Murder. BART and CSU Peace Officers. Legislative Initiative Amendment.
	Rebuttal to Argument in Favor of Proposition 19

Arguments on this page are the opinions of the authors and have not been checked for accuracy by any official agency.

Wait just a minute! Proposition 19 does a lot more than just cover penalties for murdering police officers. Proponents are saying this just extends Proposition 222 from the last election. But Proposition 19 also covers:

a. falsely reporting a bomb threat to BART police and university police;

b. falsely reporting any crime to BART police and university police;

c. falsely identifying yourself to BART police and university police to evade proper investigation by the officer;

d. joining a posse to catch criminals, when told to do so by BART police and university police; and

e. exempting retired BART police and university police officers from prohibitions on carrying concealed weapons.

Voters need to decide if they want all these provisions to be adopted. As a matter of fact, we agree with most of Proposition 19--all except the item labeled (d) above. We should pause at giving more officers the power to FORCE average citizens to join a posse to catch dangerous criminals. We would repeal the law giving any officers this power, rather than expanding it.

Often much of a law sounds good, but there is a "poison pill" that should cause voters to say NO. Three Assemblymen whose records show strong support of law enforcement voted against putting Proposition 19 on the ballot. We agree with them and urge you to vote NO.

GAIL K. LIGHTFOOT
Past Chair, Libertarian Party of California

LARRY HINES
Legal Secretary

TED BROWN
Insurance Adjuster/Investigator

Proposition 19 | Vote 2000 Home | Next - Prop 20 | Secretary of State Home |