As Minneapolis burned last night in response to police murdering George Floyd, Mike Solan, the new head of the Seattle Police union, thought it'd be a good time to go on Ari Hoffman's podcast to publicly complain about people who voted for Shaun Scott in the last election. 
For those who aren't familiar with Solan, he stumbled onto the scene last year when he ran for union president, publicly publishing this campaign ad glorifying police abusing protesters. 70% of union members voted to elect him.
The timing is no coincidence, as protests rage across the country. Solan views his position as a PR role, publicly stating on multiple occasions (including his interview last night) that he aims to "take back the narrative" from the "activist class". thecisforcrank.com/2020/01/07/aft…
And he has been relatively effective to that end, appealing directly to Seattle's conservative residents through neighborhood groups, interviews with hate-groups like Safe Seattle, and appearances on local rightwing conspiracy podcasts like Hoffman's.
(Related: It's difficult to imagine that Solan's election doesn't have something to do with Mayor Durkan's latest move to partner with Trump's DOJ to lift the consent decree that was put in place to address SPD's frequent, violent, abuse of power.)
As we find ourselves in the midst of this sea-change of public opinion, as millions of people wake up to the fact our police have been militarized against the communities they are supposed to serve, Solan and people like him will only get louder.
But again, Solan was elected with more than 70% of the vote. His unabashed, unapologetic, and wildly tone-deaf perspective is representative of the entire Seattle Police Department, and we would be irresponsible to ignore what he says or who he says it to.
(We should all appreciate the irony of Solan appearing on Hoffman's podcast, as for weeks Hoffman has openly been operating his business against the governor's stay-at-home order and has referred to people who report him as "snitches")
