{"id":45904,"date":"2022-06-05T13:55:54","date_gmt":"2022-06-05T17:55:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/?p=45904"},"modified":"2022-06-05T13:55:54","modified_gmt":"2022-06-05T17:55:54","slug":"laws-have-consequences-6","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/?p=45904","title":{"rendered":"Laws Have Consequences"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Saturday, Hot Air<\/a> posted an article about a recent trend in Washington State.<\/p>\n

The article reports:<\/p>\n

Last July, a new law<\/a> went into effect in Washington state that was described as \u201cpolice reform.\u201d House Bill 1054 made significant changes in how the police are allowed to do their jobs. Police unions had been protesting the measure, saying that it would negatively impact their ability to control crime, but the state\u2019s Democrats cheered the bill as a way to bring more \u201cequity\u201d into the system. One of the changes put in place by the bill was a rule saying the police officers were no longer allowed to engage in high-speed chases except in very limited circumstances. In other words, if the cops see a driver doing something wrong and turn on their sirens and flashers but the motorist doesn\u2019t pull over, there isn\u2019t much they can do about it. To the great surprise of nobody with an IQ higher than tepid water, motorists have begun ignoring the police<\/a> in increasing numbers and simply refusing to pull over.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I guess it’s equity if no one is held responsible for any lawbreaking while driving.<\/p>\n

The article continues:<\/p>\n

The police aren\u2019t allowed to give chase unless there is an increased bar of \u201creasonable suspicion\u201d that the driver is impaired or there is \u201cprobable cause\u201d to believe that the driver had committed a violent crime or sexual assault. This has basically put an end to high-speed pursuits because if they guess wrong, they won\u2019t wind up getting a conviction anyway and the department could be tied up in endless lawsuits.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The article concludes:<\/p>\n

This was all entirely predictable and, in fact, state Republicans and police unions did predict it last year. This shouldn\u2019t have required a rocket scientist to figure it out. Your average, law-abiding citizen who may have committed a minor traffic infraction is probably still going to pull over when the police hit their lights. But if you know you are driving while intoxicated or you\u2019ve stolen a car or have outstanding warrants, why would you pull over for the cops when you know they can\u2019t chase you? Criminals will clearly be happy to risk hitting the gas and making a clean getaway rather than being hauled off to jail.<\/strong><\/p>\n

This is yet another item in a long list of examples of \u201cpolice reform\u201d going on around the nation. When you reduce the disincentive for committing a particular crime, you get more of that type of crime. When you announce that the cops can no longer chase you, criminals will flee since they have nothing to lose. And we\u2019re talking about a lot more than just your random person who had a few too many beers. Seemingly random traffic stops are one of the most common ways that people with outstanding warrants wind up being taken into custody. That tool is now unavailable to the police in Washington in most cases, so there are going to be more wanted fugitives out there roaming the roads.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The legislators in Washington State need an infusion of common sense.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On Saturday, Hot Air posted an article about a recent trend in Washington State. The article reports: Last July, a new law went into effect in Washington state that was described as \u201cpolice reform.\u201d House Bill 1054 made significant changes … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[13398,15355,1583,14853,8388],"class_list":["post-45904","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-equity","tag-high-speed-chases","tag-hot-air","tag-police-reform","tag-washington-state"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45904","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=45904"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45904\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45906,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45904\/revisions\/45906"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=45904"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=45904"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=45904"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}