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4 Police Officers Shot in Washington

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LalaithUrwen
Post subject: 4 Police Officers Shot in Washington
Posted: Sun 29 Nov , 2009 9:43 pm
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http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091129/ap_ ... icers_shot
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By GENE JOHNSON, Associated Press Writer Gene Johnson, Associated Press Writer – 6 mins ago

PARKLAND, Wash. – A gunman burst into a coffeehouse Sunday and opened fire on four police officers as they sat working on their laptops, killing the three men and one woman in what an official described as a targeted ambush.

Pierce County Sheriff's spokesman Ed Troyer said officers were looking for one male suspect who fled the scene and haven't ruled out an accomplice, possibly a getaway driver.

It wasn't clear whether the officers even had time to draw their weapons to return fire, Troyer said.

"This was more of an execution. Walk in with the specific mindset to shoot police officers," Troyer said.

Troyer said the officers — all from the Lakewood Police Department — were catching up on paperwork at the beginning of their shifts when they were attacked at 8:15 a.m. Sunday.

Troyer said the attack was clearly targeted at the officers, not a robbery gone bad.

"There were marked patrol cars outside and they were all in uniform," Troyer said.

With no known suspects, there was no indication of any connection with the Halloween night shooting of a Seattle police officer. The suspect in that shooting remains hospitalized.

"We won't know if it's a copycat effect or what it was until we get the case solved," Troyer said. "We don't even have a suspect ID right now."

Troyer would not release the names of the victims in Sunday's shooting.

"We have no motive at all," Troyer said. "I don't think when we find out what it is, it will be anything that makes any sense or be worth it."

Two employees and a few other customers were in the shop during the attack. All are being interviewed by the Pierce County Sheriff's investigators.

"Some are in shock. They are very upset," Troyer said. "They are the ones who are going to put together for us how this happened."

The Forza Coffee Shop, part of a popular local chain, is on a side street near McChord Air Force Base in Tacoma, about 35 miles south of Seattle. The shop is in a small retail center alongside two restaurants, a cigar store and a nail salon.

Brad Carpenter, founder and owner of Forza Coffee, said his staff was OK and being interviewed by police, and that his main concern was with the families of the police officers.

"I'm a retired police officer, so this really hits close to home for me," said Carpenter, of nearby Gig Harbor.

Streets around the coffee shop were blocked off late Sunday morning, and a police helicopter hovered over a large crowd of investigators. TV video showed police taking possession of a pickup truck parked in a grocery store in Parkland.

"We are looking at some people. We are looking at some cars. We are looking at some residences," Troyer said.

Troyer said investigators are checking surveillance video from multiple sources, trying to identify a possible getaway car. He urged people to stay away from scenes to avoid interfering and putting themselves at risk.

Dave Gabrielson, a clerk at Foot Mart about a block away from the coffee shop, told the newspaper all was quiet when he opened the store at 8 a.m. About 30 minutes later, "All of a sudden a million cops were zooming up and down the road," Gabrielson said.

He said he saw officers bring a police dog into a nearby apartment complex.

Last month, Seattle police officer Timothy Brenton was shot and killed Halloween night as he was sitting in a cruiser with trainee Britt Sweeney. Sweeney was grazed in the neck.

Authorities say the man charged with that shooting also firebombed four police vehicles in October as part of a "one-man war" against law enforcement. Christopher Monfort, 41, was arrested after being wounded in a firefight with police days after the Seattle shooting. He remains hospitalized in stable condition, the hospital said Sunday.

The officers killed Sunday were a patrol squad made up of three officers and their sergeant. No threats had been made against them or other officers in the region, sheriff's officials said. Their families have been notified.

"We lost people we care about. We're working to find out who did this and deal with him." Pierce County Sheriff Paul Pastor told reporters at the scene.

Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire said she was "shocked and horrified" by the killings.

"Our police put their lives on the line every day, and tragedies like this remind us of the risks they continually take to keep our communities safe," she said in a written statement. "My heart goes out to the family, friends and co-workers of these officers, as well as the entire law enforcement community."

At Rollies Tavern near the coffee house, the plasma TVs usually tuned to football had Northwest Cable News on. Three bar patrons live next door to the coffee house.

Jerry Arnold, 45, was in bed when he was awakened by sirens. He's lived there seven years and never seen anything close to Sunday's scene.

"I hope they get them. I can't sleep until they do," he said. "Those guys could be hiding in my backyard."

___

:( What the heck?!

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Ara-anna
Post subject: Re: 4 Police Officers Shot in Washington
Posted: Sun 29 Nov , 2009 10:07 pm
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Oh my goodness...what the frick. wow.

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vison
Post subject: Re: 4 Police Officers Shot in Washington
Posted: Sun 29 Nov , 2009 10:24 pm
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I just heard this on our local news. I am so sad and shocked.

