Behind The Line Podcast

John Washington, Behind the Line Podcast and freelance journalist for Net News Network

I like many others saw these controversial tweets that Nicole Thomas-Kennedy, candidate for Seattle Prosecutor, has sent out about the SPD over the last few months. I was alittle shocked to see someone running for public office say some of the things she said. So I sent her a message on Facebook asking if she had any comment about it. Surprisingly, she responded.

Nicole Thomson-Kennedy, running for prosecutor for the city of Seattle, in her exchange with me claimed that she was just calling cops names and that she has been treated badly by cops, judges and prosecutors. She couldn’t understand why they get so hurt about the comments. She said she never had to pepper spray anyone and just did her job even when she was being treated badly, inferring that police are pepper spraying people for saying mean things to them. She doesn’t seem to or want to understand what police are dealing with on the streets. But reading these tweets I have screenshot it seems to be alittle more than name calling. She refers to them as serial killers. She told me that cops kill people, ALL THE TIME. In 2019, 1099 people were shot and killed by police in the US. Incidents where civilians shot and killed someone were 14,400. Considering the volume of calls police respond to, the population of the US and the number of gun related incidents in the US this number seems relatively low. She doesn’t take into account police officers being shot at or having to defend themselves. The comment about cops should “eat covid laced shit & quit ur jobs” effectively says she wants them to die. In another tweet I did not screen shot she said whoever tried to bomb the east precinct was a “hero.” Had a bomb gone off it most certainly would’ve resulted in people dying or being seriously hurt. Again, alittle more than name calling. Eventually she told me that she doesn’t “know or really think about whether every cop is bad. Its not the person, its the system.” While I agree the system has many flaws, a person running for prosecutor should be thinking about individuals in these cases, what the circumstances are for each case and any and all reasonable and legal outcomes of these cases. That lawful procedures were followed and adhered to. As a city prosecutor she would not be dealing with felonies but it shows a lack of critical thinking and ability to analyze cases involving law enforcement if she lumps them all into the “system.” She also shows a real lack of empathy for victims of crime.

She does support defunding the police but stated it is not an “overnight process.” She said its gradual and the money divested from police budgets could be reallocated into the community. She stated that its “not supposed to be bad cop, no donut type punishment. But a recognition that despite billions and billions of dollars that we have spent on policing and prison, we are far from the safest country in the world. We can do better than this.” In some ways I agree with her. Its not working. I was a police officer for nine years. I worked as a field training officer during that time training new officers. I owned a bail bonds business for eight years and also worked as a fugitive recovery agent for sixteen years. I owned a private investigations business for five years and worked as a defense investigator in two different county courts. The legal system is a revolving door for many people. As an officer and a bondsman I got to know many people I arrested or bailed out over and over. People who didn’t have money were often more negatively impacted because they could not afford a lawyer, could not afford the fines, and could not afford to pay for bail. Failing to pay fines would often land them back in jail. Failure to pay fines often meant no drivers license to go to work if they wanted to. So it is a circle. But what are we going to “reallocate” funds to? Because talking doesn’t work either. And criminals will almost always tell you whatever you want to hear or agree to almost anything to get out of jail time. And all it is, is talk. They will be right back to their criminal behavior almost immediately. Progressives like this always have grand ideas about community programs with no concrete plans or evidence of effectiveness. She also never made any mention whatsoever about victims of crimes and how this would effect them. Her comments to me were almost as if all misdemeanor crime is property crime and not crimes against people. To make a population feel safe they need to know there is some form of justice or consequence for illegal behavior.

