Invade My Property

Please!

That is what a number of local folks are demanding after the murders of a grandfather, grandmother, son, his wife and their two children by the son’s sister and her boyfriend in the town of Carnation, WA on Christmas Eve.

Here’s the scenario: 29 year old daughter lives in a mobile home on the parent’s property with her boyfriend of five years. She feels that she is being “pushed out” of the family for unknown reasons, so her and the boyfriend walk to the parent’s home and murder the parents. Her older brother, his wife and two pre-school aged children arrive for Christmas Eve dinner, interrupting the sister and boyfriend’s attempt to hide the bodies, the sister and the boyfriend kill all four of them execution style before going back to their trailer. The bodies are discovered the day after Christmas by a co-worker of the grandmother’s who stopped by when she didn’t show up for work. The daughter and the boyfriend are arrested two days later and at least one of them confesses to the acts.

Before the brother, his wife and their children are executed, someone is able to call 911 on the land line of the home. The answering operator hears what sounds like shouting and music (party noises) before the line goes dead and all attempts to reconnect to the house are unsuccessful. Two Sheriff’s deputies are dispatched to the home to investigate the “hang-up call”. They arrive within 30 minutes to find a locked gate and, being able to see the house from the road, see no signs of anything requiring police action and move on to other 911 calls.

This is a link to yesterday’s Seattle Times Letters to the Editor. Each LttE that focuses on this topic basically says “A 911 call means drive around my gate and/or kick down my door, do whatever you want to investigate the non-situation you see.”

I’m sorry, but the murders had already taken place by the time of the deputies arrival, as evidenced by the murderers available time to lock the gate. Could they have arrived faster, possibly, though that area of the county is rather rural and currently there is absolutely zero evidence that they could have. Either way, the fact that so many people want the police to start violating their property rights to investigate what just as easily could have been someone hitting the wrong speed dial number is disgusting.

“When seconds count, the police are only minutes away” is the most important thing to remember. “I’m from the government and I’m here to help” is the most frightening thing a government employee could say to you.

Granted, the way that the law regarding 911 calls in Washington State is written, once a call originates from a building the police have the legal authority to force entry to investigate said call. Likewise, with proof of a 911 call placed in the residence, officers can not be held liable for damages to property and most property rights violations, just the cost of defending against those claims has got to be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not millions.

But this demand for overt protection is just simply baffling, almost to the point of me wanting to question the ability of those demanding it to live by themselves.

Unfortunately, it is looking as though the two deputies will be put on leave and probably disciplined for their act of respecting a citizen’s property rights.