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Make them prove it
Friday, Jan 29, 2021 - Posted by Rich Miller * One major lesson I learned from cannabis legalization is that the police too often rely on gross exaggeration (or worse) to make their case against bills they oppose. Remember when they were falsely claiming that hundreds of drug-sniffing dogs would have to be euthanized? There was the Downstate sheriff who warned that drug cartels would buy up houses in Christian County to grow pot if the state legalized home-grown. And then there were all the goofy, hyped up “studies” they used to justify their position against the legislation. The sky did not fall. The world did not end. (OK, it kinda did, but that had nothing to do with legal weed.) * And so it goes with the criminal justice reform bill. For instance, I keep seeing this argument pop up…
I checked with the Senate bill sponsor Elgie Sims. He said the above analysis is wrong. If you physically intervene to prevent somebody else’s arrest, that’s enough to be charged with obstructing an officer. The whole idea of the language, Sen. Sims said, is to prevent the police from arresting people who, for instance, say something harsh about the police while somebody else is being arrested. Now, maybe Sen. Sims is wrong. But the moral of the story here is reporters ought to remember the old City News slogan: If your mother says she loves you, check it out.
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- Occasionally Moderated - Friday, Jan 29, 21 @ 12:44 pm:
Rich, “They” didn’t say that police dogs would have to be euthanized.
One goofball canine trainer/officer from Decatur did.
I’m a former canine handler. No one was going to euthanize their canine partner over decriminalization. And all of us cringed when that officer said that.
- yeah... - Friday, Jan 29, 21 @ 12:47 pm:
You already can’t be charged with “obstructing or resisting an officer” if you’re a third party who is just heckling or verbally abusing the police. That’s elementary First Amendment law and any such arrest would be dismissed by the courts very quickly.
- thisjustinagain - Friday, Jan 29, 21 @ 12:48 pm:
People can also obstruct an officer by providing false names and dates of birth in an attempt to have the officer miss warrants, orders of protection, and suspended/revoked driver’s licenses. Illinois courts have held that such actions amount to obstructing an officer, making it an arrestable offense by itself. (People v. Munoz, Ill: Appellate Court, 2nd Dist. 2010, citing People v. Meister, 289 Ill. App. 3d 337, 342 (1997); giving false information or telling others not to speak with police executing lawful duty while investigating crime constituted obstructing officer). But under the existing bill language it appears that will no longer be true unless the officer has grounds to make an arrest on another charge. Nice gift to Illinois criminals by the Legislature.
- not for nothing - Friday, Jan 29, 21 @ 12:48 pm:
As young assistant state’s attorney, I was trained to look suspiciously at arrests for resisting with no underlying offense, as were most of my colleagues. Seems like this just cleans up a longstanding practice.
- Hot Taeks - Friday, Jan 29, 21 @ 12:56 pm:
The Big Lie Trump and most of the GOP told about a stolen election reminded me about the disgusting lies police and sheriffs told about the dangers of legal weed. I don’t believe we should treat them any differently and they need to be called out at every stop.
- Rich Miller - Friday, Jan 29, 21 @ 1:05 pm:
===You already can’t be charged with===
Right, but people are still arrested for it a lot.
- JS Mill - Friday, Jan 29, 21 @ 1:11 pm:
= Nice gift to Illinois criminals by the Legislature.=
Did you read the part where Rich debunked the misinformation? It is the entire point of the post.
- Froganon - Friday, Jan 29, 21 @ 1:12 pm:
Or officers could just chain a person to a bench in the station for 7 hours as they did for the retired State Rep last year. Was paperwork required for chaining that guy to a bench?
- JS Mill - Friday, Jan 29, 21 @ 1:15 pm:
Would be nice if the Taylorville News would circle back and see how many Chinese Drug Cartel operations are buying up houses n Christian County and their white hot housing market.
On a side note, I looked at the post that you linked to from May of 2019. First comment was from Wordslinger. I miss that guy.
- Oswego Willy - Friday, Jan 29, 21 @ 1:17 pm:
=== Nice gift to Illinois criminals by the Legislature.===
Seemingly every piece of reform is a “gift to criminals”
Reform is necessary, but seemingly making reform another way to try to paint things as a “gift to criminals” won’t help where reform needs the strong to stand up.
- Occasionally Moderated - Friday, Jan 29, 21 @ 1:37 pm:
I just went back to the original post.
Best Headline Ever!
misterjayem and I killed it that day if I say so myself. (fka freezeup)
- Ferris Wheeler - Friday, Jan 29, 21 @ 1:59 pm:
“Democrats are soft on crime because most Black people are criminals and Democrats need Black votes to get elected.”
This has been dogma in the Republican Party for 60 years now.
QAnon did not invent racist conspiracy theories, Mr. Kinzinger.
- Third Reading - Friday, Jan 29, 21 @ 2:07 pm:
JS Mill,
If the ensuring Chinese Drug Cartel real estate boom increased ad revenue for the Taylorville News, it would happily support the trend.
- Annonin' - Friday, Jan 29, 21 @ 2:13 pm:
Reminds us of noise on first body bill or video tape confessions. Police groups said those bills would be end of world. Not true then or now. Remember most of this is two or more years away.
- Dotnonymous - Friday, Jan 29, 21 @ 2:19 pm:
Any cop who can not endure “harsh’ comments is ill suited for the job…harsh words are not sticks or stones.
- Oswego Willy - Friday, Jan 29, 21 @ 2:39 pm:
=== This has been dogma in the Republican Party for 60 years now.===
Not quite. It was after the Dixiecrats finally came over to be Republicans did the wholesale “one party” racist thinking take hold, even as a “silent majority”
It’s not quibbling, it’s understanding that the GOP on one hand helped pass the Civil Rights Act, and the other that those Dixiecrats felt betrayed, so they joined a party that would embrace them, even as that same party helped pass the legislation that flipped them.
Racists were looking for a home, not a political ideology, and that home had to be … not in a restructure… and that’s what happened eventually in the Democratic Party.
- TheUpperRoom - Friday, Jan 29, 21 @ 3:18 pm:
This is great, because police love to tack on obstruction charges anytime they can, and the obstruction charge is often more serious than the initial offense, if there was one at all. And obstruction can’t be expunged.
- Just The Facts, Ma'am - Friday, Jan 29, 21 @ 5:10 pm:
If the cops come and ask me where my friend John The Suspected Drug Dealer is and I tell them he’s next door when, in fact, he’s chilling in my spare bedroom, or I otherwise lie to protect John The Suspected Drug Dealer when I’m not guilty of a crime, that’s obstructing police, and I can be charged. Under the new bill, doesn’t sound like I could be charged. That’s what we’re talking about here, and that’s why cops are saying it’s a license to lie to the police.