The Ex-Chief's Last Stand
After his firing, Seattle’s police chief J.C. Mitchell fired back against Mayor Moran and the City Council, exposing a city hall scandal involving alleged gambling kickbacks and corrupt 'star chamber' politics.
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.
Permit me to say a few words in reply to the charges of that quartette of the city council: Mayor Moran, the City Attorney, and Councilmen of the second and fourth wards. These charges are the weapons of sneaks and cowards. Mayor Moran states that when we went into office, we promised to clean up the city. If I am included in that ‘we,’ I object. I made no promises. Cleaning up the city is not police business; it is the duty of the street commissioner. Notwithstanding this, I worked eighteen and nineteen hours a day for five months, ruining my health, but the council did not support me. When I had parties arrested for not cleaning up, the City Attorney would move that the cases be dismissed. When we targeted the water front, I served notices, but after the time expired, the council gave the offenders sixty days more—throwing the matter into hot weather, where it was more likely to breed disease. Regarding gambling, Mr. Moran hinted that I was in collusion with gamblers. I deny this in toto. I offered a proposition to the council: If they can find any man or woman who will swear that I took a dollar from any gambling fraternity, I will plead guilty to all their charges, take my family, and get out of town. I challenge any one of the quartette to make the same statement.
“Those charges and insinuations, the weapons of sneaks and cowards, have no authenticity. They are not put forth to the public in the way such things are done by high-minded and honorable men.”
Mitchell's lament—that he was caught between political grandstanding and a failure of the City Council to actually enforce basic city ordinances—is a timeless Seattle refrain. Just as in 1889, modern city officials often find themselves locked in finger-pointing contests over sanitation and public order, while actual governance gets lost in the noise of administrative friction.
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