Three men and a woman sat at a table in the Forza Coffee Company in Parkland, Washington, at 8:15 am today, their laptops open in front of them. Had they gathered on this quiet Sunday morning to catch up on tweets or freshen their Facebooks or chat about yesterday's Husky win over the Cougs or the Seahawks' chances against the Rams today, they'd be alive right now.
But these four people had shown up in black-and-whites, and were wearing the blue uniforms of the Lakewood Police Department. As the officers of this community of 60,000 met to swap crime information and prepare for their upcoming shift, a lone gunman walked in and opened fire. He ignored two baristas and several customers as he quickly, systematically executed each of the officers.
As I write this, heartbroken, watching live coverage of the search for the shooter, the bodies of the officers remain inside the coffee shop. We don't know whether any of them was able to return fire.
The officers, their names not yet released, leave behind loved ones, likely including spouses and young children. Like Timothy Brenton, a Seattle police officer ambushed on Halloween night, like the four Oakland cops gunned down on a routine traffic stop in March, like the three Pittsburgh officers slain in April by a suspect lying in wait, the Lakewood cops never had a chance.
I understand generalized animosity towards cops. It's triggered, often as not, by a specific grievance, an instance or pattern of real or perceived police misconduct -- fueled in some cases by recognition of historic institutional abuse.
What I don't understand, and will never accept is the slaying of a "symbol." A human being targeted because of what he or she does for a living. I wish blind critics of police would take a moment to reflect on the work done by good cops. I've seen officers give their all to stop a murderous DV suspect, catch a rapist, pull mangled bodies from car wrecks, protect and console an abused child.
Police officers have it tough enough dealing with known or conventional threats. This spate of ambush killings -- a single incident in a year is relatively rare -- raises fundamental questions about what it means to be a police officer today. Including: Would you apply?
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The important point that you make is that the "good cops" don't separate themselves from those garbage cops. They don't extricate them to keep their ranks clean and admired by the public, some damn blue code or something.
Oh yes, I did apply. Long long line and you had to know somebody. I didn't.
I'm not going to shoot any either but when they get shot I always wonder how much provocation there might have been.
When unrealistic speed limits were introduced the police lost the respect of the public and now the states/cities/counties are openly using them as revenue sources.
The "drug war" has corrupted the already reputation of the police.
Most people now see the police, as the black community always has, as an enemy.
The nonsense of calling them if your house is broken into? They say you will never get your stuff back. There isn't any tv type investigation. Car stolen? Better not call until it is abandonded or it will become a fun chase scene, complete with your car totally destroyed and perhaps death and mayhem.
Yet people here seem less than sympathetic to these officers... wierd, huh?
The prison population has grown to over over 2 million persons at any given time.
When thousands of them are paroled/released and you combine that fact with the easy availabilty of guns, then this kind of shooting can, and most likely will happen.
Shooting rampages are nothing new in the U.S. The number of incidents has been increasing in the last 20 years. Examples: Columbine, Virginia Tech, Postal Killings, Fast Food Killings, Oklahoma Bombing, D.C. Sniper Killings, and hundreds of other under reported group killings.
Until this country stops its' love affair with guns, there will only be increased violence and mass random killings.
That guy would not have have been able to kill four officers with a knife, could he?
No, but he sure could and did kill them with a gun.
Guns kill People. It's a Fact. Guns make it easy to Kill People.
.
Do you know what an "assault weapon" is? HINT: Despite what many think, it is not a machine gun or full-auto firearm.
"At the scene, a couple of dozen police officers milled around, shaking hands and patting each other on the back after one of the largest manhunts in the region's history."
I will never forget the things I heard in there. Every one of those cops was a despicable human being, laughing about the murders of local blacks. One time this 14 year old kid was found in a dumpster in the worst part of town, and the cops came in with pictures, laughing about it, etc. Really gross stuff.
In point of fact, construction and farming are more dangerous than being a police person. Society will have its fun and even a former policeman should try to control his scorn for his fellow citizens. Police are trained to look for fellowship among one another and fed the records of their friends to discredit non police friends. The mutual dread and loathing that this breeds may be efficient, but it isn't altogether good.
I suspect that there are a lot of people like me out there whose hearts go out to these officers and their families. The question is what in the name of God could we say that could do justice to the situation? I'm sorry? That sounds pretty pathetic. Words simply don't suffice. Time heals? It may be true but it just hurts too much to know that when loss is so fresh.
