The Lakewood Hit: Drama in Blogtime

A Drama in Blogtime: The Lakewood “Hit”

Starting Sunday morning, a hyperlink recap of The Stranger‘s coverage (via Slog) of the assassination of four police officers in Lakewood, Washington:

• Anthony Hecht, “Breaking: 4 Police Officers Shot and Killed Near McChord AFB” (Nov. 29, 10.25 AM)
• Dominic Holden, “More Details on the Four Officers Killed This Morning” (11.13 AM)
• Dan Savage, “Seattle Times Has Details on Suspect ….” (8.25 PM)
• Anthony Hecht, “Police Surround Leschi Home in Connection With Lakewood Police Killings” (10.13 PM)
• Eli Sanders, “Locked Down in Leschi” (Nov. 30, 12.11 AM)
• Dominic Holden, “Bloody Gauze and an Abandoned Building at Dearborn and Maynard Streets” (12.04 PM)
• Dominic Holden, “Map of the Manhunt” (12.08 PM)
• Jen Graves, “The Curse of Tacoma: A Timeline of Hurt ….” (12.20 PM)
• Dominic Holden, “Police Searching for Green 1997 Mazda” (12.38 PM)
• Dominic Holden, “A Blood Trail at Cowen Park” (12.43 PM)
• Dan Savage, “Scruffy While Black” (1.02 PM)
• Dominic Holden, “Maurice Clemmons on Twitter: Is This Real?” (1.03 PM)
• Dominic Holden, “CPS Substantiated Child Sexual Abuse Complaint Against Clemmons in October” (1.35 PM)
• Dominic Holden, “Calm Down, People—Leave the Body Armor at Home” (1.50 PM)
• Dominic Holden, “In Twitter-Related Manhunt News” (2.21 PM)
• Eli Sanders, “Maurice Clemmons Wanted to Plead Insanity—Even After Western State Found Him ‘Competent’” (2.23 PM)
• Dominic Holden, “Brenton Family Calls Cop Killer a ‘Monster’” (2.50 PM)
• Dominic Holden, “Police Setting Up ‘Containment’ at 13th and Lander” (3.24 PM)
• Dan Savage, “While We’re All On The Lookout For Black Guys With Moles …” (3.27 PM)
• Dominic Holden, “Mike Huckabee Primarily to Blame” (4.10 PM)
• Dominic Holden, “Clemmons’s Business License” (4.32 PM)
• Dominic Holden, “SWAT Team Surrounds House in Renton” (5.31 PM)
• Dan Savage, “Weird” (5.50 PM)
• Dominic Holden, “Family May Be Trying to Help Suspect Avoid Capture” (5.54 PM)
• Eli Sanders, “About That Maurice Clemmons Twitter Feed ….” (5.55 PM)
• Dominic Holden, “FOX News Lets Huckabee Off the Hook for Releasing Clemmons” (6.24 PM)
• Dominic Holden, “SWAT Team in Renton Arrests Suspect’s Relative” (6.50 PM)
• Eli Sanders, “O’Reilly’s Dishonesty” (6.55 PM)
• Dominic Holden, “Clemmons not in Renton House” (7.45 PM)
• Dominic Holden, “I feel sorry for every husky black male with a mole on his face” (11.16 PM)
• Dominic Holden, “Police Round Up Suspect’s Relatives” (11.25 PM)
• Dominic Holden, “Maurice Clemmons Killed by Police” (Dec. 1, 3.45 AM)
• Dominic Holden, “Police Briefing: How a Cop Killed Clemmons” (6.20 AM)
• Dan Savage, “Makes You Wonder How Many More Pardon Eruptions Huckabee Is Going To Have” (7.56 AM)
• David Schmader, “The Morning News” (8.08 AM)
• Dan Savage, “Misreading a Headline” (8.41 AM)

There are, of course, more stories to come, but this appears to be the drama from Sunday morning to the present.

The dead:

• Officer Greg Richards: 42, married, father of three.
• Officer Tina Griswold: 40, married, mother of two.
• Officer Ronald Owens: 37, single father of one.
• Sergeant Mark Renninger: 39, married, father of three.

The Lakewood Police Department is all of five years old. According to various news reports, at the time of the shooting, 95% of its original hired force was still intact. As the city of Lakewood, its police department, and the families and friends of the slain come to terms with the fact and magnitude of what has just happened, the region nervously wonders if maybe we aren’t seeing the emergence of a new trend in twenty-first century anti-government paranoia. The Lakewood hit is the second targeted killing of police officers in the Puget Sound region in a month. Officer Timothy Brenton, 39, married with two children, was gunned down on Halloween at 29th and Yesler in Seattle.

In youth, I might have said of an incident like this that when the “revolution”, such as it might be, finally got bloody, I would expect a better reason. There would be nothing about these murders to celebrate. And while I would like to pretend some manner of nobility about my sentiments these days, there really isn’t anything of the sort going on. Rather, age brings a certain cynicism, and perhaps fatherhood brings a certain hope. The revolution I hope for isn’t supposed to be bloody. There is nothing about any murder to be celebrated. These were not rogue cops killed in the line of corruption, but rather police officers assassinated for no decent reason. The region mourns, and struggles to come to terms with a bloody, awful month.