The mess around leadership at the Seattle Police Department has a new plot twist.
The former department chief at the center of a $5 million sexual discrimination and harassment claim brought by four women who worked in his department now says he is homosexual.
Adrian Diaz used right wing radio Jason Rantz’s conservative talk show on KHTT radio to make the announcement the former chief said was necessary to clear up “accusations” against him as he considers jobs outside Seattle.
“I want to live my truth. I don’t want to be hidden behind any curtain or anything like that. I want another opportunity to serve a city. And, you know, it’s not easy when you have some false allegations against you,” Diaz said in the Rantz interview according to the Seattle Times. “I don’t want to have any secrets if I decide to go to another city.”
Rantz and other Diaz supporters are using Diaz’s Pride month coming out as proof the former chief is innocent of the harassment allegations against him, Publicola reports.
CHS reported in May as Mayor Bruce Harrell said he was removing Diaz as chief and replacing him with former King County Sheriff Sue Rahr. That move followed Harrell hiring a firm to investigate gender discrimination and harassment claims against SPD leaders including Diaz. The investigation opened after four female SPD officers filed a claim against the department alleging sexism and a hostile work environment. Additional lawsuits and allegations have grown around Diaz’s leadership.
Mayor Jenny Durkan selected Diaz as a department insider to run Seattle Police after Chief Carmen Best bailed on the city in the wake of CHOP. A 27-year Seattle Police Department veteran, Diaz originally represented continuity and a safe choice as the city looked at external candidates to lead its department through Seattle’s pandemic recovery and out of the years of Blacks Lives Matter and anti-police protests.
The city was also facing the end of 12 years of federal oversight after a civil rights investigation found evidence of excessive force and biased policing at the department.
Mayor Harrell and the Seattle City Council kept him as interim and then gave him the job to start last year.
Along the way, Diaz had never before publicly addressed his sexual orientation. The 46-year-old has a wife and three children.
Diaz has remained employed by SPD to work on what the mayor said would be “special assignments.” In the interview, Diaz said he is in the running to lead the Austin, Texas police force.
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Interesting post. One quibble: Carmen Best did not “bail” on the city. She only retired after some 28 years at SPD because the city council voted to slash the pay for her and a number of other high ranking police officials as part of their anti-police policies. Had she not retired then, when she eventually would have, her pension benefits would have been based on the slashed pay, and thus greatly and unfairly reduced. This was a power play to force her out.
She bailed rather than face repercussions for her disastrous handling of CHOP that cost the city millions. By quitting she did not have to participate in investigations related to her inability to manage SPD, and in doing so avoided further tarnishing her name which let her get a cushy consulting job for Microsoft.
If any of us were that shitty at our jobs we would get fired, not face a slight reduction in pay ($293K to $275k… still far more than most CHS readers make!). She bailed because she was in a sinking boat and knew she was going down if she stayed. Blaming the 6% “slashing” of her pay for her leaving was just a way for the media to blame the council for her ineptitude.
She bailed.
Her admin featured children getting maced and press corps being hit head-on with tear gas canisters. Capitol Hill was bathed in tear gas for days on end. And let’s not forget the absolute disaster that was her handling of the East Precinct. She sucked.
Cant wait to see an insulting explainer on why this is all the public’s fault for not being sympathetic to the clowns in the clown show.
So, Diaz’s implied contention is that because he’s gay, he can’t be sexist? Also, closeted gay men sometimes over-correct and sexually harass women so as to seem like “one of the boys.” I’m not buying it as a defense.
Yeah, gay men are absolutely capable of harassing women. Even when not closeted, there can be an pervasive attitude of, “well, if I don’t want to have sex with them, how could my treating them poorly be considered sexism?” and it really sucks.
Diaz took a page out of the Kevin Spacey PR book: Getting credibly accused of harassment and/or assault? Just tell everyone you’re gay! Then anyone saying anything negative about you are actually just being homophobic and/or lying. Foolproof!
Absolutely correct. Internalized homophobia is a real thing. It can lead to gay-bashing, misogyny, etc. His past actions should not be forgiven, just because he saw the light! It’s not an excuse.
Bisexual people do exist lol. Why this should exculpate him is beyond me.
This developement is soooo incredibly Seattle…
Truly so wild that he decided to go public with this *while still married to and living with his wife*. God I hope she already knew, this would be a hell of a way to find out lmao
“Along the way, Diaz had never before publicly addressed his sexual orientation. The 46-year-old has a wife and three children.“
If this is true, his life needs to be on a microscope 24/7. Just because you’re a gay man, does not mean that you can’t be misogynistic. Lame excuse. Let’s see what he does with his life now that he came out of the closet.