https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ptg7zn7R-0

“What in the actual fuck?”

Indeed.

I've worked on Cap Hill for a year now and during my commute to or from work I've had three people absolutely eat shit within 50 feet of me on a rented scooter. One clearly broke their leg and one had road rash down both of their entire forearms and palms. The other slid on a pile of leaves near Hot Mamas and luckily seemed pretty uninjured other than some torn clothes. None of them had a helmet on and are very lucky they weren't hurt much worse. My coworkers are constantly hopping on those lime bikes with no helmets and riding around and I think they're absolutely crazy.

Good morning!

The UW students should have been expelled, not suspended.

Although suspension may be significant enough to trigger visa revocation and deportation for any foreign students. That will be up to Daddy Trump.

Washington tenants got screwed in a big, big way yesterday. Rents are now guaranteed to increase 10% per year. New development will slow dramatically, existing apartment buildings may convert to condominiums, single family landlords will sell to tech bros and existing rental stock will decline in quality.

Now if Seattle's tech industry remains solid, that should result in an increase in home ownership and a decrease in renters. But don't fool yourself for one second thinking those homeowners will be low income blue haired social service workers. Think old school Bellevue instead.

If a billionaire prevents malaria deaths, then preventing malaria deaths is bad. If a billionaire makes an electric car, electric cars are bad. If a billionaire eats a sandwich, sandwiches are bad. This makes sense.

This newish guy is even dumber than Hannah Krieg.

Sara Nelson is skinny Trump.

The Stranger championed I 940, and now declines to cover and comment on the first report of the Office of Independent Investigations (of police shootings).

https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/law-justice/wa-agency-completes-its-first-police-shooting-investigation/

Intellectually fickle and inconsistent, or not covering it because it produced a narrative they don't like?

@6 This is correct. Also, if someone decides to occupy buildings on a university campus, prepare to be detained, arrested, and prosecuted.

Holy shit, we got an American pope! Fuck yeah, I'm hoping the church mobilizes it's more militant wing, maybe attacks and annexes some of the weaker faiths, Make Catholicism Great Again, bitches!

@5: I think TS would prefer the Gate Fdtn. continues its Global Health mission past 2045 (and Gates' presumable lifespan), rather than planning to close up shop.

"Some students are now banned from all UW campuses."

It's a decent start. SUPER UW itself should also be banned from every UW campus in the state, and any student who remains/becomes a SUPER member should be expelled from UW as well. There's no benefit to UW for allowing this destructive group of vandals to continue damaging both public property, and other students' works.

@11: "I think TS would prefer the Gate Fdtn. continues its Global Health mission past 2045 (and Gates' presumable lifespan), rather than planning to close up shop."

I'm honestly wondering how anyone took that away from the headline post's churlish, bitter, and incurious dismissal of a local philanthropy's work on behalf of children:

"Since 2000, they’ve thrown over $100 billion at public health and claimed to have cut worldwide childhood deaths in half, because nothing says progress like fixing problems with the same obscene wealth that helped create them... Nothing says do unto others like hoarding enough cash to play God for a couple more decades before peacing out."

This pope speaks worse Italian than I do

Trump Wars Episode IV: A New Pope. Sharp Vatican observers will note a small thermal exhaust Pope just below the main Pope.

@6. Don't be so hard on yourself

@8,

The majority of the stories in today's AM are either narratives contradicting the writer's preferences, or trending in that direction. The fact that he didn't cover every single story you would prefer is no more noteworthy than a new hemorrhoid springing forth on the upside of your ass, Neale. Though I do hope you'll keep us appraised of any developments on that front.

A few billionaires being philanthropic (not "playing god") with their generated (not "hoarded") wealth (not "cash") is better than none.

*apprised of any developments! Gah, sorry Neale.

WBB @4...
I think it is adorable that you refer to tfg as "Daddy Trump".
That really says a lot.
Go do you, you clown.

