I guess you're all aware by now that four police officers were ambushed and killed on Sunday, 29 November '09, by an evil man in the Tacoma suburb of Lakewood, Washington.
Their memorial service was conducted on Tuesday, 8 December '09 at the Tacoma Dome and can be seen in part here:
There were around 22, 000 police officers, fire-fighters and emergency medical personnel in attendance, along with the families and many friends of the slain officers, LPD photos depicted below.
SERGEANT MARK RENNINGER
OFFICER TINA GRISWOLD
OFFICER RONNIE OWENS
OFFICER GREG RICHARDS
Initial report here, and here is an interim report, offered before the murderer was himself killed by Seattle Police Officer Benjamin J Kelly, reported here. I predict Officer Kelly will be voted SPD officer of the year for '09. And rightly so.
Full update with video here.
Look here to see that Clemmons intended to kill school-children and as many people as he could at whatever curb suited his twisted fancy.
Personally, I believe the horror would not have happened but for the subtle arrogance of Mike Huckabee, his gross over-estimation of his own "spiritual discernment." Here is an observation about Huck and his clemency tendencies:
"Maurice Clemmons received a 35-year sentence in the early 1990s for armed robbery and theft. His sentence was commuted in May 2000, and he was let out three months later. The following March, Clemmons committed two armed robberies and other crimes and was sentenced to 10 years. You'd think they'd keep him locked up after that, but no: He was paroled last March and is now wanted for aggravated robbery.
If Huckabee decides to set these criminals free, Jegley says, at least "he ought to give an accounting. I can't imagine why in the world they'd want them released from jail. There's a good reason we're afraid of them. The sad truth is that a significant number of people re-offend."
The victims' families, Jegley says, "deserve an explanation. I look into people's eyes who've suffered the unspeakable. I believe they deserve justice."
Full cite here. When a prosecutor objected politely here to Huck's clemency MO, Huck laughed at him, seen here. Huck is like a lot of pastors who think they have some extra special closeness to God just because they graduated from a seminary somewhere and were permitted to pastor a church. The same goes for way too many elders and lay "leaders" who believe they alone know the mind of God and the mind of every man or woman who stands before them. Believing they are the manifestation of the mercy of God, they offer forgiveness when it is not asked for, and therefore not deserved.
If Huck had any humility he would have taken ~ at least listened to ~ the advice of the people criticizing his parole proclivities. But he scoffed at them and now four fine police officers are dead and nine children have had their father or mother snatched from them forever.
Huck laughed. I hope his political career dies because of this... as if his pussy attitude toward Muslim terrorists isn't reason enough. Update here on how Huck's hubris killed four good cops.
Permit me some observations viz the conduct of the several occupants of the Forza Coffee Shop on that bloody Sunday morning. The four officers were just getting ready for their shift. Why there and not at their department offices, I don't know. Were they in Condition White or Condition Yellow ~ both described here? I don't know.
Over a period of about two years, in the late 90's, I remember seeing local cops ~ 8-10 of them at a time with at least one sergeant tagging along ~ sitting together for almost two hours in the open food court of a small shopping center here in town. It was almost predictable that, on at least three nights a week, the same group of officers would saunter in and spend the next two or so hours smokin' and jokin'. The police union had negotiated a clause in their contract that allowed them to take their meal and smoke breaks all at one time. So they did. All the time. In the same place or at another restaurant up the hill.
I hope this Lakewood multiple murder breaks all police officers of that bad habit.
The owner of the Lakewood Forza shop, Brad Carpenter, is a former police officer. Here we can see that he had his staff meet with a grief counselor after the shooting. One wonders what training he gave his folks before the ambush. Was it just to prepare the drinks, collect money and give change and to ask the Forza version of What can I get started for you today? Initial reports were that one of the barristas saw that Clemmons had a gun and so she scampered out the back door without a word of warning. Did she see the gun concealed or had he brandished it? Maybe she thought the cops would also see the weapon and disarm a/o arrest him. I don't know. But I do know for sure that workers in these scenarios need to be trained to not go cuh-ray-zee when they see a gun on someone. Here are some suggestions:
- A clerk sees what is obviously a gun under the shirt or jacket of a customer or visitor. Since the person might be legally carrying it a/o might be a police officer, there is no reason for panic and no reason to call the police at that point. However, it would be a good idea to have a verbal code to alert other workers in the area that there is a person at the counter with a concealed weapon. Perhaps the procedure could be that the first barrista who sees the weapon says loudly to the other workers: When are the clarinets supposed to get here? The clarinet reference is out of place for a coffee shop and the workers should ~ if properly trained ~ react internally: Clarinet? We don't sell clari... oh, yea, take a look at the guy at the counter. A quick but casual look at the person at the counter just to be aware of the situation.
