By: Mike Maharrey|Published on: May 25, 2021|Categories: Local, Police|
PITTSBURGH, Pa. (May 25, 2021) – Last week, Pittsburgh voters overwhelmingly approved a ballot measure to ban “no-knock” warrants in the city, taking a step toward nullifying several Supreme Court opinions in practice and effect.
The Alliance for Police Accountability led the campaign joined by a large number of other grassroots organizations to put the measure on the ballot. The initiative added a new section to the Pittsburgh Home Rule Charter barring employees of the Pittsburgh Bureau of Police from executing warrants at any residence without knocking and announcing themselves. Police are no required to knock on a door, announce their presence, and wait at least 15 seconds before entering a residence to execute a warrant. The ballot initiative also requires officers executing a warrant to wear a body camera, and dress in uniform or wear clothing that identifies them as law enforcement officers.
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Tuesday’s election was heavy on ballot questions. The ones that tended to gain the most attention were the two at the top statewide proposals to fence in the emergency powers of the governor; those amendments passed by a close 53% to 47%. Another amendment that would protect people from denial of rights on basis of race or ethnicity passed by a wider 72% to 28% margin.
Ballot questions occupy an odd place in the way representative democracy works.
In all other aspects of the republic, the process leans hard into the representative aspect. The election process is about picking the people who will make the laws, judge the decisions or execute the day-to-day business of keeping everything running.
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Criminal justice organizers helped to mobilize voters in support of Democrat Ed Gainey, who defeated incumbent Bill Peduto in the Democratic primary for Pittsburgh mayor Tues., May 18, 2021.
Local activists scored wins up and down the ballot in Tuesday’s primary election, thanks in large part to the broader movement to reform the criminal justice system and advance police accountability.
Brandi Fisher, a prominent community organizer in the Pittsburgh area, said the energy that has propelled those causes since last summer’s Black Lives Matter protests was key to activists’ effort to boost progressive and Black voter turnout.
“People say, ‘Oh, Black people do not vote.’ But we know very well that Black people do vote. It s just that often their vote doesn t equate to change or better quality of life for them. They don t see it,” said Fisher, who leads the Alliance for Police Accountability. “And so we wanted to give people something that directly impacte
UpdatedWed, May 19, 2021 at 6:29 pm PT
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SPD officers block a street on July 1, 2020 in Seattle. (David Ryder/Getty Images)
OLYMPIA, WA Following the mass protests last summer and a national reckoning with police violence and systemic racism in America, Washington has now passed a dozen new bills aiming to increase police accountability in the Evergreen state.
Gov. Jay Inslee visited the Eastside Community Center in Tacoma Tuesday, where he signed all 12 pieces of legislation into law. The crises of the past year have unmasked long-standing inequities in our society. The consciousness of our state and nation has been raised against inequity in many forms, Inslee said. Our moral mandate to acknowledge these hard truths crystallized in the fallout from the killing of George Floyd in Minnesota, and the killing of Manny Ellis in Tacoma. The bills I am signing today respect these truths and lay a solid foundation to halt inequity s pernicious influence in our systems of go
Pittsburgh Mayoral Race: Gainey Ousts Peduto In Primary Race - Pittsburgh, PA - State Rep. Ed Gainey is poised to become Pittsburgh's first Black mayor.