Police have a hard job, made harder by lawmakers. And the story of the geese gone on walkabout.
Notes from the August 18 meeting of
The Rotary Club of Clover Park
recorded by Tom McClellan
Fred Willis led us off with an inspirational message about the loss he feels lately for his brothers in arms. And Jeannie Hill followed that with a passage from a poem by Michael Marks:
"And maybe just remind the few, if ill of us they speak,
that we are all that stands between The Monsters And The Weak."
We welcomed 3 guests: Our longtime Rotary friend Ralph Lockhart, Fred’s grandson (and chauffeur) Alec Willis, and Bob Estrada who had seen the article about our work on the Wildlife Area and came to find out more about us.
Future Programs
Aug. 25 TK Knight Wakesurf Warriors Veterans Support
Sep. 1 Donna Handoe Santa's Castle Program for Military Youth
Sep. 8 Alec Willis, R.N. Trends In Long Term Care Facilities
Award Presentation
Randy Black was recognized for reaching his 3rd cumulative Paul Harris award recognition level for donations to the Rotary Foundation.
President’s Minute
Teresa shared with us that news that on Aug. 28, her son Patrick would be heading off to Florida to attend and play lacrosse for St. Leo University. As a mother, Teresa now gets to worry about her son being in the path of unknown future hurricanes. So she asked about whether any members had had their own experiences with hurricanes.
John Unfred noted that in 2018 he got deployed to the southeast to help run emergency operations after a hurricane. He likes our home weather better.
Becky Newton recalled being in Hawaii for her son’s 21st birthday when a huge storm came, and just after a big earthquake that had people worrying about a tsunami on top of a storm.
Tom McClellan made note, in honor of Fred Willis, that Hurricane Fred has weakened, and now Fred is just a tropical depression. Sorry Fred. Long may you rain.
Bob Lawrence reminded everyone about the Lakewood Playhouse’s upcoming performances of a Monty Python Edukational Show this Friday and Saturday. Get details at https://www.lakewoodplayhouse.org/.
Jim Hairston noted that the Golf Tournament has now received $11,000 in commitments for either sponsorship or players. There are still spots unfilled, so please continue asking everyone you know of who might be interested in playing. Jim also circulated a signup sheet for volunteer tasks at the event. Please sign up now, or Jim will sign you up for what needs doing. Jim is also offering to do golf lessons for Rotarians on Thursdays or Fridays in September at the VA golf course. Contact him to arrange a good time for you.
Fun And Fines
Ed Trobaugh got off to a slow start, noting the Wachters from Marie Barth (for leaving early last week), and from President Teresa, who asserted that she still has no cash and will have to carry it over.
Dave Cotant confessed to having gone on a golf trip to both Kingston and Poulsbo, and noted that he missed making a hole-in-one by just a foot. A foot! Dave then went on to 2-putt from a foot, still making par.
Alan Billingsley was back in attendance after having been gone to both a weeklong family reunion trip to Oregon with 7 grandkids (the 41st year of doing this, with 35 family members), and a few days on the sailboat heading to Bellingham for Katelyn Billingsley’s brother’s wedding. Alan rounded all of that up to $50.
But our finemaster was not done yet with Alan. He noted that the absent Katelyn Billingsley recently achieved some fame for having her 3 pet farm geese go on walkabout, even crossing Phillips Road to an apartment complex. Someone publicized it on Facebook, eventually leading to a joyful reunion.
Ed then tried to go to work on Alan for having gotten some ink recently in The Suburban Times, with an article Alan wrote concerning our project in the Wildlife Area. But this time Alan was ready to return serve, and noted that it was publicity for our club, and all of the members of our club, including Ed. That brought a quick end to that line of questioning. You can read that article at
This Week’s Program
Deputy Chief of Police John Unfred gave a presentation about some recent state legislation that is going to greatly affect how law enforcement officials do their jobs. In the last session there were 12 bills passed on this topic.
A new State agency has been created to do investigations of wrongdoing by law enforcement officers (LEOs). There will be new data collection requirements on any use of force. Simple drug possession has been downgraded to a misdemeanor on all types of drugs, and any arrest requires that treatment be offered in lieu of jail time for at least the first 2 contacts. So effectively all drugs have been legalized.
Starting Jan. 1, electronic recording will be required for all interrogations. That means all officers in the LPD will be issued body cameras, in spite of the department’s previous reluctance on this issue because of such records being subject to release upon a public records request. That means a rapist will get to see the police interview of his victim.
Additionally, there can be no interrogation of a minor without first consulting an attorney, even if the minor’s parents waive such rights.
All LEOs will now have a “duty to intervene” in any case of use of excessive force or “wrongdoing”, which the new legislation poorly defines.
Chokeholds will now be forbidden, and the same goes for no-knock warrants. “Military equipment” is now prohibited, which is defined as any weapon or tool with a diameter larger than .50 caliber. One problem, however, is that a lot of the non-lethal tools (bean bag guns) are much larger than that, but the legislation encourages use of non-lethal tools. CS gas is okayed for a barricaded suspect, but not for riot control.
Pursuits are allowed if there is “probable cause” of a violent offense, but not a car theft. A LEO cannot pursue after a simple assault on a LEO. In other words, the law says that you can now go sucker punch a police officer and he cannot pursue you. [ed. note: Please do not try this.]
Some of the legislators who wrote these laws have since said that the various police departments legal interpretations of the text are not what they intended. Law enforcement agencies were not listened to during the crafting of and the voting on these bills.
When asked a question about recruitment of new officers under these extreme conditions, John Unfred noted that the LPD has lost 7 officers to retirement, and has gotten 53 applicants. That is actually a low number; they usually cap applications at 125 and fill it up in less than 2 weeks. 30% more of the current officers are expected to retire in the next 5 years.
Raffle:
With $573 in the pot, and with 2 aces and 1 joker in the deck, Tom McClellan had the winning ticket, but could not draw any of the magical cards.
And Finally…
What do traffic officers do with a motorist who violates these instructions?
