Episode 35 - Downtown
from The Great Longboat Podcast Hosted by Igor Keller
On August 30, 2010 - exactly ten years ago - Officer Ian Birk of the SPD shot and killed John T. Williams in downtown Seattle. It's something that has remained controversial ever since. Was it an execution? Was Williams coming at Birk with murder in his eyes? After a few incidents in the 2000s that made the Seattle Police look rather ridiculous, especially the "crazy samurai" debacle, they started to crack down. By the end of the decade, you began hearing about people getting shot all the time, many of them in downtown. A lot seemed to be crazy people acting erratically. That was tolerated until the Williams killing. The entire confrontation lasted seven seconds and at the end of it, Williams had been shot four times. This song incorporates that event and it also appeals to the crazy people across the downtown area that the cops are pretty trigger happy. And it's a calypso, a genre that has really fallen by the wayside since the fifties. But that's not all! In addition, I give you the scoop on recording my latest album, which is this year's sixth. Spoiler: it's really a joy. And I think the album is going to turn out great.
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