UPDATE - Thanks to everyone for the comments, the recs and the tips. A great suggestion made by BentLiberal in the comments:
If you'd like to donate to the surving families of the detectives who were killed, there are 3 ways to do so:Remember this is about the victims, not about some pie-fight where one person's rights are more equal than others. Some suggested in the comments that this may be the police's fault, which is entirely possible but nothing indicates that was the case. While I understand that there are police that abuse their power, I find it odd that some would first lay the blame on the victims or the police and have no ire for the killer or the lax laws that allow someone like him to purchase guns and body armor.
Memorial Fundhttp://www.santacruzsentinel.com/...1. Bay Federal Credit Union is accepting donations for the families of Santa Cruz police Sgt. Loran "Butch" Baker and detective Elizabeth Butler.
Checks should be made payable to the Santa Cruz Police Officers Association and mailed to 3333 Clares St., Capitola, CA 95010. Donations also can be made at any Bay Federal branch.2. In addition, the Police Officers Association and Police Department have set up a "Baker/Butler Scholarship Fund" with Wells Fargo. Anyone can go to any Wells Fargo branch anywhere in the country and make a deposit to this account number #999 245 1154.
3. City finance chief Marcus Pimental said the city also will accept donations mailed to 809 Center St., Room 101, Santa Cruz CA 95060 to the attention of the Baker/Butler Scholarship Fund.
'We will also take credit card donations over the phone during normal business hours (831-420-5070) with no cost to donors,' Pimental said. 'All funds received by Wells Fargo or to the City's Finance Department address will be held in a special trust to be distributed to the detectives' families.'
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Loran 'Butch' Baker with his son, Adam, when Adam joined the Santa Cruz Police as a Community Service Officer in September of 2010. (Larissa Mueller/Sentinel)I didn't see this diaried, so I am posting another senseless killing of two police officers.
From the LA Times:
Jeremy Goulet, the man suspected of killing two Santa Cruz police officers Tuesday, was wearing body armor and carrying three handguns, authorities discovered after Goulet was fatally wounded in a shootout with authorities, Santa Cruz County Sheriff Phil Wowak said.Two police officers doing their job and checking on a guy that appears to be a deviant end up dead, just for trying to ask him questions.Police suspect Goulet was carrying the guns of the two officers, Elizabeth Butler and Loran "Butch" Baker, Wowak told reporters. The officers were killed on the doorstep of Goulet's Santa Cruz home, he said.
The shootings began about 3:30 p.m. when a man, believed to be Goulet, opened fire on the two officers, who were conducting a follow-up investigation at a home, authorities said.