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An Associated Press article in the past weekend's edition of the Williamsport Sun-Gazette thoroughly detailed efforts at police reform during 2021 -- and left us cautiously optimistic.
Some of the measures adopted -- California's ban on departments hiring officers fired by other departments, measures in Louisiana and other states to clarify how police body cameras need to be used and Kentucky curtailing when no-knock warrants can be issued -- strikes as reasonable steps in balancing the needs of police to investigate crimes and with accountability and transparency.
The article also noted new laws in Oklahoma, Iowa, Florida and Ohio that address protesting. While the Constitutional right to protest must be protected -- and the proverbial verdict on whether these specific laws adequately do so remains unknown -- we agree that states should act to distinguish between protesting and violence and give police and prosecutors the tools necessary to investigate and prosecute the latter.
It is to the sincere protestors' benefit to draw such a line rather than let violent and thieving opportunists mar the public image of activism.
Just as it is to the benefit to the majority of police -- hard-working men and women who want to serve their communities -- to draw clear lines rather than let an impulsive minority of police officers with poor judgment mar the public image of law enforcement.
Sweeping movements such as "defunding the police" to transfer tax dollars to social work or other functions of government, or defending the police by parsing the history of anyone who has had a negative interaction with police, looking for issues to obfuscate incidents of excess and poor judgment on the part of police, while remaining resistant to any change, will accomplish neither.
What will accomplish both is legislation that is narrow in scope and realistic in its objectives. The legislation discussed in the Saturday-Sunday edition of the Sun-Gazette meets such criteria, and is cause for optimism about a difficult and contentious issue.