HOT FROM THE OVEN! | Columnist Carolyn Ossorio returns with a new column about food. [8]
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New boundaries | The Renton School District is redrawing its middle school boundary maps to accommodate a new building. [ 3 ]
FRIDAY, JAN. 16, 2015
Renton rallies for the Hawks R
enton’s Seahawks spirit was front and center for all the world to see as hundreds of fans descended upon Renton City Hall last Friday to cheer the team on to victory in this past Saturday’s playoff game against the Carolina Panthers. A confident and boisterous crowd filled the upper parking deck of City Hall clad in all manner of blueand-green Seahawks regalia. Former players Marcus Trufant and Craig Terrill got the crowd going, as did the band Blue Thunder, Blitz and the Sea Gals. It took Efren de Jesus, right, a month to put together his costume. The Renton resident spread his arms wide and let onlookers take pictures of him and with him.
Hearing examiner sides with district 97-lot Tiffany park subdivision will proceed as planned BY TRACEY COMPTON tcompton@rentonreporter.com
The development of a 97-lot residential subdivision will continue as planned, after Renton’s hearing examiner this week rejected the appeal from the citizens’ group Tiffany Park Woods Advocacy Group (TPWAG), that tried to save the 21.7-acre undeveloped property. Hearing Examiner Phil Olbrechts noted that Tiffany Park’s woods may have had recreational and aesthetic value in the past, but the woods are not subject to Washington State Environmental Protection Act (SEPA) review. “As detailed in this decision, the fact that the applicant has allowed neighbors to use its property in the past (or worse, the fact that neighbors may have trespassed in the past) does not justify the imposition of any SEPA requirements because the neighbors will lose that privilege as a result of the development,” wrote Olbrechts in his decision. The hearing examiner went on to say that just because the neighbors of the park enjoyed an “appealing arboreal view,” that same view does [ more TIFFANY page 3 ]
PHOTOS BY TRACEY COMPTON
CAN FERGUSON HAPPEN HERE? PART 3 of 3:
Differences continue in perceptions over police diversity BY TRACEY COMPTON tcompton@rentonreporter.com
Officer Mark Coleman has been with the Renton Police Department for 11 years and Police Guild president for four years in two separate two-year terms. The guild is Renton’s police union and has 99 commissioned police officers and 29 non-commissioned members. In the wake of several high-profile,
national cases of police use-of-force, the Renton Reporter sat down with Coleman to get his response to the issues raised by members of Renton’s African-American community in the previous stories of this series. Overall, Coleman said his experience with the department has been a good one and he described the department as “a very close-knit organization” of “comrades.” He also said that a case similar to those that have exploded nationally could happen anywhere and that Renton’s officers are a diverse unit, who have each other’s backs. But his responses do show a rift in perceptions between the guild and some Renton community members.
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On the one hand, community members said that while Renton’s police are getting it right most of the time, more could be done to reach out to comOfr. Mark Coleman munities of color. Police administration has echoed the same sentiments with regard to community outreach and hiring. However, according to Coleman, Renton’s force is plenty diverse and would respond to any given situation the same way regardless of the demographics of the department.
PERCEIVED THREAT AND RACISM Coleman wanted to stress that any person, “even an unarmed teenager, could become an imminent threat” to an officer or another person anywhere in America. “Once a person becomes an imminent threat to another’s life, then the possibility of lethal force does exist based on the facts and circumstances that are immediately in front of the officer,” he said. Coleman took issue with the mention of Trayvon Martin and George Zimmerman in the series because he said they have nothing to do with the police or community relations with the police. However, to the African-American community members [ more DIVERSITY page 13 ]
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For the final installment of the Renton Reporter’s series on police use-of-force and community relations, we look at the police perspective on some of the issues raised in the series.