CRITIQUE OF PJALS

The Peace and Justice Action League of Spokane is on the extreme edge of Spokane's political thought.   Of course, the name is in their favor.  Who can be against peace and justice?   

I see that now they are stepping up their effort to abolish Israel by boycott, divestiture, and sanctions.   They are denying Israel's right to exist through damnation of the two state solution, a solution  accepted, I believe,  in one form or another by nearly all moderates.  Of course, this is the public face of PJALS.  Who knows what the few hundred paid-up members say?   Attempts to stamp out Israel are certainly not going to lead to peace.  Though I do admit, the current Israel government needs to be thrown out on its ear and a more progressive one installed.  And I condemn all truly unjust acts by Israel just as I condemn suicide bombings and other terrorist attack by the Palestinians

Another example of PJALS meddling in a manner with a formula overladen with venom and under dosed with reason is what they call "police accountability."  One evidence of this is the way they trot out the name of Shonto Pete.  Pete suffered an injustice at the hands of the County Prosecutor or a jury.  The drunken off-duty policeman who shot him was very much in the wrong, but how the department may have been culpable is never addressed by PJALS.  I believe the department needs to be overseen - if only indirectly -  by an independent citizen group.  This in addition to the Ombudsman.  This body could strongly recommend a department policy as to alcohol and the police.  But if an Ombudsman with independent investigatory powers - as proposed by PJALS -  had been in place when Pete was shot, I fail to see where that would have led to anything more than criminal charges being brought against the drunkard policeman.  That was done and still no one is happy.   And finally, there is  the matter of partnering with The Center for Justice on this issue.  They have a civil suit going against a Spokane Policeman in the Zehm case.  They have a money stake in this. 

And so on it goes in knee jerk fashion.  Someone yells foul and PJALS is off on another crusade with its parade of true believers.