- If a person enters a business such as a coffee shop ~ or a grocery store, for that matter ~ through the front door with a weapon drawn or draws one upon entry, then everyone needs to act quickly. In that case, the first one to see the gun yells Gun Front. That gives everyone a heads-up that it's time to get out the nearest exit, not the front door. Should someone with a gun come in a side or rear door, then whoever sees that first needs to shout Gun Rear so everyone gets a chance to bail out the front door.
- Washington is an Open Carry state ~ it is legal for a person to carry a loaded handgun holstered and not concealed. And you thought it was just Montana and Arizona, huh? The Revised Code of Washington 9.41.270, shown here, says that it is unlawful for a person to carry, exhibit, display or draw any firearm in a manner, under circumstances, and at a time and place that either manifests intent to intimidate another or that warrants alarm for the safety of other persons. In general, merely walking around in public with the gun properly secured in an exposed holster does not constitute a violation. But it seems rational to me that an innocent barrista might wonder aloud about inbound clarinets if he saw someone saunter into the shop in OC mode. Of course, if someone in OC mode takes his or her gun out of the holster, the first one who sees this needs to yell Gun Front or Rear.
More and more police are being attacked and killed by people with guns. In fact, the number is up by 24% from just last year, shown here. Does that mean we need to take more guns off the street, including taking them from law-abiding citizens? Of course not. Given the fact that bad-guys will always have guns no matter what the laws say, the answer is for cops to ramp up their awareness and training to a level appropriate for the growing threat.
Awareness can be taught but once it is, its upkeep becomes a conscious personal decision. Once it's learned, there is no cost to the individual officer: he or she can either keep his or her alertness in the appropriate condition... or not. As for training, that's a department obligation but it also becomes an individual obligation depending on circumstances at different departments. For example, if the nature of your patrol area makes it advisable that you become better at unarmed self-defense but your department can't afford it this or any quarter, then you need to find a local Krav Maga course and stop spending money on bowling or basketball or waiting for the blonde chick to get her big butt off the bench press machine at the Y. Or, at least find free KM training clips like the ones available here and work on the moves on your own instead of staying up late so you can be sure you know which college basketball team on the other side of the freakin' country beat some other team you never heard of in your entire life.
The re-opening of the Forza coffee shop is depicted here. The story reminds me: Don't use the drive-thru lane if you're a cop on duty. You can get blocked in and shot to hell in that version of the Fatal Funnel. Get out of your air-conditioned comfort and walk in. Every time.
At the memorial service, the Lakewood Chief of Police spoke last and said, quoting roughly here:
We've been overwhelmed with expressions of kindness over the last several days and people asking us what they can do to help. There's a phrase drummed into each police officer from day one of the academy: Show me your hands. There are more than 20 thousand of you here today and I want you all to stand and on the count of three, shout Show me your hands. (All officers stood and on three shouted as directed.) People want to know how they can help, my answer is this: next time a police officer tells you Show me your hands, just do what you're told.
Exactly. Shut up and do what you're told.
To close: In the military, especially the combat arms specialties you'll often hear sergeants warning their troops both humorously and seriously:
Spread out. One grenade'll kill you all.
That sagacious advice needs to be remembered by every warrior, whether uniformed in BDUs, police blue or sheriff green.
Anybody you see or contact on the job can be that one grenade.
Maurice Clemmons, corpse pictured below, was one grenade.
As if the Clemmons grenade is not enough, here is the story of another police shooting in Pierce County, Washington: two deputies responding to a domestic disturbance call, they knew the suspect from previous contact and so let him go upstairs to get "something" before they took him from the house. Washington state law requires that one of the parties in a DD complaint spend the night in jail.
DEPUTY SERGEANT NICK HAUSNER
DEPUTY KENT MUNDELL
Deputy Hausner will recover from his wounds. Deputy Mundell was not so lucky, story here.
You out there on the thin blue line, or the thin green line; never let anyone ~ especially in a DD call, whether man or woman ~ out of your sight so he or she can go get "something". And if for some crazy reason that person just can't be accompanied by you or your partner, put yourself in a position where you can see him or her coming back from where-the-hell-ever he or she had to go before he or she can see you. Don't let him or her ambush you a/o your partner but be in a good position where you can take affirmative, pre-emptive action on them if they come back as a threat and not a shuffling, compliant knucklehead.
Remember this, the tag on my emails, taken from something General George Patton may have said:
L'audace, l'audace, toujours l'audace.
Audacity, audacity, always audacity.
