Week in Review: cold weather, encampments, and the Tacoma Police Department

Bill Radke discusses the week’s news with freelance journalist Joanne Silberner, Insider’s Katherine Long, and Seattle Times' investigations editor Jonathan Martin.

King County says at least five people died of exposure in Seattle during the recent bout of cold weather. William Macabitas, Mehri Tesfa, and Jay Anderson were all in their 60s. Macabitas was found outside. Anderson was found in a vehicle near the Ballard Library. Fifty-three-year-old David Tinker died in a residence. Adam Elknation, 37, died outside. Someone set a fire in an alley by a Pioneer Square art gallery apparently for warmth, and the fire spread into the building and damaged more than 100 artworks, including Picassos and Rembrandts. And there were the usual issues with school closures and delays, people falling on the ice, hazardous mountain passes and tough commutes. How did you fare?

This week, The Seattle Times interviewed two advocates for unsheltered people. They disagreed about whether clearing encampments is a good idea. They are Tim Harris, founder of Real Change newspaper, and Tiffani McCoy, who was advocacy director at Real Change and now works with a nonprofit advocating for more affordable housing. McCoy’s argument was that sweeping away encampments doesn't get people housed, and the need is to build more affordable housing. Harris argued that encampments hurt businesses and communities, and when we deny that, we look naive, and we alienate people. Can we expect to see more sweeps in Seattle?

Three Tacoma Police officers were acquitted last month of murdering Manuel Ellis during an arrest four years ago. This week, the Tacoma Police Department announced that an internal investigation found the three officers did not violate the department's use-of-force policy, and all three officers will voluntarily leave Tacoma Police and the department will pay them a half-million dollars each in addition to the paid leave they've been receiving since Ellis' death.

The state Legislature is considering barring police from using deceptive tactics in interrogations. Under this proposed law, if an officer intentionally lies to a suspect about evidence they have, or about how a confession could make the law be more lenient on them, any statement that suspect gives could be inadmissible. Testifying in support was Amanda Knox, best known for being wrongly convicted of murdering her roommate in Italy. She described her five-day interrogation where officers claimed to have evidence incriminating her. Would Washington be the first state with this ban?