Seattle police kill suspect in officer slayings

Most if not all the problems solved.

This ought to be shoved back in the face of the Republicans as the response to the accusation that Democrats are soft on crime.

Maurice Clemmons was shot to death in a working-class south Seattle neighborhood after police tracked him down...

Executed you mean.

yabits: How is this possibly the fault of Republicans? You must be thinking of Huckabee. I despise the man and consider him to be hardly a conservative however, you can't blame him for reducing a 16 year old's life sentence to 47 years for a crime that wasn't a homicide. Once this guy was paroled, he violated it. Then he continued to commit crimes and was released from jail continuously in Arkansas and Washington. One week ago, he bailed out while being held on a child rape charge.

Try and look beyond political parties when forming an opinion you will be taken more seriously.

How is this possibly the fault of Republicans?

Wrong question. Republicans and Democrats were involved. But for many years, it has been the Republicans accusing their opposition of being soft on crime to make political points.

Such accusations have now become rather empty as long as people remember Mr. Clemmons. The Willie Horton poster has now been superceded.

Executed you mean.

it's a good thing too.

thepaceisglacia: Good points. Huckabee did greant lienancy towards him, but he screwed it up when he got out. Now if Huck had granted a second lienency then it would be shame on him. But the entire system failed with this guy. He got a break, and I wouldn't call that a failure of the system, but then he screwed it up by continuing in his life of crime.

Funny how now many here and in other posts are making statements that Reps are soft on crime. These are the same ones who say Reps are "gun happy fanatics" when a horrible shooting occurs, and that all guns should be banned. Or how those who say Christians aer trying to force their beliefs on everyone are not saying anything when this guy used compassion shown to him to commit more crimes.

I hope everyone steps awary from the party lines and see this as just a tragic case of a bad guy getting a break and screwing it up.

Funny how now many here and in other posts are making statements that Reps are soft on crime.

What's funny is how you can't seem to get the most basic facts straight.

Nobody is saying the Republicans are generally soft on crime. We are saying that when the Republicans point an accusing finger at Democrats, they are living in glass houses.

I hope everyone steps awary from the party lines and see this as just a tragic case of a bad guy getting a break and screwing it up.

Oh, that would certainly be convenient for Republicans, wouldn't it? If a major name in the Republican/media circles had not been so intimately involved with this, and the governors involved had only been Democrats, would we see conservatives "stepping away from party lines?" Not on your life.

Bah.....this isn't a political issue, it's a murdering scumbag issue.

Tax-payer money saved. Give the coppers a bonus.

A lot of questions here! I hope we learn from this mess.

yabits, my point was that many on here is that if Huckabee had been a (D) the right would be making the same arguments. What I see on this board is that many who all ways scream "guns are bad, and all the (R)' want to do is cling to their guns" seem to fall silent on this case, instead they chose to blame the (R) governor who reduced his crime.

This is not about politics, it is about a dirtbag who got what was coming to him by the police. I hope those who helped him out get charged with aiding and abetting this guy.

yabits, my point was that many on here is that if Huckabee had been a (D) the right would be making the same arguments.

If you actually believe that, it is clear that you haven't read the vast majority of posts with understanding. Had only Democratic governors been involved and not someone so up-and-front of everyone as Huckabee is on Fox News, this forum would be a free for all against Democrats.

For example, you must not have read all the posts on how "liberal political correctness" was to blame for the shootings at Fort Hood.

This is not about politics...

Oh, yes it is. Decisions were made to keep this guy on the streets, despite clear signs that he shouldn't have been. What do you think politics is if not deciding which dirtbags get turned loose? We've got a prison population of millions -- over 7 million if you count those on parole or on probation. Just about anything related to the use of drugs that affects that population is politics. Pure and simple.

If the notion that Clemmons was "executed" infers that justice was served, I agree. If it alleges wrongdoing by the police, I take acception. Clemmons was a cop killer who had no reason to stop. He had a dead officers gun with him, and was a threat to anyone in his path. Now that this scumbag is dead, the police can go after all his family and friends who aided his escape. It wouldn't bother me one bit if they suffered the same fate as Clemmons.

-couldn't happen to a better guy.

Hope to see his relatives in prison soon.

Clemmons was carrying a gun matching the serial number that was missing from one of the slain police officers. The lone patrol officer who sighted Clemmons had probable cause when Clemmons did not raise his hands up and instead reached for his waist.

