THANKS, ASSEMBLYMAN CUNNINGHAM

Although we don’t always agree with Assemblyman Jordan Cunningham’s policy preferences, we want to thank him for working to “close the loophole” in current laws that fail to hold police officers and other public officials accountable for sexual harassment and assault.

As we have seen too often, those who wear uniforms and carry guns can easily abuse their power and target victims because of their perceived authority. Amazingly, current regulations allow such abuses of power to occur, effectively legitimizing the threatening of a victim with retribution if she does not comply with an officer’s unwanted sexual advances.

AB 1599, introduced by Mr. Cunningham, will fix this problem and hold police officers and other public officials legally accountable when they “exploit their color of authority to seek sexual arousal, gratification or abuse.” As Mr. Cunningham has shown himself to be a staunch ally of law enforcement we applaud these reforms, which are necessary to protect the public from those who abuse their authority for personal satisfaction. We hope the assemblyman will continue to support necessary reform of the criminal justice system.