Whipped Cream Difficulties

I’ve been following the case of Officer Daniel Faulkner for years.

I believe, along with such notoriously conservative sources as Vanity Fair and Salon, that Mumia Abu-Jamal killed Officer Faulkner. I believe that anyone who maintains otherwise, in the face of all the evidence against Abu-Jamal, is delusional. I can respect the people who said “Mumia Abu-Jamal shouldn’t be executed because nobody should be executed.” I understand that position, and respect the intellectual consistency of it. I can’t respect anyone who says “Mumia Abu-Jamal shouldn’t be executed because he should be walking around free because he didn’t do the crime.” The evidence is too overwhelming.

The district attorney in Philadelphia has decided that he’s not going to seek a new sentencing hearing for Abu-Jamal. He will remain in prison for the rest of his life, instead of being executed for killing Officer Faulkner.

I’m torn by this. I believe Abu-Jamal deserves to be executed. I know I’ve threatened to write a longer post about my views on the death penalty (and I will do that some day). People I respect a great deal argue against the death penalty. I’ve given a lot of thought to their arguments, and I’ll admit I’m about 51% in favor, 49% against.

What it comes down to for me is that I believe some people do things so awful to other people that they deserve to die. I believe Ted Bundy deserved to die. I believe Ronald Clark O’Bryan deserved to die. And I think Abu-Jamal deserves to die.

But Officer Faulkner’s widow supports the decision not to pursue the death penalty again. Good enough for me. May Abu-Jamal vanish back into well deserved obscurity, and may he die alone, unmourned and unloved.

I’ve been casually following this story for the past couple of days, and now seems like the time to blog it.

The first reports were that a man had been killed, and a sheriff’s deputy injured, in a shootout. Eventually, it came out that the man who was killed was a truck driver, who was hauling a load of pot; the driver had apparently flipped and was making the delivery as part of a “controlled buy” when he got shot.

Then it came out that the truck driver was cut off by three SUVs. The occupants then got out and shot the crap out of the truck. So this wasn’t a one-off deal; it was an organized hit.

Now, it turns out that this was probably a Zeta cartel operation. And it was all over 300 pounds of pot.

You just never know when things are going to go pear-shaped, do you?

Convicted Spokane police officer Karl F. Thompson Jr. is out of custody, pending his sentencing on January 27th.

U.S. District Court Judge Fred Van Sickle reversed a Friday decision by U.S. Magistrate Judge James Hutton, who ordered Thompson detained until sentencing, which has been set for Jan. 27 at 9 a.m. In ruling for Thompson, Van Sickle went against a prior ruling made against officers convicted in the 1992 beating of Rodney King that they were not above the law that requires they remain in jail prior to sentencing except in “exceptional” cases.

“The court is very much mindful that the (Rodney King) case clearly states that there is no law enforcement exemption for law enforcement detention,” said Van Sickle, who presided over the four-week trial in which Thompson was convicted of using excessive force against Otto Zehm and lying to cover up his actions.

Except apparently there is.

Van Sickle cited Thompson’s lifelong service in law enforcement, his “exemplary” military service in the Vietnam War and complying with all conditions of his release prior to his four-week trial in Yakima.

Also worth noting: Thompson’s defense attorney has asked for a new trial, alleging that some of the jurors may have seen press coverage that they shouldn’t have been exposed to. The more coverage I see of these allegations by Thompson’s defense attorney, the less substance I see in them; the allegations are detailed in the linked article for anyone who’s interested.

I wish I could explain why the Otto Zehm story makes me so angry. After all, The Agitator is on my blog roll; surely I get my fill of police abuse stories from there? Why is this one different from all the other ones?

I don’t know. Maybe what makes me so angry isn’t just that a police officer beat a defenseless unarmed man to death and tried to lie about it, but that his superiors – from the chief of police and the mayor on down – tried to cover for him, and are still in denial that he actually did anything wrong.

But surely there are other things going on in Spokane, Washington, right?

Yes. Yes, there are.

A jury on Friday awarded more than $700,000 to a Spokane police detective they say was wrongly fired and retaliated against by Chief Anne Kirkpatrick.

The gentleman in question, Detective Jay Mehring, was arrested in March of 2007 on charges that he’d threatened to kill his wife (apparently, they were divorcing, and the split was not friendly). At that time, he was placed in “unpaid layoff” status. That’s fair, right? You don’t want someone facing criminal charges working as a police officer.

Detective Mehring went to trial in October of 2008, and was acquitted of the charge. The Spokane city attorney recommended at that time that Detective Mehring be reinstated and given back pay.

He’s since been reinstated but is on paid administrative leave in what his lawyer, Bob Dunn, told jurors was retaliation for his lawsuit.

Here’s an additional tidbit for you:

Before deliberations began, [Judge Kathleen] O’Connor issued a partial verdict in Mehring’s favor, ruling that the City of Spokane committed a violation when it laid Mehring off pending the resolution of his felony charge. Jurors then ruled that the city violated Mehring’s rights to due process, and that the city of Spokane and Kirkpatrick intentionally or recklessly inflicted distress.

But here’s what really set me off:

Marlene Feist, spokeswoman for the City of Spokane, said the verdict likely will be appealed.

She said Kirkpatrick “is trying to hold her officers to high standards, so we’re supporting her in that effort.”

High standards? High standards?! Let me remind you what Chief Kirkpatrick said:

“Based on all the information and evidence I have reviewed, I have determined that Officer Karl Thompson acted consistent with the law.”

And this was after the release of the security video that contradicted Thompson’s story. Chief Kirkpatrick knew Thompson was a liar, and knew the Feds were investigating. But she continued to support Thompson, because beating an unarmed man to death apparently doesn’t violate her “high standards”.

Some three dozen Spokane Police officers and other supporters stood when someone yelled “Present Arms” and saluted Thompson as he was led away by U.S. Marshals without being handcuffed.

(Previously.)