Once upon a time, we nailed A-holes to the wall and walked all the little children along and showed them. "See little Suzie, this is what happens to bad people."
Now I guess we just give them a press conference, and a stern talking to.

Westerman says he doesn't remember the events that occurred (at least parts of them). He also, in Duin's column today, admits that when he fatally shot a woman--justified though it was--he doesn't remember getting his gun out.

I'm no expert, and I have certainly never shot someone, but it seems like having these serious memory lapses in tense situations should disqualify someone from police work.

@ BOH -

That's actually extremely common in situations involving police or soldiers killing someone. I have more experience than I'd like to on the subject, having been in the military. It's a general side effect of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and is the same thing that happens to some who have "canceled-out" rape experiences, having witnessed a murder, etc.

It doesn't matter who you are...it can and does happen to anyone and there's no way to tell if you're predisposed to the occurrence or not.

Someone needs to dredge up the story of Westerman killing a mentally ill woman. It seems that happened at a time when people were not bristling at incompetent authority the way they are today; I seriously doubt that today, an officer who blew away a mental patient would get a MEDAL OF HONOR the way Westerman did for killing his victim.

Because today, we don't believe in political discipline, or political rewards, either, right?

Only in Portland, Oregon.

" She gave the bureau Westerman's plates and a description of his vehicle, but they were unable to locate his vehicle in the system, for reasons unknown."

Happens all the time, unfortunately. I was involved in a hit-and-run that was witnessed by at least 25 people. About 15 of those people handed me little pieces of paper with the license plate number and their phone number. Even though 15 people wrote the exact same plate number down they couldn't find it in the system, and suggested I must have gotten it wrong. A friend who has some connections in the police department figured out that it was the wife of an officer, driving a car registered to said officer.

The rule of law doesn't apply to the ones we assign to enforce it, unfortunately.

Pigs are the fucking worst at obeying the rules of the road. And of course they will lie and protect their own gang members when it comes to incidents involving members of their thug pig gangs.

Concerning PTSD and blacking out after stressful events:
""" It doesn't matter who you are...it can and does happen to anyone and there's no way to tell if you're predisposed to the occurrence or not. ""

Um, apparently he's predisposed.