{"id":48,"date":"2015-03-06T13:13:52","date_gmt":"2015-03-06T21:13:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/surprisingfaith\/?p=48"},"modified":"2015-03-09T07:28:28","modified_gmt":"2015-03-09T15:28:28","slug":"pastor-with-a-lawsuit-john-helmiere-vs-seattle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/surprisingfaith\/2015\/03\/pastor-with-a-lawsuit-john-helmiere-vs-seattle\/","title":{"rendered":"Pastor with a Lawsuit: John Helmiere vs. Seattle"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

When most people hear \u201cpastor,\u201d they think of words like \u201cpreacher,\u201d \u201cpeaceful,\u201d or \u201cnice\u201d\u2014or maybe \u201coutdated\u201d or \u201cold-fashioned.\u201d But not, usually, \u201clitigious.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/iframe>\nReverend John Helmiere is subverting this image. The founder and leader of the progressive spiritual community Valley and Mountain in the Hillman City neighborhood of Seattle, WA, is suing the city for violating his constitutional rights. Full disclosure: I\u2019m a member of Valley & Mountain, and I\u2019ve known John since moving into nearby Columbia City last summer.<\/p>\nThree years ago, on Dec. 12, 2011, John attended a protest in support of Seattle port workers. As he was leaving, he was beaten, led to a van, and taken to prison. After filing a complaint against the police department which yielded no results\u2013no investigation, no apology\u2013John filed a lawsuit against Seattle, saying that he was unjustly imprisoned.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_51\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-51\" style=\"width: 640px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/534\/2015\/03\/14184871389_3c896da9b1_z.jpg\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-51\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/534\/2015\/03\/14184871389_3c896da9b1_z.jpg\" alt=\"Photo of the port lit up at night with Mt. Rainier in the background\" width=\"640\" height=\"427\"><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-51\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photo of the Port of Seattle c\/o <a href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/tiffany98101\/14184871389\/in\/photolist-aAG7Zk-9nrMSV-7rKd12-nBtb56-7rP7o7-9f2wKB-9oXCmt-9oXCcz-9p1G6u-pNZykx-5ocXMq-6C7wZP-o7rnEH-7bHwMh-9f5ELj-7bDJ3x-6KHpY1-nNMBep-7bHwAE-C6bhc-2vj3k2-85czaH-5p16Rx-o2mkgW-nSGasf-pREDzQ-bhHZHz-fEmV5B-qQ8Vy5-nnz67i-nnz57x-nwBUbK-5E9DaA-fpw2XG-4TV6CV-iPR7R-oKLhsP-4tj2zV-8ddCkf-ofjfK1-7BdCrq-nZRK2G-6CbERm-nZRJUY-2esHw9-oVYa-2esDV7-2XopFu-8z4wsW-qz9jnx\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Tiffany Von Armin<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\nInitially, John was resistant to filing a suit for many reasons. He didn\u2019t want to open himself up to attacks on his character, particularly damaging in his work as a community leader. Also, a lawsuit is essentially antithetical to John\u2019s mission of building a community. One friend told him \u201ctake everything you know about and believe about how to relate to people\u2014a lawsuit is the opposite.\u201d<\/p>\n\u201cIt lacks a human or relational element,\u201d John says. \u201cIt\u2019s adversarial.\u201d And it\u2019s deeply opposed to his Christian faith. A lawsuit could be seen as the exact opposite of Jesus\u2019 command to turn the other cheek.<\/p>\nBut a local mentor, Dawn Mason, put the situation to him this way: the police system has become so corrupt that \u201cit\u2019s eating its own.\u201d<\/p>\nIn other words, police brutality, long held to be a symptom of institutionalized racism, has gone so far that it is now perpetuated against white men\u2014even white men of peace.<\/p>\nAnother reason John finally decided to file suit was timing. \u201cI believe in providence,\u201d he says. He sees the spirit or spirits as the currents in the ocean, moving things. The sea creatures\u2014we humans\u2014can move with or against the current. The Black Lives Matter movement and protests in Ferguson, New York, and other places that rose in the wake of Michael Brown\u2019s shooting inspired him. \u201cI saw that as people refusing to absorb their oppression,\u201d John says. As a minister, he felt that absorbing his own oppression would be setting a bad example.<\/p>\nSimilar reasoning inspired John to start a blog and share the experience of being beaten back in 2011. The story was <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.seattlepi.com\/seattle911\/2011\/12\/14\/minister-says-he-was-beaten-by-police-during-occupy-protests\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">picked up<\/a> by\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.yesmagazine.org\/happiness\/a-lesson-in-love-from-the-protest-at-the-port\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"> local news stations<\/a> immediately after. It begins like this:<\/p>\n<blockquote>On Monday evening, I was brutally beaten by my brothers on the Seattle Police force as I stood before an entrance to Pier 18 of the Seattle Port, wearing my clergy garb and bellowing, \u201cKeep the peace! Keep the peace!