ParallelUniverseParking: And then there's officer Ian Birk (new window).


Wow, shooting a half-deaf guy carrying a dull blade down the street? Between this and the article, sure looks like Seattle knows how to pick 'em.....

If you need them, they generally don't show up and when they do they often harrass the person making the call.

People who are significantly over the legal limit should be tried for attempted murder by default.

I would say I'm shocked, but not really. These kinds of events happen all the time, but no action is ever taken. And still they get to continue working as police and receive backing from their superiors.


/But remember this is a one time incident and does not speak to the character of the officer.

AbbeySomeone: If you need them, they generally don't show up and when they do they often harrass the person making the call.

I actually have had that wonderful experience. Spent a night in jail WITH THE GUY THAT ATTACKED ME! Yeah, they put us in the same block.

ppffsstt. Only punishment will be on paid leave, until another headline comes out.

Vegemite: But remember this is a one time incident and does not speak to the character of the officer.

Uh...DUI always speaks to the character of the individual involved. That it happened even once is inexcusable.

Victim in DUI crash involving SPD detective: 'I have no idea how my son and I are alive'


What a puss....

Kazan: SPD is where all the fascists in washington go to fit in.

That's true, but the good thing about SPD is that you literally be in the process of committing a felony to get them to hassle you (if you are white).

My tabs are expired and I drive by the same cop every single day and he hasn't busted me yet.

sprawl15: Vegemite: But remember this is a one time incident and does not speak to the character of the officer.

Uh...DUI always speaks to the character of the individual involved. That it happened even once is inexcusable.

I sleep walk and was taking Temazepam for it, and I had taken some before going to bed after drinking.
But you go on with your brainwashed claptrap equating all aspects of every person who has experienced certain circumstances.

ParallelUniverseParking: thismomentinblackhistory: ParallelUniverseParking: ofthecourt: ParallelUniverseParking: And then there's officer Ian Birk (new window).

Wow, shooting a half-deaf guy carrying a dull blade down the street? Between this and the article, sure looks like Seattle knows how to pick 'em.....

Yea, watch this guy go around his car - all John Wayne. That's the same guy who later testified that the half-deaf old guy scared him so much that he saw no other way but put several caps into his back & side (he never fully turned around to face the officer). Naturally they decided not to bring any charges against that guy.

That is unreal, man.

to make it a bit more unreal:
Photos show shot wood carver's knife was in closed position (new window)
two witnesses tell jury they did not see woodcarver do anything threatening before he was fatally shot by Birk (new window)

This is why I could care less when one of the cops around here gets plugged.

I'm sure none of the good apples knew this guy liked to do the drink and drive thang.

a cop crashed a cop car while drunk in my town this weekend, he tried to hide in the woods to get away

Just another example of the 99% giving the other 1% a bad name.

People would have a lot more faith in the police forces around this country of guys like this got fired and/or arrested.

thelordofcheese: sprawl15: Vegemite: But remember this is a one time incident and does not speak to the character of the officer.

Uh...DUI always speaks to the character of the individual involved. That it happened even once is inexcusable.

I sleep walk and was taking Temazepam for it, and I had taken some before going to bed after drinking.

So...you sleep drove into a bus line?

sprawl15: People who are significantly over the legal limit should be tried for attempted murder by default.

Something, at least. Anything. Especially the multiple offenders.

I'd have an older brother, well, probably... if not for a man who decided to take his niece to school while drunk one morning and blindsided my mother at an intersection. I believe she was 8 months pregnant, the baby didn't make it. This was not his first DUI offense.

What happened to him? I really can't remember, but I'm pretty sure it wasn't significant at all. My mother didn't talk about it much.

I just don't get it.

Seattle cops are the worst. They are brutal, petty, corrupt and paid more than doctors.

WTF, served one day? And kept his job?

Normally I am 100% on the side of the cops on Fark but this sounds completely ludicrous. Plaid, even.

AP (Seattle- 2012) A man being tried for burglary was freed due to a mistrial when the detective of record, John Fox, was fired for a DUI in December of 2011. That man, now free, went on to burglarize a house in June of 2012. During the burglary the homeowner and his son came into the house and suprised the man, who subsequently shot them dead. In a macabre turn of events, the homeowner and his son turned out to be the victims of the DUI crash that got John Fox fired.

