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J ANAURY 9, 2013
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C HALLENGING P EOPLE TO S HAPE A B ETTER F UTURE N OW
Seattle
Police
Video
PLUNGE
PHOTO BY SUSAN FRIED
2010 beating
triggered by parked
car, engine running
Friends Ellen Diaz, Dennice Jordan and Mary Margaret Kopcho started the New Year with a dip Lake Washington
along with hundreds of other people during the 11th Annual Polar Bear Plunge at Matthews Beach on Jan. 1.
King County Gun Safety Initiative
First gun buyback program in 20 years scheduled for this month
M
ayor Mike McGinn
and an array of local
leaders and business
owners this week announced a
new Gun Safety Initiative,
including the first gun buyback
program in 20 years.
The countywide gun buyback
will provide a monetary incen-
tive to individuals who turn in
firearms, while engaging our
communities toward a common
goal of reducing gun violence.
The first gun buyback will be
held on Saturday, Jan. 26, from
9 a.m. to 3 p.m., in downtown
Seattle in the parking lot under-
neath Interstate 5 between Cher-
ry and James Streets.
“This gun buyback program
can help us protect public health
and safety and reduce gun vio-
lence in our communities,” said
McGinn. “We will continue
working with the police depart-
ment and other organizations
and agencies on a broad range
of solutions to the epidemic of
gun violence.”
“If we can prevent just one
child, one innocent bystander,
from being the victim of a ran-
INDEX
News ................2,3,6,8
Opinion .....................4
A & E .........................5
Bids/Classifieds ..........7
dom accident, or the target of an
unstable person, it will be well
worth our time and effort,” said
King County Executive Dow
Constantine.
“This is an opportunity for
people to get unwanted guns out
of their homes. We hope that
people will take advantage of
this opportunity to safely dis-
pose of those unwanted, unused,
and forgotten guns that we
know are lying around. If this
prevents just one tragedy, it is
worth the effort.” Chief Metz
“The Sheriff’s Office remains
committed to providing a safe
place for citizens to turn in guns
they no longer want. It is a
much better choice to remove an
unwanted gun from your home
than to leave it where it can be
stolen and used in a crime,” said
King County Sheriff John
Urquhart.
“The Seattle Police Founda-
tion is proud to partner with the
Seattle Police Department and
many other community partners
to improve the safety of our
community
by
removing
See GUNS on page 3
SEATTLE (AP) — A lawyer released a
video Friday showing a Seattle police offi-
cer striking a restrained man during an
arrest in 2010.
Isaac Ocak, who was 18 at the time, had
left a car locked with the engine running
outside a department store while he returned
some items on Dec. 29, 2010, said his attor-
ney, James Egan. When he came back, offi-
cers questioned him about why he’d left it
there.
The store was on private property, and
leaving the car did not constitute a crime or
infraction.
The video shows Ocak initially speaking
calmly with the officers and referring to one
as ``sir’’ but becoming more agitated as he
was questioned for several minutes and
Officer Larry Longley grilled him about
why he had so many keys on his key chain.
Egan obtained the video under the state’s
Public Records Act and publicized it Friday
after filing a complaint for damages against
the city on Ocak’s behalf.
As the questioning continued, Ocak occa-
sionally lifted his hands off the hood of a
patrol car despite orders to leave them there.
As officers pressed him to the hood, Ocak
resisted. Longley grabbed Ocak’s mouth
and Ocak bit him, prompting the officer to
punch him twice in the head as other offi-
cers held him down.
Egan said the incident shows unnecessary
aggression by the officers, and fits in with
the Justice Department’s findings that Seat-
tle police had a pattern of unnecessarily
using force, especially in low-level situa-
tions that could be resolved verbally.
The police department’s Office of Profes-
sional Accountability is reviewing the
arrest, which Assistant Chief Jim Pugel pre-
viously determined to be justified.
``Officers were concerned the car could be
a potential getaway vehicle for a shoplifter
or robber, and tracked down the man who
had left the car running,’’ Sgt. Sean Whit-
comb said in a written statement. ``Officers
See BEATING on page 3
‘Franken Food’ Labeling Ballot Initiative
About 50 countries already require consumer notice on GMO foods
By Shannon Dininny
Associated Press
YAKIMA, Wash. (AP) — Any food sold
in Washington State and made with geneti-
cally engineered crops would have to be
labeled under a ballot initiative submitted
Thursday.
The move came two months after Califor-
nia voters rejected a similar measure that
pitted food safety advocates against agricul-
tural and biotechnology giants in a roughly
$55 million advertising battle.
Opponents of the food labeling argue it
will raise food prices and hurt farmers. Sup-
porters contend that consumers should have
a choice about eating genetically engineered
products, even if the federal government
and major science groups say such foods are
safe to eat.
Proponents promised to take their fight to
the Northwest after the California ballot
measure failed.
On Thursday, initiative sponsors delivered
350,000 petition signatures to state officials
inside an ambulance with a sign on the side
reading ``Label GMO Food.’’
To qualify for the ballot, it requires at least
See FOODS on page 3