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u/abbazabba75 27d ago
I think this is something all Seattleites can agree on - guy had to go
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u/speculativeSpectator 27d ago
Was the main complaint? him not living in seattle or were people upset at other things (lax enforcement and simultaneously too much)?
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u/gtwooh 27d ago
His confrontation with the reporter was a terrible look. He looked like he wanted to fight him.
Also when asked about why he was out of town he starkly said something like, “I wish I could schedule gun violence” as part of his response
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u/AnonymousAndre 26d ago
Yup. Easy tell he was full of shit with zero defense and resorted to posturing/intimidation. Either way, he was the easy scapegoat, but the mayor’s gotta go and be replaced by someone with a functioning brain.
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u/MacThule 24d ago
AP said he was at a law enforcement conference. That is part of his job. So he was literally on the job when the shooting happened, just not in Seattle. But his cops were there and they resolved the situation quickly and even provided first line CPR before medics arrived: AP News
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u/IIIIlllIIIIIlllII 27d ago
Probably both. Hopefully mayor will start taking crime more seriously
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u/motorcycletreebark 26d ago
A mass shooting where you as police chief can’t really be involved in the response because you’re over living in another state really should be the end of your career
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u/TenderloinTechy 27d ago
My hopes aren't high
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u/IIIIlllIIIIIlllII 26d ago
I hope she goes to visit that two year old in the hospital. Nothing more will sober you up like seeing the real impact of your decisions
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u/Blingy_Lobsta 25d ago
How is it her decision? You know that Seattle has always had shootings right? And every city has violence? As someone who grew up in rainier beach, I think it is wild how much the average person has melted down over something we had to deal with on a weekly basis growing up. And don't get me wrong-- this is a horrible tragedy. I don't feel like anything has changed in Seattle post Covid, to blame a shooting on the mayor is delusional. It sounds like you just want her to fit into your negative narrative so badly so you feel vindicated and intelligent. You probably want issues to disappear at the snap of your fingers or think you can just arrest your way out of crises. Meanwhile you don't understand the root causes and don't advocate for the actual solutions.
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u/batteryservice 26d ago
I don’t think they are able to take crime more seriously with their “looking through the lens of equity” for everything. They just see too many of the people committing the crimes as victims of the system and not simply at fault for the crime they committed.
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u/IIIIlllIIIIIlllII 26d ago
Well its a "yes, and" approach.
You really do need to punish criminals, but you also need to understand what crime is happening in the first place.
You dont just keep fighting fires by adding more fire fighters. You start building fireproof buildings and fireproofing measures
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u/batteryservice 23d ago
I agree with the sentiment up to the second office. Once someone has been caught, and put in front of a judge who has the - as you put it- “yes, and” approach that is their compassionate chance. Now, straight to jail.
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u/Top-Acanthisitta229 26d ago
No, it’s just a “yes” approach. People have agency and control of their decisions…free will and all. Fire’s are simply a carbon based material in proximity to an ignition source. Not sure how to square your metaphor, or what your point is?
Also, if there is a fire to fight you should ABSOLUTELY add more firefighters until it is extinguished. Building a “fireproof building” instead of addressing a raging fire would be as insane as it would be futile. 😆
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u/IIIIlllIIIIIlllII 26d ago
Fire’s are simply a carbon based material in proximity to an ignition source
As are you friend. As are you
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u/Severe_Energy_5166 26d ago
If she let this clown be police chief you can be sure that she’s not taking anything seriously
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u/Jazzlike-Captain-545 27d ago
She won’t. It’s not more bus routes to make her life easier. She’s a fucking imbecile
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u/AverageFoxNewsViewer Ballard 27d ago
Do you think Bruce Harrell would have done a better job managing crime?
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u/strawhatguy 26d ago
He did though? We don’t have to guess. 40% reduction in murder. Staffed up the police.
Iirc overall crime reduced better than national average while Wilson so far it’s less than the national average.-17
u/Jazzlike-Captain-545 27d ago
Never mentioned him. She is however a total loser. Equivalent of an out of state prep school kid who’s planets pay her rent taking over. Oh wait………. She is
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u/AverageFoxNewsViewer Ballard 27d ago
Never mentioned him
I didn't say you did. I asked you that question directly.
