What’s Your View Of Police?
A couple of passers-by came to the aid of a Spokane police officer who was scuffling with a suspect on Monday.
The man, wanted on two warrants, had slugged the officer, then tried to run away. The fight resumed when the officer caught up with the fleeing suspect. That’s when the timely citizen-helpers happened by.
This occurred only a couple of days after a Spokane teenager had used the police radio to summon backup help for the Washington State Patrol trooper she was riding with as part of a school-related project.
These two recent incidents of public-spirited citizens stepping in to support law enforcement benefited not just the officers involved but also the security of the Spokane area.
Perhaps they are unsurprising in a community where neighborhood COPS shops have proliferated, but they defy the common perception of general public distrust of governmental authority and unwillingness to “get involved.”
What’s your view of the relationship between the Spokane public and its law enforcement personnel?
Your flight has been rescheduled
Fairchild Air Force Base’s Aerospace Day will be in September this year rather than May.
Why? Because that’s the date the Air Force Thunderbirds can be here. Besides being a drawing card for the show, the Thunderbirds’ daring airborne maneuvers are regarded as a tool for recruiting Air Force enlistees.
Here in Spokane, we have suffered two traumatic examples of such aerobatics’ power to inspire emulation, sometimes with tragic consequences. Is that worth delaying Aerospace Day by four months? And is that the best way to attract future Air Force pilots?
How about a hand for Kellogg? - but not just any hand
In Kellogg, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency objects to a local plan to let a raffle winner push the button detonating two towering smelter smokestacks on May 26.
Letting some non-expert finger-activate the explosives, EPA folks fear, would be too risky in the event of a last-second reason to abort. So they suggest letting the raffle winner push one button that tells the real-live demolition person to push the real-live second button.
Are the feds being a wee bit picky?
What if the EPA ran Aerospace Day and Fairchild Air Force Base were in charge of blowing up the smokestacks at Kellogg?
, DataTimes MEMO: “Bagpipes” appears Tuesdays and Thursdays. To respond, call Cityline at 458-8800, category 9881, from a Touch-Tone phone or send a fax to 459-5098 or e-mail to dougf@spokesman.com. You also can leave Doug Floyd a message at 459-5577, extension 5466.