We’re constantly told that SPD barely has the manpower to keep up with all its calls, but cops seem to have time to spare. In fact, one wasted nearly a third of his shift trying to get an apology from someone who called him a “b*tch.”

(1/21)

(THREAD)

According to a 2019 OPA file, an officer—we’ll call him Sgt. Hamm—noticed expired tags on a car and had it towed. The owner came out and her boyfriend taunted Hamm, calling him a “ho” and a “b*tch.”

(2/21)

It didn’t escalate further than that, but as Sgt. Hamm was leaving, he told the couple “I’ll see you guys, goodnight.” To the boyfriend, he said: “I’ll see you for sure.”

(3/21)

Hamm spent the next three hours tracking down where the boyfriend worked—the Autozone on 23rd & Jackson—and records show he also communicated with subordinate officers to arrange backup.

(4/21)

According to the mobile terminal log, Hamm (NE#1) told them they should do “homework” and watch the 1988 film Colors about LA’s notoriously racist, brutal and corrupt CRASH gang unit.

They were apparently familiar with it.

(5/21)

The other officers reference Sean Penn’s character Pacman, a hot-head “loose cannon” cliche who is aggressive & violent but respected.

In their OPA interviews, the “witness officers” (WO#2/3) insisted that they thought it was a joke, but they complied.

(6/21)

Sgt. Hamm arrived at the parking lot of the Autozone around 9:15am and pulled a rolling chair out of the backseat of his cruiser. He rolled it up to the front of the business and sat there.

(7/21)

Someone asked if he was “posted” there. Hamm replied: “For now. I got a little disrespected earlier today, so I’m going to hang out.”

(8/21)

A patrol officer stopped by and Hamm told him he was doing some “community-oriented policing.” Hamm asked the other officer if he knew what he was doing there, and he said that he did. Sgt. Hamm said “This guy’s freaking out,” referring to the man who insulted him

(9/21)

Another person that Hamm seemed to know talked to him and asked him what was up. He said “I got called a ho and a b*tch, I think I’m gonna hang around here until I get an apology.”

(10/21)

Needless to say, most people found it strange for a cop to be sitting in a chair outside an Autozone. The person who filed the OPA complaint confronted him: “I’ve just heard the story of what you’re doing out here, I just wanted to tell you, I think it’s harassment.”

(11/21)

Hamm eventually rolled his chair back to his cruiser and left after sitting in front of the Autozone for more than 30 minutes.

(12/21)

Sgt. Hamm was suspended for 30 days w/o pay and demoted—the most severe disciplinary action short of termination. The primary reason for the penalty was dishonesty. Hamm repeatedly lied about why he was there.
(13/21)

He told investigators it was a “high-crime area” & he went there often to establish a police presence. “I like people to see me out there. I like the local community to see that the police are there and know that we’re often there”

(14/21)

However, this was contradicted by a lieutenant’s review of the logs, which found that he never posted at that location and only sporadically went to the area.

(15/21)

Racial bias wasn’t part of the OPA complaint, but it came up b/c
1 the incident took place in Seattle’s historically black Central District
2 Hamm referenced the film Colors.

He called the accusation “insulting,” adding he is in a “mixed-race marriage”

(16/21)

This is a rare OPA incident where the officer’s misconduct was well documented from start to finish. Hamm inexplicably had his body cam on the whole time.

Probably thought the subject would confront him & escalate, so it would be to his advantage to document it.

(17/21)

He also seemed to have set it up so that the other officers would be in the immediate area but not visible. The probable assumption: The subject would be more likely to confront a solo officer, creating a pretext for his fellow officers to swarm in.

(18/21)

This case is interesting. It not only highlights the petty vindictiveness of SPD officers but also exposes the grift of police “reform” and the hollowness of buzzwords like “community policing,” which was used here as cover for a vendetta.

(19/21)

The description of appropriate “community policing”—spending 3-7 minutes in a parking lot—is also telling.

That’s not some "reimagining" or "reform." It's just regular-ass patrolling.

(20/21)

SPD doesn’t really get kudos either for demoting him, either. Why did they promote him in the first place? Given his mindset, it’s safe to assume that this wasn’t his first infraction.

(21/21)

Full case file here: https://www.seattle.gov/Documents/Departments/OPA/ClosedCaseSummaries/2018OPA-0735ccs010719.pdf

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