@12: it was the "before peacing out" part, but I'll admit I'm trying to see the best in Mr. Green. it was def churlish though.

about that 'Toon atop the Page:

jfc, you been Holding OUT
on Us, M. Selig. fucking
Bravissima! MOFM!

@18 ~ it's Kneal
and he Hates tS
alMost as much
as Ole wormmy
his sicksockbots
And the Rest of
The Reich Wing
trolls inhabiting
these Hallowed
pages of derr
Schlogg.

Landlords are going to increase rents by the maximum every year. Progressives will be shocked and outraged.

@22

your Anti-Progressiveness
will soon "reward" even You:

Vulture Capitalists'll
own Everything & charge
Exorbitant fees on Everything
from Healthcare to Housing to
Education to "Waste Management"
and your "Expenses" in Cadet Bonespurs'
Concentration/ Death ( Zyklon B fee: $99) Camps'll

make even Existing
Unfucking Affordable.

your
continued
Fealty To the
Fascists is duly
Noted but will NOT
Save your Superfulous arse.

now,
go Blow
your Horn.

Independent oversight for police homicides is an unambiguous win regardless of the outcome of any given case because sometimes police homicides are justified, but no one should trust the findings of an investigation the police conduct on themselves

@23 Kristo, @22 is correct. Rents will now so up the maximum each year. Sorry.

Having a predictable cap on rent increases is better than no cap at all and no way of planning for rate hikes every time your lease is up

@22 No that will play right into their hands. Now that the legislation is passed they will start "improving" it. First by removing exemptions for single family homes and newer buildings than by slowing lowering the cap.

@12 the implication of the Gates post of course is that the government could spend that money more efficiently and with better results if they would just tax Gates wealth. Those of us who pay attention to government, especially WA state government, know what a completely farcical assumption that is. Gates has done far more good with his foundation than any government entity could ever hope to accomplish.

Those Boeing weapons also happen to be killing Zeds in Ukraine.

I would invite pro Palestine activists and MAGA folks alike to step into their local East European grocery store - perhaps the only places in Cascadia displaying Ukranian and Israeli flags side by side. A little pinch of Visegrad would do them good.

@28: "displaying Ukranian and Israeli flags side by side"

Thereby pissing off everyone ... in finest eastern European tradition! 😄

@24, The new body does the same function, with the same powers as police. So just police in a different department.

So if its such a win for something The Stranger has advocated for and widely reported on for years, and Marcus Harrison Green has reported on extnsively himself, why the silence when both get what they have wanted?

BTW, The State of Maine, has had the same system as Washington now has for decades. Not a single finding of an unjustified shooting. The standard for justification that investigators must use doesn't change because the investigators change.

Nor are police shootings by police in Maine any less controversial and argued about in than they are here.

Those that find them controversial usually use a different standard for evaluating them than the standard set democratically in law. A non-democratic standard. A fascist, or autocratic, standard, if you will.

@Switfy -- I don't Doubt it
but Capitalism Unbridled will
Always devour Itself, with the
Rest of Us merely here for the
Harvesting or as cannon fodder

which Reminds me:
will You be Joining Us
on June 14th, Protesting
Cadet Bonespurs' Nuremburg
Rally cum Happy fucking Birthday?

with You
I Would Protest.

@17 "generated (not "hoarded") wealth" - I suppose that's one way of describing business investigated multiple times of anti-competitive business practices and found guilty of constituting a market monopoly.

@13 The parade is a tremendous waste of resources, certainly. None of the soldiers marching in it want to be there.

30, doing the same function as the police overseeing themselves but without the obvious conflict of interest of investigating themselves is kind of the whole point. I have no idea why anyone at the stranger hasn’t covered this topic to your satisfaction and neither do you but feel free to keep congratulating yourself over it anyway.

That’s nice for Maine. Perhaps their police are better at not killing people for no reason because they know they are likely to be held accountable for it, or maybe they have far fewer opportunities to kill people because, you know, it’s Maine and their state has more lobsters than humans. Impossible to say either way but one thing no one can dispute is that sometimes the police are found guilty of murder. May not happen in Maine but it happens and it’s in everyone’s best interest for them to be held accountable.

