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3 of 4 Fallen Lakewood Heroes Families Sue Pierce County
After all you did for them.
posted Apr 20, 2010
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Let's take a moment to remember the tragedy that befell these nice looking Lakewood peace officers. This blog post by wildcelticrose sticks out in my mind... and of course nobody can forget the huge outpouring of support from around the region converging at the Tacoma Dome funerals. I suppose witnessing this omnipresent community support only amplifies the outrage in some folks hearts when it came to light that the families of 3 of the fallen officers were suing Pierce County for like a total of $182 million dollars. I read they dropped the dollar amount though after a strong public backlash. Well most of them at any rate. They say they're suing because they want change. They want more people to monitor prisoner phone calls and stuff... but my thought is, If they win millions of dollars from the already broke-ass Pierce County, won't that leave less money around for law enforcement agencies to take care of business? I dunno. I'm going to need to draw a few happy Tacomics after these last few weeks though. later.
Comments [37]
 by marumaruyopparai on 4/20/2010 @ 1:16am | Yikes. |
 by fredo on 4/20/2010 @ 1:26am | Kind of funny but I don't see how the tea party infiltrators are involved in the lawsuit filed by the lakewood families. |
 by NineInchNachos on 4/20/2010 @ 1:30am | @fredo, they represent the TNT conservative commenters who hate the families for suing while they (the TEA party anarchists) advocate for less government/taxes to fund cops and keep criminally insane child rapists off the streets. |
by marumaruyopparai on 4/20/2010 @ 3:10am | I've kind of gotten the idea in my head that the Tea Party members aren't necessarily against taxes per se, but instead are against the manner in which their tax dollars are being allocated by the new democratic administration.
Maybe if Obama had announced upon being elected president that he was going to raise taxes to fund an all out assault on the entire middle east in an effort to permanently eradicate terrorism we would have seen more acquiescence from conservative would be TEA Party members. But one whiff of socialized medicine and woo hoo, watch out. |
 by KevinFreitas on 4/20/2010 @ 7:29am | Love the look of those activists RR! They're very Far Side/Gary Larson-esque. |
 by Jesse on 4/20/2010 @ 8:01am | I thought the lawsuit was dropped? No? |
by NineInchNachos on 4/20/2010 @ 8:05am | man so many typos. must fix... |
 by NSHDscott on 4/20/2010 @ 8:29am | I thought the lawsuit was dropped, too.
I try to see things both ways and to emphasize with the victims' survivors and their need to be taken care of and their desire to try to prevent future tragedy. But I just get ticked off with giant lawsuits like these. It's like they are trying to punish the people who screwed up (if there were even screwups) but those people are funded by taxpayers who had nothing to do with the tragedy, and we're the ones who end up unfairly punished. |
by NineInchNachos on 4/20/2010 @ 8:48am | at this time I think most of the lawsuits have been dropped. but I could be wrong. |
 by jenyum on 4/20/2010 @ 10:21am | Actually Office Tina Griswold was herself a Tea Party activist.
seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews... |
 by captiveyak on 4/20/2010 @ 12:53pm | My college schooling was largely paid for by funds resulting from a lawsuit against the state for a faulty traffic signal. I believe we ended up with maybe about $100,000 by the time the trust had matured, and it was split between myself and my three siblings. I can understand a desire to sue in order to force procedural changes and to provide for damanges. But no matter how wronged one may have been by malfeasance or collision of circumstance, we each must count our cost to civil society and weigh it with sober modesty. I don't know the specifics of this suit, but the amount seems far from sober. |
by NineInchNachos on 4/20/2010 @ 1:05pm | These families lost loved ones and they're supposed to be grateful for a pile of flowers and plastic flags. People all gave to the college fund and that is supposed to make them contented. Maybe they should sue. I dunno. |
 by Crenshaw Sepulveda on 4/20/2010 @ 1:45pm | I heard today that more police are killed in traffic accidents than are shot dead with guns. |
by marumaruyopparai on 4/20/2010 @ 2:04pm | If they were suing for reform then the sum of money they were seeking would have been in direct conflict with their objective just like you pointed out RR. A smaller sum of money would have made the same point without the threat of bankrupting your county. There's a difference between making a point and seeking revenge. This may well have eroded public interest in their cause by overshadowing the issue they sought to draw attention to in their pursuit of a flagrantly large sum of money. Yeah, they should be really pissed off but that doesn't mean it's okay to punish the entire community. I'm certain there was genuine sentiment behind every one of those flowers and plastic flags. Damn straight they should be grateful for those flowers and plastic flags, those were tokens of remorse from a supportive grieving community. That doesn't mean they shouldn't still be white hot with rage over what happened. They could have used this lawsuit as a soapbox for their message and instead made it all about damages and money. We need reform of the justice system in this country. Yes, not having enough money to keep the people that should be locked away where they belong is a huge problem, but so is squandering what little resources we do have on flagrant incarceration. Our justice system seems to have a long history of failing to adequately discriminate between apparently low risk non-violent offenders and those violent offenders who pose the greatest risk to society when it comes to incarceration. We live in a free country where people can still receive jail time for being caught with dope and child rapists and killers still get released into the streets because our penal system apparently lacks the resources to provide for their incarceration. I would hope that regardless of one's attitudes toward recreational drug use that anyone can see what a huge problem this is. The lawsuit was a huge load of horse shit and anyone can see that. It seems like the quest for revenge has blinded the victims of the risk their flagrant demands posed to the community they would seek reform to protect. |
 by Altered Chords on 4/20/2010 @ 2:10pm | "Free the potheads. Lock up the rapists and killers forever."
-Altered Chords Criminal Justics spokesman and consultant at large. |
by marumaruyopparai on 4/20/2010 @ 2:15pm | Also, if you throw out the lawsuit and look at the actual concerns of the grieving families, they aren't asking much. I doubt it would cost the county much to do a better job monitoring telephone and written communications of incarcerated persons. |
by NineInchNachos on 4/20/2010 @ 2:21pm | revenge would be consistent with the TEA party trope, one could imagine. |
by marumaruyopparai on 4/20/2010 @ 2:32pm | Tea Party peoples seem more like spoiled rotten brats (wah wah I don't wanna pay my taxes) then seekers of revenge. They're like schoolyard bullies trying to throw what little weight they have around because public opinion hasn't swayed in their favor so they feel the need to coerce people into seeing things their way. Just bullies. And yeah Fredo, I know the health bill isn't as popular as it could be, but I'm referring to Obama getting elected in the first place. Healthcare reform is no shock, we knew what we were voting for. Protesting outside our Nation's capitol and waving their guns around. I remain unimpressed. |
by marumaruyopparai on 4/20/2010 @ 2:42pm | @RR
My link seems consistent with your assertions of aspirations of revenge. I guess you have a point. |
by captiveyak on 4/20/2010 @ 2:42pm | i think the AMOUNT of the suit is horseshit. To tell the bereaved that no one can be held responsible for the unthinkable, while pragmatic, has never worked well for governments - especially in criminal cases. The suit itself is a concept that I support. But I support it with certain reservations. It's crass to monetarily penalize public institutions full of generally upstanding and hardworking citizens -- especially when those lost were public servants themselves. To bring the current budget situation into the argument is equally crass, though; as if the crime picked its timing poorly. It's just an uncomfortable position to be put in as a tax-payer. There is empathy, but there is also concern that services are being weakened in the name of principle. |
by marumaruyopparai on 4/20/2010 @ 2:53pm | The amount of money demanded in the lawsuit would be horse shit regardless of the budget situation of the county. Crass? I'm not so sure. The county will need to money to subsidize the changes required to prevent incidents such as this in the future. That is a fact. |
by captiveyak on 4/20/2010 @ 3:10pm | You may be right, but as I said, no one can tell those people to be more "reasonable" and not incur a huge PR problem. Maybe Ronald Reagan, Jesus, or Neil Diamond could pull it off. My point is that the amount is the key infraction. I would have shrugged off a couple million without much of a thought. But knowing this is certainly not the first or last incident in which some kind of renumeration is sought from the County after a tragedy... kind of gives you pause. The economic climate should not be the only thing that makes this one different. I don't know.
