Police Report II

It has just been reported that, not unexpectedly, the Seattle police officer who used racially-charged language and kicked a prone native of Mexico in the head—before discovering that he wasn’t a “suspect”—will not be charged by county prosecutors for malicious harassment. The officer, Shandy Cobane, supposedly “did not intentionally target or threaten the man because of his race or national origin.” The victim was seen on video moving his hand toward his face when Cobane, allegedly intending to kick the hand, planted his boot hard into the victim's head. The prosecutor’s office claimed that Cobane’s actions and words were aimed at the victim’s “lack of compliance, not his ethnicity." But one may fairly ask what part of "I’ll beat the [expletive] Mexican piss out of you, homey. You feel me?" that the prosecutor’s office didn’t understand. There is no doubt that the officer’s actions (and that of officer Mary Lynn Woollum, who subsequently stomped on the victim’s leg with no apparent justification), was motivated by stereotypical attitudes common among police and public, and a contempt for “Mexicans” fueled by the media. Cobane felt he needed to apply “extra” effort to “get” his point across because the man was “Mexican,” even if he wasn’t, after all, wanted for a crime.

Once more, police get away with a crime. Once more, local authorities will not take seriously crimes against Latinos, because they are Latinos. After all, former Bellevue police officer Mike Hetle, who now works for the Department of Homeland Security, was allowed to simply walk away from killing an unarmed Guatemalan immigrant who was guilty of nothing more than wanting to move back to California. But prosecutors and judges will feed the police thirst for revenge, such as they did against the man who shot the video of Cobane’s assault. Jud Morris, who at the time worked freelance for a local Fox affiliate claimed that he shot the video on his “off-time” but offered the video to his employer. The Fox affiliate allegedly did not find the actions in the video “egregious” enough to air, so Morris took the video to another station. The Fox affiliate claimed that because Morris shot the video with their camera, it the video belonged to them. The Fox affiliate then fired Morris, who neglected to return the camera gear he had been allowed to use--which led to his arrest on robbery charges. The Fox affiliate, Q-13, is known to have a cozy relationship with the police and was plainly embarrassed by the revelation that its management had tried to cover-up the beating incident; that it would easily shed any suggestion that it was a nonpartisan news organization shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone.