An Open Letter to Seattle on compelling survivors police violence to participate in OPA investigations
By: Danni Askini
Tags: Human Rights, Police Brutality, Violence Against Women, Seattle, Police

Greetings Mayor Durkan and Seattle City Councilmembers,

I am writing IN OPPOSITION to the proposed ordinance granting a subpoena process for the Office of Professional Accountability and the Office of the Inspector General of Public Safety.

As many of you are likely aware, in July of 2018 I fled Seattle to seek asylum in Sweden. While I was largely circumscript at the time about revealing all the details about why I felt the need to not only leave Seattle but the United States entirely — some of you have likely become aware in the years since of some of the underlying circumstances. I will outline them briefly for those members who are not familiar, and in particular, highlight how the proposed Ordinance you heard today would have only furthered my fear of returning to the United States.

In January 2018, I was raped by a high-level Seattle Police officer who had the power to exert significant influence over any subsequent investigations within the department. It is an allegation that is indeed heavy, I’m certain shocking to hear, and for me has been one I have not made lightly out of fear of retribution, retaliation, and significant consequences not only for me personally — but for the whole LGBT Community’s relationship with SPD, and for my friends and family members who still reside in Seattle and who might face retaliation in my absence.

Having left Seattle far behind never to return, I consider myself to be “internally displaced” within the United States — I was deported by force from Sweden in November of last year after having failed to gain Asylum. I would not two years later be taking the time to write to you about this issue and reopening this deep personal wound if I did not deeply believe you are about to make a serious policy mistake. I have hundreds of pages of evidence corroborating my claim but have chosen to up to this point remain largely quiet, to not seek litigation with the department or city, and to instead attempt to move on with my life far outside the reach of SPD.

I want us to be clear: what happened to me was devastating but not unusual. State violence in Seattle as we have seen in the last year is rampant — and I applaud your attempts to curb the human rights abuses by the Seattle Police Department. The actions of one officer robbed me of my career, my home, my community, all of my possessions, and robbed my community, family, and Seattle of my activism, leadership, and labor. Under Seattle's’ current system of “justice” and “police accountability,” there was no reasonable way to see redress or justice for what happened to me without serious revictimization by the OPA system, the criminal punishment system, and the press that would pit my word against the career of a “Hero cop”. For now, there is only healing, soul searching, and fighting to ensure other survivors don’t face the same system of unaccountability that I found.

Over the spring of 2018 after being raped — I sought out medical, mental health, DV advocate support, and legal advice about my options moving forward. I spoke to dozens of advocates, attorneys, prosecutors outside of King County who had prosecuted similar cases, nationally renowned DV advocates, and two state attorney generals that I had worked with in the past to elicit their thoughts and advice. All of my conversations proposed a “hypothetical situation” in which a survivor came forward to seek justice after being raped by an officer. All of whom expressed severe doubt that the case would ever result in a prosecution, let alone a conviction by a jury — largely because of the set of facts involved no third party witnesses, resulting in a “he said, she said” that would interrogate consent and a jury trial that would likely involve some element of anti-trans bias diminishing my credibility at the very outset. I was disappointed but not surprised by any of this, as I’m sure none of you are. I was content with trying to navigate healing, remaining silent, and avoiding any interactions with SPD — however, my role in the community-made that near impossible.

In January 2019, I bravely revealed what had happened to me in the Swedish press after my asylum claim was initially rejected and became public, to bolster public support for my case in hopes of preventing a forced return — and against the strong public lobbying by the Trump Administration to pressure Sweden to reject my claim — I chose to make public for the first time the allegations that I had included in my petition for asylum and underlined my claim — that I had experienced Torture as defined under the UN Convention Against Torture; and the Council of Europe’s Istanbul Treaty on Gender-Based Violence which guarantees asylum to survivors of state violence involving “Cruel, Inhumane, or Degrading treatment”. Indeed, I was raped by an officer who specifically targeted me for my advocacy on behalf of transgender women in the sex trades — as I have spoken with many council members about — I was working to develop a training for SPD on Police — Sex Worker interactions, just as I had done for trans people. The rape I experienced was not about sex, it was about both power and punishment — using state-backed power (including a sidearm issued by the State) to punish me for my political work on behalf of women, trans people, survivors of violence, and sex workers.

Immediately upon this information going public — the OPA launched an investigation into my case. This was unprompted by me, without my consent, and showed no concerns for my wishes, agency, or recognizing the complications involved in investigating a claim across nation-state lines. I had taken the steps I felt necessary to secure my personal and political safety — and like the millions of people who sought asylum here in the United States, it was my right to do so in Sweden. Rather than the OPA / SPD or later King County Sherrif’s Office using OFFICIAL Channels — such as contacting the Swedish Police, the Swedish Embassy in Washington, or the US Embassy in Stockholm — the OPA and King County Sherrif’s Office instead decided to “wing it” and start a campaign of harassment disguised as an “investigation”.

The OPA and King County Sheriff’s Office sent officers to my house in Seattle — an address that was protected under the State’s domestic violence address confidentiality program — a fact alone that I found deeply disturbing. They sent me several emails to my work and private email. The officer who showed up at my apartment — asked my husband to allow him entry “to ask some questions”, my husband speaking through the door asserted his constitutional rights and said, “I am not willing to allow you entry without a search warrant, and I will not speak to you without my attorney present — you can contact her directly”. He then provided the officer with our attorney’s contact — no officer from OPA, KCSO, or SPD ever reached out to my attorney — nor did they return her requests for contact.

The officer then replied to my husband through the door “Listen, if you won’t speak to me you don’t love your wife and you don’t want to help her.” This type of emotional manipulation is beyond the pale. Rather than the OPA, SPD, or KCSO making contact with official channels to pursue a legitimate investigation, they engaged in a pattern and practice of intimidation, threats, and coercion in an attempt to gain information on my whereabouts.

