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Washington State Attorney General Bob Ferguson recently announced priorities for his 2021 legislative agenda. These priorities include public safety and criminal justice reform, tribal treaty rights, and protecting consumers. With respect to the last priority on consumer protection, Attorney General Ferguson is supporting two bills in the Washington legislature:
Price Gouging – SB 5191. Currently Washington does not have a specific law prohibiting price gouging during a state of emergency. Attorney General Ferguson would like to change that. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the attorney general’s office received more than 1,300 complaints regarding excessive price increases on essential items like face masks or hand sanitizer. Attorney General Ferguson supports a bill to provide a clear an unambiguous definition of price gouging and which imposes civil penalties for violations. The bill is sponsored in the legislature by
by Nathalie Graham • Jan 15, 2021 at 2:30 pm
The key to this? Restricting police union contract negotiations on discipline. Lester Black
This year the legislature is going hard on police reform. One bill calls for a ban on chokeholds, no-knock warrants, and tear gas. Other bills would establish a statewide body to review use-of-force cases.
None of those bills would mean anything and officers could still get away with breaking those new rules, Sen. Jesse Salomon argued in a committee meeting yesterday, if we don t change the accountability system.
Currently, police union contracts can negotiate any disciplinary action and can use an arbitration process to contest discipline. All of this creates the environment we see today where cops are very rarely fired for misconduct, let alone held appropriately accountable for their actions. Nationwide, around 52% of cops see their disciplines reduced or overturned.