In the State of Washington, if you are a “person of color” you can steal a car and the cops can not stop you. That is the ruling of the Washington State Supreme Court.
“The Washington state Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that a person’s race, and law enforcement’s long history of discrimination against people of color, should be taken into account when determining the legality of police seizures.
The court also clarified state law to say police have seized a person if an objective observer would conclude that the person was not free to leave or refuse a request. But, the court wrote, that “objective observer” must be aware that discrimination and biases “have resulted in disproportionate police contacts, investigative seizures, and uses of force against Black, Indigenous, and other people of color.”
The person involved in this case stole the car, gave false identification and the cops were blamed for stopping a car thief. This how dangerous it is in the State of Washington. Of course, if you are white, you are not allowed to steal a car and the cops can rescue you. I wonder if Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. had this “equality: in mind? What if a person of color stole a car from a person of color—is it still OK, or is there a special ruling for this?
By David Gutman Seattle Times, 6/9/22
The Washington state Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that a person’s race, and law enforcement’s long history of discrimination against people of color, should be taken into account when determining the legality of police seizures.
The court also clarified state law to say police have seized a person if an objective observer would conclude that the person was not free to leave or refuse a request. But, the court wrote, that “objective observer” must be aware that discrimination and biases “have resulted in disproportionate police contacts, investigative seizures, and uses of force against Black, Indigenous, and other people of color.”
“Today, we formally recognize what has always been true: In interactions with law enforcement, race and ethnicity matter,” Justice Mary Yu wrote for the unanimous court. “Therefore, courts must consider the race and ethnicity of the allegedly seized person as part of the totality of the circumstances when deciding whether there was a seizure.”
The case concerns Palla Sum, a person of color, who was sleeping in his car in Tacoma one morning in April 2019 when police came upon him. An officer ran his plates and determined the car was not stolen.The officer knocked on the window, asked Sum questions and asked him for identification.
Sum gave a false name and the officer went back to his cruiser to check records. Sum then drove off, crashed into a front lawn and was caught as he attempted to run away.