There is nothing a person can say. :(

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LalaithUrwen
Post subject: Re: 4 Police Officers Shot in Washington
Posted: Sun 29 Nov , 2009 10:30 pm
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I read this right before Freddy and 2 of his best friends (also police officers) left our house for deer hunting, and all I could think of was, "What if it was them?" :( Any of them or all of them? :bawl:

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Jude
Post subject: Re: 4 Police Officers Shot in Washington
Posted: Sun 29 Nov , 2009 10:39 pm
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Yow. :Q How horrible.

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vison
Post subject: Re: 4 Police Officers Shot in Washington
Posted: Sun 29 Nov , 2009 10:44 pm
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LalaithUrwen wrote:
I read this right before Freddy and 2 of his best friends (also police officers) left our house for deer hunting, and all I could think of was, "What if it was them?" :( Any of them or all of them? :bawl:
I know, I thought of Freddy right away. :hug: Then I heard it was in Washington State. But that's still so awful.

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nienna
Post subject: Re: 4 Police Officers Shot in Washington
Posted: Sun 29 Nov , 2009 10:52 pm
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Absolutely dreaful... :shock: Those poor families... :(

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sauronsfinger
Post subject: Re: 4 Police Officers Shot in Washington
Posted: Mon 30 Nov , 2009 2:41 pm
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This is a really tragic story. It sounds just terrible.

On the radio this morning they said that now information has come out that the former Governor of Arkansas, Mike Huckabee, was responsible for this alleged killer to be out in the first place. Here is an online article with several updates
Quote:
Huckabee Granted Clemency to Suspected Cop Killer
US NEWS | Sun, Nov 29, 2009 at 6:41:29 pm PST

Mike Huckabee is in big political trouble tonight, as the story breaks that he granted clemency to the man suspected of murdering four police officers.

Maurice Clemmons, the 37-year-old Tacoma man being sought for questioning in the killing of four Lakewood police officers this morning, has a long criminal record punctuated by violence, erratic behavior and concerns about his mental health.

Nine years ago, then-Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee granted clemency to Clemmons, commuting his lengthy prison sentence over the protestations of prosecutors.

“This is the day I’ve been dreading for a long time,” Larry Jegley, prosecuting attorney for Arkansas’ Pulaski County said Sunday night when informed that Clemmons was being sought in connection to the killings.

Read the article linked above; this guy is seriously, obviously deranged. You have to wonder why Huckabee would grant clemency to someone like this, despite strenuous objections from prosecutors.

One possibility: Huckabee is a fanatical fundamentalist. Was it because Clemmons pretended to “get religion” in order for his sentence to be reduced?

UPDATE at 11/29/09 8:38:26 pm:

Huckabee is blaming it on “the criminal justice system,” and taking no responsibility for granting the suspected killer clemency.

“The senseless and savage execution of police officers in Washington State has saddened the nation, and early reports indicate that a person of interest is a repeat offender who once lived in Arkansas and was wanted on outstanding warrants here and Washington State. The murder of any individual is a profound tragedy, but the murder of a police officer is the worst of all murders in that it is an assault on every citizen and the laws we live within.

Should he be found to be responsible for this horrible tragedy, it will be the result of a series of failures in the criminal justice system in both Arkansas and Washington State. He was recommended for and received a commutation of his original sentence from 1990. This commutation making him parole eligible and was paroled by the parole board once they determined he met the conditions at that time. He was arrested later for parole violation and taken back to prison to serve his full term, but prosecutors dropped the charges that would have held him. It appears that he has continued to have a string of criminal and psychotic behavior but was not kept incarcerated by either state. This is a horrible and tragic event and if found and convicted the offender should be held accountable to the fullest extent of the law. Our thoughts and prayers are and should be with the families of those honorable, brave, and heroic police officers.”

UPDATE at 11/29/09 8:46:27 pm:

This is not the first case in which Huckabee granted clemency to a criminal who went right back to a life of crime; in 1996 he granted clemency to serial rapist Wayne Dumond: Dumond case revisited.

In an effort to stem the political fallout, Huckabee and his staff agreed to meet for the first time with Dumond’s victim, Ashley Stevens, her family, and Fletcher Long, the prosecuting attorney who sent Dumond to prison. In interviews, both Walter “Stevie” Stevens, Ashley’s father, and Long both said they came away frustrated that Huckabee knew so few specifics about the case.

“He [Huckabee] kept insisting that there was DNA evidence that has since exonerated Dumond, when that very much wasn’t the case,” recalled Long. “No matter that that wasn’t true … we couldn’t seem to say or do anything to disabuse him of that notion.”

In fact, there had never been any DNA testing in the Ashley Stevens case.

