Caught on Tape: World's Stupidest Criminals

April writes:

Tom,
Have you seen the hard copy of today's LMT? Check out the pictures and related captions on the front page. Notice they look like the SAME GUY!

Tribune / Kyle Mills
Michael Millhouse, of Millhouse Signs in Lewiston, works on giving the windows at SCI Enterprises in downtown Lewiston some holiday spirit with a Christmas greeting Wednesday afternoon.

Contributed photo
A surveillance camera captures the image of an unknown man at the counter of a Zip Trip store on Bridge Street in Clarkston. A woman’s wallet can be seen laying on the counter in front of the man. The camera videotaped the man later picking up the wallet and putting it inside his coat and walking out of the store.


This photo shows how the pictures appeared on the front page of the newspaper:


According to the Clarkston Police Department, a Lewiston Tribune employee contacted them about 3 a.m. Thursday morning that the person featured in a front-page photo in the newspaper matched another front-page photo of a man suspected of stealing a wallet. The man in the photo was arrested later Thursday for second-degree theft.

Tragic? You tell me.

Fire crews searched the Green River in Tukwila [Washington] Thursday but found no sign of a 17-year-old suspected car thief who escaped police and jumped into the water Wednesday afternoon.

Think there is any loss to society here?

Type rest of the post here

The Funeral of Officer Lee Newbill

Officer Lee Newbill

I have the somber privilege to attend Officer Lee Newbill's funeral today. Starting out around 0800 hrs this morning

I made my way to the staging for the procession which was at the old Tidyman's in Moscow's East side. I arrived with the parking lot about half full of police cars from all over Idaho, Washington, and beyond. Police Officers who did not know Officer Lee Newbill and those who did were gathering for this event. Fire engines and other fire rigs from Pullman, Colfax, Lewiston, Moscow, Whitman County Fire District 12 and others were also there to pay tribute to this man.

Police Cars fill the Tidyman's parking lot

Patrol cars from Latah County and Moscow fill nearby parking lot

A couple of the fire department rigs lined up on the street

A close up of the officers waiting from the procession to start

At about 10:00 AM the procession started. It was long enough that as my vehicle was pulling into the parking of the Kibbie Dome the last cars were leaving Tidyman's. Along the route people were standing on the sides of the streets and police officers on Motorcycles where blocking intersections. There were people who had their hand over their heart, American Flags, signs of support, and cub scout troops along the way.

We arrived at the Kibbie dome where a Lewiston Ladder truck and Moscow Ladder truck had their ladders crossed with a huge American Flag blowing in the breeze. We walked into the Kibbie Dome and made our way to the seating on the floor. There were about 800 chairs on the floor. Over the next two hours officers from the various agencies mingled with one another.

Officer Walk to Kibbie Dome with American Flag in the Background

Then Glenn Johnson asked everyone to the seats as the funeral was about to get started. By this time many people from the public had made their way into the Kibbie Dome, nearly all the available seats were taken with both police officers, EMS workers, and the public.

Moscow Police Chief Weaver talked about Newbill and his qualities. He got a couple laughs when telling a story about Officer Newbill and Moscow's purchase of a Segway Scooter.

It was Officer Newbills who was testing it out riding it around the UI campus and to the police station. An event was held to show off the scooter to the public and the media. Part of the rules were that the officer riding the scooter had to have a helmet on. While Newbill was riding the scooter he crashed it, only as Officer Newbill could. Later as the public were making comments, one elderly lady said "It is nice to see the police are hiring the handicap".

The children of Officer Newbill got up to speak. His two daughters went first, both telling some stories about their dad. Some more laughter was heard from the crowd. Then Officer Newbill's son, who is in the military like his father was, and plans to be a police officer, spoke. He quoted a poem from the Officer Down Memorial Page. Following the poem he was getting choked up and could hardly talk. He was in his Air Force uniform. He turned to his father shrine on the stage and saluted. That caused a lot of emotion from the crowd. I could see people starting to wipe tears. I could hear people sniffling. It was touching.

The flag was presented to the family and a 21-gun salute was given. That is when Whitcom (the dispatch center) got on the air. So soon as people hear the sound of the mic keying up, I saw heads quickly drop. We all knew was coming.

"149 - Moscow"
"149"
(the police emergency tones go out)
A couple words are spoken in honor of Officer Newbill then it was said:
"149 out of service".

Following the funeral a large number of bikers were outside near the ladder trucks each one holding an American Flag.


Bikers Line up with American Flags

"Weatherly: More police officers will be needed"

From today's Moscow-Pullman Daily News:

Police chief begins evaluating department's current, future needs

Pullman Police Chief Ted Weatherly would have eight new officers suited up for patrols as soon as possible if he had his way.

