LAWMAKERS KILL BILL TO CHANGE ARREST STANDARDS
Measure would have required police to issue tickets instead of arresting people for petty crimes and misdemeanors.
Rep. Jennifer Bacon scanned the makeup of the House Finance Committee on Monday evening just before her bill that would change arrest standards and lower Colorado jail populations was to get a vote.
“Once again,” said Bacon, a Black Democrat who said she’s been handcuffed seven times, including while staffing a summer camp, “the decision for this outcome is in hands that don’t like ours.”
Nine of the 11 members of the committee are white. Moments after she spoke, the panel voted 6-5 against Senate Bill 21-273.
SB 21-273 would have required police to issue tickets instead of arrest people for a wide range of misdemeanors and petty crimes. The bill also gave police the freedom to use their judgment, including in cases where someone was a public safety threat, but law enforcement opposed the bill and said it would hamstring them.
The six “no” votes included four Republicans and Broomfield Democratic Rep. Matt Gray, a former prosecutor; and Westminster Democratic Rep. Shannon Bird, the committee chair and one of the more conservative Democrats at the Statehouse. No one who opposed the bill explained their decisions prior to the vote; Gray declined to comment and Bird didn’t respond to a request for comment.
“Again, the lives of many people who are poor, who are people of color, were put in the hands of very privileged people,” Bacon said after the vote.
Bacon said Gray and Bird wanted to amend the bill to provide more discretion for police, or, as Bacon put it: “They wanted police to set the terms of police reform.”
Elisabeth Epps, the founder of Colorado’s largest bail fund, said after the vote that spoken Black Lives Matter solidarity rings hollow when Democrats oppose bills such as SB 21-273.
“Because what does it mean?” she said. “One wonders what the point is of Democrats if they’re going to vote with Republicans.”
SB 21-273 started as SB 21-62, a controversial measure that would have allowed for ticketing certain levels of felony crimes. Democrats who run the Capitol believed they’d get a fresh start with a more moderate bill and less heated public debate, but that was not to be the case.
Workplace discrimination
Fighting back tears, Democratic Rep. Susan Lontine told members of a House committee Monday evening that she wouldn’t be making changes to a bill on workplace harassment.
“I don’t see the point in running amendments when we already know the outcome,” Lontine said ahead of the 9-2 vote to kill SB 21176.
The bill first passed the Senate, and in that version, it would have gotten rid of what’s referred to as the “severe or pervasive” standard to prove workplace harassment; extended the timeline for when harassment or discrimination claims could be filed and allowed them to be filed directly in civil court; required employers to provide training and made employers’ process for filing claims clear.
Several major amendments, which were discussed with other lawmakers, attorneys and health care groups, weren’t enough to get even some fellow Democrats on board due to concerns about the scope of the bill and that it didn’t handle racial discrimination as well as it should.