Seattle Blogs: Maurice Clemmons' Dead Body

• Anyone who defends this scum can eat shit and die, especially if you are a typical naive clueless Seattle white liberal progressive, and you waste any time defending or feeling sympathy for this monster or any of his criminal associates, then I hope you get violently attacked by the very black criminals that you love to coddle and make excuses for.

• http://tinyurl.com/no5knk From the article "List of 2008 homicides in Seattle" from the Seattle PI selected from the list of the 28 Seattle homicides in 2008.... Allen Joplin, Jan. 4 -- black killed by black De'Che Morrison, Jan. 10 -- black killed by black Maurice "Moe" Allen Jr., Jan. 26 -- black killed by black Degene Barecha, Jan. 30 -- black killed by black Perry Henderson, Feb. 6 -- black killed by black Stephan Dwaine Stewart, April 2 -- black killed by black Eldora Earlycutt, July 4 -- black killed by black James Paroline, July 10 -- white killed by black Troy Peters, July 22 -- black killed by black Pierre Lapoint, Aug. 5 -- black killed by black Jane Kariuki, Oct. 16 -- woman of unknown race killed by black man named Christel D. Murphy Quincy S. Coleman, Oct. 31 -- black killed by black Edward McMichael, the "Tuba Man", Nov. 3 -- white killed by multiple blacks Nathaniel Lee Thomas, Nov. 23 -- black killed by black So by my count blacks (8% of Seattle) were the killers in at least half (that's at least 50%) of the murders in the Seattle area in 2008. At least five of the other murderers were latinos. The numbers are actually worse for 2009 and approach the 85% mark.

• all killers and child molesters should be marched into a field and put to death by a firing squad made of a willing local citizens. this will deter crime and get the other sick criminals to curb their "sick intentions".

• sorry editor, this comment was for johnny.i did not see that it was a posted comment.

• so are you suggesting clemmons didn't possible do it. so you mean to tell me police somehow found a name on a piece of paper and decided that that's the man they will hunt. so sound ridiculous and should step down from writing this blog. it's liberals like you as to why they country is failing in today's society. you ever see the appeals criminal's put out? they always whinne that the cops harassed them and that why they got caught with "200 lbs of marijuana". i guess you will change you view one day if you are a victim of a violent crime or perhaps become a police officer and see if you have the guts when a guy like clemmons is comming at you refusing to stop and you personally know he is supected of killing 4 officers? i wonder what would have you done? i guess by looking at your bog you probably would tried to talk to clemmons in a "civilized way" and it would have been you last words.The fact is police fight criminals while every day people are sleeping peacefully at home, sue there will always be a few bad apples are there are in any sector, private job, goverments and other jobs.

