Spokane's Political Leaders Must Hold Larry Haskell Accountable
SPOKANE, WA – Lesley Haskell’s racism and oppressive attitudes are once again in the news. She uses racial slurs. She proudly proclaims herself a white nationalist. No redefinition of that term changes her willingness to associate herself with it, and signals to the community she finds it acceptable and laudable.
In Lesley’s explicit racism, the true nature of Larry Haskell’s racial animus is laid bare. This was covered through remarkable reporting by the Inlander and Range Media.
“It doesn’t matter whether Larry is as nasty as Lesley. Whether he would use the N-word on the Internet is immaterial.
His actions are clear. The data is conclusive: His office is using that tremendous power to quietly perpetuate the systems of oppression that Lesley loudly advocates.”
- Range Media
We do not need to examine whether Larry agrees with every statement made by Lesley, we need only ask ourselves what our Prosecutor's office would look like if someone holding those views were at the helm. How would these attitudes affect charging and sentencing? How would Black folks, Indigenous people, and people of color be treated by the office? What do the legal outcomes of these attitudes look like? We need look no further than our current County Prosecutor's office under Larry Haskell. (Source: JFA Institute 2019)
● In 2019, Native Americans were 6.5 times more likely to be incarcerated than whites.
● In 2019, Black people were 13 times more likely to be incarcerated than whites.
● In December 2021, the average Black inmate spent more than 2.3 times longer in jail than white inmates.
Under the current circumstances, it is impossible for any person of color to maintain a reasonable expectation of impartiality when the prosecutor refuses to denounce–and even defends–the white nationalist in his own home. If he cannot be trusted to be impartial, Larry Haskell cannot do his job.
But this is hardly news.
People in positions of power in Spokane, you have known about Haskell for far too long without doing anything to protect our community. Now is the time. Spokane Community Against Racism calls on all citizens of Spokane, and especially those with local political power, to do everything within their control to ensure Larry Haskell cannot continue as Spokane County Prosecutor.
Anything less than a full throated denouncement and concrete actions to remove him from office from any persons in power will be taken as complicit acceptance and perpetuation of systemic racism.
We are watching.
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