By Frank Irigon OCA-GREATER SEATTLE CHAPTER On behalf of OCA-Greater Seattle Chapter, I want to expressed our extreme disappointment and outrage that it’s almost been a month since this hate crime was perpetrated upon defenseless Asian female students in the University District. We were hoping that your office and the SPD would have shared this same outrage and put forward a statement that his type of racist behavior would not be tolerated in the City of Seattle. But we were wrong and again our Community feels marginalized. Not one word came from you or the SPD. Nor how the SPD was going to collaborate with the UW Police to prevent this from happening again. We are requesting a meeting with you and Chief Kathleen O’Toole to discussed this and other issues that we have with the SPD. From recruitment, retention, promotion, and a lack of Asians in command positions. The last being Capt. Mochizuki who was promoted by then Chief Stamper after our Community met with him and that was eons ago. We are looking forward to meeting with you and the Chief to discuss how to make Seattle a safe place for all people regardless of their race to live, study, and to enjoy life in America. (end)

RE: Hate crimes in the University District Deputy Chief Carmen Best Seattle Police Department Mr. Irigon, I want to let you know the Seattle Police Department (SPD) takes all incidents of hate crime very seriously and we were as incensed as anyone by the acts that were described to us regarding the University Way NE incident. I wanted to make sure that you know of the specifics of the incident and the Seattle Police Department response. Following is a summary of the SPD response: On 09-28-14 Seattle Police responded to a reported Bias Crime in the area of 4730 University Way NE. The owner of a café (Victim) observed subject throwing items from an upper floor of an apartment which is directly above the café. The victim observed the items (lit cigarettes and beer cans) were thrown at a couple of Asian females who were walking on the sidewalk. The suspects also were using racial derogatory language towards the females. The victim confronted the subjects over the matter. One of the subjects poked him in the neck and used a racial derogatory term and told him he (victim) was in his (suspect’s) country. The suspect also made verbal threats to kill the victim. Seattle Police immediately responded and completed a Malicious Harassment Report. The case was assigned to the Bias Crimes Detective on 09-29-14. The Bias Crimes detective interviewed the victim and (2) identified suspects who live at 4730 University Way NE. The victim made it clear that he did not want to pursue the matter further, because he prayed about it and has forgiven the suspects. The (2) unidentified Asian females have not been located or reported the incident to police. Currently the case is cleared Exceptional due to the victim not wanting to assist in the prosecution. In the event that victim wishes to proceed, we will be able to move the case forward. In regards to Asian officer promotions, I will provide official information to you at a later time, but I know that Lt. Randy Yamanaka, Lt. Paul Leung, and Captain Eric Sano are relatively recent promotees that were promoted to command level positions well after Captain Ron Mochizuki. I look forward to working with you and others in the community to assist us in recruiting Asian officers to the Seattle Police Department and encouraging them to take the promotional exams. We are committed to having an ethnically diverse police department that represents the communities we serve. (end)