My thought is that it doesn't matter. The Supreme Court has already given us Graham v. Connor, so the whole "subjective" part of the legislation will get knocked down with the first case to make it to the 9th circuit. As far as life saving, we do that already.
Everyone already gets de-escalation training. Despite what the proponents say, I'm willing to bet every LEO agency in Washington is already in compliance with that portion of the proposed law.
Let's say the law passes: so what? Give the people what they want. Show up to P1 calls an hour later to make sure the suspect is gone. If they are still there, let them injure a bystander so your actions to stop them are judged in the best light. Let's be honest - that is precisely what the proponents of this bill desire.
All that said, I predict this thing is going nowhere. Like I said, getting the signatures to get it on the ballot is the easy part. Convincing the rest of the state...not so much. Especially when LEO experts start explaining what the world will look like if the prop passes.
The problem is, the initiative process doesn't look at things like whether the initiative is Constitutional, practicable, passes the common sense test, is sane, etc.
So if there are problematic aspects of this law, it would probably be a good idea for Law Enforcement in Washington State to step up and say so now.
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“It doesn’t matter what the problem is, the solution is always for us to give the government more money and power, while we eat less meat.”
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I'm sure some members might be interested to get some clarification of how the law works in CA, so here's a link to a CA Secretary of State website explaining it. (Read the Additional Information paragraphs, as well as the can/can't register to vote info):
http://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/voti...-californians/
I'm not sure whether the rest of the voters may care what CA's LE thinks of it, especially since it's already established law. Besides, last I read (2015 numbers), CA only has about 77,000 sworn LE. (I think it was just over 6K for the total of reserves, looking on another site.)
Last edited by fastbolt; 12-30-2017 at 04:06 PM.
That was kind of my point. I agree that most Californians don't care what LE professionals think of public safety issues....since many think we're out of control racist murderers anyway. I also think the overwhelming majority have no idea where their elected officials stand on issues, or what was in the ballot initiative they just voted 'yes' on. Like I said...good luck with that, California.
Yeah, but that's why the losing side always has lawyers on standby, and I have no doubt the various LEO organizations in WA are working on their counterpoint. As a matter of fact, when I was reading about the initiative process in WA, it looked like the legislature can introduce their own version of the bill, and I bet it is already being written with significant input from LEOs.
LEO associations have no shortage of money (at least judging by the dues I have to pay out of every paycheck). I'm willing to bet they can outspend the opposition, wine and dine the various legislators, and eventually get what they want. It is an issue of educating the public, which they know how to do. After that, the rank and file in King County can start working on embarrassing and undermining their Sheriff for supporting this nonsense.
At any rate, the fallback is as I said before: give the public the policing they want. If they want officers that are reluctant to help the public and don't show up to calls, they can have it. My paycheck will be the same either way.
Figured it was your point. I just thought I'd lend some numbers to your idea, to emphasize it for some other members.
While most of the guys and gals at my cigar club tend to keep politics outside, occasionally someone will bring up a sincere question for discussion in a congenial manner. I've long since stopped being surprised when a lot of otherwise well informed and educate folks haven't actually read an initiative, but have just relied upon sound bites or blurbs in the Editorial pages of the paper. Naturally, when they find out what's really in the fine print, or what it will cost taxpayers, they're surprised. I have no idea why people trust the news media, lobbyists, special interests groups or politicians to tell them how they should vote.
While Graham v. Connor is still the legal standard for evaluating L/E use of force, one only needs to look at the last several USSC use of deadly force cases to see how the Circuit Courts are ruling - and it is not accordance with the USSC directions. In Plumhoff v. Rickard, the officers were originally charged with murder.
Simply, this initiative is about being able to prosecute and sentence officers for line of duty shootings. That's a view based on significant feedback from a prosecuting attorney in WA.
If explaining these issues to the community was easy, CA would not be stuck with the various de-criminalization & little is a violent felony anymore initiatives we have had shoved down our throats in spite of L/E and L/E employee associations reaching out, speaking out.