Of Course!
Crime, Drive-by Shootings, Racial Politics, The Law, Washington State
Fox News (not the Babylon Bee) reports on another democrat milestone in establishing Racial Equity.
Washington state lawmakers introduced a bill this month that would reduce penalties for drive-by shootings with the aim of “promoting racial equity.”
The bill, introduced by Democratic Representatives Tarra Simmons and David Hackney ahead of the state’s 2022 legislative session, would eliminate drive-by shootings as the basis for elevating a first-degree murder charge to aggravated murder in the first degree, which carries a mandatory sentence of life imprisonment.
Drive-by shootings were added to the list of aggravating factors for murder charges in 1995. Other aggravating factors include the murder of law enforcement officers, murders committed by inmates while they are behind bars, and murder-for-hire schemes.
Seattle police responded to a third shooting incident Tuesday evening in the 200 block of Yesler Way in the Pioneer Square neighborhood in September.
Seattle police responded to a third shooting incident Tuesday evening in the 200 block of Yesler Way in the Pioneer Square neighborhood in September. (Seattle Police Department)
The aggravating factor that the bill would eliminate reads: “The murder was committed during the course of or as a result of a shooting where the discharge of the firearm… is either from a motor vehicle or from the immediate area of a motor vehicle that was used to transport the shooter or the firearm.”
Rep. Simmons, who represents a district in western Washington, argued that “it’s clear that it was targeted at gangs that were predominantly young and Black.”
“I believe in a society that believes in the power of redemption,” she told Fox News Digital in a statement. “Murder is murder no matter where the bullet comes from but locking young people up and throwing away the key is not the answer.”
