September 18, 2009
Who's Running the Asylum

Washington state has made national news once again and those in the Spokane to Sunnyside areas should be on alert criminally insane murderer and fair goer, Phillip Arnold Paul. Yes, you read that right. Paul and 30 others inmates from Eastern State Hospital were on a "field trip" to the Spokane County Interstate Fair when he walked away from the group. Hospital officials waited more than an hour before alerting police and believe Paul is headed to his parents' house in Sunnyside.
Perhaps if mental hospitals weren't paying to take their inmates to the county fair the state wouldn't need to be closing areas at our mental hospitals and laying off employees.

Posted by MarkGriswold at September 18, 2009 08:37 AM | Email This
Comments
1. Who is running the Asylum? DSHS.

Posted by: Smokie on September 18, 2009 09:13 AM
2. But don't you see? He is not a criminal - he's mentally challenged. Why would his keepers think it necessary to watch over him?

Posted by: deadwood on September 18, 2009 09:31 AM
3. Sexual predators have to be registered, did anyone inform parents and innocent fairgoes that they were sharing grounds/space with convicted murders and criminals???

Posted by: Denni on September 18, 2009 09:37 AM
4. Who ever is running the asylum should be committed to it by days end if you ask me!

Posted by: Lysander on September 18, 2009 11:13 AM
5. Who ever is running the asylum should be committed to it by days end if you ask me!

Posted by: Lysander on September 18, 2009 11:14 AM
6. Who ever is running the asylum should be committed to it by days end if you ask me!

Posted by: Lysander on September 18, 2009 11:15 AM
7. Lysander - Good idea!!!

Posted by: PeggyU on September 18, 2009 11:16 AM
8. Who ever is running the asylum should be committed to it by days end if you ask me!

Posted by: Lysander on September 18, 2009 11:16 AM
9. Who ever is running the asylum should be committed to it by days end if you ask me!

Posted by: Lysander on September 18, 2009 11:17 AM
10. Who ever is running the asylum should be committed to it by days end if you ask me!

Posted by: Lysander on September 18, 2009 11:18 AM
11. I stopped reading the newspaper this morning after this story. What in the world are killers doing roaming our county fairs?!? Filled with local school children on class field trips, families etc. This is a disgusting practice that needs to end immediately. Pronto. Like, right now! Great article!

Posted by: Barbie on September 18, 2009 01:37 PM
12. I stopped reading the newspaper this morning after this story. What in the world are killers doing roaming our county fairs?!? Filled with local school children on class field trips, families etc. This is a disgusting practice that needs to end immediately. Pronto. Like, right now! Great article!

Posted by: Barbie on September 18, 2009 01:38 PM
13. Gregoire has long advocated "early release" for convicts. Unfortunately, one of the criminally insane ones took her up on the offer.

Posted by: John425 on September 18, 2009 02:13 PM
14. DSHS is holding a press conference here right now on this situation. It's really astonishing to listen to the DSHS spokeswoman (sorry, didn't catch her name).

She keeps talking about the safety of their patients and having a therapeutic environment. She says the two words to remember are "partnership" and "community". What??? If you're in a partnership with your community, maybe you should inform the citizens that you're going to take a batch of murderers to the fair. That way, parents could decide if they'd rather go on another night, maybe with only petty thieves, or something.

It turns out that DSHS is supposed to notify the State Patrol when they take these field trips and failed to do so. Apparently, they "lost" a second patient, a female. This is really quite reassuring to this member of the "partnership".

Posted by: Zarro on September 18, 2009 03:45 PM
15. Isn't this grand! I live and work in the direct path between Spokane and Sunnyside.... we are all on the lookout. Why, o, why,,,, is ANYONE who has been sentenced to a mental hospital for a crime being allowed any privileges at all? Aren’t they held to the same punishment as those that go to prison for crimes? The guys in Walla Walla don’t go on “field trips”! There is empirical evidence that criminals of this caliber are NOT (in any way) ever going to be rehabilitated. What don’t we get about that? Why are we turning the “other cheek”? I hope he does not hurt anyone,,, and he is caught before his plethora of meds wear off.

Posted by: Julie on September 18, 2009 03:49 PM
16. Mark your ? says it all!!Good ? by the way.

