#Jeff Kappel

[mariacallous]

This is from January of 2024.

For years, the death penalty in the United States appeared to be on an irreversible decline, perhaps even headed to extinction. Death sentences have fallen by about 90 percent since their mid-1990s peak, when more than 300 were imposed every year. In 1999, there were almost 100 executions nationwide; in 2021, there were 11.

That downward trend is beginning to reverse. Driven by hardline prosecutors and tough-on-crime governors, the number of executions jumped 64 percent in 2022 and increased again in 2023 to a total of 24, the highest in five years.

Perhaps the most crucial player in the death penalty’s resurrection, though, is the U.S. Supreme Court, whose historic role of maintaining guardrails has given way to removing roadblocks. Under the conservative supermajority put in place by President Donald Trump, the justices are far more likely to propel an execution forward than intercede to stop it, including in cases where guilt is in doubt or where the means of carrying it out could result in a grotesque spectacle of pain and suffering.

States are responding. On Thursday, Alabama is scheduled to execute someone using a potentially dangerous method that has never before been used in the U.S. South Carolina announced it is restarting executions after a 12-year pause, a decision which is now the subject of a legal challenge that will be heard by the state’s highest court in February. On Dec. 22, a Utah judge ruled that the state could use a firing squad to execute Ralph Leroy Menzies, who was convicted and sentenced to death in 1988, even though past experiments with this method demonstrated that there was a “risk of a ‘botched’ execution, such as bullets missing the target placed over a person’s heart.” Earlier in 2023, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed six death warrants (compared to just two during his entire first term in office) and a law that ended a unanimous jury requirement for death sentencing. Florida also enacted a law that allows capital punishment in cases involving sex crimes against children in non-lethal cases; in December, a Florida prosecutor invoked it to seek the death penalty against a man accused of multiple counts of sexual battery against a child under the age of 12. The law flatly contradicts a line of Supreme Court precedent barring the death penalty in cases where “no life was taken.” DeSantis has vowed to defend the legislation against any legal challenge, offering the justices an opportunity to reconsider an entire line of death penalty jurisprudence. Similar laws have been proposed in Tennessee and Missouri.

On Nov. 16, Alabama executed Casey McWhorter, who had just turned 18 when he participated in the 1993 robbery and shooting death of the victim. The jury could not reach a unanimous verdict on the death sentence, but the judge imposed it anyway. In Louisiana, a coalition of prosecutors led by Republican Attorney General Jeff Landry defeated Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards’ effort to commute 56 death row sentences. Landry, a death penalty proponent who has pushed for Louisiana to expand its execution methods to include hangings and firing squads, replaced Edwards as governor in January. “If Jeff Landry wants to do it,” said Cecelia Kappel, the executive director of the Capital Appeals Project in New Orleans, “he will find a way to do it.”

So far, the new wave of completed executions has been confined to the deep South. But death penalty sentences are not, and other parts of the country may soon start carrying them out. Between 2001 and 2021, the number of people on death row in Maricopa County, Arizona, increased by more than half. One of the most avid proponents of capital punishment in the country is Mike Hestrin, the district attorney of Riverside County, California, which now has the second-largest population of people on death row — behind only Los Angeles County, which has increased its death row population by 25 percent over the past two decades.

In 1976, the Supreme Court famously declared that “death is different,” and demanded an extra level of scrutiny because a mistake is irreversible. Historically, in particularly troubling instances involving state misconduct or abysmal defense lawyering, the Court sometimes intervened at the eleventh hour — from 2013 to 2023, it stayed an execution just 11 times and vacated stays of execution 18 times, according to Bloomberg Law.

Since the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and her replacement with Amy Coney Barrett in 2020, the Court has stopped an execution only twice and reversed a lower court to permit an execution nine times. In 2023, 26 condemned prisoners asked the Court to hear their cases; 25 were rejected. The message is clear: Prosecutors eager to seek and swiftly impose death sentences can reliably do so without judicial interference.

In the early aughts, the Supreme Court issued a series of rulings that placed bright-line limitations on how prosecutors could use the death penalty, barring the execution of the intellectually disabled defendants in Atkins v. Virginia, and those under the age of 18 in Roper v. Simmons. Neither category of person, the Court said, were as blameworthy as run-of-the-mill defendants, pointing out that most industrialized countries had long since come to the same conclusion. In Roper, the Court was blunt: “It is fair to say that the United States now stands alone in a world that has turned its face against the juvenile death penalty.”

But in 2019, the U.S. Supreme Court reversed course and started on its current path. In Bucklew v. Precythe, a majority of the court opined that the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment “does not guarantee a prisoner a painless death — something that, of course, isn’t guaranteed to many people, including most victims of capital crimes.” In the court’s reasoning, the excruciating pain the defendant might suffer during execution paled in comparison with the terror and mayhem he inflicted during his crimes.

In that same opinion, the Court indicated an impatience with pausing executions while it considered whether to hear the underlying claims from appellate attorneys. Justice Neil Gorsuch warned his colleagues to be skeptical when reading eleventh hour death row appeals: “Last minute stays should be the extreme exception, not the norm.”

It has been. Consider the 13 federal prisoners who were sent to the death chamber in the final months of Trump’s presidency. In a series of terse orders, issued without briefing, argument or public airing of the legal issues, the court blessed the rushed, furious pace. Using this opaque process, which legal scholars call the “shadow docket,” the justices erased lower-court injunctions against executions in seven cases and turned away last-minute requests for stays in the other six. During the 16 years in which Barack Obama and George W. Bush occupied the White House, the Court had invoked the shadow docket to rule for the government a total of four times and “never in a death penalty case,” according to Stephen Vladeck, a professor at the University of Texas School of Law. In Trump’s single term in office, the number jumped to 28, including non-capital cases.

More recently, the Court has rejected cases that advocates say are riddled with error or rest on shaky evidence. On Oct. 2, the Court declined to consider the capital case of Robert Leslie Roberson III, whose conviction is based on dubious “shaken baby syndrome” science. Roberson will likely soon have an execution date. The same day, the justices also declined to hear the case of Toforest Johnson, who was convicted of murdering a law enforcement officer based on the testimony of a woman who was paid $5,000 by police in exchange for her testimony that she overheard him confessing — a payment that was hidden from Johnson and the jurors.

On Oct. 30, the Court turned away an appeal from Brent Brewer, whose death sentence for a 1990 homicide in Amarillo, Texas, hinged on testimony from a discredited forensic psychiatrist who said he would be a permanent danger in prison. Texas executed Brewer on Nov. 9. Two more people — McWhorter and a Texas man named David Renteria — were both executed on Nov. 16 after the justices declined to intervene.

Emboldened by the green light from the Supreme Court — along with lower federal courts following its lead — the states have gotten creative.

A major factor in the decade-plus drop in executions that preceded the recent upswing was an inability by states to secure the drugs necessary to follow a well-established and legally sanctioned three-drug injection protocol. The supply of sodium thiopental, the drug meant to send the condemned into a coma before the others were administered, dried up. Some states started using midazolam instead, which is not as effective. The change resulted in high-profile, botched executions with prisoners bucking against their restraints, screaming in pain and remaining alive for hours or even surviving the procedure. Anti-capital punishment advocates hoped that these gruesome spectacles would quell further executions.

But the Supreme Court has made it clear that the states can experiment with alternative methods, and they continue to do so. Alabama’s attorney general is moving forward with plans to execute Kenneth Eugene Smith with nitrogen hypoxia, a never-before-used method that kills people by depriving them of oxygen. The state claims it is painless, but experts disagree. “We do not even reserve this fate for cats and dogs,” wrote Columbia Law professor Bernard Harcourt in a New York Times op-ed, noting that veterinarians stopped the practice in 2020 after studies showed “those animals may experience panic, pain and severe physical distress before dying.”

Smith’s spiritual advisor, the Rev. Jeff Hood, had to sign a release acknowledging that his safety would be at risk if he were to inhale the gas because the hose dislodged or Smith’s face mask came loose. Hood, who has administered last rites inside the death chambers of Texas and Oklahoma told NPR, “There is no doubt in my mind that Alabama is the most ill-prepared, unprofessional execution squad that exists of those three.” (Alabama spent four hours trying to execute Smith by lethal injection in 2022 only to give up after failing to find a suitable vein.)

Oklahoma officials have also expressed a willingness to use nitrogen hypoxia depending on how it fares in Alabama. “The U.S. Supreme Court’s execute-them-at-any-cost mentality has clearly had an effect on the extremist states that want to carry out executions,” said Robert Dunham, the director of the Death Penalty Project at Temple University Beasley School of Law.

The Supreme Court’s recent decisions have created a permissive structure, but not a porous one. Death penalty cases are notoriously rife with racism, questions of innocence, mental health of the accused and whether they received competent legal counsel. Sometimes the facts are too dire for courts to ignore, and even some pro-death penalty politicians are unwilling to take actions in flagrant violation of established norms. The total number of executions over the past decade is still a fraction of its peak in the 1990s.

