Police reform ideas dreamed up by the anti-police crowd are starting to become law, and will cause massive problems for both law enforcement officers and the public they serve. Washington state’s Snohomish County Sheriff Adam Fortney recently appeared on Thin Blue Line TV to explain how a new police reform law has made proactive policing much more difficult by changing the standard for using force and pursuing suspects from reasonable suspicion to probable cause, which has been a disaster for the safety of the community.
A new bill from the state legislature in Washington just went into effect, SB 5051, and it brings more wokeness to the table.
From a news story from radio host Jason Rantz:
Officers were told they could lose certification if they don’t allow commissioners from the Washington State Criminal Justice Training Commission (CJTC) to inspect their social media accounts personally.
At the end of a new online training session for police certification, officers must consent to a review of any of their social media accounts immediately upon request by a member or representative of the CJTC. It’s due by Oct. 31, and must be completed by all officers in the state.
The declaration from the training asks officers to “consent to, and agree to facilitate, a review of any of my social media accounts immediately upon a request by a representative of the Commission. I understand that failure to facilitate such a review when requested may result in a decertification action.”
This implies, for example, if a commissioner asks to review an officer’s Twitter account, they could ask to review content that isn’t even public, such as your direct messages.
Paying attention yet? What are they looking for, who decides what is good or bad, and what type of appeal process is there? Do these officers not have any rights under the First Amendment? Leah Anaya is a former police officer from Washington and a writer here at Thin Blue Line TV, she joined me to discuss:
Will they decide that anyone who voted for Trump in 2020 is an “extremist” or “insurrectionist” and decertify them? Will they decide anyone flying the thin blue line flag is white supremacist? Both of those ideas have at least been partly accepted by leftist politicians and the media, so what happens when they do the same when evaluating the police?
Why would any officers submit themselves to this? It doesn’t matter that you have nothing to hide, giving up your freedom of speech is not something to be taken lightly. If you give in on this matter, what will they try next? Will the next thing they do be enough to fight back, even if it means losing your job?
The question I have for every officer in Washington: If this isn’t enough infringement on your rights to refuse to comply, when will you actually stand up? What happens if you are ordered to enforce other new laws that infringe on others freedoms, will it be time to fight back then?
These aren’t rhetorical questions. We are in extremely strange times. Police are already being threatened with losing their jobs for not getting vaccinated, police reform laws are making officers jobs more dangerous, and now they want to decide if you are fit to be a police officer from what you post on social media.
Final question: When all the freedom loving officers finally leave or are fired, who are we left with then?
This piece was written by Ray Dietrich on August 13, 2021. It originally appeared in ThinBlueLineTV.com and is used by permission.
Read more at ThinBlueLineTV.com:
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