You won’t believe who is on Mayor Ed Murray’s latest task force

Fueled in part by the perception that hate crimes against LGBTQ Seattlites is on the rise, Seattle Mayor Ed Murray announced a 30 member task force on the issue. Though there’s no significant increase in hate crimes in Seattle, we all have the shared goal of wanting to get the number to zero. If a task force can help get to that goal, we should move forward.

But you won’t believe at least one extremist who finds herself on the task force. Earlier this month, activists held a public forum with the agenda of ending hate crimes against the gay community. One of Mayor Murray’s ideas to help address this issue is to supposedly help diversify the Seattle Police Department. According to the mayor’s spokesperson, Murray believes “that it is important to have a police department that reflects the diversity and the demographic makeup of the community it serves.”

Not everyone likes this idea. Speaking to The Stranger, Danni Askini of the Gender Justice League, called that idea “tone deaf.” But her reason is outrageous: “[Having more cops is] going to lead to more people of color and homeless folks being harassed and arrested, frankly.”

In other words, cops don’t offer much value – they’re simply racist folks who harass minorities. That’s a remarkably ignorant statement and an equally extremist, hateful position. And the mayor just gave this position and person legitimacy.

Askini is a member of the mayor’s task force. She’s going to be a leading voice on how the city reacts to hate crimes, which presumably will include certain types of actions by the SPD (which is well-represented on the task force). A woman who thinks the SPD is racist is given legitimacy. That’s a shame.

I have no doubt that Askini cares deeply about the LGBTQ community. I think her career shows she is doing what’s in her heart. But this extremist view about cops is not only offensive, it should disqualify her from serving on a city task force that depends on the cooperation and policy execution of the SPD. These types of task forces are supposed to bring people together for a cause, rather than tear people apart. And as much as I think the SPD members will act professionally, Askini is likely to use her anti-police bias to steer the task force away from better utilizing officers to tackle the perceived problem.

For his part, in my discussion with the mayor, he didn’t endorse the viewpoint, which he defined as viewing the police as “the enemy.” He told me:

I guess that I would disagree on that [Askini’s quote] on two counts. One is we aren’t talking about having more police officers. We’re talking about a more diverse police force and we’re talking about utilizing our gay and lesbian police officers to address a problem in the LGBT community. Secondly, Seattle for a city of this size, has a fairly small police force and if we only view police as the enemy, we are not going to get a handle on this problem. The solution is to work with our police force, where we need to change and improve it, or we have resources to utilize those resources.

He’s right. The police shouldn’t be viewed as the enemy (they’re not, in fact, the enemy). But with someone like Askini on the task force, I’m not sure the mayor is sending the right message.