A single gunman walked into a coffeehouse in Pierce County, Washington, at 8:15 AM on Sunday, November 29, 2009, and fatally shot four Lakewood police officers who were doing paperwork and having coffee at the beginning of their shift.
The Pierce County Sheriff’s office says that the assailant was male. There was only one shooter but police have not ruled out the possibility that the shooter had help. There was no immediate evidence that the gunned-down officers were able to return fire. A police spokesman indicated there was little likelihood that the killings were a robbery gone bad, as the officers had left marked police cars in the parking lot outside and were all wearing uniforms. In addition, there were several customers and employees in the shop at the time who were not injured.
The names of the victims have not yet been released. The coffee shop, owned by a retired police officer, was known in the community as a police hangout, where officers from multiple jurisdictions often met to share information on cases or to catch up on paperwork.
This tragedy will bring the total number of law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty so far in 2009 to more than 110, according to the Officer Down Memorial Page. This is a sad reminder of the peril that our men and women in uniform face every day.
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Bob Hayes is the senior partner at DocRocket, a web content and writing services company. He is a freelance business consultant with particular expertise in software, Internet business development, and operational efficiency. In addition he maintains a personal blog at Bob Hayes Online.
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7 users commented in " Lakewood Police Shootings Stun Community, Nation "
Follow-up comment rss or Leave a TrackbackA lot of people have good reason to hate Police. Even a minor arrest record without a conviction now puts a kid outside society and unable to get a job. Police enforce victimless crimes and the U.S. has a larger percentage of it’s citizens in prison and “in the system” than any other country by far. The war against drugs is out of control. The Police routinely intimidate people out of their Constitutional Rights – they are trained to do it. In fact – if you try to assert your rights they cook up charges and usually beat you up. People like our law and order society but they don’t like paying for it – California is going broke. Making everything a felony creates a huge number of people outside society – and that will become a bigger and bigger problem. A massive underclass has been created that is permanently and completely outside society. These people have nothing to lose – and they hate the cops. The legal system has become so Draconian that it is a war out there. The numbers of people “processed” through the legal system has become tremendous. If there is a war there will be casualties – these police are casualties of conscious choices made by society. It’s going to get worse as the economy crumbles. I suspect you won’t be ready for what you have created. As you clamp down with even more heavy handed law enforcement you will make it worse. Have a nice day.
I have to wonder if this is somehow related to the Fort Hood shootings, and / or is this the beginning of civil war.
If the current suspect (Maurice Clemmons) turns out to be the shooter, then it’s not a civil war, or related to Fort Hood, or a backlash against the cruel police state. It’s just a crazy guy with a grudge who got his sentence commuted by a soft-hearted, soft-headed governor.
America is much too soft on convicted animals like Clemmons, whose sentences are being commuted everyday by politicians. Criminal justice has become a joke. Clemmons never should have been released, and he must now be made an example of.
Let’s make this simple. Nidal Malik Hassan should never have been allowed to stay in the military, and especially advance to the position of major. Maurice Clemmons should have never have been let out of jail, especially by religious doofus Mike Huckabee. Lots of warning signs and concerns were ignored in both these cases by all accounts. This is not a civil war or a sign of the collapse of the American civilization as we know it. This is a tragic example of a battle lost in our ongoing war against stupidity and the agents of stupidity.
Bill, it is people like you who ignite behaviour like this. This has nothing to do with someone being wrongfully persecuted or heavy handed police tactics. You and people like you are what is wrong with society today. No personal sense of responsibility for ones own behaviour or lot in life, just a woe is me attitude that evades the real issues, bad decisions made and the consequences for those decisions. Man up and look inside yourself for the problems in your life. Don’t blame anyone else when you get caught violating laws that were enacted by people elected to office. And sure as hell don’t condone the killing of those who took the oath to protect and serve without bias even filth like yourself. Sure, there are bad apples, but much fewer than in the whole of society.
Thank you SURFCOP, he is just as low as the person who committed the crime and its scum like him who make things the way they are. Somebody had to come out and say it. Thank you!
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