Letters To The Editor
PUBLIC SAFETY
Learn from me: Don’t run lights
Look, people, what I did is not acceptable and I don’t want to take anything from it. It’s too late. I will never, until the end of time, be able to bring back Julie Allen or Karen Sederholm. Nor will I be able to repay the families of those women for their losses.
Now what concerns me is you sober, thinking people who are out there still running red lights! My family, out there in the free world, tells me that in an average one-hour trip they can count six to eight people sneaking through or running the “pink” lights. I read somewhere year ago that Spokane had the highest rate per capita in the country of red-light violators.
Come on, people. I’ve learned something from this already and my brain has been clouded most of my life. Every day for the rest of my life I’m going to be learning and trying to make something better. Can’t you sober, still-free people learn anything from this?
Leave early, slow down, stop! Yellow doesn’t mean “hurry.” I won’t be able to be condemned for the next innocent life or lives taken at an intersection.
Please, in the name of Jesus, stop running those red lights. James B. Barstad Spokane County Jail
Four-way-red pause can avert killings
Having gone through a horrendous experience with my son a few years ago regarding someone running a red light, this subject is an extremely sore spot for me.
A young man died because this incident, which was not my son’s fault. It was the fault of a driver who ran a red light, hit my son’s car, and his car hitting two pedestrians standing on the corner. Death was not instant. This young man, who was the same age as my son, remained in a coma for two years.
As I watched my son graduate from college, marry, have two sons and succeed in his career, I have thought of this young man and his family and wished they could experience the same excitement of each of these crossroads in life. They cannot because someone wanted to beat the red light.
Every day when I drive home from work, and if I happen to be caught going though a yellow light, I can always look in my rear-view mirror to see two more cars going through behind me. I know that it had to be blatantly red.
My solution to this ongoing problem seems so simple. I think the lights on all major arterials should be displayed red going both ways for a short time. This is done on Washington and Indiana and it seems to give everyone time to stop, think and not race through. A person’s life is not worth running a red light for. Marilyn J. Allen Spokane
Law is not in the eye of the beholder
I am enjoying my second visit to Spokane and am impressed with many aspects of the city. Your current program emphasizing the importance of observing red lights is great, considering the recent rash of tragic accidents caused by failure to obey the law.
However, an ironic incident yesterday may illustrate why the attitudes and understanding of a few may be having disastrous consequences for the many.
My son-in-law stopped in a righthand turn lane for an already red light. He waited for a safe opening, made his turn and then stopped several cars back from another red light. At this point a young man who had stopped behind us originally pulled abreast of us and volunteered his perspective and vast knowledge of red light law:
“Next time you come to a complete stop look behind you to see if anyone is there! You better remember that if you completely stop in front of me again I’m going to ram right into you!”
He apparently didn’t know, or didn’t care, that there are reasons for laws concerning stopping at all red lights, even if a turn is planned. He believed it was his right to make an unimpeded turn, red light or not. I guess some people just can’t remember their kindergarten lessons. Red means stop. Green means go. Mary P. Craft Williams, Ariz.
ABORTION
Inconsistencies in law revealing
How tragically ironic - a pregnant woman shoots herself in the abdomen and is charged with assault on her unborn child (“Mother charged with shooting own fetus,” News June 8).
A man kills a pregnant woman and is charged with two counts of murder - of the woman and the unborn child.
Meantime, hundreds of doctors routinely terminate the lives of millions of unborn children with the permission of that same legal system. Both legal positions can’t be right.
If the fetus has standing in law, how can abortion on demand be legal? If it doesn’t, how can someone be charged with a crime for destroying it?
The fact is, no one - not you, not me, not the Pope, not a Supreme Court justice, not a president, not a doctor - can say for sure when a fetus becomes a person, but we know that at some point it does.
According to our present illogic, at one instant a fetus is but a vestigial blob of tissue that can be discarded at will; but, one second later it becomes a real child with a soul, an identity, completely protected by custom and law.
Amazing!
Even more bizarre, in some cases as long as the tip of a toe is still in the womb it’s OK to abort, but once that tip is out the child must be saved.
