A new California bill that forbids police from using canines for crowd control or to apprehend suspects has generated an unusually large amount of attention given its likely slim possibilities of passage. But it strikes me as a case study about why the Legislature so rarely accomplishes anything of substance.
"The use of police canines has been a mainstay in the constant dehumanizing, cruel abuse of Black Americans and people of color," according to the bill. "(P)olice canines are a carryover from a dark past." That's undoubtedly true, but instead of dealing with an ongoing problem in a targeted way, the bill's authors seem intent on making a broader ideological point.
