Letter: Law and order requires balance - The Columbian

It was encouraging to read the opinion piece from state Rep. Gina Mosbrucker published by The Columbian on Sept. 20, “New police laws imperil public safety.”

While I am not convinced Mosbrucker is correct in all of her assessments, including the assertion that “during the 2021 legislative session, majority Democrats embraced the ‘defund the police’ movement,” I found her points were generally well-reasoned and consistent with what the Clark County Sheriff’s Office has stated regarding potential unintended consequences of HB 1310 regarding permissible uses of force by law enforcement personnel.

That said, I hope Republicans looking at issues with recent law enforcement reform laws will remember a statistic that Mosbrucker did not mention, which is that the rate of police killings in the U.S. (33.5 killings/10 million population) is far higher than any other western democratic nation (Canada is a distant second at 9.8/10 million population). Additionally, statistics show that nonwhite U.S. citizens are far more likely to be subject to use of force by police than white U.S. citizens.

Excessive use of force by police, especially toward nonwhites, has driven recent legislation for police reform in the U.S., something “law and order” Republicans seem to forget.

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source: https://www.columbian.com/news/2021/oct/06/letter-law-and-order-requires-balance/

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