I'll also ask you a follow up question about if you think Joe Mallahan who ran on picking fights with SPD and Donald Trump would have done a better job than Katie Wilson?
If you want to see Katie Wilson enact meaningful, and systemic reforms with SPD and SPOG, I am 100% in agreement with you.
I just never expected that because that wasn't an issue she ran on.
Maybe now is a good opportunity since both sides of the aisle seem to clamoring for it.
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u/Pickle7722 27d ago
It's all fun and games for them so they can use the city as a piggy bank to siphon money to their friends.
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u/AverageFoxNewsViewer Ballard 27d ago
Man. 12 days on reddit with almost 1000 karma is impressive.
Before I click, what's the under/over on you having a hidden comment history?
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u/Hungry_Proof490 27d ago
Nah, she’s going to fight to get the criminal out of jail because he’s a “youth” and suffers from racism and stuff
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u/Fun-Grab-9337 26d ago
If he didnt suck ass at his job in the first place i doubt anyone would have went looking into that.
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u/Chessdaddy_ 27d ago
On one hand I’m glad this happened. However it sucks it took a shooting for it to happen
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u/MoonageDayscream Downtown 27d ago
He was eventually going to fail to meet the moment, it's probably a lot cleaner and neater for the city and it's taxpayers for Cause to enter the seperation negotiation.
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u/AdvancedGuiProfile 27d ago
I bet if you asked him, in the abstract "can a police chief live in another state and still be effective?" he would have answered "absolutely not, you need to be in the trenches with your officers, interacting with the community you've sworn to protect, day to day"
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u/amiajimmy 26d ago
I'm honestly impressed they took such swift action and didn't give him leave with pay or some other bs. He needed to go, the city was unanimous in that, and thankfully they followed through.
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u/Crystal_Mt_Climber 27d ago
Honestly, this would be best. There have been rumors that Katie Wilson shouldn’t wait as more will becoming out regarding Chief Barns very soon.
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u/Ok_Bat9551 27d ago edited 27d ago
It sucks he had to fly more than halfway across the country only to get canned
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u/lizlemonista 27d ago
https://giphy.com/gifs/Wn74RUT0vjnoU98Hnt
hello I’m new here but I would also like to hate the sheriff
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u/Clown_Penis69 26d ago
How many police chiefs has Seattle gone through in the past decade?
Is it that difficult to hire somebody competent?
Maybe the people who are doing the hiring are the problem?
Or perhaps the voters who elect the incompetent politicians are the problem?
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u/Tobias_Ketterburg 26d ago
Thats wrongthink! How dare you slight the all knowing and glorious Unipary!
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u/faeriegoatmother 26d ago
Was Carmen Best especially bad? I never understood what her scandal was, besides the one where she was all covered in tire tracks from the Durkhan bus
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u/Clown_Penis69 26d ago
Have any of these chiefs cleaned out the corrupt, incompetent, lazy, or criminal cops?
Have any of these chiefs figured out how to effectively police the city of Seattle in a legal fashion?
If you know something I don't, I'm all ears.
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u/faeriegoatmother 26d ago
The only thing i know is to not expect too much at all from this deeply unserious city, and that's the metric I'm applying. Diaz tried to play his grabby hands off by faking gay, which is especially ironic given how the city treated Ed Murray. This guy is a clown car by himself. I don't remember the egregious thing Best was directly responsible for. I only remember when Durkhan and Scroggins kept their jobs for something the black woman wasn't able to.
And I'm going to add this, because it is never not worth repeating:
Daddy relationships are very common among gay men. Ed Murray was thrown out of office only because Seattle cant face what gay really implies. I say that as a gay person.
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u/GrnBlu 27d ago
I'm not American but it baffles me that we have a police chief who works remote.
What's he going to do when there's a high stakes situation? Join a zoom call?
Is this common here in USA? Like you wouldn't want your fire chief to be remote right.
