Guns, guns, guns. It’s difficult to turn on the news or scan the headlines of the morning paper without coming across yet another tangential argument about guns in our society.

Well, here’s one more.

It starts out with a very welcome bit of news from a 2010 Department of Justice report which states that violent crime, on the decline for years, has reached a 40 year low. Good news for sure, even if experts cannot seem to agree on the reason.

But it’s not all good news. According to Kelly Star, a member of the Washington State Coalition Against Domestic …

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In the realm of criminal investigations, bunco is a boring afterthought.

While Hollywood delves into gritty themes like homicide and drug dealing, white collar crime continues to siphon a staggering amount of money from the U.S. economy. Every year billions of dollars are lost to crimes ranging from money laundering to ponzi schemes, from insider trading to health care fraud.

Most financial crimes go unheralded – identity theft is the exception. Instead of banks and corporations, identity theft hits victims on a visceral level.

Among the countless ways in which identity thieves target their victims, one of the most common …

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The First Amendment got a workout in Seattle last Wednesday. So did the Seattle Police Department.

The May Day protests, billed as the annual march for immigration reform, was again infiltrated by criminals. These so-called anarchists are not the type to quote passages from Rousseau’s Englightenment or espouse true social justice, because they are too busy auditioning for an appearance in a “Jackass” movie.

Seattle has seen their kind numerous times, including the WTO protests and the Occupy Wall Street movement. Unfortunately, the Emerald City is centrally located turf for idiots who throw rocks and bottles, then dart back in to …

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When gunfire erupted in the Hilltop in 1988, Tacoma was then a city known only for its toxic aroma and an anemic economy. What citizens knew of gang violence came from news clips out of Los Angeles, where gangsters had descended like a plague years before.

Then came the drive-by shooting death of Bernard Houston on a Hilltop corner. His death was a harbinger of bad things to come. It would get worse before it got better.

In the 25 years since, the city’s fortunes have described an arc. First came the rapid descent into a maelstrom of gang violence …

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In 2003, David Brame killed his wife, Crystal Judson, in a parking lot before turning the gun on himself. The murder-suicide sent shock waves far beyond Tacoma, the city Brame served as its Chief of Police.

A decade later Brame’s specter continues to haunt the city.

Sean Robinson’s critical analysis of the events leading up to Brame’s crime (Trib 4/21) provides answers to the “who knew what and when” line of questioning. What is now clear, after ten years’ worth of hindsight, is that David Brame was a deeply disturbed man whose final crime should have been predictable. …

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Even before the smoke from Boston’s twin blasts had cleared, a large number of people were running the wrong direction. Instead of racing away from two deadly concussions towards safety, they ran into the smoke.

This is the type of selfless courage for which first responders are known. It is not, however, the type of behavior one expects from random civilians when a tragic event occurs.

But that is surely what happened last Monday when an improvised explosive device lit off near the finish line of the Boston Marathon. As police and firefighters ran towards the carnage, they were joined …

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Plenty of things have changed in the twenty-five years since I first walked through the doors of the police academy. I’m older, of course, and hopefully a bit wiser.

But my footspeed is, well, let’s just say it ain’t what it used to be.

Being on the downhill slope to fifty will do that to a person, as will an accumulation of injuries from sports played well past an “athlete’s” expiration. At least that’s what my orthopedic surgeon keeps telling me. Repeatedly.

But I remember when I used to be pretty fast.

When a suspect turned and bolted, a spike …

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The debate on gun control is arguably the most contentious topic currently sucking up real estate inside the media bubble. An important national issue, with both legal and cultural implications, it is primarily an emotional one.

The only federal legislation still on life support is the measure requiring universal background checks for gun sales. Despite being backed by roughly 90% of Americans, the bill barely made it out of the Senate committee’s frying pan, and now waits a slow basting in the fiery Senate chambers.

If nothing else, the measure’s plodding pace has provided ample opportunity for everyone to voice …

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