And yet, the death penalty machine continues to crank on. These days, the battles over who lives and who dies are increasingly local — waged courtroom by courtroom because the Supreme Court has largely abdicated its decades long role as the final arbiter.

“It is becoming more and more clear that the Court is reluctant to interfere in state court cases even to enforce its own precedent,” said Robin Maher, the executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center. “They are saying, ‘This is not our problem to deal with.’”

[littlemanmusic]

"Bigger Than The Sound" @dr.zwack Fall 2017. Photography by @jeff.kappel Hair: @hairosmith Make up: @melissatomfohrde

[faecaptainofdreams]

(Everyone is sitting together. It doesn't really matter where, but they're all outside and having a great time. Lance, Walter, Marcy, Killian, Eyes, Ears, August, Ramsey, Sky, Felix, Gwynn, Jack, and Hiro. Other friends, such as Joy and Tonya [the security lady], aren't too far away. Lovey, Jeff and Crazy Eyes are present as well, calmly strutting around, being petted by various members of the group.) Walter: I remember when I was six, I went to my mom's room and was watching her put on her makeup for the day. She was kinda used to that, since I followed her everywhere. Well, I told her I liked her makeup, and that she was really good at putting it on. So then I'm like "Hey, what's it like to wear makeup?" And she goes, "I don't know, I'm used to it." And she looked at me, because I think she knew that I was building up to asking if I could wear some. I told her I just wanted to wear what she was wearing, just to know. She had to think about that for a minute, hah! Marcy: This feels like a really important part of your flamboyant origin story. (Everyone laughs, Walter included.) Walter: YES, definitely! So like, she was a little thrown, I think? But then she was like "Yeah, sure, okay, you can try on my makeup," and she had me sit in her little chair in front of the mirror. She was telling me that it was gonna feel funny, that I needed to be still so she wouldn't accidentally poke my eye, all that good stuff. My mom was SUPER attentive whenever she tried new things with me, because of the Asperger's. We really didn't know what could trigger that potential sensory overload or what I might be overwhelmed by, so I think she was more nervous about that than anything. Well... Before she started, I asked her if wearing makeup would make me less of a boy. I said, "Only girls wear makeup, and when boys like girly things, they get made fun of." I was really aware of that. I always SO BADLY wanted to take my Unitee to school, as a comfort object, but I was scared to death of the other kids taking her from me and tearing her up or something. So -- anyway, mom goes, "No, some boys wear makeup," and she said, "Did you know that men wear makeup in other parts of the world?" And she told me about the Egyptians, ancient peoples and how makeup was originally for everybody, all that cool stuff. SHE info-dumped on ME! (They all laugh a little.) Walter: It was just really striking to me how...progressive she was, like there was nothing I could do that she didn't support. I told her I didn't think I wanted to wear makeup all the time, and she said "Good, you're too young for it anyway." (More laughs.) Walter: So I sat there, and she started putting the makeup on me. She put on my eye shadow, then eye liner, then mascara... It was exhausting! How do people wear it ALL THE TIME? (They all nod and chuckle and Marcy raises her hand, drawing attention to herself.) Marcy: It's the way of the woman, Walter. Killian: And the very flamboyant, but no-less-masculine man. Ramsey: I tried on makeup once. Turned my rat face into a rat face with paint on it. (All laughter.) Sky: Hah, okay babe, so what happened next? Walter: *giggles softly* Well, then she put a little blush on just for the fun of it, and then put lipstick on me. We both kept laughing, I think she was laughing at me because I kept pursing my lips out SUPER hard! She was like "Just relax a little!" And I would, and then I would purse really hard again! (Laughs.) Gwynn: That's so cute, hah hah. Walter: We had this really long talk about how boys are not boys because they don't wear makeup, and girls aren't girls because some of them do wear makeup. Same with pants, and dresses. She said that if I am a boy, then that's what I am no matter what I have on. I was like... "If?" (Lots of concerned chuckles and a few laughs roll through the group.) Lance: OH shit, she probably didn't count on that one. Walter: NO, NOT AT ALL. I mean, it wasn't that long ago, but honestly transgender, non-binary and all the LGBT stuff has REALLY just been gaining traction in the past few years. Like I said, she was REALLY progressive. Felix: Did she have to explain that? Walter: *nods* A little. She kept it simple, she was like "Well, sometimes little boys feel like they aren't actually boys, and they feel like they're girls, so they choose to be girls and that's who they really are." I asked her how that's possible, because I have to over-analyze everything, pfft. She said she couldn't really explain it, that it was fine that I didn't understand, that she could tell me later. Yeah -- whenever she couldn't explain a hard topic to me, she was always really good about saying it was okay that I didn't understand it. Living in a world where you're expected to just GET everything, whether it's a hard or an easy concept, that was always nice. Hiro: *nods* Jack: Everyone should be told that, you've got a point there. Sky: I could not STAND when teachers were like "Oh ThiS iS eAsY, eVeRyOnE eLsE gEtS iT" LIKE BITCH, SHUT UP. *claps between words* I'M- NOT- THEM. Lance: RIGHT THOUGH?!

