FERNDALE, Wash. — A Whatcom County Sheriff’s Office deputy attempted to stop a car in the area of W Smith Road and LaBounty Drive tonight, Friday, May 24th, shortly before 9:30pm. But the driver of the car pulled away northbound on LaBounty according to radio transmissions. He led the pursuing deputy through the Grocery Outlet parking lot before heading east on Main Street. He was reported to be going about 60mph when the deputy called off the pursuit by the Pilot Travel Center.
Other units, including Ferndale Police, took up positions along W Axton Road and reported seeing the car crash in the area of 900 W Axton Road and the driver fleeing on foot.
A perimeter around the area was set up and a K-9 unit located the suspect within minutes of the crash. A Whatcom County Fire District 7 aid unit was dispatched to the 5800 block of Aldrich Road treat the suspect for dog bite wounds.
No further details were available as of the publishing of this story since law enforcement had yet to book the suspect into Whatcom County Jail.
If found guilty of fleeing the police or other crimes, the person should pay every single penny of the expenses incurred during his/her criminal acts, arrest and incarceration. Why should the taxpayer fork out money for people like this? Why should we pay for K9, police pursuit, jail, courts and other costs?
WRONG: anti-social behavior means a higher tax burden for law-abiding citizens
RIGHT: make convicted criminals pay, in full, for the consequences of their anti-social behavior and CUT TAXES
“The trouble with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people’s money.” (Margaret Thatcher)
While I can understand the sentiment, I doubt the efficacy. Most crimes are committed by less educated and thus less aware individuals. Higher costs might work for more successful, who might have the ability to deal with the resulting charges. But seasonal workers, part time minimal wage workers, and the unemployed seem destined for the paupers prison or perhaps we should, as an agricultural area, restart the county prion farm system?
The reason we pony up the taxes for the police, as well as other first responders, is not so we can charge the ones that require them, but to protect all of us. So sure, a fine is … uhmm … fine. But let’s not create some sort of perpetual debt for criminals. We should only do that for college students.
Steven Allen,
I bet you also believe that once a person has served prison time, that they have somehow “paid their debt to society”? I suggest you think carefully about that common, idiotic statement and ask yourself one simple question – who paid what?
Hint: the criminal paid nothing.
WRONG: be nice to criminals
RIGHT: make criminals pay a heavy price
The problem is that the penalty for eluding is so minimal that criminals will roll the dice in an attempt to escape. If there was a mandatory minimum for eluding that was years long they might be compelled to stop instead.
Mark Sis,
Agreed, make anti-social behavior, like eluding police officers and endangering the public, horribly painful for the offender. Then send the offending person a big fat bill for all related costs, payable upon receipt.
That will reduce crime, guaranteed.
Ladies and gents, it’s time to stop being soft on crime. Two eyes for an eye. Two teeth for a tooth.