The Midnight Purge of the Seattle Police
Mayor J.T. Ronald orchestrates a defiant, late-night suspension of Police Chief Bolton Rogers in a battle for control over the city's executive branch.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
The antagonism between Mayor Ronald and Chief of Police Rogers, manifested before the election with very little reserve, resulted yesterday in the suspension of the chief by the mayor and the appointment of H.G. Thornton to temporarily fill the position. Late Tuesday night, Mayor Ronald directed City Clerk Stoneman to serve notices to the commissioners of the board of police of a special meeting. The mayor declared, 'It is impossible for the present chief and the present mayor to work in harmony. I have no confidence in the present chief and he has none in me.' When the board of police commissioners refused to move for the chief's removal, Mayor Ronald took the extraordinary step of issuing an order of removal himself, citing a lack of 'cordial relations.' Chief Rogers, while disputing the mayor's authority to override the board, agreed to vacate the office to avoid public disorder, pending a legal resolution. Mayor Ronald’s aggressive action signals a volatile shift in Seattle’s city governance, as he attempts to consolidate control over city departments previously shielded from mayoral whim.
“I tell you I will not tolerate the present chief.”
This 1892 struggle over the Mayor's power to appoint and fire city officials and set the agenda for the police department echoes contemporary debates in Seattle regarding the balance of power between the Mayor’s office, the City Council, and the oversight of municipal departments.
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