The state official who advised Huckabee on the Dumond case confirmed that the governor knew very little about Ashley Stevens’ case:

“I don’t believe that he had access to, or read, the law enforcement records or parole commission’s files — even by then,” the official said. “He already seemed to have made up his mind, and his knowledge of the case appeared to be limited to a large degree as to what people had told him, what Jay Cole had told him, and what he had read in the New York Post.”

Jay Cole, like Huckabee, is a Baptist minister, pastor for the Mission Fellowship Bible Church in Fayetteville and a close friend of the governor and his wife. On the ultra-conservative radio program he hosts, Cole has championed the cause of Wayne Dumond for more than a decade.

Cole has repeatedly claimed that Dumond’s various travails are the result of Ashley Stevens’ distant relationship to Bill Clinton.

The governor was also apparently relying on information he got from Steve Dunleavy, first as a correspondent for the tabloid television show “A Current Affair” and later as a columnist for the New York Post.

Much of what Dunleavy has written about the Dumond saga has been either unverified or is demonstrably untrue. Dunleavy has all but accused Ashley Stevens of having fabricated her rape, derisively referring to her in one column as a “so-called victim,” and brusquely asserting in another, “That rape never happened.”

The columnist wrote that Dumond was a “Vietnam veteran with no record” when in fact he did have a criminal record. He claimed there existed DNA evidence by “one of the most respected DNA experts in the country” to exonerate Dumond, even though there was no such evidence. He wrote that Bill Clinton had personally intervened to keep Dumond in prison, even though Clinton had recused himself in 1990 from any involvement in the case because of his distant relationship with Stevens.

“The problem with the governor is that he listens to Jay Cole and reads Steve Dunleavy and believes them … without doing other substantative work,” the state official said.

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LalaithUrwen
Post subject: Re: 4 Police Officers Shot in Washington
Posted: Mon 30 Nov , 2009 3:15 pm
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I read that, sf. While it seems Huckabee bears a great deal of the blame in this man being on the streets (and that pisses me off, of course, unless he can show he acted in good faith), the blame doesn't rest solely on him. I'm not even sure the prison or parole system is entirely to blame. This man was seriously mentally ill. I wonder what should have been done for him in that regard, and if nothing could be done, then he should have been locked up somewhere for his safety and for ours. :( Our mental health system is woefully inadequate, but then so is our knowledge about mental health issues.

It's looking like one of the officers shot him before he [the officer] was killed.

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sauronsfinger
Post subject: Re: 4 Police Officers Shot in Washington
Posted: Mon 30 Nov , 2009 3:19 pm
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Oh, I do agree with that Lalaith. Huckabee did not pull the trigger and the true blame lies with the actual killer. But this makes the Willie Horton case seem like a very small issue with this new wrinkle.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willie_Horton
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Our mental health system is woefully inadequate, but then so is our knowledge about mental health issues.
I agree with that also. I do not know how it is in other states, but here in Michigan we have seen an almost complete scrapping of the mental health system over the last 15 years as a way to save money and keep from raising tax revenues. As a result, many potentially dangerous people who previously would have been getting professional help are now simply out here with the rest of us. Until they commit an actual serious crime, they are merely a nuisance and eyesore that society prefers to ignore.

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TheEllipticalDisillusion
Post subject: Re: 4 Police Officers Shot in Washington
Posted: Mon 30 Nov , 2009 5:09 pm
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That's insane.

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Jude
Post subject: Re: 4 Police Officers Shot in Washington
Posted: Wed 02 Dec , 2009 2:10 pm
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It looks like the suspect has been shot -
Quote:
The wounded fugitive who police said gunned down four Seattle-area officers in a coffee shop was shot and killed by a Seattle patrol officer early Tuesday. Police said Maurice Clemmons was shot when an officer stopped to investigate a vehicle that had been reported stolen. The officer ordered Clemmons to stop, but he ran around the vehicle, and the officer shot and killed him.
My thoughts? If he really did do it, I'm not going to mourn for his death. But without a trial and investigation, do we know he did it?

And, unless he left written documents behind him, we'll never know why.

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LalaithUrwen
Post subject: Re: 4 Police Officers Shot in Washington
Posted: Wed 02 Dec , 2009 3:36 pm
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I think they're quite sure he did it. None of the employees in the coffee shop was injured, so there were many witnesses. In this case, it looks like the shooting was justified--he had a gun, was resisting arrest, and threatening the officer. (I read that in another article.) He had also been seriously wounded by one of the officers he killed.

And I suspect there is no reason whatsoever why he did this--not one that will make one iota of sense anyway. He was mentally deranged.