Weatherly said his officers are able to handle all of the city's present law enforcement needs, but with increasing development, a growing population and the possibility of increased enrollment at Washington State University, his staff will need to grow - and soon.

"We're not in a crisis yet, and my job is to make sure that we don't get into a crisis," he said. "But we're pretty close. We're at the limit right now."

During the next several months, Weatherly and his staff will conduct a comprehensive evaluation of Pullman police staffing and analyze the community's needs and the department's capabilities. The study is expected to determine whether more officers are necessary and how more positions would be funded.

The report, which will provide an eight- to 10-year plan for the department's staffing needs, will be presented to the Pullman City Council in August.

"This will give the council a blueprint for the present and the future," he said. "This will say if we need (more officers), why we need them and what they'll be doing."

With the completion of recent studies - such as the College Hill neighborhood study, which encouraged more officers on the hill for both beat patrols and parking enforcement - Weatherly said he realized his already-thin staff may become more stressed as the city grows and law enforcement demands increase. A College Hill parking study also suggested the addition of another parking enforcement officer.

"We've been reactive to that," he said of increasing needs on College Hill. "But some of the problems on College Hill are emerging on other hills, too."

It could take several years to get new officers in place. Weatherly said the department can't train more than three officers at a time because of necessary police academy requirements, field training and an effort to not burn out officers who provide the training.

"That's not going to be easy," he said. "We're going to look at what we can do within reason."

The cooperative roles between the city police and the Washington State University Police Department will be analyzed in the report, as well as the Pullman Police Department's jurisdiction and needs with that of similar-sized cities.

The last time the department was compared with similar communities, it "did not meet what is considered the national standard," Weatherly said. "(Our department) is significantly less (staffed) than cities our size."

Through conversations with representatives from the Better Neighborhoods of Pullman and the Associated Students of Washington State University, Weatherly said there is an increasing demand for the department to step up its presence in parking enforcement, working with fraud cases, traffic incidents and community support.

The Pullman Police Department has 28 officers, which includes Weatherly, Cmdr. Chris Tennant and four sergeants. During busy weekends, such as Washington State University football games, up to six officers are out on emphasis patrols. Most days, two officers patrol all of Pullman.

"You divide that between three shifts, (and) you don't have a lot of officers," Weatherly said. "If it was a perfect world, we'd have a lot of officers."

Weatherly said he's trying his best to not have a short staff affect service. Emergency response times have not been affected, but in regard to issues like parking his officers can't be everywhere all the time.

"It's affecting service, but not dramatically. We try to do as good a service as we can," he said. "My goal is to make sure that the community doesn't lose their quality of life as far as policing goes."

The Pullman Police Department last increased staff in 2001, when three officers and a police operations commander were added to the squad. The additions followed the 1998 riot on College Hill.

Weatherly said he hopes the report will provided a solid plan of action for the future of Pullman's policing needs.

"It's kind of like a comprehensive plan. I'd refer to it as a strategic staffing plan for police. The idea is to take a wholistic approach to the staffing in the police department," he said. "As the community grows, how are we going to (deal with) that? This is what you're going to have to look at. We're going to look at all elements."

It is important to note that the College Hill Association is basically PARD under another guise. And PARD, as you know, has claimed that Wal-Mart will drive up policing costs by bringing the "undesirable social classes" to town. So isn't it deliciously ironic that the PARDners themselves are the ones now partly responsible for driving up policing costs?

As far as where the funding for these new officers will come from, it won't be from the College Hill Association. Nope, those positions will be paid for by that behemoth one-stop mall called Wal-Mart. I quote now from "Economic & Fiscal Impacts of Wal-Mart Supercenter Development in Pullman, Washington"

To the extent that the Wal-Mart Supercenter increases the marginal need for new capital facilities (police precinct location, vehicle maintenance facilities, fire station, trucks, etc.), Pullman may require capital facilities expansion to the extent that existing investment does not have capacity. To the extent that the City would require capital facilities expansion or additional operational costs, expected tax revenue generation by the project will be enough to off-set those costs.

It is also important to note the need for increased police officers, and the need for a traffic light at the intersection of Bishop and Klemgard have been identified BEFORE WAL-MART HAS EVEN TURNED ONE SHOVEL OF EARTH. Pullman is growing, like it or not, and we can't keep on exporting our retail dollars to the Internet or Moscow, as TV Reed recommends. We must have the retail sales tax infrastructure to support our development.