I'm sure Heneppin County could have fixed a couple of traffic signals with the money I ended up spending in school. I understand there's a tradeoff (heck, I ended up dropping out). But the precedent is there for a reason. Not to mention the endless sticky emotional argument that comes with the territory. |
by NineInchNachos on 4/20/2010 @ 3:33pm | thanks for your comments everybody. Lots of interesting considerations raised. Will help me be a better cartoonist. |
by captiveyak on 4/20/2010 @ 3:39pm | RR -- I thought it was a great cartoon because the point was to inspire thought and not impose a ready-made viewpoint. Nicely done. |
by NineInchNachos on 4/20/2010 @ 3:49pm | the Tacomic strip prides itself on a high tolerance for ambiguity. |
by captiveyak on 4/20/2010 @ 3:52pm | i like saying "ambiguity" because if you put an "i" in front of it and break it down, you're saying "I am big. You itty." Just an observation. |
by Crenshaw Sepulveda on 4/20/2010 @ 3:56pm | Maybe we didn't give them quite enough flowers, candles, and stuffed animals. People, it takes a lot of stuffed animals to keep people from filing a lawsuit. |
by NineInchNachos on 4/20/2010 @ 4:28pm | 
www.flickr.com/photos/shutterbug-megan/4... |
 by Thorax O'Tool on 4/20/2010 @ 10:03pm | yet no one gets to the root of the issue: letting people from the South into Washington. |
by fredo on 4/20/2010 @ 10:25pm | People in jobs like law enforcement should carry life insurance as a precaution to provide for their families should their lives be taken prematurely. Being involved in an altercation which results in the loss of life is entirely foreseeable. One might say it goes with the territory. If you want a job that doesn't involve working with criminals and placing yourself in harms way, maybe law enforcement is not the career for you. Their families know this and have accepted the risk.
The motivation for the law suit (ostensibly) was the desire for jailhouse employees to do a better job listening to inmates phone conversations. I'm pretty sure there is an undercurrent of revenge lacing all inmate conversations. And what if the inmates are speaking in Spanish or Farsi? Will we need to hire interpreters? What if they are using ASL or gang signs to signal a law enforcement payback? What if an inmate gives a guard a menacing look with a hairy eyeball? Short of employing RRs home lobotomy kit on these morons there really isn't much we can do about all this jailhouse bravado. |
by NineInchNachos on 6/28/2011 @ 12:08am | update! www.thenewstribune.com/2011/06/27/172350...
|
by NineInchNachos on 2/8/2012 @ 1:18pm | uh oh. tacomanewsvolcanotribuneweeklyreporterin... never put a man named 'skeeter' in charge of money I say. www.lpig.us/?zone=/unionactive/view_page... |
by NineInchNachos on 2/8/2012 @ 1:22pm | TNT on the case! www.thenewstribune.com/2012/02/08/201776... |
by fredo on 2/8/2012 @ 1:27pm | " Do we have any volunteers who are willing to take possession of hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash?"
"OH, I see Skeeter has raised his hand" "bless you sir for helping the widows and orphans" |
by NineInchNachos on 2/8/2012 @ 1:29pm | fella could have a pretty good time in vegas with all that orphan $$ |
by NineInchNachos on 2/8/2012 @ 1:31pm | Komo has a pic tacoma.komonews.com/news/crime/717730-ch... |
 by The Jinxmedic on 2/8/2012 @ 1:43pm | ++ on the Slim Pickens semi-quote. |
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