Ears: Rude.

Walter: Exactly! Everyone is different. Not even from an Autistic standpoint, just a HUMAN CHILD standpoint, my mom was really good with helping me be okay with my environment. August: Do you think if you were neurotypical, she would've been just as good, or like, less good or not as...paying attention? Walter: *thinks for a moment* Mmm... I mean, she was really good with me before I was even diagnosed, she was really patient and tried to roll with the fact that I was somehow very different from my peers. But no, I think she probably would've been about the same. Maybe less careful, or less afraid of setting me off somehow, but she DEFINITELY wouldn't have loved me less or had been any less kind. She was just...a great mother, plain and simple. (Gwynn reaches across the table and gently takes his hand, silently offering a bit of love. Walter smiles sadly to her.) Lance: So, what happened with the makeup? Walter: *sits up and takes in a deep breath* I told her it felt weird, aaand she said that was normal... *smiles softly* She told me I was pretty... I asked if I could show grana, so we went and found her in the living room and showed her. Ramsey: Oooh, was granny as progressive as mom? Walter: OH yeah, she was definitely where my mom got it from. She loved it! Marcy: *shaking her head slowly in awe* That is so rare, like WOW. Walter: Mm-hm. Yeah, I actually came out to grana when I was 14. I said, "I think I'm gay," and she looked me dead in the eye and said, "Oh, I knew that!" (They all laugh.) Walter: I was like, "Whaaat??" She told me that her and mom figured that out when I was two. Lance: ...What the hell was you doin' when you were TWO to give that away??? (They all chuckle.) Walter: HAH hah! I asked her that, and she said that my mom was just watching me play. I wasn't doing anything special, I -- she just said "I think my son is gay." And apparently, grana felt the same way? It turns out, big shocker, I am not mysterious. Hahahah! Felix: No, no you are NOT. Gwynn: Your family was really cool, Walter. Walter: Yeah... They were... (He nods his head slowly, eyes becoming a little wet. But he smiles, warm memories, love, and a little sadness filling his heart.) Walter: And now I have this cool family, so... I'm really really l-ucky-- (He wipes his eyes, trying not to cry.) Walter: Nnnaaahhh!! I don't wanna cry, aha hah...! Marcy: *chuckles* It's okay. Walter: Gah, I know. I cry enough though, I can go TEN MINUTES without! (They all chuckle, but there is an expression of care for him in everyone.) Walter: So that's the makeup story. *sniffles and wipes his eye one more time* I ended up not wearing it again after that, until the -- *motions to Jack* the mission! Jack: That was some fun, eh? Heheh! Really, Walter, you did make for a lovely lady! Walter: *laughs* Well thank you!! Hiro: I think it's nuts when people can tell their kids are gay. Killian: Yeh, some people honestly just feel that. I've heard about pregnant women being able to feel their unborn child is a certain way, and then years later they figure out they're right. Mind-boggling. Walter: There really is nothing harder to explain than a mother's instinct! Lance: Yeah, then there's MY mom. When I was like fifteen, my mom caught me dancin' in my room to this really fruity song and some dumbass chick flick was on the TV, and... (Everyone starts laughing.) Lance: *waves it off* So she busts in my room and is like *mocking voice* "Lance, you wanna tell me somethin'? Are you gay?" and I got all defensive and was like "NO MOM" in this really squeaky voice. (The laughter continues, and Lance along with them.) Lance: I knew what bein' gay was, and I knew how people made fun of it -- I made fun of it back then, everyone used it as an insult, there was all this misinformation about it flying around. My mom wasn't even being accusatory, she wasn't like MAD about it or anything, but from then on, ALL the time, if I did somethin' kinda questionable she was like "YoU gAy?!" So I'd try to make my voice deeper, like *makes voice deeper* "NO, MAMA. I LIKE GIRLS." (Laughter) Eyes: Did she try to get you for overcompensating? Lance: *claps and points at her* YES, I was just about to say! So I started gettin' pissed off about the gay thing, right? Well, my mom didn't know that I was listenin' to Afro Man back then. Hiro: What is that? Lance: Look him up, he's hilarious! Best song, Colt 45, hands down.