Technorati Tags: wal-mart walmart

In Praise of the Pullman PD

The Pullman police have gotten plenty of bad press as of late. I don’t think there’s any point in repeating what has gone on and what has been said about them, as anyone in this area is probably well aware of it all, and anyone reading from afar could just insert their own prejudices against cops everywhere into the blank if they don’t happen to know the details.

I want to write about what the Pullman PD do right, and as fate would have it, this involves two incidences I have been personally involved in within only days of each other. I’m going to share with you my recent experiences with our local law enforcement officers to remind everyone – fans and critics alike – that we really do need these men and women in uniform, and that we ought to appreciate them more than many seem to.

The first incident occurred just this past weekend. Basically, my roommates and I were throwing a pig roast at our house, an event for which we required a small admission fee of all guys who joined us (women got in free). A few arrogant, entitlement-minded narcissists attempted to crash the party. I caught them and threw them out, but they returned with friends of theirs and refused to leave. Right before my roommates, guests, and I commenced with beating these idiots into pulp, the Pullman PD arrived and trespassed them from our property at our request and left us to enjoy our party. Though admittedly somewhat frustrating (because I think a lot of people out there deserve/need a sound beating), this outcome was best. It’s all thanks to our local police forces.

The other incident occurred just this evening. Long story short, my roommates and I stopped an attack on a young woman by her ex-boyfriend near our house. Within minutes, a Pullman PD officer was here to assist her and interview us. While he was doing this, another officer had caught and detained this young woman’s attacker in another part of town. If there is justice, he will be in prison; this is not the first time he has attacked the poor girl, as she told my roommates and I.

The Pullman PD are frequently called many names, accused of being racists, of only picking on students partaking in relatively benign behavior while ignoring real crimes, etc. It would be obviously wrong to say that they do not sometimes make mistakes, but too often it seems that their human errors are all that they are given credit for, and frequently their errors are blown out of proportion in shameless attempts at exploiting unfortunate events for personal or special-interest gain. My examples to the contrary are admittedly few as they are personal examples, but it is obvious that many more of a similar nature exist in the memories of others. I offer my few positive experiences to remind everyone that, despite a lot of the local lefty rhetoric against our officers, they are essentially good people – people who can make mistakes, like any of us, but who rise to the occasion and do good works, sometimes at risk of personal injury and even death, when they are called upon to do so, and all for our benefit.

Kudos to Pullman Police

From the Daily News.

On April 23, I officiated at a funeral at Short's Funeral Chapel, which concluded about 11:30 a.m. As the casket was loaded into the hearse, I saw a Moscow police officer talking with the driver. Upon entering the hearse the driver said "there will be no police escort through town today." The burial was to be in the Pullman City Cemetery. There were about 25 cars in the procession. Everyone was disappointed that there would be no escort.

When we were three miles from Pullman, a Pullman police car met the procession. Another officer was at the stoplight at Bishop Boulevard, and yet another officer at the corner of Bishop and Grand Avenue. The cruiser that had met the procession on the Pullman-Moscow Highway pulled ahead and blocked oncoming traffic from the south so the procession could enter the cemetery.

We had four Pullman officers for this procession through town. The Moscow police could not seem to spare one officer for about 10 minutes.

There is something wrong that needs correction. A word to the wise is sufficient.

Rev. Gordon L. Braun, Moscow

Scapegoat?

Scapegoat - Widely used as a metaphor, referring to someone who is blamed for misfortunes, generally as a way of distracting attention from the real causes. Also referred to as the fall guy.

Bruce over at Cougster and I don't always see eye-to-eye on the issues. But I have to agree with him about former WSU police chief Steve Hansen. The investigation into allegations that Hansen used his WSU computer to view and forward pornographic e-mail reported:

...we did not find it apparent the contents were actively retrieved through web surfing. Further, it was not apparent that the content in admitted emails or other questionable files found in subject’s hard drive were ‘sexually-explicit’.

...we are unclear whether the contents are in fact obscene or ‘sexually-explicit’ as indicated in the allegation.

...We found exception in the existence of four short media clips when we reviewed all program files for appropriate content.

If the four videos cited in the WSU report are the only reason Hansen accepted demotion to Lieutenant, scapegoat is the only word that comes to mind.

If Hansen, as it appears, was demoted because of the WSU policy that states "WSU computer resources may be used for legitimate WSU purposes only," then stand by for thousands of such demotions at WSU.

You can find linkks to the four videos at Cougster.com.

My Prayers Go Out to Blacksburg

I grew up about 25 miles away from the small university town of Blacksburg, Virginia. Today, Blacksburg was the scene of a horrific massacre that took place on the campus of Virginia Tech. At least 30 students were murdered in a senseless shooting rampage. My thoughts and prayers go out to the victims' friends and families. This incident has hit close to home for me.

