Court May Reconsider Ruling on Police Deadly Force Measure I-940

The question of whether Washington voters will have their say on a measure designed to make it easier to prosecute police for negligent shootings might not be over, after all.

The day after ruling that Initiative 940 should appear on the November ballot, the state Supreme Court requested briefing by the end of the day Wednesday about how the justices' various opinions should be interpreted.

De-Escalate Washington submitted I-940 to the Legislature early this year after collecting nearly 360,000 signatures. The measure is designed to improve police training in de-escalation tactics and to eliminate a requirement that prosecutors prove officers acted with malice to get a conviction in negligent shootings.

Law enforcement groups objected to some of the initiative's provisions, however, and both sides came together with lawmakers to craft a compromise. The Legislature then passed the original as well as a bill to amend and replace it with the compromise language.

That was unprecedented. Under the state Constitution...  (KOMO 4 News, August 29, 2018)
--

According to Kris Carrasco, Attorney at Law:

"Washington Law allows any person to use reasonable force to defend themselves when they are being attacked or have a reasonable belief that they are about to be attacked. A person may not use more force than is necessary given the situation. The law does not impose a duty to retreat.

Washington Law states that the use of force is lawful whenever used to prevent an offense against another person.

Under certain situations, a person may use force to defend against a “malicious trespass or interference" with real or personal property. This means that if someone is entering your home or taking or damaging your property and they are doing so with an evil purpose, you can defend your property by force."

So, the question posed by I-940 and similar debates is whether police officers should have some special privilege and immunity when it comes to use of deadly force against others?

A Seattle Times review of 213 fatal encounters with police in Washington state from 2005 to 2014 found only one where a police officer was charged. An opinion piece by Jason Rantz from February 2018, "I-940 is absolutely anti-cop" 16 percent (34 people) shot by police did not have weapons on them when they were killed.

Mr. Rantz suggests that I-940 will make it easier for an "anti-cop jury" to put a police officer in jail after he or she kills someone while on duty. This is true if we accept the idea that there is such a thing as an "anti-cop" jury, that all 12 jurors would return a verdict against a police officer simply because he or she is a police officer. - I think however that such an "anti-cop jury" is an extremely unlikely scenario - just as unlikely as police officers shooting subjects when there was not a clear self-defense (defense of self or others) need to do so.