A black police captain tried to fix racism in the police department. The chief says, I can't do all that. Now he gets $1 million because [00:00:16] he was demoted for saying something. Let's get into it. Put it up for a mass hell of a saga here. The city of Seattle will now pay nearly $1 million to Eric Greening. [00:00:34] On the left, a police captain. He has rank. He has years. He has senior leadership accolades. But now he's getting a settlement. This 1 million was to settle a lawsuit in which he alleged [00:00:51] that the city's police chief demoted him for reporting racism and discrimination. Greening, a 30 year veteran. Did you hear me? A 30 year veteran with the Seattle Police [00:01:10] Department sued the city and former police chief Adrian Diaz on the right. This was March 2024. Greening alleged that Diaz retaliated against him and reduced his rank [00:01:27] after he reported race and gender discrimination within the department while he served in a command position. Diaz was fired last December by Mayor Bruce Harrell over an improper [00:01:45] relationship with his chief of staff. There's more. According to the complaint cited by King5 in the Seattle Times, greening, who has been with the Seattle police force since 1994, [00:02:02] For joined the command staff as an assistant chief in 2017, where he sometimes served as acting chief. In 2021, he was tapped to lead the department's Race and Social [00:02:17] Justice Initiative Change team and the Collaborative Policing Bureau. These are community policing aspects. His new leadership positions made him responsible for reporting racism and gender bias within the police agency to Diaz and proposed workable solutions, [00:02:36] according to the suit. So what do we have so far in proper context? You have an individual who has significant service to one department. He has leadership. He has rank, likely has the respect of many colleagues, [00:02:53] has been the acting chief on occasion. My point is, they've trusted him. Okay. The powers that be trusted him, trusted him so much that when the city needed to figure out a public relations solution to the separation between cop [00:03:11] and community due to the extreme racism permeating from the department, they tapped him. They tapped his leadership. Guess what? He does his job. His job is to report racism, sexism, etc. To the police chief. [00:03:32] The police chief is supposed to work out a plan, a protocol, a remedy, a strategy to address these issues. But instead the police chief went another route. Here it is. So greening raised several concerns [00:03:49] to the chief after observing that the community outreach responsibilities and work regarding diversity, equity and inclusion were often assigned to women [00:04:05] and minority members of the department. He noted that white commanders, civilian executive directors and other assistant chiefs were, quote, being absolved of any responsibility to connect with community members [00:04:24] and a non-enforcement capacity. According to the suit. I have to tell you, this is one of the most practical arguments I've heard a police leader make. He's simply saying, if you want the department to transform its culture, [00:04:41] you can't simply put black people in the position of community outreach. You can't simply put women only in the position of community outreach. Let's be very clear. The issue was not and is not led by women in that department. [00:05:01] If you go pound for pound, you will see white males are your strongest violators across the board. We're talking about policing and misconduct as it relates to racism. Okay. He's saying everybody needs to have skin in the game in order for the culture to transform. Beautiful point. Well said. [00:05:18] And it's documented. There's more. He also alleged that Chief Diaz excluded women and Bipoc command personnel from decision making processes, circumvented black supervisors to make requests directly of their subordinates, [00:05:37] and allowed white lieutenants to bypass Collaborative Policing Bureau leadership, which included greening and other people of color. So on top of all of this, according to the allegation, Chief Diaz [00:05:53] doesn't communicate with Black Command. He communicates with the subordinates as if command that happens to be black is not worthy of his acknowledgment. [00:06:09] There's more in early. Excuse me. Greening discussed these concerns with the chief in 2022. This was January. Gave him a copy of The Continuum on becoming an anti-racist, [00:06:27] multicultural organization. Diaz only responded with something along the lines of, quote, I can't fix all this. According to the complaint. Then, in early 2023, the police department began their search for a new deputy chief [00:06:44] and assistant chief at the time. Chief Diaz required all current assistant chiefs to reapply for their roles. Greening said when he reapplied, [00:06:59] he was only given a perfunctory interview before being demoted to the rank of captain and placed in charge of the Force