Comments on: ‘Now is the time’: Constantine’s State of the County address includes call for gun-violence prevention

By: wscommuter

wscommuter — Tue, 05 Feb 2013 18:49:25 +0000

talkischeap – Your lack of knowledge of the law is even worse than your grammer. You don’t know what you’re talking about (and yes, I do …). There is no such requirement on police for a search warrant when there are exigent circumstances under a felony stop. However – the law has always been – and should be – that when a car is impounded by the police and there is no risk of loss of evidence, that a warrant be obtained before a complete inventory search. And by the way – when it is necessary to get a search warrant in the middle of the night, there is always – 24/7 – a judge available by phone.

JoAnne – Neither police nor prosecutors have authority to affect the detention of juvenile gun offenders – only the legislature can change that. I am not aware of Mr. Constantine ever opposing a change in the law to do this – if you have information otherwise, please share it. I do know that Mr. Constantine has consistently supported appropriate punishment for gun offenses for both juveniles and adults. When you talk about “gun possession” as a crime, what do you mean? Using a gun in a crime IS a serious offense, even for juveniles. Possessing a gun if one is a convicted felon, even as a juvenile, is still punished by mandatory incarceration and not “probation” as you claim. Please provide details, if I am missing your point.

By: JoAnne

JoAnne — Tue, 05 Feb 2013 17:04:13 +0000

If Constantine really wanted to do something about gun violence, why doesn’t he support teh efforts of King County Prosecuting Attorney Dan Satterberg?
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Satterberg has been trying for years now to change the law so that police and prosecutors can detain juvenile gun offenders instead of letting them run free among us.
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Liberals like Constantine oppose these efforts. They LIKE the existing law, which punishes gun possession with probation and a warning–less serious punishment than a traffic ticket.
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By: kg

kg — Tue, 05 Feb 2013 07:58:39 +0000

Thanks for the gun violence prevention coverage.

Will you be doing any further coverage on the Regional Veterans Initiative?

By: talkischeap

talkischeap — Tue, 05 Feb 2013 07:12:36 +0000

How about ‘The United State Constitution pre-empts our ability to regulate firearms.’ The gun fight right now is all about our freedoms which are being hacked away by the minute.

Maybe getting SPD staffing levels passed the levels they were in the 1970s? That’s a start. Oh and allow them to do their job in getting guns off the street. Many don’t know about the new law passed by the Supreme Court that requires SPD officers to get a search warrant if they find a gun in a car on a traffic stop. That means in the middle of the night if they stop a car and find a gun they have to wake up a judge to sign a search warrant and ultimately impound the car until they have it etc. All this until they can get the gun. Where is they used to be able to do stop, find the gun and get the perp off the street quickly. Doesn’t really seem worth all the effort does it? People who use guns aren’t going to hug it out even if you get rid of the guns. You guys are really just chipping ice off the top of a glacier.

By: Neighbor

Neighbor — Tue, 05 Feb 2013 02:54:41 +0000

When Constantine and McGinn both spend the time and the energy on this issue as they did with the new arena I’ll believe he is doing more than just grandstanding. Until then he’s blowin in the wind.