{"id":70512,"date":"2021-08-05T01:39:13","date_gmt":"2021-08-05T06:39:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=70512"},"modified":"2021-08-06T01:27:07","modified_gmt":"2021-08-06T06:27:07","slug":"70512","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=70512","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"

Vigilantes?
\nWell, if goobermint isn’t going to do the job……
\nDare I say it again?
\nI dare.
\n\u00a1Grupos de Autodefensas Para Tu y Mi!<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

\u2018Vigilantism\u2019 a fear in wake of new laws<\/a><\/p>\n

PORT ANGELES \u2014 A state legislator and the Clallam County sheriff painted dire pictures Wednesday in depicting a use-of-force police reform bill that went into effect Sunday.<\/p>\n

State Rep. Mike Chapman said HB 1310 may soon be clarified by state Attorney General Bob Ferguson in a manner that will make it less onerous.<\/p>\n

The Port Angeles Democrat, who said he has received heat from his constituents for voting against it and six other police reform bills, and Clallam County Sheriff Bill Benedict, a critic of HB 1310, gave their takes on the measure at a virtual county Economic Development Council \u201cCoffee with Colleen\u201d meeting.<\/p>\n

Their message followed a critical view of the measures offered by Port Angeles Police Chief Brian Smith and Deputy Chief Jason Viada on Tuesday before the Port Angeles Business Association.<\/p>\n

House Bill 1310, which sets use-of-force parameters and was cosponsored by Chapman\u2019s 24th District Democratic colleague, Steve Tharinger of Port Townsend, was criticized by Chapman and Benedict as being unclear and procedurally confining for law enforcement to the detriment of public safety.<\/p>\n

\u201cNature abhors a vacuum,\u201d Benedict said.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cIf law enforcement is not out proactively and aggressively working to keep our community safe, something else will fill that, and whether it\u2019s vigilantism or whether it\u2019s more chaos and anarchy, that\u2019s a big concern,\u201d he continued.<\/p>\n

\u201cTalking to most citizens that understand this in our county, that\u2019s the most prevalent reaction \u2014 well, if the cops aren\u2019t going to defend us, or if the cops are going to look the other way when violent crime is occurring and they\u2019re not going to be able to pursue criminals, we\u2019ll do it ourselves \u2014 and that is very scary to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Use of force by law enforcement is allowed under HB 1310 to \u201cprotect against criminal conduct where there is probable cause to make an arrest; effect an arrest; prevent an escape as defined under chapter 9A.76 RCW; or protect against an imminent threat of bodily injury to the peace officer, another person, or the person against whom force is being used.\u201d<\/p>\n

Officers also are prohibited from questioning someone they suspect of criminal activity, or during an investigation, without probable cause, exposing law enforcement to decertification if it is determined the officer lacks probable cause, Benedict said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe effects are profound,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cTrust me, coming up on a crime scene, you don\u2019t have probable cause for anything,\u201d Benedict said.<\/p>\n

State Attorney General Bob Ferguson could give the state Legislature a pathway to make the bills more usable and beneficial by clarifying the legislation, Chapman said.<\/p>\n

A special legislative session is unlikely this year, he predicted, adding there seems to be little interest among King County lawmakers to call one, although the push and pull of reforms and cutting back on those reforms will continue.<\/p>\n

Chapman and Tharinger, along with Sen. Kevin Van De Wege, represent District 24, which is composed of Clallam, Jefferson and part of Grays Harbor counties.<\/p>\n

Chapman said that, along with HB 1310, he also had issues with HB 1054, peace officer tactics; HB 1140, juvenile access to attorneys; HB 1223; recordation of custodial interrogation; HB 1267, Office of Independent Investigations; HB 5051, state oversight, and HB 5066, duty to intervene.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you look at those seven bills, you\u2019ll see Mike Chapman voting no,\u201d the former part-time U.S. Customs inspector said, adding he has been accused of supporting institutional racism.<\/p>\n

He said they were bad policy and lacked bipartisan support.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were so close to this being a good reform package,\u201d Chapman said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think there\u2019s more work to do. I think the step to maybe ask [Ferguson] to take a look at the constitutionality, and then finally we\u2019re going to have to listen to Bill [Benedict], Chief [Brian] Smith.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are going to have to make sure that law enforcement continues to be the preemptive form of a civil society because if law enforcement\u2019s authority is taken away, there\u2019s another form, there\u2019s another group out there that would more than happy to step in to quote unquote \u2018keep a civil society,\u2019 and we don\u2019t want to see that unleashed in our community as well,\u201d he said, echoing a fear over limiting policing authority that was expressed at the PABA meeting a day earlier.<\/p>\n

Chapman and Benedict were asked by moderator Colleen McAleer, the EDC executive director and a Port of Port Angeles commissioner, if they had any proposed language that would \u201cget to the problem of excessive police force\u201d but would also allow officers to continue to be effective.<\/p>\n

Chapman said law enforcement agencies on the North Olympic Peninsula already are accredited in a manner that limits use of force, while others in Washington are not.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe didn\u2019t need to re-invent the wheel,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Chapman said lawmakers should have provided funding to help other jurisdictions achieve accreditation.<\/p>\n

Tharinger said there was no appetite among lawmakers to exempt counties of less than 100,000 population from the legislation or that had accredited law enforcement agencies.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey felt we needed more uniform policies across the state,\u201d Tharinger said in an interview.<\/p>\n

\u201cAcross the state, there will be more accountability around the use of force.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll see if there are some changes that need to be made. These policies aren\u2019t set in stone.\u201d<\/p>\n

Clallam County Prosecuting Attorney Mark Nichols said he hopes the Legislature will make \u201csurgical tweaks\u201d to address confusion over the legislation among county prosecutors.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe net result of [the bills] for me is a very clear message on the one hand that the state of Washington is choosing to prioritize individual human life, arguably and to some degree at the expense of public safety,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was a sanctity-of-human-life theme that has resonated through many of these reform bills.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said Washington state was ahead of the curve on police reform by voters passing, in 2018, Initiative 940, which addressed police use of deadly force. Then George Floyd was murdered in police custody in Minneapolis, Minn., on May 25, 2020, triggering an outcry that drove additional reforms.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy personal belief is that some of the language of the reforms has gone too far,\u201d Nichols said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Vigilantes? Well, if goobermint isn’t going to do the job…… Dare I say it again? I dare. \u00a1Grupos de Autodefensas Para Tu y Mi! \u2018Vigilantism\u2019 a fear in wake of new laws PORT ANGELES \u2014 A state legislator and the Clallam County sheriff painted dire pictures Wednesday in depicting a use-of-force police reform bill that … Continue reading “”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[79,13,29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-70512","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-government","category-law-order","category-safety"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70512","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=70512"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70512\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":70549,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70512\/revisions\/70549"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=70512"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=70512"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=70512"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}