Outcry grew Friday over a Seattle police officer’s comments that the life of a young woman struck by a speeding patrol car has “limited value.” India’s diplomats are demanding an investigation after the death of an Indian graduate student as people protest in Seattle. The officer’s absurd jokes were caught bodycam video,
Footage released last week shows Officer Daniel Orderer, vice president of the Seattle Police Officers Guild, joking with the president of the general police union after he was hit by a different officer’s speeding police car on Jan. 23. Jhanvi Kandula At a crosswalk.
Protesters gathered Thursday evening at the Seattle intersection where a 23-year-old graduate student was fatally struck by Officer Kevin Dave’s SUV. The King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office is conducting a criminal review of the crash.
The orderly responded to the accident to evaluate whether Dave was disabled. seattle times informed of. On the way to the overdose call Dave was driving 74 mph in a 25 mph zone.
Later, orderer left my body worn camera That’s when he called Seattle Police Officers Guild President Mike Solan and told him what had happened. In a recording released by the police department on Monday, Orderer laughingly suggests that Kandula’s life had “limited value” and that the city should only write a check for $11,000.
At the protest on Thursday, 5-year-old Laila Allibhai sat on the shoulders of her father Mo Allibhai and held a sign that read: “I have unlimited values. Jhanvi also did the same.
Protesters also held signs reading “Jail killer cop” and “Convict Kevin Dave.”
“I think it got people excited because putting a value on a human life at $11,000 is very blatant and outrageous,” Patricia Hunter, co-chair. Community Police Commission, said in an interview on Friday. “And it causes people to see that there are some issues in the culture of the Seattle Police Department that need to be addressed immediately.”
The Hunter Commission was formed to hold police accountable, along with the Office of Inspector General and the Office of Police Accountability. Hunter said its next steps are to work with those partners to see what charges can be brought in the case, what policies may have been broken and “to amplify the voices of the community outraged by this video, so that Justice can be done.” ,
Consulate General of India in San Francisco X posted that he has raised the “deeply disturbing” matter with authorities in Seattle and Washington, DC, and that he wants a full investigation and action against those involved. Newspapers in India are keeping an eye on this matter.
The US State Department described the situation as worrying in a statement on Friday.
“We are aware and troubled by what was revealed in bodycam footage recently released by the Seattle Police Department regarding Ms. Kandula’s death,” the State Department said. “We would like to take this opportunity to express our sincere condolences to the family and loved ones of Ms Kandula.”
Recent reports, including in the media, of the handling of the death of Ms Jahnavi Kandula in a traffic accident in Seattle in January have been extremely disturbing. We have strongly raised this matter with local officials in Seattle and Washington state, as well as senior officials in Washington, D.C.
– India in SF (@CGISFO) 13 September 2023
The Seattle Police Officers Guild said in a statement Friday that it understands the outrage caused by the “highly insensitive comments.”
“This tarnishes the profession of law enforcement, the reputation of all Seattle police officers and paints Seattle in a terrible light,” the union said. “We are deeply saddened and heartbroken for the family of Jhanvi Kandula as this video has re-victimized them in an already tragic situation and they are mourning her death. We are truly sorry.”
But the union noted that the bodycam footage only captures the orderer’s side of the conversation: “There are a lot more details and nuances that have not yet been made public.”
Solan, who was on the other end of the call with Order, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Friday.
Order said in an Aug. 8 statement to the Office of Police Accountability that the union released Friday that Solon had expressed grief over the death and that his own comments were intended to mimic what the city attorney said. How can we try to reduce the liability?
“I laughed at the ridiculousness of how these events were prosecuted and at the ridiculousness of how I saw these events as a bargain between two parties on a tragedy,” Order wrote.
He denied that his comments were made “out of malice or a hard heart.”
Kandula was from Andhra Pradesh, a state in the southern coastal region of India. Relatives told The Seattle Times that Kandula came to Seattle so she could one day help her mother in India. Candula was on track to graduate from Northeastern University’s Seattle campus with a master’s degree in information systems this December.
the university said It plans to posthumously award Kandula her master’s degree and present it to her family.