How to Lose an Uncontested Election
A singular moment has arrived in the Seattle suburb of Renton, Washington. Renton may become the first city in America to have a cartoon character elected mayor on a write-in initiative.
History's pivotal events have a way of starting small and snowballing.
A police officer in Renton became disgusted with the dishonest clique that runs his town. He was frustrated with mismanagement and pervasive obstructionism. He saw police officers promoted to leadership after engaging in serious, sometimes criminal, misconduct. He grew tired of the cronyism, waste, and self-service.
He was living an experience familiar to many public servants; you've got to go along to get along. A corrupt leader cannot gain leverage over a virtuous subordinate, and a brick house is unwelcome in a city of glass.
This officer, unhappy with the broken system in which he worked, made some anonymous cartoons and put them on YouTube under the name Mr. Fuddlesticks. He didn't mention any names. He didn't fabricate anything. He simply mocked the misconduct and mismanagement he had witnessed.
The Renton Police Department, recognizing its dirty laundry, was not amused.
City apparatchiks responded to the cartoons with a bewildering abuse of power. The creation of parody cartoons was shoehorned into a bizarre allegation — cyberstalking the police department. They commenced a malicious prosecution, falsified a warrant and went "prosecutor shopping," all of which are, in and of themselves, illegal.
The department named several officers as victims in the cyberstalking warrant, detailing sexual misconduct parodied in the cartoons. It is difficult to imagine that people who were embarrassed by water cooler teasing wanted the matter remedied in court, with names named and internal affairs reports published. The cartoonist made fun of them, city hall made them famous. Multiple lawsuits are anticipated.
King County Superior Court Judge James Cayce issued a search warrant enabling Google to turn over the IP address of the cartoonist, advancing the cyberstalking investigation. In a rare move, Judge Cayce later stayed his own warrant following media coverage of the debacle; Google's turning someone over for prosecution because they criticized the government online apparently didn't test market well. The city declined further prosecution, moving to an employer-level investigation instead.
Even before the search warrant was stayed, the administration began destroying records. From KIRO's Chris Halsne:
"Several witnesses to the event tell us, it was well known around the internal affairs department as one of the biggest 'shredding parties' the Renton Police Department has ever held.
Using the Washington Public Records Act, court records and confidential police sources, Halsne has determined some of the purged information was used in a presentation to a judge in the cartoon case, even though the department knew the files were already destroyed.
Other shredded files included dozens of confirmed disciplinary actions and investigative files that punished Renton officers for actions like stealing, using excessive force, abusing their authority and committing other acts of misconduct. None of the 49 files will now ever see the public light of day. That includes the real internal affairs records that were the basis of some 'jokes' and parody skits, created by Mrfuddlesticks."Continued on the next page
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