Police need new laws to control unruly crowds
LAWRENCE BEAUMONT; University Place
Re: “Olympia reviews protest cases” (TNT, 5-2).
I would be the first person to speak up if free speech were denied to anyone, as it is part of the foundation of this country. However, those who engage in illegal, violent conduct are going far beyond that right and cause damage, injury, and monetary loss to others to satisfy what seems to be their own pleasure and agenda.
Most of these vandals escape justice because they lawfully cover their faces to avoid later identification. The law needs to change to counter this problem and bring these culprits to justice.
I propose that the state enact an identity-concealment law which would allow any peace officer to stop at will those who cover the primary identification features of their face at or near any public event.
The law would consider such act as probable cause for a peace officer to stop and to physically identify those persons before they would consider getting into trouble for risk of later prosecution by video identification.
The law would also allow public businesses to ban those who cover their face and who refuse to properly identify themselves upon request and the right to ban them from an establishment (such as banks, etc).