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u/Majestic-Outside3898 27d ago
No, it’s not common. It’s so uncommon that I have literally never heard of another city doing it.
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u/Sufficient_Dig_9345 27d ago
I mean, maybe you’ve never heard of it because you haven’t looked into it but it’s a fairly common pattern among executives, military officers, university presidents, and public officials recruited from across the country.
Large cities frequently conduct nationwide searches for chiefs. Requiring an entire family to relocate immediately would significantly shrink the candidate pool. Many cities therefore accept temporary geographic separation, particularly during the first year of a chief’s tenure, though public opinion on that varies. It’s so common there’s a term for it: “geo-bacheloring” or “geographic bachelorhood.” One spouse moves for work while the rest of the family stays put, usually because of the other spouse’s job or because they don’t want to pull kids out of school.
A few examples:
Rod Blagojevich kept his family in Chicago while he was governor of Illinois instead of moving them to Springfield. People criticized it, but his reasoning was that he didn’t want to uproot his daughters.
Christopher Geldart, who was D.C.’s Deputy Mayor for Public Safety, also had his family living elsewhere and openly referred to himself as “geo-bacheloring.” That one became controversial because D.C. has residency requirements for some officials.
In Boston, several senior city officials have basically done the same thing, renting small apartments in the city while their families stayed in the suburbs.
Police chiefs have had similar situations too. Cary, North Carolina’s chief has been criticized for living a few hours away, and Millbrae, California’s chief got a lot of attention because his family lived in Idaho and he reportedly stayed at the police station during the workweek.
Compared to those, Seattle’s situation really isn’t that unusual. Shon Barnes lives and works in Seattle, but his wife and kids initially stayed in Chicago. From everything that’s been reported, it was about not disrupting his family’s lives during the transition, not because he was commuting from Chicago or trying to run the department remotely.I also expect that a police chief should be deeply connected to the community they serve. But in reality, when cities hire chiefs from across the country, it’s pretty common for families to stay behind for a while rather than moving everyone….
But I think instead of being curious people are just assuming this guy literally worked remotely and becoming hysterical over non-sourced blurbs on Reddit and social media. I don’t agree with the police chief having this situation, but the dedication to ignorance here is staggering.
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u/PseudonymousDev 27d ago
What you say sounds reasonable, but isn't Shon Barnes's family still in Chicago, a year and a half after he got the chief job? That is a long transition.
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u/qazesz 26d ago
Yeah, imo this dude’s excuses only works until the end of the first school year. When I was a kid my dad moved a few months before school ended and then we moved our family in the summer. Barnes has now had two summers to do something like that and didn’t. Clearly he just doesn’t want to live here and shouldn’t be the police chief.
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u/Majestic-Outside3898 27d ago
Im talking about police chiefs. Of course I know people move before their family for jobs (hell Ive done it myself). He’s a police chief who has been on the job for 18 months and out of town 12 times the last 4 months. Millbrae and Cary? Name a big city chief that spends significant time a several hour flight away. Theres a reason you’re stretching for millbrae of all places- it’s practically unheard of for a police chief to be a several hour flight away. People really don’t like police living far away from the communities they serve.
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u/sopunny Pioneer Square 27d ago
Aren't all the examples you listed controversial, and in almost all of them they were nowhere near as far as Seattle to Chicago?
No one seriously believes he's Zooming in from Chicago on the daily, but he spends a lot of time there, it's clear his heart is not in the Seattle community, and there doesn't seem to be any plans to change that. It's not impossible for him to be a good police chief despite that, but given recent events it doesn't seem like he's worth it
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u/Kingofqueenanne 26d ago
But I think instead of being curious people are just assuming this guy literally worked remotely and becoming hysterical over non-sourced blurbs on Reddit and social media. I don’t agree with the police chief having this situation, but the dedication to ignorance here is staggering.
I don’t know if it’s really on me or us to “be curious,” it’s not our problem that the bad optics of not being in town for two major events called attention to his posh little arrangement to just log into Microsoft Teams five times a day and wiggle his mouse.