Posted by: laurie on September 18, 2009 07:15 PM
17. Good old merry old ST watering down the headline already after a PC editor gets a hold of it.

By the time they are done with it, the headline will read:

'pharmaceutically dependent clear thinker who made a mistake in the past expands field trip beyond fairgrounds'

or

'undocumented sane person trying to better himself through educational outings becomes disoriented by noise pollution'

or

'reason-challenged contributor to population control battling climate change gets lost while taking break at fair'

or

'victim of religious oppression by disembodied voices seeks refuge at fair'

or

'victim of [parents] [system] [circumstances] [fill in blank] wanders among fair goers'

or

'other-realitied fair-goer missing'

Posted by: sullinsea on September 18, 2009 08:23 PM
18. It looks as though your state is on a roll:
"Denise Revels Robinson, who stepped aside as director of the Bureau of Milwaukee Child Welfare after the Christopher Thomas scandal erupted, has been named to a top position in Washington state's Department of Social and Health Services."
http://www.jsonline.com/news/milwaukee/59741417.html

Posted by: Huckleberry Dumbell on September 19, 2009 06:31 AM
19. A nice big bullet only costs 30 cents. The bastard should have been executed LONG ago. Democrats are some strange individuals. They kill unborn children without a care in the world and would fight you to the death to let a piece of crap like this fellow go to the fair. The guy CUT an elderly womans throat and then poured gas on her. And the liberal bastards want to take him to the fair? Are you kidding me?

Posted by: Mark on September 19, 2009 10:52 AM
20. 14--"community" means YOUR "community" and you better suck it up & like it!

watch the news--this type of guy is NEVER let loose in a judge's "community" or a trial lawyer's "community" or a legislator's own neighborhood street "community" or a DSHS mid-manager's neighborhood "community";

hey voters---are we awake yet & listening? or still watching American Idol like a bunch of morons with a 20% turnout on votes....your own fault at election time;

me? carry concealed; at least I have a small sporting chance against these insane criminals; oh yes--no thanks to the likes of YOU, mayor Greg libbie Nichols, (with your body guards);

self preservation--the gov-mint does not care anymore;

Posted by: jimmie howya-doin on September 19, 2009 06:34 PM
21. The Seattle Times in their infinite wisdom has had the article up on the web for days now with no description nor picture of him in it.

"Be on the lookout for a killer. We don't know what he looks like, just be on the lookout for him."

Maybe this is so that we don't go getting all "profiley" and stuff.

Posted by: BD on September 19, 2009 07:30 PM
22. The Seattle Times in their infinite wisdom has had the article up on the web for days now with no description nor picture of him in it.

"Be on the lookout for a killer. We don't know what he looks like, just be on the lookout for him."

Maybe this is so that we don't go getting all "profiley" and stuff.

Posted by: BD on September 19, 2009 07:31 PM
23. The term "criminally insane killer" should NEVER refer to such an individual in the present tense.

I feel that criminally insane killers should be the FIRST to be crossed off our list of living citizens.

The notion of leniency and humanity for "those who don't know the difference between right and wrong" is EXACTLY the reason they should either be injected or frozen until we can re-wire them.

As it is, there are usually about 20,000 successful murders per year in this country, and about 150,000 un-successful ones (attempted murder).

Compare that with the 20 to 40 annual executions.

Amazingly enough, studies have shown that even that tiny execution rate does actually deter murder. Beyond the fact that the actual murderer is gone.

How about we really run the experiment to see if a higher execution rate would deter murder in big numbers?

Next subject? Murder re-defined as Manslaughter.

Anyone un-familiar with the Andress Case?

Look into it. The Andress case/decision relates to an incident where a guy named Andress got mad at a guy in a bar in Snohomish, went home, picked out a steak knife, returned to the bar, and then drove it into the heart of the guy who offended him.

The victim was dead on the sidewalk, but it couldn't be proven that the killer meant to kill so the charge was reduced to felony murder.

Basically, manslaughter.

He's now out along with over 318 others who were granfathered into early release by the State Supreme Court's decision.

One of the 318 was standing behind you in line at the QFC.


Posted by: Bart Cannon on September 20, 2009 01:54 AM
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