Seattle police ambush: cop-killing rampages up this year

[Flaneur]

Source: Christian Science Monitor

San Francisco - Sunday's shooting deaths of four police officers in suburban Seattle is the fifth such attack on law enforcement this year, adding a grim chapter to a year in which the number of shooting deaths of police officers nationwide is up.

In total, 15 officers have been killed in multiple-shootings incidents, up from four in 2008 and the most since 2000. Meanwhile, 44 officers total have been shot and killed in 2009, compared with 37 during the period last year – an increase of 19 percent.

This comes as police fatalities overall have dropped – from 122 on this date in 2008 to 113 this year, according to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund (NLEOMF). The decline is the result of a drop in traffic accidents, which is the largest cause of officer death, says NLEOMF spokesman Kevin Morison.

Yet the multiple shooting incidents this year are causing alarm in the law enforcement community. "It certainly is cause for concern to see these numbers," says Mr. Morison. "Policing remains an increasingly dangerous job and people are out there who remain intent on targeting officers."



Read more: thhttp://www.csmonitor.com/2009/1201/p02s01-usgn.html

[Flaneur]

1. Other incidents in 2009:

• In March, four Oakland, Calif., police officers were shot and killed in a gun battle with a parolee.

• Two weeks later in Pittsburgh, three officers were fatally wounded while responding to a domestic disturbance call. The suspect was heavily armed and wearing a bulletproof vest.

• Also in April, two sheriff's deputies in Florida's Okaloosa County were killed trying to apprehend a man wanted in connection with a domestic disturbance.

• In July, two Oklahoma deputies were killed in July trying to arrest a 22-year-old man who failed to show up in court on charges he attempted to strangle his mother.

[Name removed]

2. Deleted message

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[Jefferson23]

3. It is a dangerous job, and I wonder what percentage of law enforcement

would agree that an authoritarian approach to justice, since we lock up everyone and their brother like no other nation...will come back to haunt you.

[Renew Deal]

4. 113 is exactly the same pace as last year.

[LisaM]

5. Why are all these parolees able to get guns so quickly?

Many of the criminals in these stories were violent criminals, not people just locked up on minor charges.

Easy availability of guns needs to be part of this conversation.

[cliffordu]

6. In the criminal world guns are easier to get than a decent haircut.

And there IS a criminal world.

[pundaint]

16. Because the NRA fights all attempts at reasonable control and we buy it

[Crabitha]

32. Because if you bring up anything about guns the pro-gun nuts will go crazy

Which is something I don't understand about the gun rights crowd. There is no gray. It's all black and white. Everybody should be able to get guns any place, any time without any background check and they should be able to buy any sort of weapon ever made no matter what. Everybody should be able to carry any gun they want to in any place in the country they feel like. At least that is the sense I get from friends who are into gun rights. They treat any sort of limitations on gun ownership as some sort of threat to their rights to own a gun. For them it seems to be all or nothing.

[Lance_Boyle]

7. I wonder what the stats on cop-against-citizen rampages look like this year?

Too much us v them in this. Would be nice if cops could go back to being a respected "there to protect you" presence in communities. Seems impossible in the current climate of "out to get you by any means necessary and for any perceived infraction" law enforcement.

[Flaneur]

8. Nobody is interested in keepin a good count of that.

There are several hundred police killings of suspects a year. Many are perfectly justifiable, but some are not. But even in the questionable killings, it is extremely rare for an officer to be indicted, and even more rare for him to be convicted.

[winyanstaz]

9. I have asked that same question and gone hunting for the numbers....

so far I have not found anyone keeping track of how many civilians are murdered by cops.
I would like to see the officers return to being public servants instead of protectors of the rich.

[Frosty cupcake]

14. Lately

I've noticed the Florida highway patrol, as well as various municipal cops, are doling out traffic tickets as fast as they can. Seems that's the latest way the government has of raising revenue while "keeping taxes low."

[Flaneur]

27. I think it's in an annual FBI report under "justifiable homicides.'

Maybe its the Uniform Crime Reports...

[NashVegas]

13. Heartbreakingly Relevant Question

[chrisa]

18. Your statement is a little broadbrush.

Not all cops are like that.

[Lance_Boyle]

22. As long as those who aren't cover for and work alongside those who are

my broad brush paints an incredibly accurate portrait of modern policing.

[JonQ]

10. With numbers as small as these it's really hard to draw any conclusions

or to define a "trend" up or down. An increase of 7 officers killed, while tragic, is not very telling.

[LisaM]

11. The five killings in Seattle were all cold-blooded ambushes

And it could easily have been six - the one last month was two officers in a parked car; it was just chance that they weren't both killed.

[JonQ]

12. By one guy though

you can't draw conclusions on a national, or even state level, by results so heavily skewed by one incident.

Like if you looked at terrorism related deaths in the US starting in '98 then ending at 2001 and tried to come up with a trend to fit that. You'd swear we had a massive increase in the number of terrorist attacks and that this was going to be an upward trend for the foreseeable future.

