MD Sniper - Shut down roads after sniper left, WHY???

Me ^ | 10-22-2002 | Me

[69ConvertibleFirebird]

OK, I live dead center in the middle of Aspen Hill sniper central. 15 years ago I lived in those apartment buildings across the street from where the guy was shot today on the Ride-On bus. I now live in the house I built two miles from there, 1/2 mile from the post office where the lady was shot in the head while sitting on the bench out front. That is the shopping center where I shop (as well as 10,000 REALLY old people.. Leisure World ). Anyway, the point of all of that is to say that I know this area VERY well (grew up right up the street from the Mobil station where the taxi driver was shot too).

Now, to the road blocks. I couldn't go to work today (yet, it's 11:30am now) because, 15, or so, minutes after the sniper shot and killed the guy on the bus all of the roads leading away from Aspen Hill were blocked. I won't go into how far away the blocks were but they were pretty far (many miles) away. Since at 6:00am I can get to work, 18 miles away, in 25 minutes, what good does it do shutting down all roads in the area after the sniper has left the vicinity??? Or, since the sniper isn't a total idiot, what good do the road blocks do if he (or she) were to simply sit in a shopping center parking lot waiting in his/her car or shopping in the grocery store, until after the road blocks are taken down? It seems to me that putting up road blocks for 3, 4, or 6 hours after the shotting has occured is just plain stupid. Is this simply to show the public that the police/govt./our protectors, who in Maryland WON'T allow us to carry guns, are "doing something?" It's certainly screwing things up around here (as the sniper wants, I'm sure...

[steve-b]

Or, as some have suggested, maybe the sniper just stays in the area and has a cup of coffee at Denny's until the roadblocks are lifted.

If he had to wait for service at Denny's that would explain the days when there weren't any shootings.

[trebb]

My suggestion that everyone pull over as soon as they hear of a shooting If this were a normal town that would probably work. But In and around D.C. most people are too selfish/self centered to even think about being delayed on the way to their job, hair appointment, bikini wax, gym, lipposuction appt, face lift appt, etc...

How right and sad - I saw a show where ambulances were trying to get through traffic in NYC and other dirvers were giving them the finger instead of making way - a few seconds of their time is so much more important than another human life...I think they ought to have cameras on emergency vehicles and ticket/fine those that don't give way and maybe even add involuntary manslaughter if it turns out that the delay caused a person to die. A couple convictions like that plastered across the front pages might bring a little "courtesy" back to the streets..

[stuartcr]

So everyone has a digital camera and printer in their car!

[stuartcr]

What if he had a tv in his car?

[Wolfstar]

I could not agree with you more about reactivating the old civil defense concept. I thought they should have done it in the immediate post-9/11/01 period. I don't like the neighborhood watch concept which replaced civil defense, because NW's tend to devolve into gossipy coffee klatches and interpersonal squabbles.

[stuartcr]

You don't know people very well. Even if they did hear the alarms, with the AC on, windows up, tunes cranked, kids yelling, phone on the ear, etc....I don't believe the majority of people would stop. Do you see everyone where you live, doing the correct thing when an ambulance goes by? I don't.

[Redcloak]

Quite simply, the police shut down the roads so that your neighbors will think that they're actually doing something useful about the sniper. But we all know that this guy picks his spots so that he gets out of the containment area before the roadblocks go up, or he has a convenient place to hole up within the containment area. In either case, he's not going to be driving a white van, box truck, or ox cart past a roadblock any time soon.

[Age of Reason]

And what if the shooter decides to play along and pull over with

What would happen now, if the shooter were stopped in a roadblock along with you?

[eno_]

The best hope we have is that someone who knows the shooter and has suspicions will come forward with a meaningful tip.

Which means that, if the sniper is someone rootless and unknown, like, perhaps, a terrorist, we are well and truly f---ed. I HOPE one lesson people learn from this is that you are on your own. I know, however, nobody will got on TV and say "If all those cops are so useless, why don't we fire half of them?"

[longtermmemmory]

The CABLE News Network in his car?

[Age of Reason]

How would you get everyone to even know that they are supposed to stop?

Emergency radio announcement, possibly accompanied by air raid sirens.

Then everybody pulls over to wait for the cops to arrive and conduct the usual roadblock inspection.

People don't want to stop now, even when a cop flags them down, why would these people do it if they didn't have to? Just look at the guy that started this thread!

Do they pull over for firetrucks and the like?

[longtermmemmory]

Police can be at the actual scene of the incident. Think of police like white blood cells. Their job is to isolate the danger to the rest of the body/society. If you happen to be stuck in the infected area (a crime victim), you are out of luck. However, the police will move in like white blood cells to keep the contagon from spreading.

[eno_]

That may be their "job" but their actual performance is that of report-writers and clerks. If you are not a) Caught standing over your victim drenched in his blood, or b) lacking in nerve to the extent you can be broken in a few hours of interrogation and threats, or c) a known criminal, or d) the object of a paid snitch's tip, you can get away with mass murder, not to mention car theft, burgalry, strong-arm robbery, etc. This "white blood cell" effect you describe is a nice fantasy.

[Dick Bachert]

BY JOVE, I THINK YOU'VE GOT IT!!

[longtermmemmory]

I am not saying that they are efficient. Just that is the net result of their actions. I agree completly with you about your examples of:

"a) Caught standing over your victim drenched in his blood, or b) lacking in nerve to the extent you can be broken in a few hours of interrogation and threats, or c) a known criminal, or d) the object of a paid snitch's tip"

The police need to get off their "i am a trained professional" high horse and realize the law abiding citizens are an asset beyond neighborhood crime watch programs. The attitude of the "big mother" governement must be set aside as a failure.

[madison10]

I'm almost at the "maybe the shooter is LE, or looks like LE" level. That sure would make it easy to hide. I agree with whomever said a woman would be able to walk through anywhere. Are we wrong to assume the French soldier is a "he?"

[stuartcr]

I don't have the slightest idea, La Femme Nikita was a french assassin!

[ApesForEvolution]

The terrorist has a Winnebago equipped with a satellite dish.

He tows his car behind him, parking within a few miles of his target area, and scampers back to his RV, which is parked at a hotel?

Thinking out loud.

[unending thunder]

It's roughly a quarter mile North on COnnecticut Ave. from the Mobil station where the taxi driver was shot. ..... go North on Conn. Ave, cross Georgia Ave and take the next left on Grand Pre Road. .... The sniper shot from the woods behind the b-ball court, across the street from the post office on Conn. Ave. This is about 2 miles South of the post office shooting. It's about 300 yards from Micheal's where the window was shot (the first shooting?)

Hey. I live 3,500 miles away but this leaves me witha chill...I can imagine what locals think.

It just seems incredible that a guy(s) can wreak this havoc in the richest areas of the richest nation and there is diddly squat we know, or appear to be able to do.

This is what terrorism is

[ApesForEvolution]

Imagine if it were bombs and not single bullets.

Not better, just not as bad as one could imagine.