Ark., Wash. trade blame over suspect (finger pointing)

www.stateline.org ^ | 12/4/09 | unknown

[Bulldawg Fan]

The fatal shooting of four police officers in Washington state this week has set off angry finger-pointing between Washington and Arkansas over why the suspect in the killings — a man convicted of at least five felonies in Arkansas and charged with at least eight more in Washington this year alone — was not behind bars. Much of the attention so far has focused on former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee’s (R) decision to commute the sentence of the suspect, Maurice Clemmons, nine years ago. Clemmons — who was killed by a Seattle police officer on Tuesday (Dec. 1) after a manhunt — had been serving a 35-year prison term in Arkansas for armed robbery when Huckabee reduced his penalty.

But a story in The Seattle Times paints a much more detailed picture of Washington state criminal justice officials’ efforts to keep Clemmons behind bars earlier this year — and their frustration with their Arkansas counterparts, whom they accuse of stifling those efforts. The discord between the two states “has become so intense … that if the two states were adjacent a ‘border war’ would break out,” The Times reports.

The disagreement centers on whether an arrest warrant issued by Arkansas earlier this year could have been used to keep Clemmons in jail in Washington state. According to The Times, “Arkansas says yes. Washington says no.” Six days before he allegedly killed the police officers, Clemmons walked out of jail in Pierce County, Wash.

Evaluations of what went wrong are likely to dominate the discourse among criminal justice officials in Arkansas and Washington for a long time. What remains to be seen is whether the police officers’ murder — called the worst attack on law enforcement in Washington history — will spark substantial policy changes, in Arkansas, Washington, or both.

[Bulldawg Fan]

This disaster was caused by a chain of events that reached critical mass when Clemons, a vile and evil man, pulled the trigger in that coffee shop. There is enough responsibility to go around for both states and they should be studying how to not let it happen again. Meanwhile, those directly responsible, Gov Huckabee and the second judge in Washington who over rode the "no bail" recommendation of the first judge need to pay with their careers. No slack on that.

[Pelagius of Asturias]

One story in a Seattle TV webpage stated that Clemmons was in posession of one of the officer’s weapons when he was killed. There has been nothing that I could find that states that Clemmons was in posession of a handgun other than an officers’s firearm. I conclude that Clemmons grabbed a weapon from an officer at the table. It explains how one cop had time to return fire

If Clemmons had in his posession a firearm, the news media would be full of commentary about the need for new gun restrictions.

[IYAS9YAS]

Meanwhile, those directly responsible, Gov Huckabee and the second judge in Washington who over rode the "no bail" recommendation of the first judge need to pay with their careers. No slack on that.

There is only one person responsible for the deaths of these officers.

There are muliple people responsible for enabling the perp, but ultimately the perp is the only person responsible for this killing. He made the choice to take those lives that day.

[IYAS9YAS]

Don’t get me wrong. I agree every person responsible for enabling the perp all along the way should pay with their careers, or their freedom, and each should sued by the survivors of these officers. There should be no protections for any of these folks, either the ones outside the law, nor those responsible for upholding the law.

[PugetSoundSoldier]

Seems to me AR is to be blamed for releasing the monster to come to WA, and WA is to be blamed for letting him out with minor bail after assault and child rape charges were filed.

Both are culpable...

[livius]

It will be interesting to see what “policy changes” they make, since they apparently weren’t even enforcing the policies they already had.

One of my kids is a police officer, and you’d be amazed how many times she has arrested people who were never supposed to be on the street in the first place, or gets to court and finds that crucial paperwork has never been filed, etc.

Some of it is probably because of the volume of cases, but some of it is just carelessness and ineptitude. Most of the people who are responsible are state employees, after all...no offense to any Freepers who are state employees, because there are definitely good ones. But then there are the others...

[marstegreg]

I read an article earlier this morning that sheds some new light on this subject...here is the article

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2400141/posts

[Dark Knight]

He showed two men and his half brother two handguns the night before the execution. This was a well planned murder. The Tacoma paper had a very good timeline of Mr. Clemmons. It explains a lot other people don’t want to hear.

DK