-another reason that felons shouldn't be allowed to have guns, but the gun-toting Libs will never allow it.

The guns are good team that normally post here seem to be away on holiday. I thought their logic was that if people are allowed to have guns ready to hand (legally) then they could act to stop crimes. Strange then that four police officers all presumably with guns (and trained to use them) fail to protect themselves. What use then allowing untrained civilians to carry guns?

Killer killed by police, is anybody surprised?

cptmendoza, the police were drinking coffee, writing reports on laptops when ambushed. Hard to protect oneself when you don't see it coming.

Killer killed by police? Well, I imagine if Clemmons had raised his hands as directed, instead of defying orders and walking toward the officer with a gun, then fleeing, he might be alive. His choice. This officer killed no one. He protected himself and ridded us of a monster.

So, you recently killed FOUR police officers. A FIFTH police officer has just told you to "stop" or some other verbiage... Sorry folks, you don't do exactly what you are told in this situation that makes you an imminent threat to the safety of that fifth officer.

Justified, no question about it. And no debate either.

If you actually believe that, it is clear that you haven't read the vast majority of posts with understanding. Had only Democratic governors been involved and not someone so up-and-front of everyone as Huckabee is on Fox News, this forum would be a free for all against Democrats.

yabits, when Bill Clinton first ran for President in 1992, he made time to come back home to AR (where I am from) and did not offer a stay of execution to a Black man that was found to be a bit "retarded" in order to harden his image on crime. True the guy did kill a white nurse back in the early 80's, but instead of a stay of execution and life without parole, Clinton chose to let the execution happen. That quieted his detractors on his crime stance.

So if it is about politics, then you should step back and realize that no matter what party the Gov. was, both sides would be making their talking points.

My point was this, Huckabee let him out, after he had been in jail for 11 years on a 95 yr sentence since he was 16 for aggrevated robbery. That is a hard sentence, when you can see that some murderers get less than that. He got a commutation, which did not clear his record, but offered him a chance for parole. But, he blew it. I fault the state officals in AR who let him out after his second stint in jail from 2001-2004 (again in for robbery).

Many on here post what good is the penal system if there is not a chance for redemption for people. Well, this guy was given a chance by a (R) (the same ones that are for tough on crime measures) because he thought he had changed his ways based on the reports of the judge who sentenced him and others. He screwed it up, and should have not been allowed out the second time.

What about the judges in WA that let him out on merely a $150,000 bond for raping a 12 year old? They have just as much to be blamed in this too.

Good on the officer that took him out. Weather threatened or not who's to say that this scum wouldn't have been let out again to repeat such a crime. Better to make sure your family is safe than take the chance it comes back to bite you in the butt.

Executed you mean.

and deservedly so

Well now we probably won't find out exactly why he did it. But some people will float theories and swear up and down its the truth. Of course he had no acceptable motive, but I think there was more to it than "he was just nuts and got the idea from nowhere".

Also, his death makes it much harder to establish who helped him while knowing what he did or was forced to help him for fear of their lives. Statements like the following don't help: “Some are friends, some are acquaintances, some are partners in crime, some are relatives. Now they’re all partners in crime.”

"All" Ed? Might want to exercise the principal of innocent until proven guilty there Mr. Spokesman.

Too bad he died like this, but the officer does not seem to have been left with a choice.

What's this allegation about execution? A dangerous criminal was resisting arrest. This was a cop killer, not just your average pickpocket or hash dealer. By trying to escape he invited to be shot. Too bad for him it was fatal.

I don’t really care if the man was trying to surrender when he was shot; he killed four people for no other reason than the fact that they were police. For me the fact that they were police officers makes no difference, they still had a right to life equal to anybody else. The danger lies in the mind set of the officer that killed him, yes I agree that he did the right thing, but what if extra judicial killing becomes the accepted norm? There’s a grey area here that we might all have to think very carefully about. Today we might agree with this way of doing things, tomorrow it might be somebody we care about that has been removed to save tax payers the cost. Let’s be careful what we wish for.

" but what if extra judicial killing becomes the accepted norm?"

I think when you murder even just one police officer this is the norm.

And rightly so. Good riddance. At least tax-payers won't be footing a court battle as this scumbag's actions get blamed on society.