Since we can’t determine exactly when a fetus becomes a person, we must assume that the fetus is a person from the moment of conception and insist that it be protected under the law. Steve Blewett Spokane
Not who you kill but when and how?
Hmmm, interesting story in the June 8 Spokesman-Review, “Mother charged with shooting own fetus.”
Let me get this straight. It’s OK, according to our compassionate president, for a doctor to pierce an almost-born baby’s skull and suck the brains out of it for the mother’s benefit (many such abortions are purely elective). But it’s not OK for a mother to shoot a pellet from a pellet gun into her baby’s head while it’s still in her womb?
What’s the difference?
What’s wrong with this picture? Virginia Johnson Spokane
LAW AND JUSTICE
Voters, pronounce sentence on judge
I was outraged and saddened after reading Doug Clark’s June 11 column regarding Adams County Superior Court Judge Richard W. Miller’s remarks in sentencing Roy “Bubba” Love, 19, who pleaded guilty to raping a 12-year-old child.
Miller said, (referring to a Class A violent sex offense, second-degree rape of a child) “… this type of law was never intended to protect a tramp.” Miller, in essence, called the 12-year-old victim a tramp!
It’s terrible to be reminded again that rape is the only crime in which the victim is on trial. It’s frightening to learn of a man with such a dangerous, sexist, archaic attitude toward women presiding over a court.
The victim was a girl. Would Miller have been so cruel had the victim been a little boy? Did he even consider who he was elected to judge - the already onceconvicted child molester, now pleading guilty to child rape, or a 12-year-old who was lured with alcohol and drugs by an adult and then raped?
Does Miller have any compassion for children or victims who pass through his courtroom? Is he stuck back in an unenlightened era when women and girls were objects, or is he just mean? I am insulted and disgusted by his comments and low-end sentencing of Love.
Adams County voters, please vote this callous, sexist judge out of office next fall. Connye M. Draper Spokane
Clark wrong about judge, proceeding
Does columnist Doug Clark know what he’s talking about? In the case of Adams County Superior Court Judge Richard W. Miller, the answer is definitely no.
Clark’s June 11 column on the sentencing of Roy Love is yellow journalism at its worst.
How did Clark come to learn of this incident? The logical choice is the prosecutor(s) quoted so extensively in the column.
Did Clark make any inquiries concerning Judge Miller’s trial court and appellate record as a tough-as-nails sentencing judge on sex offenders? Obviously not.
Judge Miller sentenced Love within the standard range. The prosecuting attorney did not present any aggravating factors. The prosecuting attorney did not make any effort to have the girl or her family present.
Why doesn’t Clark take a look at the prosecutor(s) in Adams County and ask these questions: What’s happening to your constitutional rights? Are legal ethics outmoded? Where has justice gone? Dennis W. Morgan Ritzville, Wash.
Good we’re being told system’s bad
I wish to thank and commend Doug Clark for his column on June 11, about Adams County Superior Court Judge Richard Miller’s attitude on child rape, even after knowing of a prior conviction.
Only the news media can expose the terrible injustice done to our children with sexual crimes, and how they are handled in our courts.
Keep up the good work. I appreciate you. Alice Williamson Medical Lake, Wash.
Sorry system invites vigilantism
Accused of first-degree rape, kidnapping, assault, threatening to kill, armed robbery, child rape and having a criminal record to boot, Mark Kelley now may have three fewer charges to face, thanks to Superior Court Judge Paul Bastine (“Delay of trial forces dismissal of charges, News, June 12).
I’m infuriated. Why did 60 days elapse (let alone 15 days) before trial, regardless of psychiatric evaluations, waiver of speedy trials or court agendas? A case like this should be given highest priority and come to trial within a week.
Why does American society feel this compelling need to justify or excuse criminals’ behavior based upon competency or psychiatric evaluations? Competent or not, an adult should face the consequences of his actions.
If Bastine was truly “very reluctant… to dismiss the charges,” I’m sure he could have brought himself to believe the charges were timely brought.
Bastine, if your 16-year-old daughter had been the victim, I’m sure this would not have happened.
Is it any wonder that law-abiding citizens fantasize about the value and benefits of a Ken Arrasmith brand of vigilantism, when things like this happen? Bob Niles Mead