March 2021 Bar Bulletin
By Gabriel S. Galanda
The social justice reckoning in Seattle since George Floyd’s murder last May rightly shines the light on local police forces and individual cops. But there’s another set of law enforcement actors who require our attention in the context of police reform: state trial court judges who garner political campaign support from the police.
It is first important to understand the ways in which our bar contributes to the erosion of public trust in law enforcement. County prosecutors are charged to investigate officer-involved fatalities as potential homicides. But they rely upon local cops to investigate the involved officers, knowing they are...