Pubdate: Wed, 20 Aug 2003
Source: Seattle Post-Intelligencer (WA)
Copyright: 2003 Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Contact:  http://www.seattle-pi.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/408
Author: Susan Paynter,Seattle Post-Intelligencer Columnist

WINKING AT POT USE IS RISKY BUSINESS

The Seattle City Council member salutes Initiative 75. That's the Sept. 16 
ballot measure that would officially direct law enforcement officers to 
wink and walk on by when they see a citizen igniting a joint.

The Seattle police officer has another kind of gesture in mind for the 
notion of leaving a law against marijuana on the books and then ordering 
him to look the other way.

And, ta da!, the allegedly liberal mother and PC columnist sides with .. 
the cop.

You've probably heard the arguments from council member Nick Licata and 
I-75's other council supporters, Heidi Wills and Judy Nicastro.

You may have heard them from the ACLU, the King County Bar Association and 
much of Seattle's liberal establishment.

Fer sure you caught more than a whiff of the rationale if you wafted 
anywhere near Myrtle Edwards Park last weekend during Hempfest.

The gist is that ganja remains technically illegal but cops and prosecutors 
would be ordered to treat personal use by adults as the city's "lowest law 
enforcement priority." Lower than even a civil infraction such as jaywalking.

The reasoning is to spare scarce tax money and municipal muscle to wrestle 
serious crimes like rape and robbery and to free up funds for parks, 
libraries and shelters.

And, pragmatically, it's tough to question the view from Licata's perch, 
where he sees so many needs unmet and tasks undone due to a city budget 
thinner than Zig Zag.

Besides, Licata told me yesterday, there are all kinds of rules out there 
that get broken every day -- jaywalking, exceeding arterial speed limits. 
"What we've done in a practical manner (with the initiative) is to make 
adult use of marijuana a lower priority than burglaries and drunken driving."

But isn't it already a lower priority with police?

Ah, but a new mayor could come along and crack down, Licata said. This way, 
it's officially on the books and priorities can't be changed.

Oh, but they wouldn't change anyway, said Seattle police detective Bob 
Seavey. Police would always pursue the worst first. Besides, there are too 
many people out there screaming for attention to their rights to let that 
happen. Their right to jaywalk. Their right to smoke dope. Their right to 
sell porn or ban porn from Pike Street. "You're not going to get a mayor 
who'll pull a Rudy Guiliani in this town," he said.

But there was a more important issue to be pressed on the cop and the 
politician at hand, both of them being fathers.

Doesn't the already difficult talk we have with our kids about dope get 
even murkier if we have to say, "Well, Johnny, marijuana is illegal. And 
demonstrably bad for you. So don't do it ... until you're an adult. After 
that, it's still illegal, but you can go ahead and bum a match from a 
passing beat cop because he's been ordered to ignore the law"?

 From his own perch, including six years walking a beat on Pike Street, 
Seavey has seen "every act committed by every human being and some 
animals," he said. "Bottom line is you have rules to provide some order to 
life and when you say it's OK to disregard one you send a message that 
breaking the others is OK, too."

Your kid doesn't like a rule at school? Tell him not to bother running for 
student council in order to change it. Just ignore it the way we do with dope.

Every time he works crowd control by Safeco Field before or after a 
ballgame, Seavey confronts people who want to defy the jaywalking laws that 
stand between them and their seat or car. They surge into oncoming traffic 
and get mad as hell when told to wait for the light.

Should we just let them get clobbered? Let them clog traffic?

What about just smoking a little crack for "adult personal use?" Or 
speeding if you have a really important meeting to make?

"Children will push rules to see if there's a consequence," Seaver said. 
"Unfortunately, we've got adults in Seattle who haven't stopped doing that 
either."

Licata says kids are smart. They already realize some laws get enforced and 
some don't. And some are enforced unfairly. And he isn't wrong.

OK, so change them. But don't leave them on the books with a wink and a 
door wide open to disrespect.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom