4 Officers shot near Lakewood WA

[RabidPony]

I find this whole thread distressing on many levels. The tragedy is bad enough without our supposedly close knit group turning these officers' deaths into a forum to debate gun control, angrily in at least a few cases ("idiot"). I find it further frustrating that people who would probably define themselves as patriots are perfectly comfortable advocating, in effect, extra-judicial slayings of suspects, and the removal of legally established due process and the entire appeals system, a core part of our legal system, as well. There have been numerous numerous cases of people convicted of horrific, serious crimes, capital offenses, only to have later evidence prove them innocent. Further, eliminating any appeals process would massively encourage already rampant prosecutorial misconduct, since there would be no forum in which to find it. I like to count myself as a patriot too, and I am willing to bet that these officers were patriots as well, and I like to hope, perhaps naively, that some of them, as officers of the law, would want us to support the actual laws and constitution rather than the third world autocratic death squad state some of you seem to be arguing for.
/rant

I do support our legal system, however, I also realize that it is far from perfect. It is a very unfortunate fact that there are thousands of less than moral members of the legal community out there that have so twisted our legal system that it has come to the point where it sometime seems that the criminals are more protected and have more rights than a good, law abiding citizen. That, I feel, is a shame. I do not advocate death squads or any facsimile there of, I do, however, feel that it is unfair and unjust that someone who murders another person live out their life to it's natural end, incarcerated or not. I should not have to pay to support someone who is a bane to society with the taxes taken from my hard earned money. I can think of much better things to spend the money on. Better pay, training, and equipment for law enforcement for example.

I do mourn the loss of those officers and my sympathies go out to their families in their time of mourning. But that does not mean I will put aside my anger and frustration with the person that committed the heinous act. He did it, there were witnesses who identified him. There was no question as to his guilt. In my eyes, his death at the hands of that officer was justified and only served to save the taxpayers of that city and state the time, effort, and valuable taxpayer money that would have been expended on his trial and incarceration.

[Ldub]

RabidPony 4 PREZ!

[Osteomata]

RabidPony 4 PREZ!

Or in this case, Autocrat. Call me crazy but I withhold my endorsement of granting the government the power to summary execution. I find it disconcerting when people in one breath complain about the government's use of their taxes, and in the next grant the the most extraordinary power.

[Osteomata]

No, you absolutely do not support our legal system. You support an imagined caricatur of it more suited for a dceveloping world or an authoritarian state. The existance of less than moral people has little to do with providing a very careful process before we allow the state to kill them. Your sense of victimhood is palpable, and overblown. This system, which you so decry for supposedly providing more rights to criminals than you, has now resulted in a country with the highest percentage of our population in jail in the world. Higher than the Soviet gulag period even. There are lots and lots of things that I don't want to pay taxes to support, legal due process is not one I begrudge the government paying for.

You so easily conflate anger at the person who did this crime with justification for removing core principles of our legal system. Fine, but recognize it as an emotional response to tragedy, not a reasonable policy proposal. And I agree, his death at the hands of the officers was justified: he shot, the returned fire, he was wounded and died. Justified. How in the world is this relevant to the belief that we should remove due process for death penalty cases?

I do support our legal system, however, I also realize that it is far from perfect. It is a very unfortunate fact that there are thousands of less than moral members of the legal community out there that have so twisted our legal system that it has come to the point where it sometime seems that the criminals are more protected and have more rights than a good, law abiding citizen. That, I feel, is a shame. I do not advocate death squads or any facsimile there of, I do, however, feel that it is unfair and unjust that someone who murders another person live out their life to it's natural end, incarcerated or not. I should not have to pay to support someone who is a bane to society with the taxes taken from my hard earned money. I can think of much better things to spend the money on. Better pay, training, and equipment for law enforcement for example.

I do mourn the loss of those officers and my sympathies go out to their families in their time of mourning. But that does not mean I will put aside my anger and frustration with the person that committed the heinous act. He did it, there were witnesses who identified him. There was no question as to his guilt. In my eyes, his death at the hands of that officer was justified and only served to save the taxpayers of that city and state the time, effort, and valuable taxpayer money that would have been expended on his trial and incarceration.