As I told Scotty on The PES a short while ago, those in our community that constantly criticize the WSU and Pullman police departments for harrassing students, inappropriate e-mails, use of tasers, etc., etc., would do well to remember one thing: If, God forbid, something like that should ever happen here, it is those same police officers that would go running towards the sound of gunfire to save lives.


Logo courtesy of www.cougster.com

Set Tasers to Stun, Mr. Spock

I love living in Pullman. You just can't make up the kinds of news stories we get around here. For example, from today's Moscow-Pullman Daily News:

Barbara Hammond, a College Hill resident and representative on the advisory committee, said she's not sure how she feels about TASERs being added to the Pullman Police Department's arsenal, though she is sure of one thing: "It beats guns. I think it certainly does that."

"I have to digest it more. It's new technology. It's new equipment. I really, truly haven't formulated what my stance is on that," she said. "I'm not comfortable with physical engagement. I'm certainly not comfortable with guns. I'm not thrilled with TASERS, but that doesn't mean that I don't think police should not use them."

Hammond admits she knew little about the devices before Monday's presentation.

"I didn't know how TASERs worked before," she said. "To me, the sound of 'TASER' is like, that sounds bad. And yet after listening to the presentation, I get it. If I was a police officer, I would probably want to be in possession of one of those. But if I was a student, I would be concerned and I would like a lot more information."

Hoyt said the WSU administration and the city - in this case the Pullman Police Department - need to provide more information to students about TASERs and their use in order to avoid stereotypes and stigmas. She also said she would like Weatherly to provide the committee with more information, such as the race of those who are TASERed and the circumstances leading up to the use of the device.

Hammond agreed.

"Over time, I would be very much in favor of the police keeping records of use of force and if there are any groups that are over-represented ... be it students, or people of color," she said. "When is it used and on what populations? The committee is interested in keeping up with this. If (TASERs are) going to be used more frequently, I think our committee is kind of a review committee to offer advice."

Barbara Hammond. Hmmmm. Any relation to PARDner Alex Hammond? I'm guessing yes.

"I'm not comfortable with physical engagement. I'm certainly not comfortable with guns." Luckily for us, the Pullman Police Department is comfortable with all those tools of the white imperialist oppressor like physical violence and guns. Ay caramba. As Scotty has repeatedly stated, how would you prefer to be subdued (assuming flowers and peaceful karma have failed), a nightstick, a 9MM round, or a TASER?

"To me, the sound of 'TASER' is like, that sounds bad." You mean , it sounds like phaser? Or laser? A killer death ray? What is it with liberals and words? For example, assault rifles. Oooooooooooooo. Do these people have any experience with the real world? Or is it all just NPR and PBS?

"If I was a student, I would be concerned and I would like a lot more information." Here's all the information you need if you're a student: "Do exactly what the nice officer tells you." Here endeth the lesson.

"...such as the race of those who are TASERed" Why? No, wait, I know why, but I have to ask anyway.

"...if there are any groups that are over-represented ... be it students..." As 70% of Pullman's population are students and the average age is 22, I'm going to take a wild guess and say that students are going to be over-represented.

"I think our committee is kind of a review committee to offer advice." I'm not really seeing the police asking the gentle left-wing lady who doesn't like physical violence or guns for advice on law enforcement.

Monday March 5th, The PES

Scheduled to talk some more about Tasers in general, the Palouse Thunder's owner Jerry Lema, WSU Cougar Basketball with Ryno the Sports Guy, as well as our own Tom Forbes. That is scheduled for noon to two pm.

The PES is hosting a special ASWSU election edition show starting at 4:00 pm tomorrow.

Discovering the Network

If you take a look at the faculty page and the graduate student page for the WSU Department of American Studies, an interesting nexus develops between that department and some of the news in Pullman over the last few months. Click on the chart for a larger view.

Monday Feb 26th The PES

On The PES (90.7FM or the net www.kzuu.org) from noon to two o'clock PM, Monday, Feb 26th we will be talking about the recent taser incidents in Pullman and expand into a more broad range discussion of tasers in the use of force. I would love to hear from people and get an idea of how people view tasers. I would love to also hear if the information that is presented in the show clears things up or changes peoples' minds on tasers.

Brandon Koe is an eye witness to the taser incident and will give us an account that has not been reported.

Also I hope to hear from Tom about this evenings Dinner. I sure that was a great success! [Or perhaps from someone else who attended, as I was not able to make it (see prior post) - tf]

Give me a call on the show and lets talk tasers and the use of force, the studio line is 509.335.2207.

