Cali Ellis
The city’s Community Police Commission will hold a “New Beginnings Community Meeting” and present its annual report later this month at the Central District’s Langston Hughes Performing Arts Institute.
The CPC says the event is being held “in recognition of 10 years of the Seattle Police Accountability System and the memory of John T. Williams.”
Williams, a Native woodcarver and Capitol Hill regular gunned down by a Seattle Police officer at Boren and Howell in 2010. Anti-police violence protests and marches grew in the wake of the August 2010 killing including the growth of “black bloc” marches on Capitol Hill. Officer Ian Birk was never charged but the shooting put SPD under deeper federal scrutiny. The city’s police force was put under federal consent decree after an eight-month investigation found evidence of excessive force and biased policing. The present-day accountability system shepherding the city’s police department took shape as part of the new federal oversight.
As the city bangs out new labor agreements with SPD and its leadership in which accountability reform is hoped to be a major component, a community representative from the Community Police Commission will be part of the formal bargaining processes.
Meanwhile, earlier this month, CPC members voted to appoint Interim Executive Director Cali Ellis to the position of permanent Executive Director. The six-year appointment requires Seattle City Council approval and is scheduled to be heard at the Public Safety and Human Services Committee meeting on September 12th.
The CPC is made up of 21 commissioners who serve in a volunteer capacity, “though need-based stipends are available,” the city says. Seven commissioners are appointed by the mayor’s office, seven by the council, and the remaining seven by the CPC itself.
The CPC organizes community meetings and makes recommendations to the council, mayor, Seattle Police Department, and other city departments on public safety issues.
The CPC event will be held August 31st from 6 to 8 PM and “a variety of food from local restaurants will be provided, as well as music and cultural programming.” Learn more at seattle.gov/community-police-commission.
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This is the new CPC director, chosen with no transparency & no meaningful public input, a classic Karen on steroids:
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“New Beginning“!?!? The previous CPC directors were all people-of-color, but to get the full Karen effect I guess they feel compelled to go with the white lady. How did she get chosen? See: https://twitter.com/bessarabia1/status/1691953074024398935
In the last few months, under the leadership of Cali Ellis as interim director, the CPC has ended all public comment and all open community engagement meetings because of fear of the community.
They are so terrified of the community they had to go beyond ending public comment & community engagement: they now have 1 or 2 guards at regular public meetings, remove public access to chairs in the meeting room, and have threatened to call SPD if community folks engage in 1st amendment activities! See more here: tinyurl.com/CPCAbuse.
They are no longer the Community Police Commission. They have become the Commission to Police the Community.
How dare they commemorate John T. Williams when, on the CPC’s watch, more folks with knives (often experiencing a behavioral health crisis) were murdered by the SPD in the years after John T. Williams versus the years prior.
How dare they speak his name when the SPD has killed at least 17 people after John T. Williams who were holding no weapon or only an edged weapon at the time they were met with deadly force. In every case the CPC have remained mostly silent & fully accepting when our police accountability system has determined every killing to be “Lawful and Proper.” See: https://southseattleemerald.com/2022/06/22/opinion-a-simple-change-could-save-lives-our-police-reform-system-ignores-it/.
This is shameful and disgusting. It should not be blithely promoted.