We care, but words elude us. Please know that the feeling are there nonetheless.
fact is if someone broke into the house of any registered or unregistered owner with a _gun the home owner would not have a chance and their own weapon would be used on them...
It has been a proven fact over and over again....
have some respect for the peace officers that lost their life being ambushed by one of those same guns they so devotedly defend .......
my heart breaks for those families including all the children that were left fatherless....
It has been a proven fact over and over again...."
Actually that is largely untrue and a myth.
"have some respect for the peace officers that lost their life being ambushed by one of those same guns they so devotedly defend "
As a cop and a pro-firearm type, I respect and defend both.
1) It was not a pardon. Please learn the difference between a pardon and clemency/commuting of a sentence.
2) He pardoned him because a long process of evaluation by everyone from prison officials to lawyers and probably doctors determined that he met the criteria.
perhaps we should examine why prosecutors failed to press charges when he was caught shortly after being released committing other crimes or why, despite his record, he was allowed free on bail after raping a child and assaulting an officer.
Apparently, the MSM has decided it doesn't want him to run in 2012.
This truth crosses all racial lines, although it is more true for some ethnic groups than others. Cops are there to protect and serve the societal status quo, they are not there to help or save individuals(although many will do so). There are multitudes of cases in every state of this country that show, time and time again, the best way to avoid getting sent to jail is to never invite the police into your life.
That is pretty low, killing the people that are supposed to defend your butt in court.
Yes, they are supposed to defend you.
Most of the time they do not. It is the exact opposite of what is portrayed on TV where the Public Defender is usually the best lawyer in the court room. They are often incompetent, and those who are not think more like prosecutors than defense attorneys.
Having said that, I believe the police are vitally necessary to safeguarding our children and communities from the dregs and I am thankful for their efforts. Yes, police departments have become too militarized. Yes, they sometimes abuse their power. Seen it myself. Brilliant managers are needed.
I am almost in tears when I think of this crime. Today I salute each and every peace officer everywhere as I think of my grand father, Cap'n Carl.
'Ten-hut!
Jack
my respect to your grandfather ... Cap'n Carl
How insane must the gun-nuts -- and the gun industry hiding behind and pushing them -- become before it is recognized by the vast majority that they are in fact insane?
How many mass gun-murders must there be before the sane population stands up en masse and forces a stop to the madness? Beginning with the absurd lie that the Second Amendmennt protects an individual right, when the only individual right debated by Congress concerning that Amendment was that of conscientious objection -- and that was VOTED DOWN.
The issue is public safety, which trumps individual "right," especially when the "right" involves deadly force:
No sane society leaves dangerous substances and objects lying around unregulated.
Firearms are regulated.
http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/cius2008/offenses/expanded_information/data/shrtable_08.html
You can parse the amendment any way you like, but the fact remains, handguns represent nearly 70% of all murders committed with a gun.
Putting handguns in John Q. Citizen's pocket is only going to make things worse. The great bulk - no matter how much training they might get on the range - will abuse or misuse the weapon if they were ever forced to pull that weapon. The great bulk, not a few, the great bulk. And the thought of some ham-fisted amateur with a 9mm scares me almost as much as a blindered cop.
Activist Scalia lied on the point.
The SC has issued only ONE decision claiming the Second protects an individual right: Scalia's lie.
The LEGAL AUTHORITY on the INTENT of those who WROTE the Bill of Rights is the debates of those who WROTE it. Are you man enough to READ them? --
_Creating the Bill of Rights: The Documentary Record from the First Federal Congress_ (Johns Hopkins, 1991), Ed. by Veit, et al. It is readily available from Amazon. From it is the first draft of that which became the Second Amendment. As for your "grammar" nonsense: that too is addressed:
"The right of the people (PLURAL, as in, "We the people"; it is not, "We the individual," or, "I the people") to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed; a well armed, and well regulated militia (NOT "indiividual") being the best security of a free country (NOT "individual"): but no person (INDIVIDUAL) religiously scrupulous of (AGAINST) bearing arms, shall be compelled (INVOLUNTARY) to render military service (NOT "self-defense") in person." _Id._, at 12.
Scalia did get right that regulating the private individual ownership of guns is constitutional.
The percentage of citizens who believe a thing does not transform the belief into law.
Once upon a time, the regular gun owners helped protect the public. Where is our common sense?