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It's been an interesting 48 hours or so here in Western Washington -- in the sense of the Chinese curse, "May you live in interesting times."
Sunday morning, a man walked into a coffee shop in Parkland, WA just south of Tacoma and shot and killed four Lakewood Police officers. After a two day manhunt the man, identified as Maurice Clemmons, was shot dead in Seattle by an officer of the Seattle Police Department.
From the first reports of the killings on Sunday I suspected the shooter would never stand trial. Killers of police officers have a way of turning up dead. It would be interesting to see if there are any statistics as to the percentage of cases of murder of police officers that are resolved at trial rather than by the death of the suspect.
And the comments on the news sites run very heavily to the opinion that this is exactly the course of action that should be taken in these cases, and that friends and family should be allowed no leniency when it comes to aiding and abetting charges. I think it has yet to be established which family members knew what he'd done and assisted him anyway, and which were simply unfortunate enough to find him on their doorstep in his quest for sanctuary that he would never obtain.
Taken as a whole, this sentiment is all about vengeance, and justice has nothing to do with it. But you know what? Vengeance still serves a purpose in human society, and you are not going to eliminate it by any amount of legal process or pious pronouncements, even if the majority happen to worship a God who reserves vengeance to himself (Romans 12:19).
In the end, Maurice Clemmons probably got exactly what he deserved. But we will never know why he did what he did, and that is the basic problem whenever vengeance takes the place of justice.
Sunday morning, a man walked into a coffee shop in Parkland, WA just south of Tacoma and shot and killed four Lakewood Police officers. After a two day manhunt the man, identified as Maurice Clemmons, was shot dead in Seattle by an officer of the Seattle Police Department.
From the first reports of the killings on Sunday I suspected the shooter would never stand trial. Killers of police officers have a way of turning up dead. It would be interesting to see if there are any statistics as to the percentage of cases of murder of police officers that are resolved at trial rather than by the death of the suspect.
And the comments on the news sites run very heavily to the opinion that this is exactly the course of action that should be taken in these cases, and that friends and family should be allowed no leniency when it comes to aiding and abetting charges. I think it has yet to be established which family members knew what he'd done and assisted him anyway, and which were simply unfortunate enough to find him on their doorstep in his quest for sanctuary that he would never obtain.
Taken as a whole, this sentiment is all about vengeance, and justice has nothing to do with it. But you know what? Vengeance still serves a purpose in human society, and you are not going to eliminate it by any amount of legal process or pious pronouncements, even if the majority happen to worship a God who reserves vengeance to himself (Romans 12:19).
In the end, Maurice Clemmons probably got exactly what he deserved. But we will never know why he did what he did, and that is the basic problem whenever vengeance takes the place of justice.
