Seattle Police Chief Kathleen O’Toole has reassigned an officer involved in the arrest last summer of a 69-year-old man who refused to drop a golf club he was carrying on a city sidewalk.
Officer Cynthia Whitlatch ordered the man to drop the golf club, saying he had swung it at her patrol car in a threatening manner and struck a stop sign. A video of the encounter last summer shows that after driving around a block, the officer pulled her cruiser up to a corner where the man, William Wingate, was standing, and yelled at him to drop the golf club.
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The Seattle Police Department has made several changes prompted by a Justice Department investigation that found signs of biased policing, as well as evidence that officers are too quick to use force, especially in low-level situations.
Wingate has filed a $750,000 claim against the police department.
