Latest From ACLU of Washington

Fall is upon us, which means harvest season is in full swing. Not only have Washington’s farmers, orchard workers, and wine makers been busy, but so too have outdoor marijuana growers and the law enforcement officers that chase them. The growers are attracted to the northwest’s mild growing climate, large uninhabited tracts of land, and easy access to consumer markets (i.e. they don’t have to cross any borders). In response, law enforcement wages large scale eradication efforts to rid the state of these illicit grow operations, which results in the confiscation of thousands of marijuana plants, but few arrests. So who’s winning this game of cat and mouse in Washington’s most remote locations? The unfortunate answer is, no one. Read more

The New York Times recently reported that sex offense rates on the campuses and surrounding areas of 12 colleges and universities are 83 percent higher than the overall national average. As the Women’s Rights Project of the ACLU explained, “This statistic . . . highlights the importance of a school’s response to rape.” Fortunately, federal law has acknowledged the importance of a school’s response to sexual assault by requiring that schools respond to victims’ needs and take action to protect students. Read more

In 2008, when the City installed the police surveillance cameras at Cal Anderson Park, the ACLU warned of the dangers of government cameras recording the activities of law-abiding citizens, and noted that without safeguards for privacy, inappropriate uses of such cameras likely would result. Sure enough, the cameras were misused to zoom in on park users and were not used by the police to prevent or solve any crimes. Thankfully, last week the City Council passed legislation to remove the cameras – but only from Cal Anderson Park. The City now needs to remove the cameras from the Garfield Community Center as well. Email the Seattle City Council today. Read more

As we said in a previous blog post , you might have thought that “debtors' prisons” were extinct. But people are still being locked up all too often in Washington and around the country simply because they can’t pay their court-ordered financial obligations in a criminal case. Read more