The 43rd Showed Up – Thank You.

Justice for Roger Wright and the Ongoing Fight for Police Accountability

I was dismayed to read the revealing article in Real Change News about Seattleite Roger Wright’s 21-year-long search for accountability. Roger was the victim of severe police brutality in 2004 in South Seattle where he was racially profiled, tasered, knocked unconscious for hours, and abandoned on a freeway onramp. He has been dealing with the fallout and trauma from this near-death experience ever since. None of Seattle’s police accountability agencies have made much progress on actual justice for Roger, and many Seattle-area politicians have been less than responsive to him.

For the last several months, I’ve talked with Roger about what I can do to ensure that this community does right by him and have considered mechanisms for accountability with the officers involved who are still currently on the police force. Roger’s human rights were violated, and he and his family have spent the past 2 decades pursuing every formal avenue to seek justice and truth for Roger and the Wright family. He has faced not only the trauma of the original injustice but also in validating his experience in the years since.

I know that the 43rd Legislative District stands with Roger Wright. Historically, we’ve been a stronghold of civil rights – during the protests for racial justice in the summer of 2020, we showed the world what it looks like to do the most in pursuit of a world without police prejudice. I know that our community doesn’t tolerate what happened to him, because I’ve seen our community’s values up close.

I am grateful that Roger has attended a couple of our town halls and that he has shared his story and perspective directly with my office over the past several months. His courage underscores why the Legislature has worked to strengthen police accountability and transparency in recent years — including passing landmark laws such as HB 1054, which bans dangerous police tactics like chokeholds and no-knock warrants; SB 5051, which improves officer certification and oversight; and SB 5259, which created a statewide database to track use-of-force incidents. We know that these laws are just the beginning.

We are already developing additional proposals to expand independent investigations and prosecutions for excessive force to ensure true accountability and prevent future injustices like what Roger endured.

If you’d like to join in the fight for police accountability and Roger’s efforts for justice and visibility, here are three things you can do:

• Be a part of the public accountability process: Read and share Roger Wright’s story, in private and in public, with friends and on social media, to highlight his harrowing experience and his incredible advocacy to fight for justice for himself and his family.

• Ask elected officials who represent you in state and local government about how they would prevent what happened to Roger from happening to anybody else.

• Reach out to my office if you have ideas or tips that we can explore to get justice for Roger Wright.