Lumberyard bar owner Nathan Adams shouldn't be heralding his rebuild plans in his "gorgeous new space" before the arson investigation is complete to avoid the perception of it being an inside job.

In that King 5 interview, Adams doesn't even acknowledge the pain of adjacent businesses and whether they're going to rebuild. Tough for them without hate crime windfalls.

Can anyone tell me why it would be an uphill battle to convince Democratic lawmakers on federal mj legalization? They dont need to worry about loosing votes, even the majority of Republican voters are now pro pot. If they arent worried about votes than the only thing could be donor cash from Big Pharma/Alcohol. What Im curious about are what are the actual fucking reasons being given by Dem lawmakers for resistance? Dont need to remind anyone here that a disproportionate amount of blacks are in jail for selling pot. I can almost understand Republicans moralizing for a few votes(90+ crowd) but what answers do Democrats have to give for not being on board?

@4 - It's always puzzled me how pot can still be illegal now that the Boomers/1960s pot smokers & flower chlldren are running the oountry.

@7 - sure, but they're no less self-serving than any other group of twats and I would have thought they would have legalized for their own convenience.

Also, 3d & James (and the block in front of the courthouse generally) has been a fucking disaster zone for years. No surprise there was a stabbing there.

You call it a moon wobble, I call it killer surf.

It's going to be EPIC off Vancouver Island!

4: For the same two word reason police have always been more focused on lifestyle crime enforcement than violent crime: asset forfeiture and until perhaps 10 years ago large federal grants that flowed out of the 1994 Crime Bill as well.

As long as we pay police and prosecutors extra to focus on stupid shit no one else cares about, they will remain almost entirely focused on stupid shit like drugs and adult prostitution most victims of murder, rape and burglary don't really care about.

https://www.ojp.gov/ncjrs/virtual-library/abstracts/addicted-drug-war-role-civil-asset-forfeiture-budgetary-necessity

It's a primary motive behind the defund the SPD movement. Why pay the police to continue to focus almost all their energy and enforcement on arresting the cash next to an illegal plant when they currently have a lower than 10% clearance rate for rape in paces like Seattle and and Pierce County? It's not hard to imagine we have better ways to spend that $400 million + budget.

Why are arrest rates for rape in Washington state so underwhelming?
https://www.seattletimes.com/opinion/why-are-arrest-rates-for-rape-in-washington-state-so-underwhelming/

"The most recent surprising data from 2016 indicates that the percentage of rape arrests by Pierce County and SPD were only 7 percent and 8 percent, respectively"

@4,6,7 The hippies (and their kids and grandkids) have never been particularly inconvenienced by the law when they wanted to buy marijuana; the drug war has always given them a pass for the most part. Sure they like the idea of freeing the weed but they're not especially fussed with the status quo, either.

Police unions are pretty firmly opposed to decriminalizing pot, and they're a powerful lobby on both sides of the aisle. There are a handful of other interest groups that stand to lose if we Legalize It at the national level, too, but none with as much pull I think.

@8 - and old people vote.

I inevitably had to make some short cuts in explaining this since no one want a dissertation, but It should be noted that the 1994 Crime Bill grant money that once pushed local police to over focus on all drugs and drug trafficking has shifted since 2016 to provide grant money to focus on sex work and claim it is all sex trafficking, but the other incentives around asset forfeiture and drugs have remained the same.

The longer I live, the more I realize the cheap posturing and virtue signally from law enforcement around all lifestyle crimes is and had never been anything more than a cheep money grab.

@15:

Of course. Nearly 30 years of asset forfeiture from drug busts has been the prime economic engine allowing LEA's to buy all that nifty military-surplus ordinance they then turn around and use against civilian populations.

Cops may not be the sharpest tools on the work bench, but they DO know a golden goose when they see one...

No question that's what the police do with their cut, which is why the police faced off against a group of peaceful protesters and a handful of vandals like they were heading into Fallujah last Summer, but what does the the Prosecutor's office and local politicians do with their cut of the loot?

Washington is ranked 41 out of 50 states with a solid D- on asset forfeiture tracking and disclosures. The truly scary thing is that we really have no way of tracking or knowing where all the money goes. Perhaps it's time to start counting how many beach homes they all have.

Thank goodness their always motivated by the urge to save the children and girls.

@18: If that really scares you, you're living a very privileged life. Must be nice.

Most of us are scared and concerned over rising crime, like getting catalytic converters stolen and increased homicides, than cops getting the gear they need.