if you're not in Seattle, you probably haven't followed this incredibly stupid saga up until now:
May 2024: Adrian Diaz Out as Police Chief Amid Mounting Harassment and Discrimination Allegations
Seattle Police Chief Adrian Diaz has stepped down as chief after a series of scandals and lawsuits, many of them by women alleging discrimination and sexual harassment by Diaz and other officers in the department, multiple sources have confirmed.
Diaz will reportedly remain at the department in a special projects director instead of being fired—allowing him to retain a substantial six-figure salary without having to go back to his previous rank of lieutenant.
June 2024: Diaz Comes Out as Gay to Right-Wing Radio Host, Who Says this Proves His “Innocence”
Former police chief Adrian Diaz told conservative talk-radio host Jason Rantz that he is a “gay Latino man,” and suggested that his being gay undermines the claims of the women who have accused him of with sexual harassment, discrimination, and creating a hostile work environment toward women as well as Black officers.
July 2024: Former Police Chief Adrian Diaz Threatened PubliCola Over Post Describing His Coming-Out Interview
Former Seattle police chief Adrian Diaz, who was removed from his position earlier this year, threatened to sue PubliCola, and me personally, unless we removed a post describing the interview he did with conservative talk show host Jason Rantz.
so he gets accused of sexual harassment by multiple women, steps down as chief (but without getting fired, and retaining his salary)
then he tries to pull a Kevin Spacey by appearing on the radio show of a local two-bit Rush Limbaugh wannabe, and claiming to be gay, which means he obviously couldn't have harassed any women.
then he threatens to sue news outlets for reporting on that radio show appearance, because they reported on it skeptically rather than uncritically repeating "well, I guess he must be innocent then".
until finally an internal report into part of the harassment allegations is released (direct link to the 41-page PDF for my fellow primary source nerds)
the tl;dr of the investigation is that Diaz hired his girlfriend into a $200k/year job at the police department, where she reported directly to him. and that's too much even for our very pro-cop mayor, so he gets fired.
oh, and he bragged to other people at SPD about fucking his girlfriend, and showed them nude pics of her. which...uh...kinda lends some credence to those sexual harassment allegations.