As for your last point, i have no idea what you’re trying to say but you should know that fascist isn’t a synonym for authoritarian or undemocratic.

@33

when Cadet Bonespurs Realizes
the Counterprotesters're gonna
Outnumber the magas by 30-1 he's
either gonna Chicken Out &/or Declare
Martial Law. of course, he'll have his "well-
regulated," overly-well Armed far right Militias

and OODLES of Agents Provocateur to try and
make it Seem for the TeeVee cameras that
Counterprotesters're Nothing but Thugs
Hell-Bent on VIOLENT Revolution

but IF We can show RESTRAINT
in the Face of Violent Police
actions, and do NOT give
them what they're Hop-
in For, it May Well
Lead to an Amer-
ican Awakening.

it May get
Interesting.

'...the university claiming "significant damage" to equipment—though no full estimate has been released.'

The preliminary estimate of $1 million has been well-publicized:

'The university gave KING 5 an up-close look at the damage. The protesters vandalized walls, glued doors shut, shattered glass, and destroyed lab equipment, some of which had never been used and was still wrapped in bubble wrap. UW estimates the damage to the equipment could exceed $1 million.

'Graduate student Mitsuki Shimomura called the damage shocking.

'“I was surprised by the extent they took it to,” Shimomura said. “Vandalism against engineering buildings is an attack against engineering students who just want to study about technology that can make this world a better place.”'

(https://www.king5.com/article/news/local/seattle/uw-closes-new-engineering-building-protest-causes-major-damage/281-550b8137-f76f-4187-ab5d-70d4075d3d75)

Engineering laboratory equipment can be both easy to damage and expensive to repair -- and cost of repairs can exceed cost of replacement. Cost of repairing damage to the building cannot be covered by routine maintenance, because the building isn't old enough to have routine maintenance scheduled yet. That preliminary $1M estimate could easily rise to several times that figure, as the damage to building and equipment gets inspected.

@35:

"and OODLES of Agents Provocateur to try and
make it Seem for the TeeVee cameras that
Counterprotesters're Nothing but Thugs
Hell-Bent on VIOLENT Revolution"

How could they possibly do this more effectively than SUPER UW already has?

@34, Maine. Their killings are just as controversial as ours and no less hotly debated in public forums.

Here, even with this new agency, its still a police agency doing the investigation. It's just a state police agency that only investigates homicides by police gathering the evidence and presenting it prosecutors, rather than another police agency in the same county. The state agency has the same investigatory process and the same investigatory authority as any other police agency.

The issue with the perception of cops not being held accountable, is people apply a standard of accountability that they think, or wish, existed in law, but doesn't, to come to their conclusion that someone wasn't held accountable.

We can and do hold cops accountable. Most recently a cop in Auburn who used deadly force when the statutory check-boxes for the lawful use of deadly force had not been met, as determined by a 12 member criminal jury. That's good.

Deadly force can legally be used, by cops, or anyone else, when a fact pattern is present that would allow a person who is not the initial physical aggressor to conclude they, or someone else, is at imminent threat of serious physical injury at the hands of another.

Practically, it means the state has to prove a negative, which is a difficult proposition in any forum. I.e. There is no way, based on the fact pattern presented by the evidence, that someone could have come to that conclusion.

If we don't like the standard, we can change it via the legislature or initiative (I 940). Until then, we use the standard democratically enacted, and no other.

I don't expect that the new state agency will do ANYTHING to alter public perception, public acceptance, or public debate around police homicides. I don't expect it will reduce civil lawsuits following such killings, or their relative success or failure in forcing taxpayers to pay for wrongful death.

@4 & 22 apparently D13 is the smartest of the resident conservatives because only he can see the rent cap is an incremental measure not a final solution

@28 those shop owners' politics are confused beyond all recognition displaying the flag of one country that's having its territory occupied and civilian areas bombed alongside another country that's doing the occupying and bombing. I guess their only interest in foreign wars is whatever most benefits the US economy; they may run Eastern European groceries but they're all American at heart.