Review Review Unit. [00:07:16] Which came to an almost $30,000 pay decrease. Greening said Diaz abolished the Collaborative Policing Bureau. After his demotion. Now this is an internal issue, right? [00:07:33] But it's not just an employment issue. Understand that if you are willing to show this kind of bias and corruption internally, you are likely also covering it externally as well from bad leadership. [00:07:51] You cannot produce good policy, protocol and citizen protection. In addition to that, you now have a defunding apparatus for the police. Here it comes. So the city settlement, the city settlement with greening. [00:08:06] Awards Towards him $638,000, and his attorney gets a cool $312,000. The agreement dictates that greening must remain on paid leave until a required [00:08:26] resignation date of February 1st, 2026. Once again, defunding by way of police misconduct. The chief. He will receive a retirement plaque and a letter thanking him [00:08:45] for his service once he resigns. The settlement is not an admission of wrongdoing, according to the narrative from the police department. He'll also receive $73,000 in back wages of his salary as assistant chief [00:09:02] and $250,000 in non-economic compensation. His retirement ranking will be changed from police captain back to assistant chief after his resignation. The city will pay him $65,000 in wage damages and an additional $250,000 [00:09:21] in economic non-economic damages. The city, i.e. The police department, is literally paying for the privilege to be racist. [00:09:40] They're literally paying for it. It's okay that we just pay $1 million. Okay. It is a horrible set of circumstances when a police department, which is a government agency, can believe that operating in such a negligent way. [00:09:59] Not listening to command, not honoring the so-called blue code or the blue wall or the blue line or whatever the hell it is. It seems as if it only becomes an issue of separation [00:10:16] when we're talking about racism. All of a sudden everything is off the table. No protection for the cop, no. Let's rally around our fellow brother or sister in blue. None of that happens. They'd rather pay this money than transform their culture. [00:10:34] All right. Jasper. Thoughts here. Jasper. Thoughts here. Yeah. What an amazing settlement. You know, this is a cop who was actually trying to be that good apple in the police department. That he was working in one of those good apples that we keep hearing about, but we don't really see a whole lot of. [00:10:50] But he was being that the reason why people say things like acab is because those good cops are they're supposed to try to make things better within their police departments, but we just don't see that happening as often as we would like. For whatever reason, they're afraid to speak up. [00:11:07] They don't think anything will get done, or they're afraid of retribution, which is what this cop ended up having to deal with. So here's the rare instance when that is what's trying to be done. He took the risk. And this is coming from a 30 year veteran, as he pointed out. [00:11:22] Very well respected within the police department that he had worked in. Very well respected and known in his community. And if that guy could be taken down by the greater police forces, then, you know, it could happen to anybody. You know, police departments are going to police department. [00:11:39] That was clunky, but you get what I'm saying. So instead of taking this man seriously, someone who had been taken seriously up to that point, you know, they just decided that it was easier to do nothing rather than to even try and do anything. And this is exactly what we're talking about. [00:11:54] The rot runs so deep that even after these police departments acknowledge and understand the extent of the corruption and racism and sexism within the the department, they still don't want to do anything about it because it's just too daunting. It's too much work. It can't be done. [00:12:10] Why even bother? So just get rid of the guy who's making all the noise about it. I want to say good for the cop, for getting his money, for getting his plaque, and for getting all of his recognition. He's also earning national recognition now because people like you, Doctor Richie, are talking about his story on your platform. [00:12:26] But as I think you were alluding to, while $1 million is a significant payout to the cop plus all of his back pay, etc., it's not a whole lot of money for the police department or the city to pay out, especially when the alternative is a cultural shift that they have made it very, very clear they are not even willing to attempt. [00:12:45] That's right. And the reason I say that the culture is intact basically, is because with all of those victories, this now back assistant chief received, the department still said [00:13:01] there is no admission of wrong doing without acknowledgment. There is no transformation possible. All right, we'll keep you updated if there's an update from that story.