To serve and to protect

From Pro Libertate comes some bad news from Eastern Washington:

Their Right to Kill, Our Duty To Die: The Murder of Otto Zehm
Otto Zehm, a mentally handicapped, 36-year-old unemployed janitor, was beaten to death in a Spokane convenience store in March 2006.

"All I wanted was a Snickers bar," pleaded the battered and bloody man before he was gagged by his assailant.

On November 4, Karl Thompson, the man convicted of killing Zehm, was taken to jail. Several dozen members of Thompson�s gang were gathered outside the courtroom � most of them proudly wearing the colors � to �show their honor� by offering the murderer a public salute. Thompson � whose hands weren�t cuffed, in violation of long-established rules � smiled and returned the gesture. Zehm�s still-grieving mother and several other relatives stood just a few feet away.

The gang in question is the Spokane Police Department, which even now refuses to acknowledge that Thompson � who was a nominee to become Chief at the time he murdered Zehm � ever did anything wrong when he clubbed, tased, and suffocated a terrified, innocent man who did nothing to provoke the attack, and who put up no violent resistance to the assault.

Zehm had done custodial work at Fairchild Air Force Base and was well-known, and equally well-liked, by many people in his neighborhood, some of whom were aware that he had been diagnosed with schizophrenia. He was in the daily habit of visiting a convenience store called Zip Trip to purchase junk food � usually Pepsi and a candy bar.

On March 18, 2006, Zehm retrieved some money at an ATM near Zip Trip. Something in his behavior struck two girls as odd, so they called the police. Although there was no reason to believe that Zehm had committed a crime, Thompson entered the store as if he were pursuing a dangerous fugitive. Security video documents that Thompson approached Zehm from behind, while retrieving his custom-made, over-sized ironwood nightstick.

Thompson introduced himself to Zehm by shouting at him to drop the two-liter bottle of Pepsi. According to the officer, the startled and puzzled man responded by quite reasonably asking, �Why?� Thompson interpreted that Zehm�s fleeting non-compliance as an immediate and intolerable threat to officer safety. So he rushed at the terrified man and began to beat him with his nightstick � clubbing him first in the legs, then on the shoulders, neck, and head. Blows to the head are defined as lethal strikes under the Spokane PD�s use-of-force policy, justifiable only when a suspect threatens the life of a police officer or bystanders.

As the security video demonstrates, Zehm never put up a fight. He retreated from Thompson, and then made a pitiable attempt to use his bottle of soda to deflect blows aimed at his face. Thompson escalated his assault by tasering him at least three times. Thompson was eventually joined by six other other police officers. Eventually, Thompson was actually sitting on Zehm, who was face-down on the floor.

The murder happened in 2006 and this post was written a few days ago -- the post goes on to show that this was not an isolated incident for the Spokane police force -- a bit more:

Spokane�s municipal government, which paid out $2.5 million to resolve police-related lawsuits between 1996 and 2007...

Some sobering data on the mis-use of power and promoting the wrong people to active duty. These people need to be jailed or at the least, spend the rest of their lives flying a desk. Hat tip to Firehand who offers this observation:

And what kind of fucking nutcase with a badge has custom-made, over-sized ironwood nightstick?