Four days in May set stage for Sunday's tragedy

[WillowTree]

Over four days in May, Maurice Clemmons' behavior and mental state deteriorated. Family members worried he had gone crazy, that he was verging on collapse. His conduct became so erratic — punching a sheriff's deputy, forcing relatives to strip naked, according to police reports — that authorities eventually charged him with eight felonies, including one count of child rape.

Still, at the end of those four days, Clemmons wound up on the loose — a delusional man with a propensity for violence, who had managed to escape the grip of authorities.

What happened in those four days — and in the months that followed — reflects a system governed by formula and misguided incentives.

That legal system, both in Arkansas and Washington, failed to account for the entirety of Clemmons' violence and his disdain for the law. Individual crimes, viewed in isolation, trumped a long and disturbing pattern of warning signs.

As a result, Clemmons walked out of jail Nov. 23. A week later, he was on the run again — this time accused of shooting and killing four Lakewood police officers in a Parkland coffee shop, in one of the most horrific crimes in Puget Sound history.










Local News | Four days in May set stage for Sunday's tragedy | Seattle Times Newspaper

 

[Mike458877]

Clearly he hated law enforcement and clearly white law enforcement!

If I wanted to be an ass, I would call it a hate crime, of civilian brutality against law enforcement. However, that would be a discredit to those who passed while serving others.

There is no real justice for such a crime, but, at least justice, what justice there could be, has been served. At least the families will not have to sit through a trial and possibly listen to this lunatics rants and smirks.

As the system at some point might have failed, the ones who really failed were the family members. IMO

Sad, very sad.

Mike

 

[Ravi]

Now it's a race thing.

tff

 

[uscitizen]

Terrorist.

 

[xotoxi]

Sound like mental illness

 

[WillowTree]

Now it's a race thing.

tff

that's what happens,, the end result of a group of people pulling out the race card every time it's convenient. It spreads like the measles.

 

[WillowTree]

Sound like mental illness

I see the little boots!

 

[Charles Stucker]

Now it's a race thing.

When it ought to be a corruption thing.
Bail bond has turned into an extremely lucrative business, and it was the Bond agencies which insured Clemmens would get loose. His history does not include details about substance use, but many illegal drugs do have deleterious effects on mental health.

If drugs are involved then corruption is more prevalent as the police do little to actually end the "war on drugs." Why should they? The war gives them a convenient excuse for raising costs and extra opportunities for individual graft.
Unlike military personnel, police seem far more prone to abuse their position. Check local headlines for a while and invariably several cases of police corruption at all levels, from street cops to tech support to chiefs, crop up. This is no coincidence. The corruption is found so often because it is endemic.

I have no clue whether the four police which were shot were personally corrupt, but the corruption of the system they serve must certainly share blame with the perpetrator himself.