Posted on 10/16/2002 6:12:54 AM PDT by MissHardihood
ROCKVILLE, Md. – Police in the Washington suburb where five people were gunned down in two days are looking for two "Hispanic" men in the fatal shootings, according to a police bulletin that federal authorities shared with WorldNetDaily.
Montgomery County Police in press conferences have described only the gender, not the race, of the two suspects – one a driver and the other the shooter.
The be-on-the-lookout, or BOLO, alert that local police sent out earlier today to all law enforcement agencies also described in detail the "white box truck" used by the snipers.
The six-wheeled vehicle resembles a commercial delivery truck, police say. The cab is smaller than, and separate from, the large box-shaped cargo area, which is completely enclosed. The rear passenger side of the bumper has been damaged. And there is block-lettering on the side and rear of the truck.
A Montgomery County Police spokesman confirmed that the BOLO describes the suspects in the sniper slayings as "Hispanic."
But he cautioned that they could be another non-white race.
"We do not count on them being two Hispanic males," said Officer Derek Baliles. "Appearances can be interpreted. We do not want to limit anything at all."
"It's possible," he added, that the suspects could be Middle Eastern.
He also cautioned that their eyewitness account of the suspects is not solid.
Baliles says the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms is examining bullet fragments in two other shootings to see if they are connected to the other five, which occurred Wednesday and Thursday.
A 72-year-old man Thursday night was shot to death on a Washington street corner. And a Virginia woman this afternoon was shot in the back at a crafts store. Her condition was not immediately known.
ATF ballistics experts have determined that a high-velocity rifle firing a .223-caliber bullet was used in at least four of the shootings. The bullet is used in AR-15s, M-16s and other rifles, and can make a large wound as it exits the body.
The police spokesman says FBI profilers will put together a "word picture" Saturday morning to try to make sense of the unusual crime and come up with a possible motive.
Authorities are not ruling out terrorism.
Baliles says the Secret Service has assigned at least one agent to the case. The Office of Homeland Security and CIA are not involved, he says.
The shooters took very select shots of random strangers, and appear to be trained in marksmanship. All six victims who died were killed with a single shot, some apparently shot in the head, although Baliles would not confirm that.
Paul Sperry is Washington bureau chief for WorldNetDaily.
Of course it is, for sure.
Calling them "Hispanic" or "ME", unless we conclusively know for certain, does a disservice to the tracking process!
"Hispanic" can mean someone's ethnicity from MEXICO to ARGENTINA, "ME" could mean someone from MORROCO to PAKISTAN!
We're forgetting "DARK SKINNED", which until we know for sure, could mean anyone from HALF THE PLANET (Phillipines to MORROCO, to BRAZIL).
So,let's stay with the 'factual' sighting evidence.
Yeah. Kind of like Seinfeld: "Not that there's anything wrong with that!"
I love it when the guardians of political correctness are forced to balance and trade off between the different priorities of PC. In this case, for instance: it is apparantly not as bad to "racially profile" a criminal as "hispanic" than as "middle eastern," at least if the suspected crime is terrorism.
(steely)
Maybe the dragnet should encompass house-to-house searches in the area.
The "middle eastern" lobbying groups are more radical than the "Hispanic" lobbying groups. If the media blames an "Hispanic" they are less likely to take political heat.
Of course it could be Hispanics or a lone right wing nut, but given the fact that we are engaged in a WOT and may be about to engage Iraq the odds are in favor of Middle Eastern terrorists and their support group.
Been supposing that since last night.
See Post 19:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/770076/posts?page=19#19
See Post 23:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/770076/posts?page=23#23
It could be illegal Hispanics but the odds don't favor it. Suppose it is a well organized terrorist attack? All of the killings have happened within a very sort drive to a mosque, some within walking distance. Why the attention to mosques? Because the Cleric lives near the mosque and so do some of the members, and they have garages to hide a van in.
Suppose the close proximity to freeways is a misdirection, and they are not using the freeways at all, but driving a short distance to a safe house? This means a broad conspiracy involving many people in many areas who have pre-selected a location free of security cameras from which their sniper team can take their shot.
The sniper team can be brazen even if the police are in the area because they know in the confusion they only have a short hop to their safe house where they can hold up until the dust has settled and they can drive home in their every day transportation.
There have been many descriptions of the white truck, from box truck to Astro Van, with or without a ladder hookup in colors ranging from white to beige to cream. More misdirection. If a different make and model were reported at every killing then it would become obvious that there are many snipers or a well financed group so white vans are used, but they may not be the same white van. A well financed group can use a van once or twice then take it apart and dispose of it.
Naturally the government would quitely get the military involved using drones, they already suspect that the freeways are a diversion and the sniper/snipers are not having to drive very far to hide out.
I'm sure the government is hoping it is not what it looks to be because Americans are not prepared to accept the new "normal" of living with a bulls eye on their chests or between their eyes. If this is multiple snipers using safe houses in which many Mosques and it's members are involved it puts a whole new complextion on the future of Islam in this nation.
Of course it could be Hispanics or a lone right wing nut, but given the fact that we are engaged in a WOT and may be about to engage Iraq the odds are in favor of Middle Eastern terrorists and their support group.
Excellent point. Newspapers and television news organizations are businesses. They are not run by heroes, by warriors, by crusaders. They are run and operated by people who want to go to work, do their thing, an go home at the end of the day like anyone else. Unfortunately, they chose to be in a business that involves communicating with huge numbers of people, and the information they put out can have unexpected and inconvenient consequences.
For this reason, they tend to do their reporting in a way that minimizes the potential hassle factor to themselves. As you point out in your post, this causes them to tend to pull their punches if they might inflame some population that might, say, bomb their offices or assault one of their reporters. The mainstream white European culture becomes the whipping boy, because soccer moms and cell-phone toting professionals are not going to throw rocks through the windows of the newspaper's headquarters building.
I think you have put your finger on one of the forces driving political correctness and media bias: it's just a way for those in the media to minimize the personal "hassle factor." I mean, come on, it's only a job, right?
Other factors that play into the same outcome:
1. Pseudo-intellectualism
2. Ivory-tower detachment
3. Desire to make business pay to get their good news out
4. Herd mentality
5. Phony "creativity" (common sense says this, but common sense is so boring, so I'll say that)
6. (insert your ideas here).
(steely)
Who are the cheerleaders?
Ah yes. The demagog who call everybody else demagags.
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