Posted on 10/29/2020 5:23:33 AM PDT by sevinufnine
Gov. Ralph Northam has signed new laws he says will significantly advance police and criminal justice reform in Virginia. Northam says he has been working with legislators on the measures since early summer, when the deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor led to a national reckoning on racial bias in policing. “Too many families, in Virginia and across our nation, live in fear of being hurt or killed by police,” said Northam. “These new laws represent a tremendous step forward in rebuilding trust between law enforcement and the communities they serve. I am grateful to the legislators and advocates who have worked so hard to make this change happen. Virginia is better, more just, and more equitable with these laws on our books.”
(Excerpt) Read more at wdbj7.com ...
· House Bill 5049, sponsored by Delegate Helmer, reduces the militarization of police by prohibiting law enforcement from obtaining or using specified equipment, including grenades, weaponized aircraft, and high-caliber firearms. Governor Northam amended the bill to clarify that law enforcement agencies may seek waivers to use restricted equipment for search and rescue missions.
· House Bill 5109, sponsored by Delegate Hope, creates statewide minimum training standards for law enforcement officers, including training on awareness of racism, the potential for biased profiling, and de-escalation techniques. Governor Northam made technical amendments to this bill to align it with Senate Bill 5030 (above). House Bill 5104, sponsored by Delegate Price, mandates law enforcement agencies and jails request the prior employment and disciplinary history of new hires.
· House Bill 5108, sponsored by Delegate Guzman, expands and diversifies the Criminal Justice Services Board, ensuring that the perspectives of social justice leaders, people of color, and mental health providers are represented in the state’s criminal justice policymaking.
· House Bill 5051, sponsored by Delegate Simon, strengthens the process by which law enforcement officers can be decertified and allows the Criminal Justice Services Board to initiate decertification proceedings.
· House Bill 5069, sponsored by Delegate Carroll Foy, limits the circumstances in which law enforcement officers may use neck restraints.
· House Bill 5029, sponsored by Delegate McQuinn, requires law enforcement officers intervene when they witness another officer engaging or attempting to engage in the use of excessive force.
· House Bill 5045, sponsored by Delegate Delaney, makes it a Class 6 felony for law enforcement officers to “carnally know” someone they have arrested or detained, an inmate, parolee, probationer, pretrial defendant, or post-trial offender, if the officer is in a position of authority over such individual.
· House Bill 5055 and Senate Bill 5035, sponsored by Leader Herring and Senator Hashmi, respectively, empower localities to create civilian law enforcement review boards. These new laws also permit civilian review boards the authority to issue subpoenas and make binding disciplinary decisions.
· Senate Bill 5014, sponsored by Senator Edwards, which mandates the creation of minimum crisis intervention training standards and requires law enforcement officers complete crisis intervention training.
· Signed Senate Bill 5018, sponsored by Senator Bell, which allows individuals serving a sentence for certain felony offenses who are terminally ill to petition the Parole Board for conditional release.
· Amended House Bill 5148 and Senate Bill 5034, sponsored by Delegate Scott and Senator Boysko, respectively, which allow for increased earned sentencing credits. The Governor proposed a six-month delay to give the Department of Corrections sufficient time to implement this program.
As a conservative resident of Virginia, what Gov. Northam is doing to us makes me want to projectile vomit.
As a conservative resident of Virginia, what Gov. Northam is doing to us makes me want to projectile vomit.
Helping the criminals is what democrats do.
Correct. Guy’s a nincompoop.
Most of this sounds reasonable.
No-knocks should be banned except for hostage-type situations.
That said, the raid on Taylor’s home was not conducted as a no-knock, apparently. They knocked and announced, the boyfriend opened fire when the police breached, and we know the rest.
While I agree that no-knocks should be banned, I also know that governor black face is solving a different issue than the one he cites. Just like most politicians.
Really? Maybe you should get out from under your “shelter”. As someone who formally worked in law enforcement, this one alone is completely retarded:
House Bill 5099, sponsored by Delegate Aird, prohibits law enforcement officers from seeking or executing no-knock search warrants.
How the hell do they catch folks who do not want to be caught? Especially if they are dangerous? Show up at the front door holding a daisy and ask politely to come on in and arrest them? Geez.
I disagree with no knock needing to be banned. Sometimes it is necessary. And know for a fact it is not common. I worked as a dispatcher for a couple years and in all that time I believe my department did less than 6. It’s rare, but when they use it there is very, very good reason.
If they are really interested in avoiding conflict, how about eliminating searches altogether and just ask the bad guys if they have anything incriminating in their home? If a search is required, how about giving the bad guys a 24-hour notice?
.....do you sometimes feel like the Last of the Mohicans...? Lived in what is now The Peoples’ Democratic Republic of Virginia for almost a half-century...saw it go from solid red to pretty much purple...now on its way to blue...my political philosophy is slightly to the right of Ghenghis Khan, so we now live in Texas....red, but with tinges of purple here, too.....
If you've got a guy who you think will run, cover the exits. No-knock warrants should be illegal in all 50 states, under every circumstance except maybe known hostage standoffs. If its such a small time drug thing you're worried about him flushing a bit of drugs, it doesn't justify a no-knock either.
Forced entry without a warrant should also be illegal, even if the officer "knows" something illegal is going on, as long as no one's life is immediately in danger.
Yes, fewer criminals would be arrested, but that is a price that society should be willing to pay to protect the rights of the innocent.
I appreciate your viewpoint, but there have been too many instances of no-knocks being issued against people and places where there were no exigent circumstances. I know the media likes to play the data up, but this has been a growing problem for years, IMO.
Perhaps if the justification for no-knocks that would be accepted were spelled out in law, specifically in terms of situations involving loss of life. Catching a small-time dealer wouldn’t be on the list. Catching a big-time dealer with his merchandise isn’t actually that difficult in most cases - volumes like that cannot be flushed in just a couple of minutes.
I am not in law enforcement, and never have been. But I do see a pattern of abuse of no-knocks, which I cannot say is the true pattern, but no one yet has shown me analysis that it is untrue that I found believable.
From a philosophical standpoint, yes. But considering that cops are only human and humans make mistakes, a no-knock raid on the wrong address does occasionally happen and innocent people are harmed or killed.
Which is fine if it's the other guy who gets killed but kind of sucks if it's you.
I think people even on FR still wish to give more power to the government, it needs to stop on both sides.
On top of that, any police officer who is injured in the course of executing a no-knock warrant should have no cause of action against the target. Self-defense. Someone barging into your house (police or not) is fair game for shooting, unless they present a warrant. How the hell is the person supposed to know its not a rando yelling “its the police”?
The horror stories of them raiding the wrong people, even if you survive, probably going to have some kind of trauma resulting. It’s too much power to just storm a home.
“House Bill 5045, sponsored by Delegate Delaney, makes it a Class 6 felony for law enforcement officers to “carnally know” someone they have arrested or detained, an inmate, parolee, probationer, pretrial defendant, or post-trial offender, if the officer is in a position of authority over such individual.”
Are you kidding me? Those things weren’t illegal before? Hard to believe.
“Helping the criminals is what democrats do.”
Their motto is “worse is better.” Helping the criminals makes life in the US worse, which serves their purposes.
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