Christopher Harris is in a coma and on life support after being chased by two King County Sheriff's Department deputies, says the Seattle Times: "He suffered life-threatening skull fractures when his head struck a concrete wall as one attempted to arrest him early Sunday in Belltown." To be precise, his head had some help in striking that wall. A video is said to show one of the deputies smashing into Harris after he halted--having run as two men started shouting and heading toward him from out of a dark alley. We're not sure if the online P-I will append this to their "Conduct Unbecoming" series, exposing a troubling history of brutality in the King County Sheriff's Department, but it feels like nearly killing an innocent person should raise some questions on how the Sheriff's Dept. is doing on all that reform we were promised. more ›

Last night there was a drive-by shooting in Pioneer Square (at James and 2nd Ave.) in what appears to be another outbreak of gang violence. No one appeared to be hurt, as it was 3 a.m. on the snowiest day of the year and the streets were all but deserted; the only two witnesses are saying the car might have been a VW Passat, which is not very gangsta. We're just saying. Four businesses were hit and the ever-competent SPD gang unit is investigating. As a commenter on the P-I article points out, it's kind of ironic that the mayor starts talking about banning guns from public places while gang violence simultaneously intensifies. Then the commenter starts talking about citizen deputies and vigilantism, thereby losing our initial support. That's not the kind of civilian involvement we need here. more ›