Internal email account of Seattle Fire Department employee seem to be the source, and it appears Fire Department never notified police
SEATTLE – Councilmember Kshama Sawant (District 3, Central Seattle), chair of the Council’s Sustainability and Renters Rights Committee, sent a letter to Mayor Jenny Durkan today to follow up on the request she made for “an investigation into a series of ominous threats sent from a Seattle Fire Department employee’s email account to her Council Office email address.
In her letter, Sawant indicates that “…Because of the serious nature of these emails — their threatening content, the fact that they were escalating in nature, potentially linked to the recent right-wing protests, and sent from an official City of Seattle email account — I asked that they be taken seriously.”
From the letter:
I appreciate that I was contacted by a Seattle Police Department (SPD) detective on Wednesday, January 20. However, I am concerned about what appears to be a lackadaisical approach being taken by the SPD and by the nature of the police interview itself.
In the two weeks since that time, the only update on this serious matter was a short email a week ago from the detective assuring me the ‘investigation is progressing,’ but saying they couldn’t provide me with any information because it was an open case under investigation.
Sawant further contends that the “…lack of urgency, or even interest, by the police is disturbing in the context of these escalating threats toward my office, and in the wider context of far right violence like that recently seen in the Capitol. But of course there was no greater sense of urgency felt by the Capitol police themselves on or before January 6 — the riots were organized in the open on social media and yet no preparations were made. On the day of the riot, the right-wing mob was allowed to walk right into the Capitol building, in sharp contrast to the violent crackdown against peaceful Black Lives Matter protesters all summer.”
Sawant’s letter closes by stating that “…while the threats are directly at me personally, I recognize that they are in fact directed against our entire movement. I am being attacked as a means of trying to intimidate all who dare to fight for workers’ rights and against the racism, sexism, and oppression which stem from the capitalist system. This attack on Black Lives Matter and social movements requires a serious response.”
The letter in its entirety is available ONLINE.
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