AN ORDINANCE relating to the Seattle Police Department; prohibiting the use of chokeholds by officers; amending Section 12A.04.200 of, and adding a new Section 3.28.145 to, the Seattle Municipal Code.
Agenda Item two Capital 119804 relating to the Seattle Police Department prohibiting the use of chokeholds by officers amending Section 12 8.04.200 of. And adding. A new Section 3.28. 145 to get on a code. Thank you. I will move to pass Council Bill 119804. Is there a second? Second. It's been moved and seconded to pass the bill. Councilmember Swan As sponsor of the bill, you are recognized in order to address this item first. Thank you. Sorry, I was a little torn off because I thought there was a technical amendment that needed to be done before. Or maybe that's going to come after I speak. Yeah. So there's a that's a good, good flag. Why don't I just sort of give folks a preview here really quickly. So this is on the ordinance related to prohibiting use of chokeholds in the city. The chemical weapons bill is coming next. So this is just on the chokeholds. And there will be an amendment that will be moved by Councilmember Herbold that was published on the agenda is Amendment One. And then there will be a Second Amendment by Councilmember Herbold, which was published on the agenda as Amendment two. And then we will have a amended bill for consideration. That's just on agenda item two related to chokeholds. So I think the technical amendment that you're referring to, councilmembers a lot might be in the context of agenda item three. No. I was talking about the two amendments you mentioned, but yeah, I for a moment I forgot that it's going to come after. So why don't you go ahead? Absolutely. There's a lot going on this morning, so why don't you go ahead and address the underlying motion? First, I'm sorry. The underlying bill first. And then we will. And, you know, you'll probably, I imagine, want to have some substantive comments here. But but if if you want to just sort of introduce the bill initially just to give Council Member Herbold amendment some context, then we'll do the amendments. And of course, as customary, you as the primary sponsor will. Have the last word. On the bill as amended. Thank you. This bill bans chokehold in Seattle from Eric Garner to Emanuel alludes to George Floyd. We have all seen the devastating consequences of Joe Cole's use of chokehold by the police. As I mentioned last week and also this morning, similar restrictions have been put in place by other cities, most recently in Minneapolis, where George Floyd was murdered by the police using a chokehold. This legislation is absolutely the least that the Seattle City Council can do, and I hope that we can. That's it. And move on to the ban on crowd control weapons, also without loopholes and many of the other measures that we need to be put in to put in place in order to really even begin to have accountability on the police. I do want to reiterate a sobering word of caution. Passing this legislation is absolutely important, but it will not be enough by itself. Joe cause we are banned in New York City when Eric Garner was killed and that obviously was insufficient to save him. Legislation like this is critical because especially because it shows the power of a grassroots movement overcoming an entrenched establishment for so many decades. But it needs to be paired with more structural changes in society. And that is why. I will be my office will be pushing for the most of the other demands that we have from our movement. One most immediately is to release all protest arrestees and drop all charges against them to defund the police by 50% so that we can begin to fund restorative justice and really community organizing as opposed to policing funded , organized by workers who are unionized and paid a living wage, especially to respond to non-criminal emergency calls, as has been called for by the Police Accountability Organization for the Bay Area Bay Area. But we also need urgently need an independently elected community oversight board. So I hope you will support this and I will say a few words more towards the end. Thank you. Thank you, Councilmember. So what I'm going to go ahead and hand it over to Councilmember Herbold, who has a couple of amendments. But let's start with your amendment number one, please. Thank you. I moved to amend Council Bill 11 9804 as presented on Amendment one on the agenda. Is there a second? Second. Fuck it. Thank you. It's been moved and seconded to amend the bill with Amendment one Councilmember Herbold as sponsor of the amendment. I will hand it over to you to address it. Thank you. So this amendment is responsive to concerns raised and shared with council members from the apartment. It addresses two separate issues in the Single Amendment. The first is to clarify that the private right of action applies to violations of the prohibition that occur after the ordinance takes effect. And the second requests that the notice of the the chokehold prohibition be given to the Department of Justice, the court and the Monitor in accordance with the consent decree. United States of America versus City of Seattle. This use of force is at the heart of the consent decree, and changes to city policies need to be submitted to the court. The city sent a draft version of the 2017 accountability legislation to the court in advance. And similarly, this amendment indicates