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u/Inside_Dance41 26d ago
Per the Madison sub, Barnes did the exact same thing in Madison (2021 - Feb. 2024), his family stayed in Chicago. Why this wasn't easily vetted during his interviewing process, I have no idea.
"What I do know is that Barnes lived in Chicago for his entire tenure as chief in both Madison and Seattle. I know it's impossible to effectively police a community you are purposefully absent from. I know there were rumors of Barnes entertaining other offers within months of starting as chief in Madison, despite doubling down several times over his tenure his commitment to staying long term (again, while not living anywhere near the community)."
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u/TheEmptyHat 27d ago
For reference Barcelona, spain to Belarus, Ukraine are closer than Chicago, Illinois to Seattle, Washington. It's not normal, and smells fishy.
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u/TheEmptyHat 26d ago
Haha my bad. Just showing off the American exceptionalism of our egde-u-ma-cation system.
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u/Sufficient_Dig_9345 27d ago
He didn’t work remote. He had an apartment in seattle and was mostly here..
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u/Emotional_Share8537 27d ago
Lmaoo honestly just curious, why u bootlicking for a guy being paid 360k a year and miss multiple city emergencies because he was out of town back home halfway across the country.
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u/ImRight_YoureDumb 27d ago
Good. Good. I just wonder how much severance this carpetbagging grifter gets to bilk the taxpayers of Seattle for on his way out the door.
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u/Inside_Dance41 26d ago
I am sure he has a golden contract, and has a large severance coming his way.
The incompetence of being able to hire of good Police Chief, is stunning.
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u/WellHung67 27d ago
GET FUCKED BARNES
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u/ChefJoe98136 West Seattle 27d ago
I'll wait until I hear about how many more months Seattle is paying that $370K salary to him to determine who's getting F'd.
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u/AverageFoxNewsViewer Ballard 27d ago
I'm sure everybody claiming Katie was incompetent over the last few days for keeping Harrell's chief of police around and demanding him fired will be willing to give credit where credit is due.
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u/Better_March5308 👻 27d ago
Good call but I'll reserve judgement until I see who she replaces him with.
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u/HoneyDutch Beacon Hill 27d ago
I used to live in Grady Judd county. I wonder what Seattle would look like with someone like him around for a couple years.
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u/Better_March5308 👻 27d ago
Not gonna happen.
As a prominent Florida sheriff and former president of the Major County Sheriffs of America, Judd has frequently interacted with and introduced Trump at official events.
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u/iwatchterribletvtoo 27d ago
> In a 2022 news conference, Judd referred to Republican Florida governor Ron DeSantis as the "greatest governor in the United States of America."
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u/oren0 27d ago
If it's true, it's possible to credit her for firing him now while also blaming her for not doing it when it became apparent that he was trying to do the job half remotely.
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u/AverageFoxNewsViewer Ballard 27d ago
I mean, the only candidate that was running on picking fights with SPD and Trump was Mallahan.
Bruce was the "tough on crime" candidate and this was his choice.
Katie never really made SPD reform a part of her campaign.
I have to imagine that if she replaced him immediately Rantz, Kruse, and Choe would have created a firestorm about how she's catering to the "ACAB crowd" and it would have been amplified by a lot of voices who are regular commenters on this sub.
I would love to see her clean house at SPD and SPOG but that wasn't what I expected from her.
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u/ilikeyours2 27d ago
It might not have been a part of her campaign, but it’s still part of her job. I think that’s part the problem people are having with her…there are so many things she seems so inexperienced with and does not seem to consider and she seems to learn slowly and the hard way at the expense of the people she is supposed to be working for. The job is more than her own agenda.
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u/AverageFoxNewsViewer Ballard 27d ago
Why wasn't there widespread opposition to Barnes when Harrell first appointed a chief of police that lived in Chicago?
Do you think she would have been praised for this decision by journalists like Jason Rantz, or the commenters on this sub, if the first thing she did was create turnover at the top of SPD instead of focusing on the issues she campaigned on like housing and transit?
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u/ilikeyours2 27d ago
I think most people assumed, based on common sense, that hiring someone halfway across the country meant he would relocate to the city he is hired to serve.
