Seattle's Inspector General doesn't inspect much

One month after The Urbanist published my report into SPD’s use of mutual aid, the Seattle Police Department (SPD) and Office of Inspector General (OIG) jointly quashed an official audit into the policy.

My reporting showed that SPD policy allowed mutual aid agencies that respond to Seattle to deploy lethal chemicals such as hexachloroethane (HC) and use other dangerous weapons such as shotgun beanbag rounds, rubber pellet rounds and rubber pellet filled blast grenades banned under SPD's own policy.

Lethal mystery chemicals and not-so-mystery chemicals like white phosphorus have been used extensively on the Palestinian and Lebanese people by Israeli forces.

(White phosphorus is an extraordinary chemical weapon. A 2010 Lancet case report highlights the horrific injuries that it can cause.)

While Democrats turn a blind eye to the war crimes and use of chemical weapons abroad, President Biden has also taken no action to curb their use at home by federal, state, county and municipal law enforcement agencies.

SPD's top lawyer, who met with OIG staffers, really does not like it when you call 2-chlorobenzalmalononitrile aerosol a chemical weapon or invoke chemical warfare when talking about police. SPD's current federal monitor Antonio Oftelie agreed.

I'll have a lot more to report on some of these connections in the coming months.

For now, Seattle's "accountability" system seems inept at confronting the serious implications of allowing chemical weapons to be used at home. SPD policy does not explicitly allow the use of hexachloroethane (HC), however the department has, and apparently will continue to allow external agencies who respond to protests in Seattle to use whatever chemical weapons they wish on Seattleites, regardless of the public health implications.

With direct U.S. support for a verifiable holocaust in Palestine, Israeli forces burning people connected to IVs alive in hospital beds, the forthcoming outcome of the U.S. presidential election up in the air, and American police killing at least 935 people this year, its safe to say that more first amendment activity is likely in the cards for the foreseeable future.

The SPD has primarily used mutual aid to respond to large protests and events. This creates an opening for violence to be used on protesters through the use of weapons and tactics currently banned under SPD's own policies.

You can read my latest report in The Urbanist on the OIG's review of SPD's use of mutual aid, published today:

Inspector General Quietly Terminates Audit into Seattle Police Mutual Aid - The Urbanist

# Downgraded from a full audit and long delayed, the Office of Inspector General’s six-page mutual aid review did not assess if outside police forces patrolling the streets of Seattle would be required to follow SPD bias policies, be held to SPD force review policies, and be accountable for their actions through the Office of Police Accountability (OPA) complaint process.

The Urbanist - Examining urban policy to improve cities and quality of life.Glen Stellmacher (Guest Contributor)

According to the DoJ, the SPD is a "few months" away from fully squirming out from underneath the consent decree. In its aftermath, Seattle’s OIG is slated to take on more of a “monitoring” role of SPD.

My latest Urbanist report continues to reveal how little inspecting the Office of Inspector General actually does.