I don't disagree on any particular point

Approximately thirty local high school and UW students gathered Wednesday afternoon in Victor Steinbrueck Park near the Pike Place Public Market to protest the shooting of John T. Williams by SPD officer Ian Birk in addition to several other incidents of excess force in recent months. The rally was well attended by members of the press. The official inquest into Williams' death concluded late last week with mixed results, the Stranger has full coverage here.

Here's a look at the literature distributed at the event:

Police are the Absolute Enemy

Prosecute SPD gun-thug Ian Birk for Murder

We Demand Justice for John T. Williams

As I say, I don't disagree on any particular point. At least not with the central argument that SPD training and policies failed on a grand scale in the Williams case. For many in the general public, the release of dashboard camera footage from Birk's squad car last month spelled the end of his career with the SPD.

Yet, these activists are attempting to make so many points, some of them vastly disconnected from the core issue, that their arguments as a whole fail to persuade. I suggested to one of the pamphleteers, distributing literature for the Seattle Anti-Imperialist Committee, that it might be more effective to narrow their arguments -- to focus on ensuring full a investigation of SPD policies and demanding reform. He replied that they were attempting to " draw a larger picture" of systematic problems throughout the U.S. justice system. When I asked if that was an effective approach, he didn't have an answer.

The two groups arguing from a far left position, The Seattle Anti-Imperialist Committee and the Puget Sound Anarchists, both offer up criticism of the police force without proposing any concrete proposals for a solution to the problem. The Anarchist pamphlet is hostile even to the idea of dialogue on the issue: "[i]n the face of hot anger, the con artists deftly gesture towards the open doors of the democratic system through a better world is promised. . . the most insidious aspect of their effort to clean the blood from their hands is the attempt to find 'solutions.'" These groups are using police brutality as a starting point to indict the entire government and economic structure of the United States.

So go ahead, smash the state -- these arguments aren't going to do anything to ensure justice for Williams or change SPD policies. If you're not going to advocate for reform within the existing systems of governance, those systems are going to ignore you. Wake me when the Anarchist / Communist Revolution starts, I'll want to snap some photos.

A recurring theme throughout all of these pamphlets is the claim that Birk should be charged with murder. The videotape of the shooting works in Birk's favor here -- the quick succession of events, the fact that Williams could have been considered armed, the highly speculative question of whether or not Birk should have considered Williams a threat -- these factors make even a second degree murder prosecution problematic. How is justice better served: by an unsuccessful prosecution on the more serious charge of murder, or a successful prosecution for manslaughter in the first degree?

But I'm only contributing to the problem here -- there are enough people in both the public and the press passing judgment on this case, playing armchair district attorney. A decision from King County prosecutor Daniel T. Satterberg regarding filling criminal charges against Birk is expected in the near future.