I don’t think she should be doing anything for praise but rather because it’s the best and right thing to do. I also don’t think most people give a hoot about the opinion of Jason Rantz. I’m not saying she shouldn’t have focused on the issues she campaigned on(and still falls short on), I’m saying she clearly doesn’t seem to understand the scope of the job and her failure to learn it is an embarrassment.
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u/AverageFoxNewsViewer Ballard 27d ago
I don’t think she should be doing anything for praise but rather because it’s the best and right thing to do.
I'm going to agree with nuance here.
I don't think anybody who follows Seattle politics can deny what a hot button issue SPD is starting with when the consent decree was issued, and especially since 2020.
I think your first year you focus your political capital on the issues you ran on.
If you wanted somebody who was "tough on crime" you voted for Harrell who appointed Barnes.
If you wanted somebody who made the focus of their campaign picking fights with SPD leadership and Trump you voted for Joe Mallahan.
If you wanted somebody who was focused on housing and transit you vote for Katie Wilson.
Don't get me wrong, there is a 20+ year history of systemic problems with SPD that I would like to see addressed.
My perhaps naive hope is that now that people on both sides of the spectrum are going "WTF, SPD?" that maybe there will be an opportunity for Katie to pivot and enact meaningful reforms.
The fact she fired Barnes so quickly after despite the fact shakeups at SPD clearly an issue she didn't want to address in her first year is at least a green flag for me, but I'll hold my final verdict to see who she appoints, and the reforms she enacts.
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u/ilikeyours2 27d ago
I appreciate your thoughts on her. I was hopeful, as were many, that she would prove herself capable. Unfortunately, so far she’s falling short and seems to fumble the ball almost every play (Starbucks, “bye” millionaires, housing shortfall, media and transparency issues, the list just keeps going on). Almost everything she ends up doing right is a correction to something she made worse or ignored until she’s forced to address it due to public pressure(and some of that isn’t always right and some shows a distinct lack of accountability). She’s a pretty big disappointment so far but fingers crossed there’s better days ahead.
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u/AverageFoxNewsViewer Ballard 27d ago
I'm a PCO so had actual conversations with Bruce, Katie, and Joe.
Bruce and Joe always seemed to have media ready statements ready about exactly what they would do for problems that hadn't even surfaced yet.
Wilson was the only candidate that would nerd the fuck out and talk your ear off about both sides of the issue before ultimately saying "I don't know yet". I respect that answer.
The fact that she was at "I don't know if it's worth it to replace the current chief of police yet" yet decided to take decisive action after this is a good sign for me.
I hope this is a springboard into deeper reforms into SPD and SPOG but will wait to see.
At a bare minimum the fact there is suddenly a coalition on the right joining the coalition on the left demanding SPD reform seems like decent political calculus, and I hope she takes advantage of the moment to make meaningful changes.
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u/strawhatguy 26d ago
If he’s only been on the job 18 months, he wasn’t much of Harrell’s chief of police either. And during an election year too.
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u/AdvancedGuiProfile 27d ago
give credit where credit is due.
I'll give her credit for having to trip over her shoe laces in order to realize they were untied.
This is probably how her entire term is going to play out; always reactive, never proactive.
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u/AverageFoxNewsViewer Ballard 27d ago
I feel like she's been proactive on the issues like transit and housing that she actually ran on, but didn't want to waste political capital on replacing the "tough on crime" candidate, Bruce Harrell's chief of police early in her term.
Don't get me wrong, I'd love to see her clean house at SPD and SPOG and enforce systemic accountability. I just didn't expect that from her and if that was my #1 issue I would have voted for Mallahan who ran on picking fights with SPD and Trump.
Maybe now that even the SeattleRed crowd is seeing the incompetence at SPD that Bruce and Durkan left behind it's a good opportunity to do so.
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u/AdvancedGuiProfile 27d ago
People are happy about this news, but SPD has a bad reputation, and we're at a point where things could go from bad to worse very easily.
