The Seattle Jewish federation had planned to hold its annual community meeting tonight at the University of Washington Hillel. At the event, it planned to give several awards to various groups and individuals for their contribution to the life of Seattle’s Jewish community. One of these was to be the Tikkun Olam Award, to be bestowed on Seattle Police Chief, Kathleen O’Toole, for her force’s protection of local communal institutions. The blurb accompanying the announcement of the awards said this:
When we honor people who give of themselves for the betterment of our community, it reminds me of the impact that one person can make on many lives. And, it reminds me of the good we can accomplish when we work together collaboratively – amplifying each individual’s impact by sharing ideas and pooling resources.
But there was one problem. Unfortunately, this week two police officers, answering a burglary call, killed Charleena Lyles, the mother of three young children who was also pregnant with a fourth child. She had mental health issues, which the police were aware of, yet they had flagged her in the database of a potentially dangerous individual. Lyles was less than 5 feet tall and weighed less than 100 lbs. The police initally reported she had a knife in her hand (which later turned out to be shears), though that could be due to the fact that she feared her home was being burglarized. There was no attempt to involve mental health professionals in the encounter, which tragically led to yet another SPD killing of a mentally disturbed individual.
In the past, the police have killed a Native American artist, and several Black citizens who were mentally ill. This led to a federal takeover of the department and its placement under a Justice Department monitor. Supposedly, this led to the reform of deadly force procedures and re-education of the department. But the results have not been promising as far as the minority community is concerned.
That’s why the federation award was particularly ill-timed. Members of the local Jewish community affiliated with the Kadima progressive congregation made their displeasure known to the federation. It initially refused to respond to the concerns expressed, which led the activists to plan a Minha-Black Lives Matter prayer service (sign petition) outside Hillel during the federation meeting. This got the federation’s leadership’s attention and it went into full defensive mode.
The federation doubled down on its decision to give the award.:
We greatly value the Seattle Police Department and their work to help address the security concerns of the Jewish community, and stand by our decision to bestow the award on the SPD for its support of the Jewish community and its dedication to improvement.
It ignored the killing of Charleena Lyles (which it antiseptically called “a death”) except as an asterisk that appeared to cause the community inconvenience. Instead of rescinding the award, it would postpone giving it and the meeting itself to a later date. Of course, this didn’t answer the question: why the leadership of the community is so insensitive to the concerns of the local Black community? Why did it need to be embarrassed into changing its plans?
Instead of pondering the concerns of the Jewish community members protesting the award, the federation treated them the way Donald Trump treated Black Lives Matter:
…Activists persisted with plans to protest at tonight’s annual meeting. Given the intent to disrupt the meeting, out of respect for many award honorees as well as the need to conduct the regular business of an annual meeting, we are postponing. Our decision is not in any way a response to protesters’ demands but one borne of safety, timing, and prudence. A new meeting date has not been scheduled.
Unfortunately, either the federation are amey-haaretz when it comes to Jewish traditions or they were lying outright about the intent of protesters. So here’s a lesson in Yiddishkeit: Minha is a prayer service, not a protest. Nor is prayer ever a “disruption.” That is, unless you have such a guilty conscience that a prayer meant to remind you of your obligation to honor social justice becomes an irritant rather than a cause for contemplation (as it should be).
Readers of this blog may’ve read the posts I’ve written earlier here critiquing the quality of local and national Jewish leadership. This incident only reinforces those posts. In addition, I wrote an essay, The Closing of the American Jewish Mind, on this same subject for the collection, Israel and Palestine: Alternative Perspectives on Statehood
Another issue worth contemplating is the participation of U.S. police departments in security training in Israel. Seattle’s department has participated in such junkets (which I may start calling “blue-washing”) paid for by the ADL, where officers are shown how Israeli police suppress Palestinian unrest. Given the hostile, even homicidal attitude of Israel’s security forces toward Palestinian protesters, it’s no wonder that U.S. police who return take these attitudes back to their communities. Israeli policing is as militarized as it could be. And as violent and confrontational as it can be toward Palestinians. Is that the lesson and model we want our officers to use back home? And should we be surprised when the Charleena Lyles’ of the world are the victims?
For a Seattle guy, there’s no excuse for you not getting your facts straight.
Two weeks before this shooting, Ms Lyles had kept the police at bay while brandishing shears.
This shooting incident occurred after Ms Lyles called in a phony burglary report to the police. She attacked them with two knives and was shot dead.
“It was at that point where scuffling can be heard on the audio before one of the officers yells, “Get Back! Get Back!” Seconds later, there is a volley of gunfire. The officers said she had two knives.”
link to seattletimes.com
I’m not going to call this ‘suicide by police’, nor am I going to throw these two crisis-intervention trained policemen to the wolves, as some would like.
It’s beyond my comprehension how you’ve managed to shame Israel in the same breath.
Approve Trash Trash Thread Trash & Ban IP | Trash Thread & Ban IP
@Ilene: Leave it to a heartless, cruel hasbara apparachik like you to confuse mental illness with mental acuity. She didn’t make a “phony” call. She believed she was being robbed. Yes, the police knew of her history. All the more reason to ensure they had a mental health professional available to deal with her rather than just a gun. And why did they not gave a taser available?