/my halloween story for 2012.

//but yeah, the guy should be fired.

I thought the SPD officer was also driving his son around in the car, or I've mixed up the victim/offender descriptions in earlier stories.


Best line:
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2016636808_spddui29m. h tml
Fox, a narcotics detective, told a Mukilteo officer: "I'm undercover" when he was questioned at the scene.

Working the system (and proving an iron liver can handle peppermint schnapps rot-gut mini-bottles):
Fox refused to take a portable breath test or undergo field sobriety tests at the scene, according to the report.

A search of the Yukon turned up six empty 50-milliliter (1.7-ounce) bottles of peppermint schnapps and a "nearly empty" 375-milliliter bottle of vodka, the report said.

sounds like someone is going to lose some vacation days over this one.

So the cops first DUI that he got busted for and served one day of a two year sentence: He had his record sealed a couple of years later. It's a standard practice to allow a cop to be a cop with no open public criminal history.

/Besides it's Seattle. the cops, while on duty, can murder people, without being prosecuted for murder. Unless they were malicious while murdering.

sprawl15: Vegemite: But remember this is a one time incident and does not speak to the character of the officer.

Uh...DUI always speaks to the character of the individual involved. That it happened even once is inexcusable.

I thought I would come across more sarcastic than I did. I think he should be fired and put in jail in general population, none of that protecting his ass. He should suffer, as an officer he has a responsibility to show others how the right thing is done and live by that creed every day. Instead he will most likely just have a two week vacation and come back to work.

AbbeySomeone: If you need them, they generally don't show up and when they do they often harrass the person making the call.

My friend was beaten and kicked by 6 guys who were in the process of moving into an apartment in his house. His fiancee called the police and told the dispatcher what was happening. The police arrived and arrested my friend for assaulting one of them with a deadly weapon. Apparently, if you've had your glasses knocked off, and you are crawling on the ground while 6 guys are kicking and beating you, it's wrong to grab the nearest thing (metal barbecue spatula) and hit any of them with it.

The police told my friend that it is not their job to protect the citizens from the college students, that it is their job to protect the students from each other. No one else was arrested for anything, even though the students were all drinking underage. Even though my friend was beat the fark up.

Vegemite: thought I would come across more sarcastic than I did.

Touché.

thelordofcheese:
I sleep walk and was taking Temazepam for it, and I had taken some before going to bed after drinking.
But you go on with your brainwashed claptrap equating all aspects of every person who has experienced certain circumstances.

They gave you a DUI for going to bed? Rough! Do you live in a van down by the river?

jagec: thelordofcheese:
I sleep walk and was taking Temazepam for it, and I had taken some before going to bed after drinking.
But you go on with your brainwashed claptrap equating all aspects of every person who has experienced certain circumstances.

They gave you a DUI for going to bed? Rough! Do you live in a van down by the river?

YOU JUST DON'T UNDERSTAND

ZAZ: Fox was previously found guilty of drunk driving in Issaquah in January of 1995. He was sentenced to a year in jail, but only served one day.

This is a standard sentence in some places -- a year suspended, statutory minimum 1-3 days to serve.

My city tried and failed to fire a police officer for second offense DUI. He got a ride home from a friendly deputy instead of a conviction for the drunken wreck that would have been his second offense. Without a conviction civil service ordered him reinstated.

My brother was in an accident with a drunk off duty police officer. The drunk cop somehow disappeared after the police showed up at the accident and the entire mess ended up being my brother's fault.

joking_guy: sounds like someone is going to lose some vacation days over this one.


Don't worry they'll try to make it as little as possible.

ParallelUniverseParking: Or the story will end for Fox like it did for this guy:

Brad Thoma was fired from his job with the Spokane Police Department (Washington) for a DUI hit-and-run. But in January he was offered a new $74,000-to-$82,000 per year detective gig with the same department after a change in the law allowed him to avoid using the ignition interlock device he'd been ordered to use beforehand.

Thoma's an amazing man who made a singular mistake. He's an asset to our force and works for one of the best police chiefs in the nation. You'll excuse me if I deffer to her experience over yours.