Adult Supervision Required

There is quite a bit of fallout in today's Daily Evergreen over Martin Boston's column last week in which he accused the Pullman Police department of being racist following the tasering of a UI football player outside Mike's Bar (click here to read the PPD press release on the investigation). Even a staff editorial last Thursday alleged that "there is no doubt that a perception of racism exists in this city."

Today, a letter to the editor from a WSU alum accused the Evergreen editors of bad journalistic practices for allowing Boston, with an obvious conflict of interest as he was personally involved, to write a column on the incident.

Another letter pointed out the observation Scotty made earlier about how one of the officers involved in the tasering is African-American and how it is "asinine to accuse that officer of prejudice when he is also a minority."

Then there is a wonderful rebuttal column (which I'm surprised the Evergreeen allowed, knowing how they feel about "non-student viewpoints" ) from the attorney who successfully defended the Pullman Police Department in the recent Top of China lawsuit. Stewart Estes got right to the heart of the matter:

What Boston failed to disclose is that only days before this incident, he himself was a plaintiff suing Pullman Police officers for race discrimination and excessive force. Boston actually sued the very officer he criticized, and demanded $200,000 from him – for being at the Top of China restaurant when officers used pepper spray to break up a fight. We expect objectivity from journalists, and when they are biased, we expect them to tell us about it. We didn’t get that from Boston’s column.
...

Unfortunately, The Daily Evergreen Editorial Board, in a Feb. 15 staff editorial, compounded this problem by using Boston’s sour-grapes diatribe as a factual basis to assert that racial bias may exist in the Pullman Police Department. This paper chose to ignore the fact that a four-year-long, detailed judicial review of police department practices and actions resulted in the rejection of all claims of racial bias. No department in recent memory has been more highly scrutinized.

Apparently, for this newspaper, the mere fact that a disgruntled litigant makes the same tired allegations means the department is again guilty until proven innocent. Likewise, after admitting that he cannot prove his point, Boston said he “would be interested to hear any proof that their actions were not [racist].” What Boston and The Daily Evergreen are saying is that in our country it is now the accused who has to prove it is not racist. Not only is that legally and morally flawed, but I just spent the last four years of my life disproving just that. The staff editorial asserts that the jury’s verdict “only clears [the officers’] names in the eyes of the justice system.” I would ask: Where else can you go to clear your name? By what logic is a jury verdict – the fundamental basis for our freedoms – to be ignored and the “perception” of an embittered, interested party given greater weight?... Baseless claims of racism, even those based on genuinely held beliefs, are irresponsible and damage the decades of work that we have all put into this issue. While feelings and perceptions are, of course, important, they cannot form the basis for a public allegation of racial prejudice – one of the most damaging claims in modern culture. This requires proof. The proof here is that a court concluded that neither the officers, nor the department, have any racial bias.

Touche', Mr. Estes!

Nick Eaton, Evergreen editor-in-chief, writes on the Evergreen Editorial blog :

We stand by Boston’s column as a valid perception of the indicent that occurred on Feb. 11. He was present at the incident, just as other journalists would be if something happened right in front of them. He wrote his column without deceit. And he wrote it without trying to pass it off as objective repoting (it’s a column, after all). Reporting was what the news article was for.

But the paragraph before, Eaton admits:

...we were unaware Boston was a plaintiff in that complicated case until several days after his Feb. 14 column was printed.

Sure sounds "deceptive" to me, as well as a bit unbelievable. The Top of China suit had been going on for how long? How long has Boston been writing for the Evergreen? You don't think that subject ever came up with any Evergreen staffer?

All this comes at an interesting time. There is a bill making its way through the Washington House of Representatives at the moment (HB 1307) that would give high school and college newspapers complete "freedom of the press" (which is ironic, as the Evergreen editors haven't seen fit to extend that same right to the Pullman community).

Columnist Bruce Ramsey of the Seattle Times, doesn't think that's a good idea. He wrote on February 7 that:

Who owns the student press? The bill's supporters said the people owned it, the readers owned it or the students owned it, or some minestrone of the above. Eddie Reed, math specialist at the Tukwila School District, set them straight: "The school district owns it."

Then it should serve the school district's purposes: education, an activity that requires adult supervision.
...

The students who spoke for the bill said they were willing to take the responsibility. But when a teenager says, "I'll take the responsibility," what does it mean? Maybe not a lot.

The Evergreen's overreaction to the tasering incident might prove Ramsey correct. The Evergreen editors in their youthful ideological zeal, and apparently without the benefit of any sort of legal review, are heading into dangerous waters with completely irresponsible and unfounded accusations of racism against the Pullman police. God forbid any harm to persons or property comes as a result of it. At the very least, it doesn't help with WSU minority recruiting efforts, supposedly such a big issue on campus.

