines.” This information-policing has ignited Renton community members of marginalized communities to speak out about the very real issues of hate in Renton.
White adjacent leaders in Renton need to do more than host performative community conversations about diversity, equity, and inclusion. We demand real action and change from Renton, rather than just performative community conversations.
The word salad has gone limp
I’m proud to support Ms. Rivera. I no longer live in Renton, but I can’t wait to support more candidates that will get Renton out of it’s small town attitude.
I’m not sure how the screeching of far-left Twitter idiots about crime and policing became official Democratic Party dogma.
We need to take our party back. Carmen is now the State Committee Representative of KC Dems for cripes sake.
I’m a Republican. PLEASE take your party back from the crazies. It’s the best thing you could do for our children and our city.