Labor-backed group asks WA state AG Bob Ferguson to charge Amazon with felony over head-tax threat
Lest you believed Seattle’s head-tax debate was not already hot enough, a union-backed activist group says Amazon should be charged with a crime for its threat to roll back job growth if the Seattle City Council imposes the controversial tax aimed at helping homeless people.
The group, Working Washington, is asking Washington State Attorney General Bob Ferguson to charge Amazon with a Class B felony: “intimidating a public servant,” citing the company’s move to pause some construction and leasing in the city pending the outcome of the vote on the so-called “head tax.”
In an open letter to Ferguson on Wednesday, Working Washington compared Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos to “a subprime mob boss lording it over a company town” and cited the state law making it illegal to threaten politicians and other public employees with bodily harm or other damages, including financial harm, in an attempt to sway a vote or other official action.
“We believe there is abundant evidence Amazon has broken that law, and we urge you to investigate and prosecute Amazon for this serious crime,” Working Washington said in its letter, contending the company had threatened “the business and financial condition of the corporate person of the city of Seattle” in order to pressure the City Council.
Read more: https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/labor-backed-group-asks-washington-state-ag-bob-ferguson-to-charge-amazon-with-felony-over-head-tax-threat/
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