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oldtoby
Post subject: Re: 4 Police Officers Shot in Washington
Posted: Wed 02 Dec , 2009 4:05 pm
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Quote:
but here in Michigan we have seen an almost complete scrapping of the mental health system over the last 15 years as a way to save money and keep from raising tax revenues.
Even longer really. I remember in 1992 when they closed the mental hospital in my town in MI. They "mainstreamed" all the kids into the school system. I had class with a couple of them....they didnt belong there, it was completely unfair to them and the teachers both having to suddenly adjust to being there. Not to mention how mean kids can be to each other under normal circumstances, you can imagine how the nastier kids were to these poor kids being thrown head first into public school for the first time.

But hey, the old mental hospital is now a prison so its all good right? :bang:


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LalaithUrwen
Post subject: Re: 4 Police Officers Shot in Washington
Posted: Wed 02 Dec , 2009 7:38 pm
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Yeah, it's a frustrating situation. :(

What I wish is that we could do more research to find out why mental illness exists and then develop better ways to deal with it.

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Riverthalos
Post subject: Re: 4 Police Officers Shot in Washington
Posted: Wed 02 Dec , 2009 7:44 pm
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oldtoby wrote:
But hey, the old mental hospital is now a prison so its all good right? :bang:
And the saddest part is, I'm willing to bet more than a few current inmates are former patients. And so the circle is complete. :(

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sauronsfinger
Post subject: Re: 4 Police Officers Shot in Washington
Posted: Wed 02 Dec , 2009 8:00 pm
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Allow me to take it a step further.... what is even sadder is that those former mental patients probably earned prison by having to injure somebody else who was completely innocent. The chance was taken by putting them on the street and somebody paid for taking that chance. And I have a strong suspicion that the innocent people who paid for that gamble were NOT the ones making those decisions in the first place.

Of course, it all is done in the name of the Glorious Crusade for Smaller Government. So it must be a good thing. ;)

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LalaithUrwen
Post subject: Re: 4 Police Officers Shot in Washington
Posted: Wed 02 Dec , 2009 8:50 pm
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I think that's an unfair charge. I think it's more accurate to say it was done for the Almighty Dollar.


ETA: to remove generalization word

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nienna
Post subject: Re: 4 Police Officers Shot in Washington
Posted: Wed 02 Dec , 2009 9:09 pm
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LalaithUrwen wrote:
I think that's an unfair charge. I think it's more accurate to say it was done for the Almighty Dollar.
Well, it's a bit of both, actually...
Quote:
As stated, the state has closed 24 mental health institutions in the last two decades. Several reasons are cited: the belief that the mental health and developmentally disabled population should not be locked up but allowed to live freely and receive care in their community; growth of the community mental health system; development of psychotropic drugs that help manage mental illness; and last but not least, budget constraints....

State hospitals and centers originally were the main means of treating and caring for the mentally ill and developmentally disabled. In the first half of the 1900s, the capacity of state institutions grew dramatically. However, by the 1960s there evolved a general consensus among mental health professionals and the public that the needs of most mental health patients best can be met in community programs located as close to a patient's family as possible. In 1974 the Michigan Mental Health Code (Public Act 258) transferred the authority and funding for the care and treatment of adults and children with mental illness and developmental disabilities from the state to community mental health services programs (CMHSPs), agencies sponsored by Michigan's 83 counties and overseen by the Michigan Department of Community Health (MDCH).
http://www.michiganinbrief.org/edition0 ... Health.htm
Quote:
innovative policymakers around the country are increasingly turning to privatization to dramatically improve the quality of mental health services while holding down costs...
The Georgia and D.C. cases should dispel the myth that providing care to psychiatric patients is somehow an “inherently governmental” function.
http://baconsrebellion.com/2009/01/05/p ... -services/

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sauronsfinger
Post subject: Re: 4 Police Officers Shot in Washington
Posted: Wed 02 Dec , 2009 9:28 pm
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What exactly is an unfair charge? That people who repeatedly and publicly worship at the altar of Smaller Government are behind things like this?

I can tell you with 100% certainty that here in Michigan it was the small government advocates who were behind the drive to reduce government services in the way of mental health facilities. At the top of that list was Governor John Engler, one of the darlings of that movement.

Check this out from a very friendly webstite profile

http://www.smallmanufacturers.org/picts/JohnEngler.pdf
Quote:
The former three-term Michigan Governor brings to the NAM a lifelong commitment to reducing
the size of government as a means to boosting economic growth and job creation. Engler insists
that lower taxes on businesses and individuals, and reasonable and scientifically-based regulation,
will create more wealth, improve standards of living for all income groups and best sustain
America’s vital middle class.
Engler was part of the movement on the far right to "starve the beast" meaning that the best way to create their dream of small government and reduced services would be to deny government tax dollars and force them to reduce government. So during his 12 years at the helm here he reduced taxes 32 different times depriving the State coffers of $32 billion dollars during his tenure alone.

We have had a different Governor for the last eight years but have never recovered from the starvation diet Engler put the state government on.

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