that Council recognizes the role of the court. Thank you, Councilmember Herbold, for that description. Are there any comments on Amendment One? Okay. I'm not hearing any comments on Amendment One. And again, Councilmember Herbold, I appreciate you bringing forward this amendment. I would say that it sort of models the approach that we took with the 2017 Police Accountability Ordinance in which we legislated some of the policy issues. First, recognizing that those policy changes would be subject to review under the consent decree. And I think that your amendment in this base is consistent with what the Council has done in the past, sort of knowing that we're changing policies that fall under the purview of the consent decree and not abdicating the need to submit for review under the consent decree. So I appreciate your work on this amendment. So if there are no. Other questions or comments, we'll go ahead. And move along. P.S. Any hearing, ma'am, will the clerk please call the role on the adoption of Amendment One? Peterson All right. So what. I. Strauss I. Grippal. I. Juarez. Hi. Lois. Hi. Morales. I must get to. I. President Gonzalez. Nine in favor. Nine opposed. Excellent. Thank you so much. The motion carries, the amendment is adopted and the bill, as amended, is now before the Council. I understand that we have another amendment, Amendment two, so I would hand it back over to Councilmember Herbal to walk us through amendment to. Amendment two, simply expresses the Council's intent to engage with labor relations in the implementation of the chokehold prohibition. Thank you so much. Any little city council? Did you actually make your motion? Ooh. Good call. I'm sorry. I moved to amend Council Bill 11 9804 as presented on Amendment two on the agenda. Thank you so much. Is there a second? Second? It's been moved and seconded to amend the bill as described an amendment to amend Councilmember Herbold to give us a very specific description of what that was. Did you want to repeat that? Absolutely. So we have the context of the amendment itself before us, before I describe it. The amendment expresses the Council's intent to engage with our Labor Relations Department in the implementation of the choke, the chokehold ban or prohibition. Thank you so much. So we are now going to hear comments on Amendment two. Are there any comments on Councilmember Herbold amendment to. Hearing and seeing none. I will ask that the clerk please call the role on the adoption of Amendment two. Peterson. I. So what I. Strauss I. Herbold. I. Whereas. Only Lewis. I. Morales. I. Macheda. I. President Gonzalez. I. Nine in favor and unopposed. Thank you. The motion carries. The amendment is adopted, and we now have a further amended bill before the Council. Are there any further comments on the bill as amended? Okay. I'm not seeing anybody raise your hand, but I will. As promised, council members want the last word on this bill as the primary sponsor customers on. Thank you. I think it's really important that this bill is being passed. It's also important that the bill that's coming up on the chemical weapons be passed without loopholes. But as members of the public have said, and I completely agree with them, this is the absolute bare minimum that the legislative board, the highest legislative body of this city, should be doing, especially after we have seen such unbelievable violence being targeted at peaceful protesters, but also in the wake of the fact that eight black and brown community members have been murdered by the police, Seattle police, under Mayor Durkin's reign and not a single police officer has been prosecuted. So the larger context is extremely important for us to remember that while these bills are critical and they will indeed be historic, actually, because it is in some ways quite absurd that we are having to do this, that we have a city that does not have already a law that bans chokeholds and chemical weapons. But it is important that we are doing this today. But we have to go much, much farther. The police officers who have committed such horrific crimes need to be brought to justice, and they will not happen as long as the establishment is overseeing it. Because we saw what happened under Mayor Durkan and what we what has happened in the past years. And so the city and the people of this city needs an independently elected civilian oversight board with full powers of the police, including hiring, firing and subpoena powers and the ability to bring the police officers justice and high prosecution. But we also need to urgently defund the police by at least 50% and make sure that the the establishment doesn't just take on the vocabulary of the movement, but actually responds to it with real action. And most immediately, we need to make sure that all the protest arrestees are released without charges. Thank you. Council members want for those final remarks. I'm going to go ahead and close out debate on this bill as amended. So I would ask that the clerk please call the roll on the passage of the bill as amended. Peterson I. Know what. I. Draw. I verbal. Whereas. I. Lewis, i. Morales, I. Macheda i. President Gonzales. I. Nine in favor. None opposed. Thank you. The bill passes as amended and the chair will sign it. I'd ask that the clerk please affix my signature to the legislation. Okay. Agenda item three. I would ask that the clerk please read item three into the record.