Inside Opinion » Lakewood police shooting

Cops reacted with honor to killings of their peers

Patrick O'Callahan — Sun, 28 Nov 2010 01:24:29 +0000

This editorial will appear in tomorrow’s print edition.

A year after the slaughter of four Lakewood officers in a Parkland coffee shop, the law has seen some big improvements.

The Legislature and voters amended the Washington Constitution to let judges deny bail to defendants facing possible life sentences – as Maurice Clemmons faced even before he killed Mark Renninger, Tina Griswold, Ronald Owens and Greg Richards.

And Washington officials have negotiated far tougher procedures in the Interstate Compact on Adult Offender Supervision, whose loopholes allowed Arkansas to export Clemmons to Washington without much warning – then cancel its own warrant …

Bail amendment a measured response to massacre

Kim Bradford — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 01:34:50 +0000

This editorial will appear in Tuesday’s print edition.

This year’s general election ballot would most certainly be one question shorter had Maurice Clemmons not killed four Lakewood police officers in cold blood last fall.

On Nov. 2, voters will decide Engrossed Substitute House Joint Resolution 4220 which proposes to give judges greater leeway in denying bail to defendants.

The measure – also known as the Remember Lakewood Constitutional Amendment – probably would have never made it out of the Legislature but for the fact that Clemmons murdered cops six days after bailing out of jail. …

Officers’ families hurt their own cause

Kim Bradford — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 02:11:23 +0000

This editorial will appear in Tuesday’s print edition.

The South Sound has showered the families of four slain Lakewood police officers with love, support and money. But the community’s generosity is not so spent that it can’t afford one more gift: the benefit of the doubt.

Let’s accept at face value what the officers’ families say their motivation was for threatening $182 million in claims against Pierce County for the officers’ deaths.

The families announced the claims on Thursday, apparently unaware they were about to touch off a firestorm. The claims shocked Pierce County residents. For …

UPDATED: Say it ain’t so, Lakewood police survivors

Patrick O'Callahan — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 18:41:52 +0000

UPDATE: At least three of the families have now decided to abandon their claims for damages against Pierce County due to the public outcry.

Never in the history of the South Sound, perhaps, have so few squandered so much good will in so little time.

Check out the online comments on Friday’s story about the $192 million claim against Pierce County filed by the survivors of the four Lakewood officers killed in Parkland last November. I can’t remember when I’ve seen our readers express so much raw disappointment about a local event.

There may not have been …

Maurice Clemmons and the mystery bullet

Patrick O'Callahan — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 01:11:29 +0000

For me, an abiding mystery of the Maurice Clemmons case is how he managed to keep moving for two days after shooting four Lakewood police officers last November.

Greg Richards, one of the victims, shot Clemmons in the gut that day with a large-caliber police handgun designed to wreak massive havoc inside the human body. I would have expected not merely a disabling but an exquisitely agonizing wound.

Most of us figured Clemmons would be found dead somewhere after sustaining that hit. Yet he got himself patched up (with duct tape, no less) and not only managed to keep running …

One Clemmons is enough; fix that compact

Patrick O'Callahan — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 03:27:14 +0000

This editorial will appear in tomorrow’s print edition.

In attempting to deal with cop-killer Maurice Clemmons, Washington state got shamelessly played by Arkansas.

When Arkansas officials shipped Clemmons here in 2004, they somehow neglected to inform Washington’s corrections people that he’d been convicted of robbery, theft and burglary in that state in 1989.

Then, after Clemmons turned violent last spring, the folks in Little Rock suddenly lost interest in enforcing the terms of his original parole. They withdrew their warrant for his extradition, allowing him to post bail in November, walk out of jail in Tacoma – and gun down …

Deputy is domestic violence’s collateral damage

Cheryl Tucker — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 03:11:24 +0000

This editorial will appear in Wednesday’s print edition.

It was the kind of call that law enforcement officers dread, but it is sadly all too common: a domestic.

One family member is hurting or threatening another, and someone calls 911. Emotions are running high, and alcohol or drugs may be involved. One or more of the parties may be armed.

Every call is a step into the unknown for those who respond.

Four days before Christmas, Pierce County Sheriff’s Deputy Kent Mundell and Sgt. Nick Hausner experienced every law enforcement officer’s nightmare: a domestic call …

A day to honor four officers – and all officers

Patrick O'Callahan — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 04:05:16 +0000

This editorial will appear in tomorrow’s print edition.

May 15 might be the most important national commemoration almost no one has ever heard of. Peace Officers Memorial Day, as it’s called, is dedicated to police fallen in the line of duty.

It doesn’t begin to get the attention it deserves. Nor, ordinarily, do they.

Today will be an exception as many thousands of people honor the four Lakewood officers who were gunned down in Parkland a week ago Sunday. Sgt. Mark Renninger, Tina Griswold, Ronald Owens and Greg Richards will be given due honor and tribute in the community they …

Don’t blame McCarthy and Felnagle for lack of clairvoyance on Clemmons

Patrick O'Callahan — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 03:58:41 +0000

This editorial will appear in tomorrow’s print edition.

It’s hard to sustain outrage against a dead man. Maurice Clemmons is beyond the reach of public anger, so the anger has to go looking for someone else.

Targets of convenience: the two Pierce County Superior Court judges, John McCarthy and Thomas Felnagle, who allowed Clemmons to post bond and walk out of jail before killing four Lakewood police officers Sunday.

Anger doesn’t have a brain, though. McCarthy and Felnagle are the wrong targets. If we’re looking to pin blame, the best candidate at this point looks like the Arkansas Department of …

Signs of grief

Karen Irwin — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 06:20:49 +0000

Stuck at a stoplight on Steilacoom Blvd and South Tacoma Way today, I couldn’t help but notice a half dozen businessmen putting up a very large sign. They secured it to trees that line the busy boulevard, and I watched as they moved the sign up a few inches and then down a few inches in an effort to make it straight. The large letters on the sign were in Korean, so initially I couldn’t make out what

…