ANALYSIS – According to recent news stories, uber-liberal state legislators in Washington State are to blame for lawbreaking motorists simply refusing to stop for Washington State troopers. (RELATED: Thanks to Woke Legislature, Criminals Literally Ignore Washington State Police)
As part of the generally discredited leftist ‘Defund the Police’ movement of 2020, the crunchy granola state on the “Left Coast” of the country is still empowering criminals while scaling back police powers. (RELATED: US ‘Black-on-Black’ Murder Soared During 2020 – Year of BLM Riots)
Most recently with a law severely curtailing pursuits by state troopers.
As the article notes:
Starting in January of 2022, Washington State Patrol says over 900 drivers have just plain not pulled over when troopers tried to stop them. Thanks to new laws passed by the state’s legislature in the wake of cries for defunding the police and scaling back their powers, criminals are taking advantage and ignoring law enforcement. What’s better, the situation is almost guaranteed to get worse.
Outlined in a report from NW News Network, the Puyallup Police Department says 148 suspects fled from officers from July 26, 2021 to May 18, 2022. Chief Scott Engle responded to a question about if that was unusual very much in the affirmative.
[Asked if that represents a significant increase, the chief wrote in an email, “I could 1,000,000% say this is completely absolutely emphatically totally unusual.”]
Since many of the fleeing drivers are in stolen cars, this is making getting away with car theft even easier. In other words, the list of unintended consequences is growing as one problem feeds another. Who could have ever predicted such a thing?
“Something’s changed. People are not stopping right now,” said Sgt. Darren Wright, a Washington State Patrol spokesperson. “It’s happening three to five times a shift on some nights and then a couple times a week on day shift.”
…It’s almost like the law is incentivizing criminals to break the law.
Well, it is incentivizing criminals, and what changed was House Bill 1054 passed by the liberal Democrat-controlled Washington State Legislature last year.
King5.com reports: “Steve Strachan, the executive director of the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs, and others in law enforcement connect the increase in failures-to-yield [to police] to the passage of House Bill 1054 last year, a sweeping police tactics law that, among other things, barred high-speed pursuits except in very limited circumstances.”
Under the new law, police officers can’t give chase unless there’s reasonable suspicion to believe the driver is impaired or a higher standard of probable cause to believe they’re an escaped felon or have committed a violent crime or a sex crime.
The news site adds:
The law was part of a package of police reforms majority Democrats passed in response to the murder by police of George Floyd in Minneapolis and other high-profile police killings — reforms aimed at addressing racial disproportionality in policing.
Minority Republicans in the Legislature criticized many of the changes, including the pursuit law, and said they jeopardized public safety.
Strachan said he doesn’t dispute the need for statewide rules governing police pursuits but thinks the new law went too far.
Strachan cited a suspect driving on a suspended license who was being pursued by officers in Redmond. The guy called 911 and told the dispatcher they had to call off the chase because of House Bill 1054.
You simply can’t make this stuff up. ALD
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of American Liberty News.
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Paul Crespo is the Managing Editor of American Liberty Defense News. As a Marine Corps officer, he led Marines, served aboard ships in the Pacific and jumped from helicopters and airplanes. He was also a military attaché with the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) at U.S. embassies worldwide. He later ran for state and federal office, taught political science, wrote for the editorial board of a major newspaper and had his own radio show. A graduate of Georgetown, London and Cambridge universities, he brings decades of experience and insight to the issues that most threaten our American liberty – at home and from abroad. To read more go to: paulcrespo.com.
What else can you expect out of the loony left coast democrats? Too bad we couldn’t move the wall from our southern border and fence off the whole left coast,from Canada to Mexico.
I get what you’re saying but, just so you know, that is an in accurate broad brush stroke assumption for us on the West Coast. Although, it is definitely difficult to be conservative in California Washington and Oregon these days. It is certainly a beautiful part of the country but we pay for it in more ways than one.
I’m sure that soon all police officers will flee that s-hole and gang leaders will quickly climb to the governor’s seat, state congress, etc. See how you like living there then!
“You simply can’t make this stuff up.”
What can’t be made up is a cure for the stupid that seems to be a prerequisite for all Progressive Socialist policritters making a joke of law enforcement.