Violence

Two law enforcement officers guard the front of a house as another heads to a nearby alley as they surround a home near the corner of W. Indiana Street and Meridian Street in Bellingham Saturday February 14, 2009. A man had threatened to shoot five people after a family altercation and lead police on a chase that ended in a standoff at his home.

Violence erupted in Bellingham yesterday when a crazed killer and potential mass murderer went on a shooting rampage throughout the city. Actually, it was more like some wacko holed up in his home after an altercation with Bellingham's finest. You can see the level of intensity in the highly protective riot gear worn by the two officers on the left. Oddly enough, I went to some friends' house one block away, and it's actually a nice area.

The crime in Bellingham is virtually non-existent , save for petty theft and car prowl - a term of which I'd never heard, but I think means breaking into a car. I grew up in a similar-sized town (Scranton, PA) and the violent crime there was much more frequent even thirty years ago. This town of 70,000 or so still gets about two murders a year. And a few other unnatural deaths usually attributable to the sea or the mountains.