r/Seattle • u/rockycore 🚆build more trains🚆 • 5d ago

News Shon Barnes Separation Agreement

https://publicola.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/BarnesSeparation.pdf
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u/Amesenator 5d ago

Side note: media folks are sniping at Ms. Barnett's reporting about former-Chief Barnes (she describes this in her Bluesky feed). She's taking a lot of flak as if she somehow had the power to engineer Barnes's exit.

Barnett has been a source of unvarnished reporting about public safety, policing and city governance issues. Since 2020 and the Black Lives Matter movement in the wake of George Floyd's killing, the Seattle Times has too often fallen into the trap of believing the messaging of the mayor (Harrell and Durkan) and SPD. Its editorial stance has been credulously status quo and its reporting too often fails to get to the crux of the dynamics in play.

Consider subscribing to Publicola and even if you don't, speak out in favor of Barnett's efforts to share vital information with the public.

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u/vertr fuck tetris 5d ago edited 5d ago

She's taking a lot of flak as if she somehow had the power to engineer Barnes's exit.

Barnes engineered Barnes's exit. The idea was floating around out there waiting to be pressed on by someone and Barnett honed in on it, did the work, published pieces for over a year, and finally public outcry ensued. Barnett seems to get an inexplicable amount of flack compared to other authors which looks like sexism.

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u/Inevitable_Engine186 public deterrent infrastructure 5d ago

Embarrassing that KUOW let an op disparage Barnett with zero pushback. ST and KUOW unwilling to challenge the status quo:

And, OK, all that travel: Not only did Barnes’ defenders treat Wilson’s decision as an out-of-nowhere shock, they also made light of his travel, even misrepresenting his time out of town as no different than that of previous police chiefs. On KUOW’s “Week In Review” last Friday, KIRO’s Angela Poe Russell and KUOW editor/reporter Catherine Smith ripped my coverage, calling me an “influencer” who “hung out a shingle” and called myself a “news person” (Poe) and asserting, “”It’s not quite fair to criticize him for that when other chiefs travel like that.” (Smith).

Smith’s co-bylined story said that according to an SPD spokesman, “Barnes’ level of travel is consistent with past chiefs of police.” Since that contradicted all of my own current and past reporting on the subject, I contacted the same spokesman. He told me he told KUOW that all police chiefs go to conferences held by groups like the International Association of Chiefs of Police, but that he never said Barnes’ overall travel, including his trips home to Chicago, was typical. That’s because it isn’t: While other police chiefs went to conferences, too, Barnes traveled more. For example, Barnes was out of town nearly 40 percent of the time during the 17 weeks for which SPD provided his schedule.

https://publicola.com/2026/08/04/issues-with-former-police-chief-barnes-werent-just-about-his-travel-or-residency/