Ears: It's pretty funny, gotta admit. August: THAT SONG. IS SO. GROSS. Walter: When I was in middle school I heard some of the other kids singing it, I was sooo confused! August: Weren't you like FOUR in middle school? Walter: HAH HAH no, I was seven! August: PFFFT, OKAY, well that's still awful. Walter: *nods* Lance: My mom asked me if I was gay for the last damn time before I brought out my little laptop and started BLASTIN' Colt 45. Marcy: What even is that song?? Lance: It's literally just a rap song about the Afro Man having sex with dozens of women and being real vulgar about it, but not like your normal rap song. August: It's kind of like a parody, but it's not? Marcy: *sits back* Ew. Lance: Heh heh heh, yeah, when she heard that she went OFF on me. She was like "WHERE'D YOU FIND NASTY TRASH LIKE THAT YOU DELETE THAT RIGHT NOW" and started whippin' at my ass with the hand towel! (Laughter) Lance: I was running away cryin', screaming "I WAS JUST TRYIN'A TELL YOU I'M NOT GAY" and she goes "THAT'S WHAT OVERCOMPENSATIN' LOOKS LIKE!" (Their laughter is loud, boisterous, and unapologetic.) Ramsey: You get in trouble?! Lance: BIG TIME. Actually -- HA -- yeah, that's how I got into the military, she said "fuck this child and his stupid gay ass, he's gonna be a marine," stuck me on a plane and shipped me off. (The laughter is settling, but still genuine.) Lance: Nah nah I'm jokin', that's a joke. But yeah, I wasn't allowed on the internet for like three months after that. Walter: Hmhmhm! Did she finally stop asking? Lance: Yeah, yeah finally. I think that was the last straw. Marcy: Hey, where was your dad during all this? Lance: Oh god, you know him, he just kinda...stayed out of it, heh. He's definitely the more submissive one. But that's all right, mama's good to him. Killian: I personally adore your mother. Lance: Yeah, 'cos she showed you my baby pictures. Killian: You had the fattest fuckin' face on any infant I've ever seen. Lance: Whatever! You probably weighed like 18 pounds when you came out, you tank! (Walter unintentionally leads into the group laughing fit with a heavy "PFFT!") Killian: *laughing* I was thin as a rail 'til i was 17! Lance: Nah, you was what took down the Hindenburg, 100%. Killian: Bitch your face WAS the Hindenburg! Those CHEEKS! (The laughter only gets harder. The stories go on, the happiness rolls on forever. Eventually, Joy and Tonya join the group. This really is Walter's family, and it's perfect.) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ It's a little cheesy, but we could use some of that right now. I had this idea of Walter and Wendy a couple months ago, but never once even spoke of it. I thought i would do art for it sooner, but here we are -- better late than never. I'm glad it took until now, because i wouldn't have shaded it then. Been feeling sentimental lately, and SiD is a huge part of my heart now. This was actually done on the last page of the first sketchpad i used for SiD! Apparently, i abandoned the drawing pad with ONE PAGE LEFT >8U SO DUMB. So with me being emotional, feeling a need for closure and wanting to add one more thing to the book, i decided this was the perfect subject matter. I don't know when i'll draw for this movie again since Marvel has swept me away, but I think i'll always be paying attention to it. I think this is one of those things that just will forever mean the world to me.

<3

[bicyclesrecycle]

How cool is bicycling? When a rad bike becomes a part of a hot fashion shoot, don't you know how in it is. Friend, and top photog, Jeff Kappel, captures Anna at the epitome of chic. Yowza. Pedal on.

photographer - jeff kappel model - anna stylist - katrina meowgen makeup artist - leah twite

[soulpapoincognito]

This solo episode of The Arizona Soul Podcast The Soul Papo In Cogneto (SPiC) Podcast i go in about wolf and prey, trial & error, business fails & fad trains. Make sure you @SoulPapo on most social media to find me or become a producer of the show by visiting https://www.patreon.com/soulpao or email soulpapo@gmail.com Email: arizonasoulpodcast@gmail.com Voicemail: 480-588-4688 Website: arizonasoulpodcast.com https://soundcloud.com/arizonasoulpodcast/the-spic-podcast-ep67-run-rkelly-run