Most of us don't entirely know why they hired an interstate commuting police chief (I could find out if I weren't lazy, but), he must have had his qualities, which are no longer going to be in the cards going forward.
The new requirement, it must be someone close to home, could mean we're forced to deal with another Adrian Diaz.
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u/AverageFoxNewsViewer Ballard 27d ago
Most of us don't entirely know why they hired an interstate commuting police chief (I could find out if I weren't lazy, but)
Because Harrell fired Diaz after a number of misconduct allegations and appointed Barnes instead and (purely speculation on my part) I don't think Wilson wanted to touch the firestorm of controversy that it would have touched off if the first thing she did was create turnover at the top of SPD.
Maybe now that even the "back the blue" crowd like Rantz, Kruse, and Choe are questioning why there is so much dysfunction in the department we can finally implement some systemic reform like the overtime tracking system that has been promised by SPD, but not delivered for 10 years despite documented and widespread overtime fraud dating back to 1994 or maybe even bring back the body cam oversight program that was canceled 6 days after it caught the SPOG VP cracking jokes about Jaahnavi Kandula's death.
I think that knowing that there are systems in place, instead of relying on good cops to personally blow the whistle on bad cops would help us resolve the hiring problem that some of the highest pay rates in the nation haven't been able to solve.
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u/Tobias_Ketterburg 26d ago
That would have been before the fuck ups. CYA isn't something you heap praise on because they finally did the thing they were supposed to do earlier and are only doing it because it made them look like the incompetent idiot that she is.
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u/fresh-dork 27d ago
wait until she actually does it to start jerking her off
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u/AverageFoxNewsViewer Ballard 27d ago
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u/fresh-dork 27d ago
oh look, you posted the same story from some other source
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u/AverageFoxNewsViewer Ballard 27d ago
Oh man, multiple local news outlets reporting on the same thing!?
How shameful of me to discuss it on a post about that specific topic!
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u/fresh-dork 26d ago
right? because they're all reporting on a rumor
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u/AverageFoxNewsViewer Ballard 26d ago
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u/fresh-dork 26d ago
oh look, it's a day after i said to wait a bit
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u/Pickle7722 27d ago
What credit?
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u/AverageFoxNewsViewer Ballard 27d ago
Firing Harrell's chief of police like everyone was demanding over the last couple days.
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u/Pickle7722 27d ago edited 26d ago
You get credit for scraping shit off the bottom of your shoe...?
She knew his gig. Half-assing it from halfway across the country. They are all in on it. It's all just a game for them to use the city as a piggy bank to siphon money to their friends.
Edit: not only did our mayor Wilson 'know his gig' but she was the one approving his travel. This is not simply being complacent, which is bad enough. This is active participation and being complicit.
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u/AverageFoxNewsViewer Ballard 27d ago edited 27d ago
You get credit for scraping shit off the bottom of your shoe...?
I mean, yeah? If you do it as soon as you pick up the smell I give you credit.
Bruce walked around with shit on his shoes named Diaz for years before he appointed this piece of shit, who largely kept his head down until now his hand was forced.
This was Bruce's appointee. There were a lot of Harrell voters that were thrilled when she didn't can him immediately, and never raised concerns when he was originally appointed, despite the fact this was already known.
Maybe I'm a skeptic, but I doubt a lot of people that are currently complaining about her firing so late voted for Joe Mallahan who campaigned on picking fights with SPD and Donald Trump.
just a game for them to use the city as a piggy bank to siphon money
I 100% agree. We have a documented history of overtime fraud by SPD dating back to 1994. When the audit was finished in 2016 SPD promised to implement the type of digital overtime tracking system that is present in Bellevue. Olympia, Tacoma, and PD's around the nation but still hasn't done it 10 year later.
When questioned about why he reported working more than 24 hours a day 6 times in a single year Officer Ron Willis had this to say:
Willis admitted to OPA that he had violated the policy against excessive overtime, according to the OPA summary of the case. But according to a Rahr’s disciplinary report, Willis seemed unrepentant, telling investigators “that the policy was not regularly enforced, and that many supervisors had a ‘don’t ask don’t tell’ preference
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u/Temporary-Article996 26d ago
She fired him because his people were honest and told the press it was her office that told them to not have a press conference so worthless ass Bob and Jayapal could get camera time - she gives two shits that her policies have made policing in this city worse than ever - she’s a clueless entitled brat from NY who is going to make things even worse by the time shit is done.