Your bill would only add further state violence and legal force behind these strong-arm tactics. Far from “creating police accountability by compelling testimony” — you are proposing to use state violence to force victims of state violence to participate in a flawed, failed, and undemocratic system against their will.

The #1 goal of all domestic violence programs is to build the agency of survivors of gender-based violence to have choices and control over their lives. The council should consider this carefully, and craft policies that create agency, support, and protection for victims of state violence to come forward — with guarantees of safety, a clear and compelling recognition of their inalienable and universal human rights, and strong survivor protections after filing a complaint. This bill achieves none of those goals — and by compelling testimony would only further revictimize survivors of state violence and police brutality by legally demanding participation in a system that is dubious at best and has NEVER TO DATE managed to investigate, charge, and prosecute a single count of sexual violence against a Seattle Police Officer.

In my case, there was never going to be a successful prosecution, period.

I was not willing or able to take on SPD, SPOG, and the press all at once and on my own; nor was I willing to sacrifice the safety of the trans community or sex workers in Seattle by publicly alleging this misconduct.

Indeed — the month after I left SPD ramped up its crackdown on sex workers on Aurora Blvd (unironically blocks away from where I use to live). It is NOT a coincidence that this committee last year heard from a command-level staff his personal opinion about sex workers and that an SPD Police Captain was arrested in a “Sting” against sex purchasers as well in the last year. I watched these events unfold from afar with a nauseating clarity that this council and this mayor are completely incapable of keeping women, trans people, and sex workers in Seattle safe from the men of SPD.

I understand this committee and the Mayor’s desire to find solid policy solutions to increase police accountability — I applaud your efforts to do so! I have been on the sidelines cheering on the bold actions this committee and the Council have taken to reassert the democratic accountability over a system that I have called “mutual unaccountability”. One that involves too many actors — a Federal Judge, the Mayor, the police chief, SPOG, the CPC, the OIG, and the Council — all before any form of criminal prosecution — done by prosecutors who of course have a close working relationship with the department, covered by a news media who relies on SPD for ledes on breaking news crime stories. From bottom to top in Seattle, and throughout this country, there exists a state of near impunity for police actors to engage in state violence against citizens and face little to no consequence.

No one body alone has the power over the police — and thus, there is “distributed accountability” — — however, there is also “distributed unaccountability” — the buck never stops anywhere.

Had OPA compelled the testimony of my friends, my family, or my husband as this ordinance would allow, where would that have led?

I told almost no one about the rape I survived. I sought medical and mental health support — but I know full well “loose lips, sink ships” — and that I may be jeopardizing the safety of any of my friends or family and possible police retaliation — from day one of my rape. I am a “skilled actor” in this field, I have worked and guided nearly 500 survivors of various kinds of power-based violence through the legal process. I have seen how nearly none of them are ever able to secure a conviction that would put their minds at ease. Telling people would only jeopardize me, it would allow the OPA or SPD’s lawyers to pick apart any discrepancies. It would drag other people’s lives into the shit storm of bringing forward an allegation.

Would the OPA or OIG issue a warrant or use other measures to compel testimony? And how would that serve the interests of survivors — who by the way are left to “fix it themselves” as there are zero city-funded services or programs to support people who are survivors of state violence. I would have to seek an attorney, sue the city, and fight my way through the court to recoup any of the expenses of relocating, seeking asylum, and paying for mental healthcare to recover my ability to work.

I warned the council and the public at the very outset of the Ed Murray sex abuse scandal — and no one listened. I called on people to support survivors early and often — only to be met largely by silence. Several of you did speak out, I felt emboldened and grateful — others remained silent or neutral. Ed finally resigned after 5 separate men came forward, and only after his relative and a white man finally came forward. I learned from that experience that any allegations I made would instantly become politicized and polarize. It was not what I wanted for myself, my family, the trans community, or Seattle.

I am certain that like me and just like Ed Murray’s case — there are dozens of other survivors of this officer. This was not his first time raping someone he perceived as vulnerable, his actions were sophisticated, premeditated, precisely calculated, and designed to cause the maximum amount of terror, fear, and destruction of my ability to feel safe in Washington State.

This bill does NOTHING to rectify the system of mutual unaccountability that exists, instead, it placed additional state power in the hands of bad actors who have repeatedly failed the public and done little to nothing to shift the culture of violence within SPD. It would victimize survivors by compelling them to participate in a process that is designed to exonerate officers and offer no support to survivors.

If the City is interested in true public accountability — there are dozens of more important measures: such as setting up a fund to support survivors in seeking safety in coming forward, such as passing a local version of the UN Convention Against Torture, such as designating rape by a police officer as a form of torture, or even simpler — by passing an ordinance that states clearly that no police officer shall have sex while on duty, in uniform, or while in possession of a city-issued sidearm! Any of those measures would more effectively demonstrate to the public that this committee and this council takes seriously the obligation to protect its citizens from state violence.

I have no confidence in the OPA or OIG. No system that relies on compelled testimony, that takes agency away from survivors can ever be a system that will achieve justice. It will further the harms survivors face as they seek to reestablish any sense of safety in their lives. The Council has a role in addressing police accountability — but it must do so by putting forward a City Charter Amendment to create a separate democratically elected Community Policing Board that is entirely civilian and that acts independent of the department — or to work with lawmakers and the Governor to appoint a State Level unit in the Attorney General’s Office to investigate complaints of Torture, Excessive Use of Force, or police-involved shootings. All of these are better options than this bill.

I thank you for your attention to this matter.

Sincerely,

Danni Askini

Washington DC, USA