Seattle officer who killed pedestrian was driving without siren, speeding
As first reported by PubliCola, body cam footage confirmed Seattle police officer Kevin Dave was driving 74 miles an hour without his siren when he struck and fatally injured pedestrian Jaahnavi Kandula last January.
The King County Prosecutor’s Office released the video following a public request from the news outlet and is currently determining whether to charge Dave with a crime.
According to PubliCola, the footage clearly shows Dave’s speedometer as the officer runs several red lights before hitting Kandula.
A Seattle Police Department analysis from earlier this year already concluded that Dave was driving 49 miles over the posted 25 miles an hour speed limit. It also determined that Dave could not have evaded Kandula, nor the other way around, at the speed Dave’s vehicle was traveling.
Police Chief Adrian Diaz originally said that Dave was “clearing intersections with his siren” prior to the collision and was acting as an “EMT to a priority one emergency call,” which implies a life or death situation. However, Publicola reporting showed that the caller had actually overindulged on cocaine but was otherwise cogent as he waited for paramedics to respond.
Record number of above-80 degree days
It’s not news that the tail end of spring and early summer brought unusually warm weather to Seattle. On some days, the temperature approximated the heat emitted from Satan’s socks. What is noteworthy is that the city is already outpacing last year for the number of days temperatures have hit above 80 degrees.
Seattle has already experienced 25 such days as of July 20. In comparison, it had only seen eight days above 80 degrees during the same time frame last year.
Over the past seven decades, Seattle has averaged only 27 days per year at or above 80 degrees. That we’ve already hit 25 with nearly two months of summer to go speaks to the drastic increase in warmer days. In the last eight years Seattle has experienced at least 40 days at or above 80 degrees.
Amazon forcing ‘voluntary resignations’
Forgoing any aspirations of being named employer of the year, Amazon will force some of its employees to relocate in order to fulfill a company policy that requires three days a week of in-office work.
Formerly remote Amazon workers will have to report to “main hub” offices, including company headquarters in the Emerald City. Remote workers who are unwilling to comply with the mandate to either relocate or “get to an office” nearby have the option to resign. Hundreds of workers staged a walkout in May, protesting the return-to-office policy and the company’s climate shortcomings.
Marcus Harrison Green is interim editor of Real Change.
Read more of the July 26-Aug. 1, 2023 issue.