Firearms Owners Against Crime
Institute for Legal, Legislative and Educational Action
Institute for Legal, Legislative and Educational Action
U.S.A. –-(AmmoLand.com)- On the same day his department was honoring the memory of a deputy gunned down in the line of duty by an armed, convicted felon, another lawman in a department two counties away was allegedly shot and then run over by another convicted felon. Now Pierce County, WA Sheriff Ed Troyer is saying the community is suffering from what he called a “failed experiment.”
One of Troyer’s deputies, Dominique “Dom” Calata, was fatally wounded in an exchange of gunfire with a man wanted on assault charges earlier this month. Within hours of a memorial service for Calata, Police officer Dan Rocha was murdered in an altercation, allegedly with a man who has a long criminal history in Eastern Washington’s Tri-Cities area including multiple felonies.
That suspect, identified as Richard Rotter, is being held on $5 million bail.
Over the weekend, Sheriff Troyer posted this message on Facebook:
“At the end of our service for Dom, we learned Everett Officer Rocha was killed in the line duty. Not just police officers, homicide rates of citizens are skyrocketing. Neither of these cop killing suspects should have been out of jail. Same with the other homicide suspects in the first 3 months of this year. We are all in this together. The liberal, progressive, socialist experiments have failed. Time to stop.”
If there may be an example of the “failed experiment,” it might be Rotter, the suspect in Rocha’s killing. Seattle’s KOMO News reported, “Rotter was the subject of two outstanding warrants, including one for domestic violence assault and a hit-and-run case, both of which were filed in Benton County, according to prosecutors.”
Police in Kennewick, a city in south-central Washington, had issued an officer-safety alert for Rotter.
The Everett Herald reported Rotter was spotted “moving guns from one car to another,” which—as a convicted felon—he should not have been doing. KCPQ News said Rotter “has a lengthy criminal history including at least 18 felonies and hundreds of contacts with Kennewick Police over the years.” Talk radio hosts in Seattle were uniformly wondering how this suspect was even out on the streets with that kind of record.
But in the Puget Sound region, where Pierce and neighboring King County are located, conservatives argue that liberal policies of entrenched Democrat-majority governments have become a magnet for a criminal element.
Washington state passed both the “Three Strikes” and “Hard Time for Armed Crime” initiatives almost 30 years ago, but without enforcement, those laws cannot accomplish anything. Troyer said property crimes—everything from shoplifting to auto theft—are up, and so are homicides. In 2020, the most recent year for which data is available, the FBI Uniform Crime Report says Washington posted 298 murders, including 177 with firearms. In 2019, the state reported 194 slayings, including 135 involving guns, according to FBI data for that year.
Troyer concurred more people are licensed to carry. Meanwhile, police have been under attack and there are manpower shortages. It’s almost like a “perfect storm” with good and evil on a collision course.
Washington has had Democrats in the Governor’s office for more than 35 years. Democrats have held the legislative majority for many years. Last year, Democrats rammed through a “police reform” bill that proved so onerous it was rolled back this year because the public is tired of rising crime and their local police being effectively handcuffed.
According to U.S. News. “Rep. Jesse Johnson, the Federal Way Democrat who sponsored House Bill 1310, said restricting the ability of police to detain fleeing suspects was unintentional. The measure signed by Inslee Thursday allows police to do their jobs while also requiring them to use no more force than necessary.”
Troyer told AmmoLand his agency is working to address the needs of people who are truly distressed. Under his leadership, the sheriff’s department has created a program pairing deputies with social workers who can deal with mental health and other social issues. He calls this effort the “Alternative Response Team,” and it is showing promise. He has mental health professionals embedded with deputies who can be available to deal with genuine hardship.
At the same time, the veteran lawman observed, “We just can’t let hardcore felons run amok.”
With some chagrin, he noted felons aren’t supposed to have guns, but they get them, and not by buying them from local gun stores.
Troyer said there are 43 vacancies in his department, and that includes people who are on military leave. He estimated one-third of Pierce County’s commissioned deputies are also in the military, a fact he is very proud of. Slain officer Calata was one of those double-duty individuals.
“We’re going to turn the tide,” Troyer said with determination. “We’re going to start holding people accountable. Instead of complaining about what we can’t do, let’s focus on what we can do.”
Troyer said he is working with the County Executive and County Prosecutor to open the jails back up and put people, particularly repeat offenders, behind bars.
One other thing the sheriff mentioned is his steadfast belief that county sheriffs should be elected, rather than appointed.
“You don’t hear city police chiefs talking like this because they’d lose their jobs,” he observed.
In King County in 2020, voters approved a measure to make their sheriff an appointed position. Prior to the 2020 election, the Washington State Sheriff’s Association stated in a letter, “The accountability and responsiveness of an elected Sheriff is critical to public safety in our communities. Sheriffs are, and should remain, directly accountable to the people.”
But in liberal King County—the state’s most populous, and long dominated by Democrats—voters by a 62-38 percent margin, voted the other way.
About Dave Workman
Dave Workman is a senior editor at TheGunMag.com and Liberty Park Press, author of multiple books on the Right to Keep & Bear Arms, and formerly an NRA-certified firearms instructor.