[LisaM]

21. No, two different incidents.

Last month, a guy walked up and shot two officers in a parked car. Two days ago, a different guy walked up and shot four cops in a coffee shop.

They were all involved in administrative tasks at the time. That's going to raise eyebrows - it may not ultimately be a trend, but it seems like one at the moment.

[paulsby]

26. also note the bombing of police cars

the guy who killed the officer sitting in the car previously set up some bombs underneath police cars. secondary devices were set to go off and kill the responders, but failed.

this was (at least) his second attempt.

when cops responded to his apartment, they found IED's and lots of other scary stuff

[zenprole]

15. Reap/Sow Dept

Policing in the US is based on the idea that the general population is the enemy. We can't know exactly how many of these killings are due to that fact, but under such conditions it matters.

Incidentally, figures for citizens wantonly killed by cops are not kept by the Justice Department, but estimates run from 300-350 per year. Ratchet that number down toward zero and you'll likely see fewer dead cops.

[chrisa]

That's completely ridiculous.

Typical anarchist fluff.

I think it is you who sees all cops as the enemy, based on your post. Alot of cops are bad, but not all of them.

[zenprole]

20. PhD Fluff

Theory for modern policing is drawn from counterinsurgency tactics created at high levels of national policy. If this is uncomfortable for you to confront, I wish you luck, but it's anything but fluff. Further required reading includes Kristian Williams' "Our Enemies In Blue" and William Chambliss' "On The Take." Histories of the Phoenix Program are also instructive.

[chrisa]

23. It's still fluff

It's a logical fallacy to assume that I'm uncomfortable to confront your point just because I attacked it for its poor logic and usage of broadbrush statements. I could care less what somebody with a PhD said about modern police tactics when it has nothing to do with your original argument.

Let's start with the fact that your concept of "Reap/Sow" is completely ridiculous, as if the cops in the restaurant were shot in the face by a madman because there are corrupt cops out there. It uses two unrelated factors in an attempt to make an argument, with the poor assumption that the two factors are correlated. I don't buy your idea that fighting police corruption would deter criminals, because it doesn't take criminals' motives into consideration.

[zenprole]

24. Double or Nothing

Well, it's hard to argue with that sort of shrill denial.

The bad news is there's no Santa Claus. Good luck.

[Lagomorph]

31. Some people are just plain evil.

Society didn't make them that way, poverty didn't make them that way, they just like it.

Evil as in, "it's better to rule in Hell, than serve in Heaven" type evil.

They take all the college & professional theory's and shove them up our collective asses.

Somebody who runs around raping kids, stealing from and beating up people isn't going to observe gun laws, either.

We aren't going to fix them, even if it's conceivable on a theoretical level.

[chrisa]

17. duplicate post

[SeattleGirl]

19. So what are you saying? You think the fucking SOB who shot those

4 police officers on Sunday is somehow a victim?

You probably won't believe this, but not every cop is an asshole, and not every non-cop is an innocent victim.

[Nuclear Unicorn]

25. You seem to act as though...

...you resent people's lives being treated as cheap props for other peoples' power plays.

Perhaps you should take your own advice and not cheapen the murders of 4 human beings who were loved by their families.

I wonder if you're against the death penalty or if--as your post implies--you make exceptions for politics.

[zenprole]

29. You're Under Arrest

Why is the discussion of police power so uncomfortable for some? There are many reasons, from the craven to the absurd, but posts 3, 7-9, and 14 raise points similar or related to mine. Were the thread entitled "RSVP Received Opinion Only," I wouldn't have bothered.

I'll gladly discuss power plays, cheap props, and dead bodies with you, but only after tonight's speech by the Peace, Hope, and Change brand at West Point. Isn't the saying "One dead body is murder, but 100,000 is foreign policy"? What's the analog for domestic police power? (Hint: "N is to X, but 2,500,000 citizens is our prison system.")

Your obedience won't save you or your neighbors, and it won't help the Democratic Party, either. Exhibit A is Rep. Grayson (D-FL).

[judesedit]

28. And you keep letting assholes carry guns.

Sorry, but this is the fault of the NRA, the lobbyists and the state amd federal governments. I guess when it's one of their kids it will become important all of a sudden.

[quiller4]

30. It isn't legal now for felons to purchase guns. They steal them or buy them

from thieves. What makes you thinks that outlaws were be any more likely to obey new gun laws?

[benEzra]

33. To obtain an NC carry license, I had to...

pass a Federal background check, state background check, mental health records check, have my prints run by the FBI, take a class on self-defense law using a state-approved curriculum, and demonstrate competence with a handgun on a range, live fire.

Hint: Criminals rarely get carry licenses....

The murderer referenced in the OP couldn't legally touch a gun, never mind carry one, and revoking carry licensure for people like my wife and I won't do anything about violent criminals.