\u201d<\/p>\nAn officer pulled me down from behind and threw me to the asphalt. Between my cries of pain and shouts of \u201cI\u2019m a man of peace!\u201d he pressed a knee to my spine and immobilized my arms behind my back, crushing me against the ground. With the right side of my face pressed to the street, he repeatedly punched the left side. I was cuffed and pulled off the ground by a different officer who seemed genuinely appalled when he saw my bleeding face and my clerical collar. He asked who I was and why I was here, to which I replied, \u201cI\u2019m a minister of the gospel of Jesus Christ. I believe another world is possible.\u201d He led me shaking to a police van where began a 12-hour journey of incarcerated misery.<\/p><\/blockquote>\nDespite being unearthly tall, John is not an intimidating man. He\u2019s skinny, has longish curly hair, and is often found carrying around chairs to set up for a service or holding his baby daughter Charis. He laughs easily and gets along with seemingly everyone. Valley and Mountain is a unique spiritual community: it meets in a community center that also hosts art shows and monthly cultural celebrations and draws in a diverse crowd.<\/p>\nWhen he talks about being beaten, John\u2019s eyebrows go up and he holds out his hands, as if he is still waiting for an explanation. He speaks about jail with dread. <a href=\"http:\/\/slog.thestranger.com\/slog\/archives\/2014\/11\/19\/council-member-kshama-sawant-and-three-others-arrested-in-seatac-while-protesting-minimum-wage-lawsuit\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">He was arrested again this past November<\/a> with airport workers Kadra Osman and Socrates Bravo and city Councilwoman Kshama Sawant in a protest against Alaska Airlines for blocking the minimum wage raise to $15. When I talked to him about it afterwards, he said being in jail was terrible: it was isolating to be\u00a0so far from his family.<\/p>\nAs John moves forward with the lawsuit, he is worried about the personal toll it will take. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.seattlepi.com\/local\/article\/Seattle-minister-bloodied-by-police-The-5964329.php\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">John\u2019s case\u00a0has already gained media attention in Seattle<\/a>, but he doesn\u2019t like talking with the media. He worries that people will think he is money-grubbing. But a civil lawsuit is his only recourse in this case, and its\u00a0only possible reward is\u00a0monetary. \u201cI don\u2019t want it,\u201d he says. Instead, he would like to see specific reforms\u00a0of the criminal justice system and the system for filing a complaint against it. (If he does win the case, John intends to give the money away via democratic means, so that it doesn\u2019t simply benefit his \u201cpet causes.\u201d)<\/p>\nAs a Christian man of peace, he fears that others will ask why John doesn\u2019t simply forgive the police who beat him. \u201cI don\u2019t even know who did this,\u201d he points out.<\/p>\nIn the end, John feels he has no other recourse to promote peace. \u201cI think we\u2019re called to forgive people,\u201d he says. \u201cBut we\u2019re called to dismantle the system.\u201d<\/p>\nPlease do check back in; I\u2019ll be following the case as it unfolds.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When most people hear \u201cpastor,\u201d they think of words like \u201cpeaceful,\u201d or \u201cnice”–not \u201clitigious.\u201d Reverend John Helmiere is going against the grain and suing the city of Seattle for violation of his constitutional rights and wrongful imprisonment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2208,"featured_media":51,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,13],"tags":[12,11],"class_list":["post-48","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-activism","category-progressive-christianity","tag-lawsuit","tag-seattle"],"yoast_head":"\n<title>Pastor with a Lawsuit: John Helmiere vs. Seattle<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"When most people hear \u201cpastor,\u201d they think of words like \u201cpeaceful,\u201d or \u201cnice"--not \u201clitigious.\u201d Reverend John Helmiere is going against the grain and suing the city of Seattle for violation of his constitutional rights and wrongful imprisonment.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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