• Last weekend�s execution-style shooting of four police officers in a coffee shop in Lakewood, WA has captured headlines across the country. On its own the worst attack on law enforcement in state history, this incident comes just a month after Seattle police officer Timothy Brenton was shot while in a parked patrol car on October 31. This in turn followed the firebombing of four patrol cars on October 22. For public officials and the mainstream media these events only reinforce the image of heroic law enforcement, risking their lives in the line of duty�and, tragically, justify more violence through increased tough-on-crime policies. "I am shocked and horrified at the murder of four police officers this morning in Pierce County,� said Gov. Christine Gregoire, �Our police put their lives on the line every day, and tragedies like this remind us of the risks they continually take to keep our communities safe.� King County sheriff's spokesman Sgt. John Urquhart called the five officer slayings "an assault on society�We stand between guys like this and the rest of society," he said. "When we are attacked like this, like Timothy Brenton was and these four law-enforcement officers were, this is an attack on everybody." However a closer look at the context paints a much different picture of our �heroes� in blue. First of all, the reason there is such an uproar surrounding these attacks is because they are so rare as to be nearly unprecedented. Contrary to common wisdom, you are at a much lower risk as a police officer than you are on the receiving end of the law. Police have never made the list of the top ten most dangerous jobs, making the profession much safer than being, say, a farmer or a taxi driver, to name a few on the list. Deaths of people in these professions rarely make the news. Nor are violent criminals the main threat. A 2007 study pointed out that more than half of all police deaths were car accidents. By one author�s calculations, �Take out traffic accidents and other non-violent deaths, and you�re left with 69 officers killed on the job by criminals last year. That�s out of about 850,000 officers nationwide.� The last officer killed in the line of duty in Seattle was Joselito "Lito" Barber whose patrol car was hit by an SUV in 2006. However, the last shooting death was as far back as 1994. Even this case was in the context of an arrest, rather than an unprovoked execution. While it is hard to make a solid comparison because records of those killed by police are notoriously unreliable, according to a 2007 report by the Bureau of Justice Statistics, from 2003 through 2005 at least 2,002 people died during their arrests by state and local law enforcement officers. The number of arrest-related deaths increased 13 percent over the course of the three years studied. Reports of police killing or seriously injuring people in this city just in the last year are too numerous to relate. I reported earlier on the brutal beating of Malika Calhoun at the King County Sheriff's Department. The trial of the officer involved has now been put on hold following Officer Brenton�s shooting. Equally disturbing is this video of a young man who was thrown head-first against a wall so hard he was put into a coma and remains permanently brain damaged as a result. The victim, Christopher Harris, had nothing to do with the crime police were investigating. He just saw cops running toward him and ran. No 24-hour-news coverage, public memorials or charities were created in honor of Harris or the other victims of police violence. Not that this in any way justifies the shooting of police officers, but it does raise the question of why some lives seem to count more than others. It also helps to explain why some people have come to feel that the phrase �serve and protect� does not apply to them. Police response to the two shooting incidents raises further questions about their commitment to justice, as opposed to simple revenge. As with the shooting of officer Brenton, the hunt for a suspect in the Lakewood shootings was on immediately. Casting an alarmingly broad net, citizens were initially urged to be on the lookout for a �a black man in his 20s or 30s, between 5-feet-7 inches and 5-feet-10-inches� wearing a black coat and blue jeans. Soon thereafter police focused their energies on apprehending suspect Maurice Clemmons, 37, who they believe was wounded by one of the officers in the attack. On Sunday night police surrounded a house in Seattle�s Leschi neighborhood where Clemmons was believed to be hiding, and spent hours trying to drive him out �using loudspeakers, explosions and even a robot sent into the house.� However, when they finally entered the home, nobody was there. Police then turned to the surrounding neighborhood. This part was not covered by the mainstream media, but according to one resident of a communal house next door, they were ordered to evacuate their home. Afterwards police proceeded to flood it with teargas�making it impossible to reenter due to toxic fumes. From there the manhunt expanded, with hundreds responding to the $125,000 offer for information on Clemmons whereabouts, leaving police chasing after trails of blood all over the city. On early Tuesday morning an officer came upon Clemmons in a stolen car in south Seattle. The Seattle police reported that as the officer drew his gun, the suspect �reached into his waist area and moved.� The report said, �The officer fired several times striking the suspect at least twice.� Mr. Clemmons went down near some bushes, and was taken into custody. When medics from the Seattle Fire Department arrived, they pronounced him dead at the scene. While his death may make it a moot point, details connecting Clemmons to the case remain hazy. Apparently blood was found in an abandoned pickup truck which belonged to Clemmons. And Sheriff's spokesman Ed Troyer told the Tacoma News-Tribune that Clemmons indicated the night before the shooting "that he was going to shoot police and watch the news." Police claim to have multiple people in custody who helped him after the attacks, and are still searching for other suspected accomplices. What evidence is presented or charges leveled against these individuals remains to be seen. Despite a psychological evaluation in October that suggests he should have been committed to a mental institution, Clemmons has been heralded as a poster boy for stiffer sentencing. "This guy should have never been on the street," said Brian D. Wurts, president of the police union in Lakewood. "Our elected officials need to find out why these people are out." In particular Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee has drawn fire for commuting his sentence years earlier due to his age. Clemmons had received a 95 year sentence for armed robbery he committed at age 17. He has been in and out of prison since that time. Clemmons was charged in Washington state earlier this year with assaulting