By Bob Walsh
Gavin Newsom has signed the No Secret Police act into
law. This law prohibits most police officers under most circumstances
from concealing their identity while working. It pretends to include
federal officers. Of course the state has no jurisdiction over federal
operations. The law will, in theory, remove the qualified immunity from
officers who violate the act.
The
CHP are specifically exempt from the law. There is a very good reason
for that. The CHP contract must be voted on by the legislature. You
would be surprised at how often the CHP stops a person for suspicion of
drunk driving and finds out both that the person under suspicion is a
member of the legislature and more or less simultaneously determines
that the legislator is actually suffering from the flu so they drive
them home instead of arresting them. It is a mutually beneficial
system.
It will be amusing
to see what happens if the state attempts to enforce this law against
federal officers. I don't expect that to happen any time soon. The
feds have already told their people that they should ignore it.
No comments:
Post a Comment