After parents were m; missing teen WI girl found https://abcnews.go.com/US/call-911-jayme-closs-neighbor-speaks-finding-missing/story?id=60308825∫ AND THE OBDUCTER https://www.cnn.com/2019/01/11/us/jayme-closs-missing-wisconsin-girl-found/index.html cyntoia brown is granted clemency after serving 15 years in prison for killing man who brought her for sex https://www.cnn.com/2019/01/07/us/tennessee-cyntoia-brown-granted-clemency/index.html russian lawyer said to be in the room with eric trump and other russian money moves, is being charged in connection to a money laundering case https://www.npr.org/2019/01/08/683238650/russian-lawyer-at-trump-tower-meeting-charged-in-connection-to-money-laundering- test of steel prototype for border wall showed it could be sawed through = so whats the point https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/immigration/test-steel-prototype-border-wall-showed-it-could-be-sawed-n956856 U.S. fertility rate is below level needed to replace population https://www.cnn.com/2019/01/10/health/us-fertility-rate-replacement-cdc-study/index.html sears; a 145 year co; going bankrupt https://www.cnbc.com/2019/01/06/sears-rejects-eddie-lamperts-bid-to-save-company-will-liquidate-.html amazon CEO jeff bezos and wife mackenzie are divorcing thats a half of 135.5 billion $ net worth https://www.cnbc.com/2019/01/09/jeff-bezos-and-wife-mackenzie-are-divorcing-.html there  was a norwegian billionaire wife who was adbucted by kidnappers demanding $10mil for her life its been since oct. he refuses to pay - lol https://www.foxnews.com/world/norwegian-billionaires-wife-abducted-kidnappers-demand-10m-ransom-for-her-life The allegationas against r kells – the NPR take https://news.google.com/articles/CAIiEGBVwcXHR-sd9odtV6fAAwQqFggEKg4IACoGCAow9vBNMK3UCDCvpUk?hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US%3Aen - even an old land lord jumped out with a $80,000 law suite on back rent for a studio housing 6 different women https://wgntv.com/2019/01/07/r-kelly-sued-by-former-chicago-landlord-amid-release-of-lifetime-docuseries/ - on the plus side for him; his sales & streams have gone up in this time; personally i even checked out some old classics https://thegrapevine.theroot.com/r-kelly-s-sales-and-streams-have-increased-and-jada-pi-1831555861 After getting pressure to condem kellz; lady gaga apologies for working with him and vows to remove “do what u want” from itunes – read those lyrics tho; he wasn’t ever hiding; unless it was in plain sight https://news.google.com/articles/CAIiEEQan0TrCyZcgQ1D-S_JFL0qFwgEKg4IACoGCAowk_YSMOCqBDC51eUB?hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US%3Aen peter farley apologized https://www.eonline.com/news/1003740/peter-farrelly-apologizes-for-flashing-cameron-diaz-and-more-stars chinese scientist who created CRISPR babies could face the death penalty, geneticist warns https://gizmodo.com/chinese-scientist-who-created-crispr-babies-could-face-1831553751 signals from space; 5 theories https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-46825450 NY battles worst measles outbreak in measles https://nypost.com/2019/01/08/new-york-battles-worst-measles-outbreak-in-decades/ chocolate caramel candies made in kentucky contaminated with hepatitis A- according to the FDA https://www.foxnews.com/health/chocolate-caramel-candies-made-in-kentucky-may-be-contaminated-with-hepatitis-a-fda-warns civil rights award rescinded from angela davis after jewish community objections of her twitter fingers for palestinians https://www.npr.org/2019/01/08/683250815/civil-rights-award-rescinded-from-angela-davis-after-jewish-community-objections teacher seen dragging boy with autism through school in a video gets fired https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2019/01/08/kentucky-teacher-seen-video-dragging-boy-autism-fired/2511508002/ pix woman sent 159k texts to a man she met on dating site https://www.abc15.com/news/region-phoenix-metro/central-phoenix/phoenix-woman-sent-159k-texts-to-man-she-met-on-dating-site weather man (often referred to a meteorologist) said martin luther coon king jr park during the news https://www.cbsnews.com/news/jeremy-kappell-whec-chief-meteorologist-fired-apparent-on-air-mlk-slur-rochester-new-york/

[seattlish]

Humorless cops vs. Doritos: "A controversial distribution of snack foods"

So, we finally got our grubby mitts on the Seattle Police Department’s summary of the Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) complaint filed against Public Information Officer (PIO) Sgt. Sean Whitcomb, after our city’s award-winning Dorito Hempfest outreach incident*, and man, that shit is a mess. The gist, on the surface, is that one officer, later revealed to be recently-transferred PIO Jeff Kappel through a pretty jarring missed redaction, felt Whitcomb, whose name is redacted in the report although he was already named in the press repeatedly as the officer in question, created a “hostile work environment” after Hempfest. Whitcomb, he says, expressed “controversial views” that “he deemed were attacks on Christians and Homosexuals.”

