Letter to the Editor: 9/27/12

To the Editor:

Being in possession of a loaded firearm in public, concealed or unconcealed, while intoxicated, is illegal in Washington. When the Bellevue officers identified themselves, Seattle Police Department officers should have engaged in a Terry stop, and frisked them for firearms. The Legislature should make it a crime for a police officer to refuse to make an arrest, based on probable cause, anybody stopped for DUI or possession of a loaded firearm, in public, while intoxicated. Whether suspect is a law enforcement officer or a civilian should be legally irrelevant.

It’s also time for the Legislature to make DUI and possession of a loaded firearm, in public, with a blood alcohol level of 1.5 or greater a class C felony (five years/$5,000). Such a level of intoxication constitutes a form of reckless endangerment.

Steven L. Kendall