Cascadia today: Seattle police oversight ends + Smoketember is here + Bumbershoot rocked

Seattle police no longer under federal oversight

KUOW reports that US district judge James Robart ended the 13-year-long consent decree the Seattle Police Department had been under to address the department's excessive use of force. Seattle was placed under the order after the 2010 fatal shooting of Indigenous carver John T. Williams drew attention to SPD's use of force, especially on people in crisis. SPD remained under the decree during and after the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests amid concerns SPD had responded excessively to protesters. As I reported in 2024 for PubliCola, judge Robart at the time lamented that he could not compel SPD to have more accountability measures for problem officers – because that fell to the city and its contract with police officers' guild, which largely abandoned strong accountability measures.

Sheriff wonders if trans people should be allowed to own guns

KING-5 reports that Keith Swank, the sheriff of Pierce county, which encompasses Tacoma and its suburbs, posted a question on social media wondering if transgender people should be banned from owning guns. The question is not academic – after a Minneapolis school shooting the politicized feds at the Department of Justice are considering banning trans people from owning guns. Swank has been extremely vocal in posting right wing political drivel on social media, including offering to arrest governor Bob Ferguson and saying he won't enforce a new state law requiring gun licenses.

I don't support violence as a method of solving problems but I also believe women, trans people, LGBTQ folks, and people of color have a right to defend themselves. In the US, where all sorts of extreme right wing Christian nationalist have their own private armories, it's not the time (nor constitutional) to start selectively banning who can and can't own firearms based on identity. KUOW has more more on the left-leaning folks in our region who rely on guns for self-defense, including the founder of the Puget Sound John Brown Gun Club, a leftist anti-fascist group.

How to deal with Cascadia smoke season

The Tyee has a great article on ways you can protect your health during what's become known as "Smoketember," the peak of wildfire smoke season in the Pacific Northwest (thanks, climate change!). Meanwhile, Stateline has an investigative feature that found firefighting bosses for crews working on the Bear Gulch fire on Washington's Olympic peninsula collaborated with the feds to detain several undocumented firefighters – one of whom has lived in the US for 19 years and was brought here as a four-year old.

"To take two crews off of a fire that’s only 13% contained, that seems ridiculous at that point in a fire." – Riva Duncan, former US Forest Service fire chief

Seattle's Bumbershoot was amazing

The Stranger wraps up highlights from Bumbershoot, Seattle's arts and music festival that takes place each Labor Day weekend. I can confirm that Janelle Monae was AMAZING and I also saw a solid performance by Digable Planets (and yes, Ishmael Butler, also of Shabazz Palaces, is the sexiest man in Seattle). Also caught an energetic performance by the longtime Seattle punk group Murder City Devils. And though I didn't catch what sounded like an intense, cool show by Seattle's new lefty-punk onslaught Zookraught, I'll keep an out for them live.

--Andrew Engelson