Invalid Arguments From Alex McDonald

"His crime, as far as I understand it, was walking away from a police officer."

The first problem with this letter and some of the subsequent statements is based on a false premise. You acknowledge that you really don't know what transpired to cause the incident, but you make the assumption it was because the man was black and he dissed a cop. You quickly make reference to race in your opening line of this letter.

I think it is imperative to find out if your first premise is true before painting the police with a broad stroke. You also seem to have a big issue with race. Is race the first thing you see about someone when you meet them? You throw around black and white like it is important and must be said to describe someone.

If you looked into what happened to cause the taser deployment you would find the suspect actually hit the arm of the cop away not once, but twice. After the first time he was warned that doing that was a crime and he did it again. Then when he was told he was under arrest he started to leave. That is not something you can do.

Believe it or not, the use of a taser is lower "force" that fighting someone. So in other words when the cops are going to have to get physical they would tend to use a taser before laying hands on someone. This is because of the amount of after effect. If I were to hit someone they could get cut and bleed. Have a black eye, or even get a broken bone depending on where the hit took place. Using pepper spray causes discomfort and pain for nearly an hour. Plus there is a lot of decontamination time. Using a taser gun lasts five seconds. Once the shock is done the pain is gone and there are no lasting physical cuts or broken bones.

I will agree the use of it looks very frightening. It is because a taser uses two things. It uses pain compliance as well as immobilization for five seconds. You will find that other than those five seconds of discomfort, that people are not hurt and are typically willing to cooperate which really allows everyone (cops and suspects) to walk away without lasting injuries.

"Students thronged around the scene as a multiplicity of white officers surrounded their own."

You make it sound like the cop who was assaulted was a white cop. In fact you are wrong. You should research the incident some more before you make more assumptions and paint the cops with a broad stroke.

"Now I know not all cops are bad cops, but I do know at least one of Pullman's officers was out of line last Saturday night."

If your premise was true, in other words, the only thing the guy did wrong was to walk away from a cop and he got tased, then I could agree with you. But in fact there was a lot more to it than that. You are basing this argument on an invalid premise. Therefore this too is invalid.

"How many white students walk away from Pullman officers every weekend without being tased? I'd be willing to bet quite a few."

This is invalid for the same reason the one above it is. If anyone (I don't need to make issues of race, but that seems to be your MO) assaults an officer you can bet they are going to jail. If they choose to disregard lawful orders you can bet force will be used. In the days of old that would be fighting or using pepper spray. Today that will probably be a taser. Once again, you should get educated on tasers. You will find that people who have been tased and pepper sprayed all will tell you they would prefer to get tased. That is cause the lasting pain is only five seconds.

Because you like to mix race into your arguments in order to try to prove a point, I will assist you with it. On that night two people were tased. Two people assaulted an officer. Two people did not follow lawful orders. Does it matter what their races are? It doesn't to me. It didn't to the officers involved. But to you it does. Because you are very race conscious, I will let you know that one of the two was white. Not everyone considers race like you do. Some people actually deal with the person, not the color of their skin. Those who advocate equality should try it.

"According to The Associated Press, the Justice Department reports 7 million American adults are in prison, on probation, or on parole — America, the world's most prison crazy nation."

So this is being presented to prove what? This does not follow your premises unless we make deductive arguments from your earlier statements. I would deduce that you are trying to show that the white cops are part of the system of institutional racism due to the fact that a black man was tased.

Once again, your premises are invalid. It was not all white cops. It was not because the suspect walked away. And it was not because he was black. So when I use deductive logic from your points I cannot come to any conclusion, as all your premises are false.

"But here's the rub: According to AP, "in the 25-29 age group, 8.1 percent of black men, about one in 13, are incarcerated, compared with 2.6 percent of Hispanic men and 1.1 percent of white men.""

I can pretty much copy and paste my last comment to this location. But let me add something. You are tying to make the case for racism. But you provide no numbers on all the races and their representation in prison. Is that because it would hurt your argument? What is the population of Asians in prison compared to their population in America?

How come you have no outrage over the "sexism"? Men vastly outnumber women in prison. No outrage over that? Is that because you believe that men actually commit more of the crimes in America? Maybe there is institutional sexism and the cops are only looking for men who commit crimes.

Maybe you believe that men do commit more crimes in comparison to women. Maybe it is possible that some races may be "over represented" in prisons, but that is only because there is an "over represented" number of people in a race committing crimes. Using deductive logic in your last two statements you are trying to argue that blacks are over represented, therefore racism exists. But you do not make such a statement about sexism. Also, it must be the case that the racism only exists against one race, because you make no arguments about such racism occurring to Asians. You are not being consistent in your outrage. And this part of your letter is so far off base when the point of your letter you lose people on this.

