Besides constructing cockamamie criminal justice reforms that go beyond the limits of reason, like banning cash bail, progressives are now trying to ensure criminals don’t get hurt too much. They want to hamstring prosecuting attorneys on bail reform, which leads to violent thugs being released back onto the streets, and now police dogs are a problem. The attack on law enforcement K-9s isn’t new; there have been multiple editorials about how it’s time to end the use of police dogs.
In California, there’s new proposed legislation aimed at banning the use of canines for policing, and yes—there’s some ‘woke’ nonsense to justify it (via ABC10):
A new effort is underway to ban police from using police dogs to arrest or apprehend suspects. If passed, it would also ban police from using them for crowd control.
The lawmaker behind the bill, newly-elected Assemblymember Corey Jackson, said that the use of police canines, or K9s, has been the backbone of this country’s history of racial bias and violence against Black Americans.
Jackson said police canines were first used by slave catchers and are a violent carryover from America’s dark past.
“That is a vicious and unforgiving part of our history that has created nightmares that has institutionalized and created generational trauma in the Black community for centuries,” said Jackson.
It’s why he wants to ban police from using them for arrest, apprehension or any form of crowd control.
“Police canines remain a gross misuse of force, victimizing Black and Brown people disproportionately,” said Jackson.
This is a ridiculous legislative push; criminals on the run or being chased by police shouldn’t be comfortable. The California Police Chiefs Association issued this response:
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“No one is arguing that irresponsible, criminal and negligent use of a canine is acceptable, which is why we have such strict standards and laws on how and when canines can be used” stated Chief Chris Catren, President of CPCA. “But removing a non-lethal and highly effective law enforcement ally, which is used primarily to de-escalate and diffuse volatile scenarios, gravely hinders our police officers’ safety and ability to reduce the amount of force used in those circumstances. The fact is that canines reduce more force than they ever use and banning them goes too far.”
All this bill would do is decrease public safety. And police dogs have been essential in various other law enforcement duties, not least being tasked with saving the lives of fellow officers.
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