@38: Yeah it's almost like persons whose life experiences which differ greatly from yours have different viewpoints than you do. Maybe you and Trump can get them all deported for daring to disagree with you?

As long as it’s cops investigating cops then of course it won’t change public perception because it’s missing the point but lawsuits and criticism should be expected even with civilian oversight because this is a free society where people are allowed to have opinions and seek compensation in civil court. It would be a serious problem for all of us if that weren’t the case.

@38 your snark is duly noted. Oregon implanted a similar law in 2019 so gaze into the future with me.

Rent caps were set at 10% this year - https://www.oregonlive.com/business/2024/09/oregon-releases-rent-control-cap-for-2025-restricting-increases-for-many-houses-apartments.html?outputType=amp

The legislature wants to expand the law
https://rentalhousingjournal.com/oregon-considers-rent-control-expansion-to-newer-projects/

New construction in Portland is at its lowest levels in a decade due to affordable housing restrictions and rent control making projects more risky
https://www.wweek.com/news/2025/03/19/portland-apartment-construction-falls-to-lowest-level-in-more-than-a-decade/

@40, Cops from a state agency investigating cops from the WSP, cops from a county, or cops from a city is still cops investigating cops, just like when cops from one local agency investigate cops from another local agency.

So the state police agency created to solely to do criminal investigations of homicides by cops of other agencies within the states changes outcomes no more in Washington State than it does in Maine.

And yes people should have the right to sue. Yes we should debate what the standard is for justifiable homicide, while judging current cases by the the democratically enacted standard, and no other.

The advocates for I 940 and creation of the new state agency presented it as changing outcomes by reducing police homicides and increasing convictions of police for on duty deaths. It won't do either, any more than it has done so in Maine, because in both Maine and Washington the standard for justifiable homicide won't change, just who investigates the facts for evaluation under that standard.

According to this article the police are training civilians for oversight but maybe that’s changed

https://www.thestranger.com/cops/2022/08/11/77673402/a-new-agency-seeks-to-hold-washingtons-killer-cops-accountable

Removing conflict of the interest, or even the appearance of it, is more about alleviating public concern than changing outcomes. It’s better for everyone when more people believe the police are accountable.

@43, Training them by sending them to the police academy. Any government entity that has people investigating criminal law, must get them commissioned by a police academy accredited by the state. The state has two. One for the WSP, and one for everyone else.

It's not a conflict of interest to have one police department investigate another.

Nor had creating an arrangement where a dedicated state agency investigate law enforcement homicides, helped the public's perception of lack of conflict of interest in other states where its already done.

No matter who employs them, its still a person trained at a police academy, training someone trained by that same academy, or another that trains to the same standard.

@45, It's that criminal investigative training, by a certified police agency, that makes what the investigators find admissible in court.

@45 right that's why civilian witnesses aren't allowed to testify

that dogE datatheft is beyond colossal news. About 25 years ago the entire interior department got taken offline for EIGHT MONTHS because the judge in Cobell v Norton didn't think BIA could protect proprietary Tribal data. Interior got back online but BIA stayed offline for years. And now Elon Musk can just take all of everybody's data, combine it into a single file linking all of our federal interactions ever? That is absolutely insane. And I am sure he has already a) given all that data (of ours) to Peter Thiel's Palantir spy company, and also sold it a few times on the darkweb.

@46, Yes the civilians actually witnessed the alleged act.

An after-the-fact investigatir did not, and but for their status as a police investigator, with training credentials and certification, they would be excluded from offering evidence.

@48 yup that's why DNA or latent print analysts have to report their findings to a cop who then testifies about them

@35 kristofarian: I sure hope so. The waking up of America has been decades overdue.
June 14th is a perfect day for upside down flags and millions wearing ITMFA tank tops and pink pussy hats.