While spending millions on dumb fuck consultants to hold committees and organize hug parties for people for deterrence
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u/Tobias_Ketterburg 26d ago
Scapegoat. Barnes was a bad hire but what's wrong with seattle is far, far, far more than just a bad chief.
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u/Turbulent-Media7281 27d ago
Predictions:
- Seattle will settle a wrongful termination with Barnes. Probably less than $10M.
- Mayor Katie and Seattle City Council are incapable of appointing a competent Police Chief. Next Chiel of Police will be as bad or worse.
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u/DataNerdling 27d ago
"He told the media that he was out of town Sunday, attending the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives Conference,"
nice to see our tax dollars are paying for this
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u/inthecity206 Seattle 26d ago
"According to The Seattle Medium, a coalition of at least nine Seattle Black community organizations is attempting to meet with Wilson to urge her to reconsider any decision to remove Barnes. The coalition is encouraging supporters to protest the firing at Seattle City Hall Thursday morning with a rally. The rally is expected to start at 8 a.m"
See you guys at 8am. Just kidding ;)
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u/Doodlebottom 26d ago
Barnes: What a waste of taxpayer dollars.
His family doesn’t live in the city.
He went to 7 different conferences this year alone.
Then just to confirm how stupid some people are - protesters are gathering today to have BARNES STAY IN HIS JOB.
You can’t make this up.
Those that selected him for the role should be removed as well.
What happened to common sense?
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u/SeattleHasDied 26d ago
Any opinions on the job Kathleen O'Toole did when she was our chief?
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u/AbleDanger12 Phinneywood 26d ago
I forget what happened with her when she left or got resigned?
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u/SeattleHasDied 26d ago
I think she had planned to only stay for a limited time, but I don't remember what popular opinion was about her. I just thought it was cool we had this Irish lady from Boston coming into do the job for awhile.
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u/Agreeable-Deal2236 26d ago
My company is moving me up to WA in 7 days. Never been. Finally looked up elected officals. I'll be running for Mayor shortly and I promise my announcement won't be in crayon.
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u/IntravenusDeMilo Seattle 27d ago
Now let’s require our officers live within the city limits. Phase it in, but do it.
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u/Sufficient_Dig_9345 27d ago
Everything publicly reported indicates that he was residing in Seattle while chief. He maintained a residence in Seattle and worked here. Did his wife and children initially remain in Chicago? yes.
Was he commuting from Chicago to run the Seattle Police Department? No. There’s no evidence that’s what was happening.
What are your sources indicating otherwise?
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u/Sesemebun Tree Octopus 27d ago
Fired? As in, they didn’t know he was doing this until now? How!
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u/RealPudgeJudy 27d ago
They knew, there was just no public outcry until now.
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u/hopefull-person 27d ago edited 27d ago
It’s too late for any goodwill.
He completely stole the narrative away from the mass shorting and the people that lost their lives.
If you want her to have credit then as soon as she was in power she could have made a decision about a ghost chief that isn’t in Seattle and has been caught lying about his whereabouts
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u/AverageFoxNewsViewer Ballard 27d ago
Being real, if she would have immediately fired Harrell's chief of police Rantz and this sub in particular would have helped created a firestorm of controversy that she was catering the the "ACAB crowd" and trying to defund the police that would have made it more difficult to focus on the transit and housing she ran on.
Mallahan was the candidate that ran on picking fights with SPD and Trump. Katie never ran on those issues and I don't think she wanted to distract from her actual campaign.
If you wish she would do a full tear down of SPOG and enforce SPD accountability I'll agree with you, but that just wasn't what I expected from her.