The investigation found that his “hostile work environment” meant that Whitcomb took “quite notable corrective action” against Kappel, such as “suggesting transfer [and] changing work hours.” Kappel alleges that this “was a systematic plan to remove him from the unit.”

However, the investigation found that while testimony “paint[s] a picture of spirited political conversation as a matter of course,” that “no parties have witnessed negative name calling” and “this conversation does not appear to be unwelcome conduct.”

The “controversial views” themselves were not specified, but another member of Kappel’s shitlist was: A colleague, not a sworn officer, with a name that takes a very long line to redact, also with heavy involvement in the Doritos Incident: Jonah Spangenthal-Lee, also identified by his past association with The Stranger.

In case you missed the Incident itself, here’s a quick summary: The first Hempfest after the passage of I-502, which legalized marijuana, a crew of Public Affairs Department volunteers handed out bags of Doritos at Hempfest detailing what is and isn’t legal under the new laws. They looked like this:

Other than the Doritos resulting in SPD’s first positive blitz of press coverage in several years… That’s it. But some people in Public Affairs did not like it (despite participation being 100% optional), based on their political ideology.** And, despite a heavily-redacted report, it’s pretty easy to figure out who.

Renee Witt*** says in her interview that she disagreed with the Dorito bags, but says that fellow officers treated her respectfully. This is not the case with Kappel, who appears to have filed the complaint against Whitcomb and Spangenthal-Lee. We have the 22-page summary, and not the 450-page report (YET), but you’d think that such serious allegations would at least be mentioned in something besides name-only.

Kappel filing his complaint against Whitcomb and Spangenthal-Lee, which also alleged Kappel was being “forced out” of his unit, turned Public Affairs upside-down. Whitcomb, the managing officer of the unit, was temporarily pulled from the job -- and everything went fucking bananas. He wasn’t around for the Kurt Cobain 20th deathiversary, which went fucking abysmally, with the detective originally on the case saying that shit was re-opened and Public Affairs having to scramble to shut down the media frenzy. The press conferences on disciplinary action that Harry Bailey held after being appointed interim police chief may as well have been held in a clown car. During the three weeks when Spangenthal-Lee was out, the blotter was boring and horrifyingly pun-free.

Ordinarily, there’s no shame in fucking over your workplace if you’re genuinely in a hostile work environment -- because fuck ‘em. But despite specific examples as to Kappel’s misconduct (“extensive coffee breaks” and “baiting” arguments, for example) this EEO report gives us no insight into the nature of any alleged anti-Christian or homophobic sentiment; from what we can tell, the dude didn’t want to participate in spreading the word about marijuana law. At the crux of his allegations are various disciplinary actions against Kappel by Whitcomb, which he says were retaliation for his opposition to I-502 and the Dorito giveaway. However, while some testimonies in the investigation acknowledge that Kappel may have been treated unfairly, nobody has anything objectively positive to say about the man that would refute any claim that disciplinary actions -- not even serious action, but talking-tos and shift changes -- weren’t warranted.

However, negative complaints abound: He is “the weakest performer in the Media Unit,” alleges one employee from outside the Media Unit. Another officer, this one from inside the Media Unit, says that Kappel is “not a productive member of the unit,” owing it to the unit’s “more social media-oriented approach, which [he] was not able to adapt to.” Yet another member of the Media Unit described Kappel as “a weak employee” that is “stuck in the past, refusing to adapt to the new operations of the Media Unit … [He] has openly and insubordinately attempted to sabotage various messages being put forward by the Media Unit.”

The investigation is quick to point out that there’s no record from Whitcomb of Kappel’s misconduct, but only one interview summary from the document makes no mention of Kappel’s work performance -- and the rest describe notable performance issues.

The most concrete evidence against Spangenthal-Lee and Whitcomb actually rests on Spangenthal-Lee’s shoulders -- but not as an SPD employee. The complaint summary digs up a bunch of dirt from when SPD first pulled Spangenthal-Lee, an alum of The Stranger and Publicola, into the fold -- an experienced crime journalist, he seemed, to some, to be just what the department needed. But some officers weren’t comfortable with Spangenthal-Lee’s appointment… and backed up a pattern of workplace “humiliation” with Spangenthal-Lee’s past record at SPD. (The full report includes an article from Seattle Met and various articles from The Stranger, unspecified.)