"America's undercurrent of institutional racism is strong. While white collar crime goes largely unpunished, young black men fill our prisons. Unfortunately for our brothers and sisters of color, the punishment rarely fits the crime."

Punishment? That has nothing at all to do with the cops and the incident at Mikes. That is the courts and judges there. I don't know why you included this statement in your letter at all. It has nothing to do to back up the false premises that you used to start your letter.

Now I am going to make a jump here. I cannot be sure about this, but you may be arguing that the cops, by tasing the suspect were "punishing" him. If that is the case then that too is false. The taser was applied to affect an arrest with the least amount of pain possible. The punishment is left to the judges and juries. It is the roll of the cop to get the suspect off the street and to the courtroom to answer for the crimes he is suspected of committing.

Overall your letter is full of false statements and you build your arguments off of those false statements. You admittedly don't know what happened to cause the incident at Mike's, but you took the time to write a letter to the editor that served to insinuate that the cops in Pullman are racist.

I believe that you wrote a horribly false and very misleading letter.

BREAKING NEWS: Jury sides with city of Pullman in Top of China case

From the Moscow-Pullman Daily News:

Pullman City Attorney Laura McAloon said jurors sided with the city in a 5-year-old class-action lawsuit that came to a close Thursday in Spokane.

Three Pullman police officers were accused of using excessive force and being racially biased in their response to a reported fight at the Top of China restaurant in September 2002.

The officers sprayed pepper spray into the restaurant to disperse the crowd, and some of the spray drifted upstairs to The Attic nightclub.

As many as 600 people may have been affected, many of them black students from Washington State University. Three people were sent to Pullman Memorial Hospital with eye and skin irritation.

The 136 plaintiffs, who were seeking $22 million in punitive damages, were represented by attorney Darrell Cochran. The federal case was heard by eight jurors and U.S. District Judge Fred Van Sickle in Spokane.

McAloon said she is pleased with the outcome.

“We think it’s a just verdict. I think it upholds our position that our officers did nothing wrong,” she said. “These officers were accused of being bigots and they’re not. I’m glad that their reputations have been vindicated.”

Attorney Stew Estes, who represented the city, did not immediately return calls seeking comment.

A Town Divided

Top of China lawsuit proceedings begin in Spokane
Case against three police officers stems from 2002 incident at Pullman restaurant

dnews.com

A class-action lawsuit against three Pullman Police Department officers stemming from a Sept. 8, 2002, incident at the Top of China restaurant has wrapped up its first week in U.S. District Court in Spokane.

Attorney Stuart Estes, who is representing the officers, said the case is off to a good start, with the plaintiffs' witnesses providing contradicting testimony.

"We don't have to prove anything," he said. "We think the plaintiffs' case is falling apart through their witnesses," he said.

The federal case is being heard by eight jurors and U.S. District Judge Fred Van Sickle.

Pullman police officers responding to a reported fight at the Top of China restaurant in downtown Pullman sprayed a fog-like pepper spray into the crowd to thwart combatants. Some of the spray drifted upstairs to The Attic nightclub.

The lawsuit alleges racial bias and use of excessive force by the Pullman Police Department. Many of the partygoers at the nightclub were black students or faculty from Washington State University. Between 300 and 600 people may have been affected by the pepper spray.

Three people were sent to Pullman Memorial Hospital after complaining of eye and skin irritations following the incident. Many people claim to have suffered long-term damage to their eyes.

The 136 plaintiffs are being represented by attorney Darrell Cochran. They are seeking $22 million in punitive damages in the case. It was believed that nearly 600 people may have a case against the officers.

"If they don't show up, it's our opinion that they don't have a case," Estes said.

Estes said two of the three Pullman police officers have been called to the stand by Cochran, who is trying to prove that officers' actions at the Top of China restaurant were inappropriate.

Estes, who will begin his defense Jan. 22, is preparing to call expert witnesses, such as a trainer from the Washington State Criminal Justice Training Commission, to discuss the use of pepper spray.

Estes said the expert will prove the officers used the pepper spray responsibly.

The experts "are going to say that's preposterous. These claims (of long-term damage) are just fanciful," Estes said.

Two former police chiefs from Seattle and Portland also will argue that the officers did not violate codes by entering the restaurant in an attempt to break up the fight.

Proceedings will be held on an every-other-week basis for the next five weeks, Estes said.

"It's still early," he said.

