Politics from the Palouse to Puget Sound

Thursday, December 27, 2007

Couldn't They Do More?

If you haven't heard the news, there was a killing of six people in Carnation, WA. It is a suburb of Seattle. It was a husand and wife. Their son and daughter-in-law, plus their two grandkids. It took place on Christmas Eve.

A daughter of the husband and wife and here boyfriend went to the house and killed the elder people. Then when the son and daughter-in-law and grandkids came, they were also killed. The sickness you must have to kill your parents, your brother and his family. To shoot and kill a six and three year-old.

There is a small outcry brewing over the police response. A 911 call came in from the address. Two Sheriff deputies responded to the location. It took, from the reports I read, about thirty-five minutes to drive there. The gates to the property were locked and there were not circumstances that allowed for the deputies to make entrance.

Several people on the Seattle PI website are commenting on this story. One of the common threads is that the police should have investigated more. They should have gotten there quicker. It was a 911 call, therefore they should have the right to break down fences.

What people don't understand is that by law a 911 call by itself is not enough to overpower the 4th amendment. There is only so much someone can do, while still allowing for people to have privacy. This is one of those times where in 10 situations 5 times they will be yelled out for breaking in and invading someone's privacy. And 5 times they will get yelled at for not breaking in and stopping a crime.

People seem to want it both ways. They want the cops to drive code to get to everything, but when a cop gets into a wreck going to a 911 call that was a mis-dial, they question whether cops should go code to unknown 911 calls.

One people in the comments said it correctly. Why are you [the people complaining about the cops] blaming the police, the shooters are to blame.

Bottomline is the situation is tragic. The outcome is sad. The dirtbags should get a gift of a short piece of rope.

1 comment:

Alex Williams said...

Well said Scotty, I agree that the Police are going to be criticized no matter what and now the situation will be looked at more closely to see if the officers should have entered because of this uproar from the people. But like Scotty mentioned about that person who stated it's the killers fault not the cops, which is completely true.
Today, the Seattle Times quoted the killer hours after he realized that hmm murdering all these people could get me the death penalty and he said.....
"You never really realize what life is worth until something like this happens," he said.

Really?!?! Wow, people yet to surprise me and yes you never really know what life is worth, but I can tell that this pathetic man's and woman's life are not worth that of 6 innocent people and he should most definitely be put to death.

Hopefully, the WA legal system will get it right this time and serve justice to the victims family, oh wait the victims family were the killers.