It’s beyond my comprehension how you can blame a pregnant mother of four children afflicted with mental illness for her own death.
If the police had any training they clearly didn’t use it. Not to mention the department’s sordid history of murdering Black folk.
You drag the State of Israel into this unfortunate shooting, half a world away, and you call me cruel? What does that make you? Loving? You smear Israel as being involved in ISIS terrorism in Tehran, half a world away, and I’m cruel? What does that make you? Caring? Ha!
The Seattle Police Department didn’t shoot Ms Lyles when she held them at bay 2 weeks prior to this incident with a pair of shears. The policemen who shot Ms Lyles were in her apartment a full 15 minutes before she suddenly attacked them with two knives. These officers were trained to deal with emotionally disturbed persons and had managed the situation for a quarter of an hour until she suddenly turned violent.
What were the police supposed to do, vacate the apartment and leave an agitated knife wielding mentally disturbed woman in an apartment full of kids?
So easy for you to judge, sitting in your study by yourself, interacting with the world through an electrical device.
@ Ilene: Excuse me, but I didn’t drag Israel into anything. Israel aggressively courts U.S. police departments to teach them how they suppress Palestinian protests. Seattle is one of the depts which has participated in this. If Israel hadn’t organized this it wouldn’t be mentioned here. But as it did, it will be.
I haven’t smeared Israel as being involved in terror in Iran. A smear is based on a lie. What I’ve reported are accurate and truthful. Israel boasts of its previous involvement in terror inside Iran. Meir Dagan publicly brags about it. I have merely made an inference that it would be in Israel’s interests as it’s done this in the past, to do it again. Not to mention, that hatred of Iran is even more intense than when Israel assassinated its nuclear scientists.
This is colorful invention. You have no idea how the final moments of Charleen Lyles life unfolded. All you know is that the police screamed at her to “get back” before killing her. That could mean any number of things.
That means nothing. Seattle PD is under federal monitoring. Does that mean it has performed better in situations involving use of lethal force? Clearly no. Some police could attend 1,000 seminars in any number of subjects without learning a thing about the subject. That appears to have happened here.
The outcome would’ve been far better had they done so than chosen the course of action they did. Doctors know that “do no harm” is their motto. I wish police followed the same motto in situations like this. They should clearly not enter the home of a mentally disturbed individual w/o having a mental health professional with them.
You have no idea what or how I interact with the world. I’m a damn site better connected to the world than you. And that includes Israel as well.
You are done in this thread.
A TALMID CHACHAM such as yourself probably knows that MINCHA talks about 15 minutes, not two hours.
Funny how 1st amendment protects only progressive/liberal rights to prevent conservatives from speaking loud their opinion.
The award wasn’t postponed, the whole event was b/c of bigots. Great success!!
@ Ariel Eyn Shalom: I never claimed to be a talmid chacham & your snark falls as flat as warm beer. But I’ve davened mincha almost as many times as you no doubt. We don’t rush rhrough things & mumble our prayers here & it takes a bit longer than you claim.
But the activists never claimed they would pray for the entire meeting. Nor did they claim that their “radical mincha” would be restricted to a conventional mincha service.
Your claim that the activists were somehow restricting speech is nonsense. Mincha is not a protest. You don’t shout slogans. You don’t interrupt meetings. But I recommend that the federation study a bit of social justice from the Prophets or other sources before they make such horrendous choices as awarding killers prizes.
[comment deleted: comment rules demand that ALL claims likely to be controversial must be supported by credible evidence. If such claims aren’t supported they violate comment rules.]
I cannot understand how a public service (the Seattle police) can accept and willingly cooperate with a Jewish group (ADL) and participate in training ala a Jewish group (in Israel) as Jewish interests do not reflect community interests etc., that is, such activity is by definition biased, in fact, bigoted. Learning how Israel deals with Arabs means learning how Israel feels about Arabs. Then, these cops bring that feeling back to the US where such feelings are not officially sanctioned and celebrated. In short, this training makes a more aggressive, bigoted police force, hardly what is needed. The Seattle police should have refused such training, citing the racism inherent in Israel and its militarized policing of non-Jews. Instead, they accept and thereby legitimize racist policing in Seattle. Why do Seattle blacks allow Seattle police to be trained by a racist police force? Why is the police force allowed to accept gifts from political interest groups like the ADL? It is baffling that such un-American activities are even possible.
Ontogram: I don’t know why you’re now posting using a different handle than you used before. Comment rules require people to use a single handle.
That is clearly anti-Semitic or borderline. You are confusing Judaism with Israel. Don’t do it here.
I will get back to my old handle. The software just called up a different one from way back.
My statement is not anti-semitic and I have trouble understanding this. Like all groups which constitute a modern American city population, the Jewish American group has interests unique to itself, just as the black “group” has special concerns and needs. My statement merely says that one group is unlikely to represent or reflect the interests of the entire community which I think is self-evident. Why would Seattle — composed of many groups — send its police off to be trained in Israel, the Jewish State which has so little in common with the US in the first place? ADL is a Jewish interest as well and has a Jewish (Zionist) agenda; why would Seattle take a gift from such a political group? How do we explain these training trips, the likes of which only increase intolerance, aggression and fast trigger fingers? Is it just that Jewish American interests dominate other group interests at least in this one area?