A Murder or an Assassination?
A veteran Seattle police officer was fatally shot Saturday night as he and a rookie officer sat in their patrol car in the Central District. The officer who was killed was identified as Tim Brenton, 39, a nine-year veteran of the Seattle Police Dept.
. . .
“This is an assassination and every resource is being used to bring it to a conclusion,” he [Assistant Police Chief Jim Pugel] said.
- Seattle cop is assassinated but his partner survives
Associated Press
2009-11-02
Young people kill other young people, poor people kill other poor people, gang members kill other gang members, and so on. Thus, contrary to stratification theories, a particular murder is not so much the outcome of the differential distribution of attributes as it is an interaction governed by patterns of social relations between people similar in stature and status.
- Mind Hacks’ Social Networks of Murder quoting
Murder by Structure by Papachristos AV
The connotations of the word murder suggest some level of intimacy; the word assassination connotes a political act. If you want to shape public perception of an event, choose the words which preclude an explanation (murder suggests intrigue; assassination is an open-and-shut case).
Given the very low likelihood that an “assassin” would have anything to gain by killing a police officer (notice that the partner survived – the killer[s] did not make much of effort to eliminate a prime witness and an immediate threat with a gun) and the low ratio of psychotically insane individuals in proportion to individuals who may have a grudge against a nine-year veteran of the police force, I would tend to toward wondering whether Officer Brenton perhaps had some enemies on the force or elsewhere…
As with any city, Seattle has its share of dirty cops.
Update:
The approach of the suspect vehicle also seems to have carefully planned to avoid that camera, as it approached from the rear, opened fire from the side, then backed up and drove away in the direction from which it came. SPD spokesperson Mark Jamieson told me this morning that the events “would lead someone to believe that they were trying to avoid detection.”
- SPD: Murderer’s approach, escape shows detailed planning
2009-11-04 12:14
“Thus, contrary to stratification theories, a particular murder is not so much the outcome of the differential distribution of attributes as it is an interaction governed by patterns of social relations between people similar in stature and status.”
- i think this is a demonstration of geography and/or general mobility’s affect on your social networking and the horizon of experience.