a police officer and raping a child, and investigators in the sex case said he was motivated by visions that he was Jesus Christ and that the world was on the verge of the apocalypse. But he was released from jail after posting bail. In an Oct. 19 evaluation report, psychologists Melissa Dannelet and Carl Redick wrote, "Based on Mr. Clemmons' documented criminal history, information obtained through interviews and treatment and a review of risk factors, it is our professional opinion that he presents with increased risk for future dangerous behavior and for committing future criminal acts jeopardizing public safety and security due to past illicit behaviors." Those risk factors included "previous violence, young age at first violent incident, relationship instability and prior supervision failure," Dannelet and Redick wrote. However, they said they had "insufficient grounds" to recommend that Clemmons be civilly committed. He appeared to be suffering from no mental disease when they interviewed him for 75 minutes on Oct. 14 in jail. One has to wonder if this has anything to do with the proposed $310 million in cuts to state hospitals in the next two years. According to the Washington State Hospitals Association, plans to close two wards in state hospitals will have a worsening impact on the already insufficient number of mental health beds for involuntarily detained patients. An additional $12.9 million in cuts would include eliminate funding for community support services for individuals discharged from state hospitals. As a man with a violent past who is clearly in need of psychological help, it seems plausible that Clemmons did shoot the officers. However this raises unsettling questions about the suspect charged in officer Brenton�s shooting. So far officials have not linked the two incidents, except as a possible copy-cat. It seems there are only two possibilities: either there were more than one, unrelated individuals who had a vendetta against the police. Or they got the wrong guy last time. Needless to say the police are not eager to admit either one. Christopher Monfort, 41, who is charged with both Brenton�s shooting and the firebombings, is now paralyzed from the waist down after police shot him in a confrontation at his Tukwila apartment complex. Investigators were led there on a tip from a neighbor that Monfort�s car fit the description disseminated in a police bulletin. While the eyewitness could only make out that the car was light colored, the police believe the car in question was the same one caught on camera twice by patrol cars in the area at around the same time as the shooting: a white or light-beige 1980 to 1983 Datsun 210 coupe that might have rear-window louvers and a defective right taillight. Anyone who�s seen The Thin Blue Line should at least hesitate before accepting this assumption. Even Assistant Chief Jim Pugel cautioned at the time, "We're not saying this absolutely, that it is the vehicle." The police searched his home and reported that they discovered a cache of weapons, including a .223 caliber rifle which a ballistics test identified as the firearm used in Officer Brenton�s murder. In addition they found a considerable amount of bomb-making materials. The crowning piece of evidence connecting Monfort to both crimes is a DNA test which apparently links him to a flag bandana found at the scene of the arson and a flag at the shooting site. A cursory look at the history of cop-killer convictions will reveal that emotion and the rush to convict can sometimes get in the way of justice, to put it mildly. It is not unknown for police departments to fabricate or fudge the evidence, or lab results to be much less conclusive than reported. Add this to the fact that Monfort does not seem a likely candidate for the crime. His family members expressed �shock and disbelief� at his arrest. Longtime family friend Vicky Malone said she was mystified that Monfort could be considered a suspect. "I don't get this. People that run around and kill cops have tons and tons of other stuff in their record, and Chris had no gang stuff, I know that�You don't see people that commit real violent crimes that have never been caught for anything." She said Monfort was always worried about being targeted because of his race. "He was careful, he believed it was possible, so if he turned and ran that was easily what it was." Besides a couple traffic tickets, Montfort had no prior criminal record. To the contrary, at age 21 he had applied to be a police officer in California. More recently he studied criminal justice at Highline Community College, later transferring to the University of Washington to earn a degree in Law, Societies and Justice in 2008. He also worked as volunteer at the ACLU and at a juvenile detention center. According to former colleagues he was passionately concerned with racial disparities in the criminal justice system, especially following his experience mentoring juvenile offenders. One of his professors at Highline who became a mentor was Garry Wegner, who spent 20 years as the deputy director of the Washington State Criminal Justice Training Commission, the organization that trains many of the state's law enforcement officers. Wegner, who described Monfort as "a mature, stable individual," said he was shocked to hear that his former student is the suspect in Brenton's slaying. "You've shaken me to my toes," he told a Seattle Times reporter. "He's one of those people you thought would make a difference, a positive, constructive difference." Despite his political passions, no friends or acquaintances from his past believed that Monfort would resort to violence to get his views across. If whoever committed these crimes thought it would bring about some kind of justice in these matters they really were disturbed. Quite the opposite�they have brought about a renewed sympathy for the police when they need it least. Before the recent series of events, public safety remained the number one priority of the City of Seattle, despite crime rates being at a 40-year low. Even as schools, libraries, public health, food assistance and a host of other social services saw budget cuts, the number of cops on the streets continues to increase. Plans to build a new $200 jail are on hold but still on the table. Politicians will now be bolstered in their insistence in continuing down this path, and law enforcement has lost no time in ramping up harassment and profiling of communities of color. This is the absurd solution on offer in a state which plans out how many prison beds will be needed based on 3rd grade reading scores�and cuts school funding accordingly. This is a strategy that is bound to produce more young people condemned to a life of violence. The only way to end this downward spiral is a struggle to demand an end to police brutality and the poverty and racism on which it thrives.

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