Lower than low...

Low and slow burn over this one...

Lakewood officer accused of stealing from fund for fallen colleagues' families
So, back in November of 2009, four police offices were shot and killed at a coffee shop as they were starting their shift.  By all accounts the shooting was unprovoked.  The shooter was later identified as Maurice Clemmons, an ex-convict who had been arrested and released several times.  I was not blogging at the time, but rest assured that if I was, the fact that someone with his record was walking the streets would have been the focus of my rage for weeks.  Clemmons received his final justice at the hands of the Seattle Police Department 2 days later...a fine sentence, but it shouldn't have cost 4 police officers their lives.

As you might expect, there was an outpouring of public sympathy for the families of the 4 officers, and a fund was started.  Eventually, over 3.2 Million dollars was donated to that fund, which, along with the fact that Clemmons is Dead, Dead, Dead, is the only other redeeming fact in this story. 

A short 7 weeks after the police officers was murdered, one of their fellow officers who was helping to run the fund, Skeeter Timothy Manos, set up another, less public account.  Eventually, Manos would channel over $120,000 into his separate account, which he used to pay for things like snowboarding gear, home improvement stuff, and a trip to Las Vegas! 

Scum.  He was caught, and he is going to be punished...but is it going to be enough?  I mean...I am one of the first to complain we have too many laws on the books...but, I would be okay with establishing a special class of felonies, to make sure stealing money from things like trust funds for fallen officers, or cancer charities is punished more harshly than stealing an expensive painting from a museum.  There has to be a way to figure the victim into the equation, and not just the magnitude of the cime.

I'm not sure this guy deserves the death penalty, or life in prison, but I wouldn't mind seeing one of his snowboarding boots implanted where the sun don't shine...