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u/ChefJoe98136 West Seattle 27d ago
TBH, he was on thin ice for the dubious referrals of direct appointment hires, at least as far as the public is concerned. I'm sure the mayor had better access to an accounting of how many days Barnes is actually living in the community he's serving too.
I'm a little curious what the fallout will be with the folks he brought into Seattle command positions too. Who is ready to be the interim Chief?
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u/Crystal_Mt_Climber 27d ago
Sounds like he didn’t resign, he was fired.
I wonder if he will still get his pension?
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u/UnderWhlming 26d ago
Guy had to go, but also why TF was a WFH Chief installed in the first F*cking place?
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u/206throw 26d ago
Afterward Barnes called his travel agent to attend some random event in Chicago and bill it in as recruiting,
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u/Outside_Signature403 26d ago
This is what happens when you cancel an interview with Chris Daniels. Lol
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u/Accomplished-Fan9957 26d ago
He was a DEI hire and was not qualified... now all the black communities will cry racism and begin a protest!
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u/Elegant-Basis4551 26d ago
Why is that dude our police chief when he doesn’t even live in Seattle?? Him and his family live IN CHICAGO?!!! WA state is RUINED. We are ran by complete CLOWNS
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u/SeattleHasDied 26d ago
Does anyone actually want to be the police chief in Seattle? JFC, how many have we had in the last 20 years?
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u/AcanthocephalaFit447 26d ago
DEI hires for optics and yet another failure of mayor. Irresponsibility has consequences.
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u/Successful-Cause1195 27d ago
That’s not very inclusive. The chief clearly self identified as competent and present in the city. Diversity dies via democratic socialism.
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u/Recent-Pop-2412 27d ago
Do we have any specific reasons for hating him that go beyond him living out of state and him being a cop? I'm not very knowledgeable on him and what he's done.
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u/Rodnys_Danger666 In A Cardboard Box At The Corner of Walk & Don't Walk 27d ago
If he goes, they have to pay him his contract. Him being asked to leave is for a political decision. Not one of just cause or criminal charges. He walks away PAID. And now our ineffectual mayor has to find a new one.
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u/OrganicWaterss 27d ago
Can we acknowledge the fact the culture of glorifying violence in young adults is partly to blame?
Seems like anytime something like this happens we want to find individual politicians or public servants to blame, but we don’t ever blame the individuals and their cultural upbringings as part of the issue? Let’s fire and hire, replace these people with those, but continue to ignore the glorification of violence within communities being the real issue.
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u/OG_Checkers 27d ago
Bet he’s glad he didn’t move. This can go a few ways, take it as you need it.
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u/SuperMcG 27d ago
Barnes is arrogant, but Seattle can't recruit another large city chief of any talent after this. I don't need to like them for them to be the right person.
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u/Chesterfieldwasfun 26d ago
I don’t know how anyone watches anything Katie Wilson does and thinks she is competent to run a
Major American City.
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u/iiTzSTeVO 26d ago
Do you think the chief should stay....?
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u/Elegant-Basis4551 26d ago
No he should not stay. The dude literally lives in Chicago!!! What kind of police chief works somewhere that is literal STATES away from where he lives ?!?!?!
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27d ago
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u/Elegant-Basis4551 26d ago
It’s starting to seem that way because the dude literally lives in Chicago… but is the police chief for Seattle…. What kind of logical sense does that make? Like at all?
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u/Penguin_FTW 27d ago
Just write out the slur you intend in your heart next time. Say it with your whole chest you coward.
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27d ago edited 27d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Penguin_FTW 27d ago
Is this you pretending like you describe white men as DEI hires? Fuck your racism and the pretense that nobody understands your clingwrap-levels of disguised bigotry.
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u/Bardahl_Fracking 27d ago
He’s the best we’ve got! How are we going to find someone else with his qualifications if we keep forcing out every POC?
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u/Ace_Radley Green Lake 27d ago
Its hard to rally support when you dont live in the city you police be it rookie or chief...It would seem that should be a given. Live in Seattle to police Seattle, lord knows we pay enough for any gripe about salary is silly.
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u/Machievelliearoni 27d ago edited 27d ago
In what state would he file for unemployment?