General Assembly Post-Game Wrap-Up/Pre-Game Show: Thursday, June 8, 2023

The fraudulent Police ‘Reform’ bills made it out of committee yesterday.  But not before at least a couple of people behind the fraud revealed themselves.  From the News-Journal story:

“You had three years to put in what you needed to put in and participate,” said Rep. Franklin Cooke, chair of the Public Safety and Homeland Security Committee, as he addressed the advocates’ claims. Cooke is a retired New Castle County police officer. “But when the rubber hits the road, it’s ‘Oh, we didn’t have enough time (to review).’”

Yo, Rep. Cooke–then why did you and the sponsors hide this bill from February until last Friday??  Huh, tell us that.  You shut ’em out of the process, you hide the bill from them, and THEY’RE the ones who are at fault?  You’re nothing but a cop pretending to be a legislator.

I won’t bother to go back to find the quote from Cooke where he opposed advocates serving on any of the panels b/c “I’m looking for people who can be objective”.  But he said it.  By ‘objective’, he meant cops, who overwhelmingly dominated the panels.  He, Schwartzkopf, and Carney, who made many of the appointments, largely shut advocates out of the process.

“We’ve sat here year after year, month after month, day after day,” said Jamie Leonard, head of the Delaware Fraternal Order of Police. “My predecessor wouldn’t sit at this table. He wouldn’t be part of it. (But) the generation of law enforcement that I come from is ready to move the needle.”

Got it, good cop/bad cop. Only problem is, the cops wrote the bill, and the needle will only move barely, if at all.  This is perhaps the most accurate quote in the article:

“This bill is not good,” said Kevin O’Connell, chief public defender for the Delaware Office of Defense Services. “This bill is not transparency; this bill is not accountability, but it’s a first step.”

The less said about what Reps. Minor-Brown and Kendra Johnson said the better.  You know, ‘You can stand up or do nothing.’  Which, in practice, is no different than ‘ You can stand up and do nothing’.  Which is pretty much what they did.  Pathetic.  Primary these weaklings.

Ho-kay.  Primal scream therapy is the best therapy.

Here is yesterday’s Session Activity Report.  I listened to the Senate debate on SS1/SB 7 (Hansen), which seeks to improve Delaware’s energy readiness.  Aside from the rambling musings of Sen. Jubilation T. Buckson, what was notable was Sen. Hansen’s frustration that the bill was not what it could have been.  You know, budget constraints.  And lack of interest from the Governor.

Rep. Shupe’s ‘a cop in every school’ bill made it out of committee.  Every member of the House Education Committee who voted it out should be embarrassed, especially the Chair.  $68 mill?  Sure, it’s for cops, why not?  Just cut the shit out of everything else.

Here’s today’s Senate Agenda.  I like SB 145 (Sturgeon), which ‘increases the limits on the dollar amount of awards of compensatory or punitive damages, or both, in cases of employment discrimination, establishing specific caps based on the number of the respondent’s employees’.

Today’s House Agenda features HB 154 (Griffith), which ‘delineates a consumer’s personal data rights and provides that residents of this State will have the right to know what information is being collected about them, see the information, correct any inaccuracies, or request deletion of their personal data that is being maintained by entities or people.’  While there are some limits on which businesses would be impacted, the fact that the Chamber opposes it makes me like it even more.

I’ve pretty much had my fill of the legislative action this week.  You, no doubt, have had your fill of my bitching and moaning. Let’s call it a week.