“[Redacted] states that he remembers [Kappel] as being the only unit member to oppose [Spangenthal-Lee’s] hiring, but that it was because [Spangenthal-Lee] had worked at a publication hostile to SPD (The Stranger),” says one interview summary. “He does, however, acknowledge that [Kappel] had mentioned some mean-spirited articles that caused … concern, but does not remember if it was because they are anti-Christian.”

Another unspecified officer says that while he “did not witness” Whitcomb or Spangenthal-Lee commit any of the acts alleged, he described Kappel as “stuck in the past, refusing to adapt to the new operations of the Media Unit.” He continues that Jeff “was opposed to the Doritos event, but that [he] was opposed to almost anything that wasn’t traditional, so that there was no special note made of his objection.”

That officer says that the only opposition to Spangenthal-Lee’s hiring was his experience at The Stranger… and while we’re not sure which of Spangenthal-Lee’s articles were called into question, we do know that many of his writings that could be perceived as anti-Christian were calling out blatant homophobia -- but not Christianity itself.

The investigation even called from the woodwork leftover sentiment against Spangenthal-Lee from his 2012 hiring process; these allegations are so serious that we’re actually wondering why they were included in the first place. The full investigation has more details, but two officers, Detective Monty Moss and Lieutenant Eric Barden (both of whom we’ve reached out to for comment), say that Spangenthal-Lee was previously investigated for hacking into SPD phone systems. Sources close to the case have told us that this is completely false, despite Moss and Barden’s statements to the contrary. Reports from the time of the incident say that Spangenthal-Lee was asked about news leaks within the department upon his hiring, but like a good journalist, he wouldn’t reveal his sources.

Whitcomb’s interview summary mentions that he denies allegations against Spangenthal-Lee, stating that those that opposed the hire were being paranoid. SPD sources have also told us that the allegation is totally bogus.  Besides, Spangenthal-Lee was already hired over two years ago. Why is this just coming up now? Whitcomb didn’t -- and in fact, couldn’t -- make a unilateral hiring decision.

We’re told that a sister document to the EEO complaint, an Office of Professional Accountability (OPA) filing, contains even more sentiment against the current direction of SPD’s Media Unit -- and yet another OPA alleges exactly the opposite, that Spangenthal-Lee and Whitcomb were, in fact, the ones who were harassed within the department. (We’ve requested both documents, and should hear back next week.)

The EEO report calls the timing of Kappel’s disciplinary action in relation to Hempfest into question, positing that suggesting a shift change, or a shift in department, was, in fact, retaliation. But let’s look at the timing a different way. After a year and a half of growing positive press for a transparent and approachable public outreach strategy, the investigation -- spurred from a member of the Media Unit that is, by all accounts, resistant to change -- comes at a suspicious time for Old Guard pushback.

Without speculating, though: What happened to Whitcomb and Spangenthal-Lee? They stay to pun and blotter another day. While investigators found some complaints to be valid and others not, ultimately the decision was up to then-interim chief Harry Bailey -- who found the report “inconclusive.”

And of course, this isn’t entirely about media and public outreach strategy -- it’s a clusterfuck indicative of a conflict that stretches across the whole department. For example, that #NotAllCops statement to counter a lawsuit from multiple enforcement officers defending their right to the use of force. This all comes just in time for our new police chief, Kathleen O’Toole, who’s apparently known for fixing messy police departments and speaks frequently about “rogue cops.” We’re waiting with bated breath for how this’ll turn out.

SPD EEO Investigation 13-0505: Summary

* Names for the incident in the report include “Hempfest, the Doritos event,” “The Hempfest/Doritos incident,” “Hempfest (the Doritos incident),” “volunteer event at a pro-marijuana rally/festival,” and “a controversial distribution of snack foods at a pro-marijuana festival.”

** Are all cops really allowed to be selective with which laws they support? This seems like a bigger issue.

*** Since Public Affairs is a small department, some interviewees and subjects were easily-identified. There’s Witt, the only female PIO in the department. Spangenthal-Lee is repeatedly mentioned in the context of his being not an officer, and through his previous involvement with The Stranger. There’s Whitcomb himself -- the complaint against him actually made local headlines when news first broke. A few parties’ identities remain unclear, but redaction doesn’t do much for the major players.

[cloakfullofeagles]

Me with model Ally Jaye photographed by Jeff Kappel