NTK told me she did not want to disband the prosecutors office, “but I guess I can see how people might jump to that” she said. “I don’t want to prosecute petty crime/crimes of poverty like stealing a sandwich or socks. Its an absurd waste of an obscene amount of money and does nothing to make victims whole or prevent it from happening again.” Just because people are in need does not mean they should be allowed to steal from others. While I do somewhat agree that if someone is truly hungry they shouldn’t be locked up for trying to eat, you also can’t expect stores and citizens to take the hit. And there are plenty of other crimes that are misdemeanors that should be prosecuted, crimes like; theft, ID theft, trespassing, certain kinds of assault, voyeurism, failure to register as a kidnapping offender, disorderly conduct, many driving offenses and these are just to name a few. If she’s not planning to disband the prosecutors office, but at the same time doesn’t want to prosecute what she considers petty crime, what would she be doing as prosecutor? I asked her twice what her plan was specifically for prosecuting criminals and she did not answer that question. This leads me to believe she literally will not prosecute anyone because she feels its a waste of money and time. I think if people know they are actually facing jail time it is a deterrent. Criminal behavior is learned, and its very difficult to unlearn it. There are many factors that could lead a person to the criminal life; their home life, their friends and peers, lack of education, lack of a job, lack of housing, you name it. So what is the answer to change behavior? Personally, I don’t know. Educating young people to do the right thing, how to behave in a civilized society seems like a good place to start. Supporting families and making sure they know how to meet their needs. But a city where kids, and adults, know there’s no consequences for negative or illegal behavior? Really? I asked her what her idea’s were to change this and all she told me was her web site would be updated the following day with her specific plans. Its been several days since we spoke and still no update. Again, progressives like this always have grand plans for society but nothing seemingly concrete on how to make a real difference . Just alot of expensive idea’s for community organizations that never seem to bring about any real change.

She went on to tell me that during the summer of love protests cops gassed her neighborhood for ten nights in a row and she had to buy a gas mask for her nine year old in case the gas got into the house. As a parent I can empathize with her anger in this regard although I don’t recall SPD gassing entire neighborhoods for ten nights. She also apparently does not hold the protesters accountable and apparently they should have been able to run wild. She was upset they abandoned the east precinct and would not explain to her why that was done or who ordered it. I’m not entirely sure why she cared if they left the area if she dislikes them so much. She talked about them pepper spraying a kid in the face at another protest. A kid was pepper sprayed during a protest but it wasn’t an officer standing in front of the kid spraying it in the face. Pepper spray tends to float through the air in an area where it is discharged. The real question that begs to be answered is why are you as a parent bringing you child to a protest? Especially when those protests, at the time, were often violent. No accountability for the parents. She said there was no accountability with SPD for that incident when in fact it was one of the things that lead to city council severely limiting the non lethal tools SPD can use against people. So by her reasoning, wouldn’t that be some accountability? She also stated SPD never apologized for doing it. Did any protesters ever apologize for all the tens of thousands of dollars of damage they inflicted on people’s businesses? Did any protesters ever apologize for assaulting police or the two kids that were murdered at CHOP? Was there any accountability for all that?

She complained to me about the hate messages she gets on Facebook and twitter everyday; hate, racist comments and threats of violence. She said that lies that are told about her and her mission on parody accounts on social media. Its interesting that this bothers her when its no different than what shes doing to the police and she stated earlier that she was treated badly and still did her job, SPD officers are also, still doing their jobs. As much as the city will allow. She stated that people were trying to make her home address public. Being in a position like this you are going to draw all kinds of support and hate, I suppose that comes with the territory. I guess I don’t understand why people get so bent about other people’s opinions. And whether I, or anyone else, agree’s with her or not, she is entitled to her opinion. She should be able to speak her opinion without fear of violence. What happened to the America where we could agree to disagree and walk away. If you don’t like what she is saying or don’t agree with her or feel its right for the city than you can express your opinion at the ballot box, and that should be the only place you express your will in that regard.

I do appreciate her responding to my question and taking the time to message me. I don’t personally agree with her approach. She was a defense lawyer for four years and then she started her own law firm and did pro bono work during the protests of 2020 helping protesters who got arrested. I could not find any information on whether she was a lawyer before this or what she did before that. Four or five years is not that long. She seemingly has no understanding of law enforcement or what police officers encounter on a day to day basis. She believes they are serial killers, who I guess are just looking for their next victim. She claims to have never lost a case on her website as a defense lawyer, which based on our current prosecutors office would not be to unbelievable. The prosecutors office should be working in conjunction with the police department. Under the current leadership it doesn’t and if NTK is elected it most definitely will not. Crime is already soaring in this city and we need answers. We need a prosecutor that will do the job, make tough decisions, examine each case and provide justice to victims. Its not an office that serves criminals, its an office that should serve the victims and seek justice. Its an office that should follow the laws of the city of Seattle and state of Washington. Prosecutors have a duty to uphold those laws.