When Is Deadly Force Justifiable?

It’s a dirty job, as they say, but (altogether now) somebody has to do it.

Not a menial job. A tough job that requires sacrifice and risk but for which scornful second-guessing often is the reward - law enforcement.

Last week, three Spokane police officers had a tough job to do. It involved a violent and possibly suicidal man whose mother had called police because she feared he might hurt her or kill himself.

Blaine Dalrymple was smashing glass in a bathroom. Neither words nor pepper spray drew him out, so police kicked in the door.

When he did emerge into the narrow hall, he lunged at the officers with a shard of broken mirror. All three fired, killing him.

Second-guessers wasted no time. Theories abounded about how police could have controlled the situation without lethal force.

Naive? Yes. Still, given the authority police wield, the public needs to be on guard against abuse.

It’s too easy to choose sides - cop fans over here, cop critics over there. But what is the right way for the public to judge police policy covering the use of deadly force?

How many takings can you take?

Washington legislators, and ultimately voters, have a decision to make about property rights.

Backers of Initiative 164 say people whose use of their own property is restricted by governmental regulations deserve compensation at taxpayers’ expense. But the initiative’s opponents contend those regulations are necessary in the first place to prevent adverse impacts on other private property or on public resources - fish runs, wildlife habitat, a scenic view.

Does one taking balance the other?

Crime doesn’t pay

Housing crooks costs so much that state corrections officials are talking about shortening the sentences of illegal immigrants who break the law and turning them over to federal authorities for deportation that much sooner.

Good idea? Or does it just invite foreign criminals to return, practically at will, across the nation’s sievelike borders?

Stand up and be counted

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