by Niki Raapana

Seattle, WA - 5/15/02 - There will not be anyone on this Council who represents me. There will be 24 unelected people who represent our Chief of Police, former Deputy Director of Grants for Community Oriented Policing Services in D.C..

This newly formed Community Policing Action Council is 24 people appointed by the Chief of Police to "represent the people of Seattle." They will assist the COPS with planning police/community partnerships strategies that will enhance community oriented government.

In 1999, the North End Neighborhood Action Team Seattle (NATS) was Seattle's "introduction to" the kinds of strategies allowed to be used by an ACTION team created to enhance police/community partnerships. NATS' motto is, "Don't tell us what we can't do, just tell us how to get the job done."  NATS' city members called our Fourth Amendment requirements for a legal search warrant an "identified barrier." COPS' agents brought our city
innovative new strategies to get around the Fourth Amendment, ones that "developed opportunities" for the police.

After I attended two NATS meetings in August and September, and asked questions about the new COPS' laws they were designing, (including the Revised Noise Ordinance and The Cross Training), NATS wrote a new policy about citizen participation.  After October 1999, citizens could only attend NATS meetings if they were selected to participate, in order to "protect the privacy of citizens under investigation."

Community Policing is, quite simply, a new branch of police who create and direct new councils that design innovative laws to enforce a more civil society. The concept was introduced by communitarians like Amitai Etzioni, who insist, as Stalin did, that people need to be "taught" how to participate in a good society.  COPS' laws are introduced by COPS and are used by COPS to enhance "community government."

Community government is based on the communitarian concept of a new form of participatory democracy. Across America we are creating new "councils" under the guise of growth management.. councils who answer only to other unelected councils, who oversee the new plans. People are finding out they have absolutely NO say in their plans, nor is there any way to challenge the actions of these new councils. All new land use plans and COPS' laws are to protect the "common good."

In Russian, council, literally translated, means soviet. What part of a republican form of freely elected, representative government does the Community Policing Action Council enhance? Is CPAC to become our Supreme Soviet?

And how soon before this Action Council recommends we all get chipped? We all need to be safer, don't we?  It's about quality of life, right?

Following is the announcement for the Community Policing Action Council:

Community Policing Action Council

The Seattle Police Department is currently seeking interested applicants for the Community Policing Action Council. The Community Policing Action Council (CPAC) is a 24-member council appointed by the Chief of Police to represent the people of Seattle. CPAC works to develop programs and strategies that enhance positive community/police partnerships. CPAC's goal is to identify critical community concerns and to develop opportunities for police and community members to talk openly and increase understanding of each other's values and concerns. Help make Seattle a safer place to live, work, and play! For more information or to obtain an application, contact Ginny Heller at 615-0062 or email at ginny.heller@ci.seattle.wa.us

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