Make Draining The Swamp Job 1

Another woman is dead. Michelyn Derning is the latest victim of a serial killer stalking women - and community peace of mind - in Spokane.

Derning, like the killer’s other victims, was involved in a high-risk lifestyle. She was a drug addict and might have turned to prostitution to support that habit. She had tried to beat the addiction but was unable to shake the beast.

But Derning was a human being. Someone with a family, friends.

Then she was shot and dumped like garbage.

At least 20 women have been murdered in recent years in the Spokane area and eight victims (one in Tacoma) have been linked to the serial killer.

It’s frustrating. And it’s no surprise that people who care are feeling helpless and angry.

Carol Taylor turned her anger into action recently. The East Sprague neighborhood resident chases prostitutes and their customers with a bullhorn. She’s fed up that the neighborhood she once felt safe in is littered with condoms and needles.

When she sees a client pick up young women, she yells: “We will call your license number into Crime Check.” Then she does.

Taylor knows prostitution is not a victimless crime. Women are being killed and the neighborhood is going to hell. She’s had it.

Taylor’s reaction flows from the anxiety and uneasiness citizens feel when disorder surrounds them. Prostitution, panhandling, public drunkenness - such behaviors seem like mere unruliness compared with murder, rape and armed robbery.

But as a daily backdrop to neighborhood life they generate dread and fear. They drive orderly, law-abiding citizens into hiding and they send a message that deviant behavior can and will prevail.

Eventually, murder, rape and armed robbery follow. It’s no accident that a serial killer emerged from the disorder on East Sprague. The environment was primed for it.

People like Taylor are trying to halt that process. And her actions have made some uncomfortable. The police worry that Taylor’s aggressiveness will result in even more violence and chaos in the East Sprague neighborhood. A recent confrontation between Taylor and a suspected prostitute turned ugly. There was a car chase, shouts exchanged, a scuffle and Taylor had Mace sprayed in her face.

If law enforcement agencies and social policy makers are uncomfortable with Taylor’s conduct, they should be taking determined steps to correct the conditions that inspired it.

That’s the first - and most important - step.