This was an ugly situation. The police were said to be racist because they sprayed people with OC (pepper spray, mace) who were in a fight. At the time the China Buffet was closed, but upstairs, the Top of China was open and a dance was being held. The people fighting were in the China Buffet portion of the business.

The police were called there for a fight. The police showed up and found a fight in progress. The fight did not break up after the orders were given to do so, and OC was used to stop the fight. The OC did the job and stopped the fight, however, people got the secondary effects of the spray. It is an irritant. That is why it works. If you get it in your eyes or on your skin it has a burning and tingling sensation. If you get directly sprayed with it, the concentration is higher than just getting an indirect exposure. That makes a big difference in the amount of pain someone feels.

Typically with time and water the pain sensation will go away. I personally have been sprayed with a direct hit of OC spray as part of training. It was painful. I could not open my eyes for a while and with some water and time it went away. No long term affects. Only the short term pain, which lasts about forty-five minutes, but by the end most of the pain is barely noticeable.

In law enforcement there is a system called the Use of Force Continuum. The idea is that as the need for more force is necessary, you use more force. Necessary means "no reasonable effective alternative to the use of force appeared to exist and the amount of force used was reasonable to effect the lawful purpose intended." Secondly, the use of force continuum varies from department to department, but usually is something like:

Officer Presence - meaning that the fact a policeman is there is typically enough to get most people to stop their illegal actions.
Verbal Commands - Giving a direct, lawful order to stop illegal action.
Taser* - read below.
OC Spray - If just by being there and making verbal commands doesn't work to break up the illegal action, if necessary (read above definition) police will use OC spray.
Hands On - Meaning hair holds, arm bars, other physical actions using just the police officers' hands.
Baton - The use of a stick as necessary (again, the above definition)
Deadly Force - Once again, necessary comes into play.

* With the new taser technology, tasers will be used before OC spray and after verbal commands. The reason is that a taser will stop the illegal action, just like the OC spray, however, a taser stops being painful after five second where as the OC spray will have a longer decontamination period. Many police departments have not started to use tasers, and some that have tasers have not trained all their officers to use them yet. Because of that, a taser is not always an option.

Some people would think that hands on would be preferable to OC Spray and Tasers, however there is more of a chance of a longer term injury from going hands-on, so that is saved for later in the continuum.

In the case of the fight, the officers where there and gave orders, the first two steps in the use of force continuum. Those did not work. It was necessary to use OC Spray. Once the spray was used the fight ended and no additional force was used.

One would think that would be all there was to it, however, in this situation the people in the fight were black. The officers were white, so now we have a situation where there is a claim the officers used too much force, specifically because of racist intentions.

In the aftermath, Glenn Johnson, then the volunteer Public Information Officer for the Pullman Police was fired by then-Mayor Mitch Chandler. There was a lot of heat by the WSU minority community about this being a racial issue. The city had to appear to be "doing something". Johnson's actions were not improper, but the Mayor decided that he had to have a scapegoat. Johnson was an easy one to punish.

Let me rewind to May 1998, there was a riot on the edge of campus where police officers from many agencies where injured. Stores where damages, streets were damaged, and WSU's image had a black-eye over the riot. WSU tried to downplay the riot, where police were sent to the hospital, as "an all night street party that was broken up using small amounts of water and gas." Pullman Police put out a press release that was a little more accurate of the event, but they also worked to downplay the event. Then-Whitman County Sheriff Steve Tomson put out a press release stated the actual events of the riot and did not downplay it at all.

Glenn Johnson was disturbed over the downplaying, even the outright falsehoods in the local releases that he decided to volunteer as the Public Information Officer. He felt he could help tell the truth about events in the future.

That is the history of why Glenn Johnson was the Public Information Officer. He had worked in that position for many years to the praise of the police and fire departments as putting out informational and professional releases. Plus, having him on the scene allows the police to focus on the event at hand while Johnson works with the media to get them the information they need. The Top of China incident was no different, but he got stuck in the middle, and as a volunteer it was easy to fire him.

After the event was over and the university officials started to put the pressure on the city, Johnson was fired, and the city spent tens-of-thousands of dollars on a study by an independent person to look at the response to the fight at the Top of China. A West-side lawyer saw dollar-signs and started a class-action lawsuit.

I know the officers who were involved in this incident and to describe them as racist as well as people who use excessive force is false.

As an example of the police force we have, my barber used to live on the Westside. He said that he has been involved in inter-racial relationships and even has children that are from an inter-racial marriage. While on the Westside he was routinely pulled over because he had a minority in his car. He said since coming to Pullman, that does not and has not happened to him. He personally knows several of the Pullman policemen and there is not an issue of inter-racial relationships.

To make claims about our police being racist is made with no grounds on real facts.