Beltway Sniper Shootings-FR Commentary-Tuesday, Oct. 15

Fox News, CNN, Press Conferences | October 15, 2002 | Fox News, CNN, Press Conferences

[Peach]

To avoid multiple vanity threads regarding any news from press conferences, let's keep a live commentary thread going again today.

Note: This is the graphics-free thread. Graphics can be found under the thread titled "Beltway Sniper Shootings-Graphics Only"

[Merovingian]

That was my point..I do not assign any credibility to this supposed eye witness..I think he WAS across rte 50...

[Elenya]

I thought they already had all that kind of stuff up already.

[mewzilla]

Hmmm, Moose (with or without Squirrel) or Rummy? Gee, now there's tough call. NOT! Anybody got an ACME Instant Cloning Kit handy?

[exmarine]

An evil person or persons can commit cold blooded murder without batting an eyelash. Not having a shred of morality does not make you crazy.

You are assuming this is a sociopath doing the killing. If it is a muslim fanatic, your analysis is wrong. A muslim's motivation is religous in nature - he is doing it to get his 72 virgin reward in heaven (that big whorehouse in the sky). Thus, to him, it is a moral act, by the will of his satanic god.

[Kip Lange]

Stupid question time: If we use drones, how exactly will that help? If I'm the sniper, I look up in the sky, see if a drone is there, if not...I pull the trigger. If so, I keep driving.

I assume that the Predators are flying at a high enough altitude so that you can't see them and tracking thermal images on the ground, as well as visual images, and keeping a visual record on a variety of cameras which it can analyze and extrapolate data from later. You can't hear it; you keep driving; you get away with one killing, probably, and then they have you, hopefully, I guess.

And I'm quite sure our military tech would be better than cameras on onramps -- I just want an explanation as to why we're going to use such expensive *war* machinery on what has still only been confirmed to us as a "civilian killing spree". Y'know? ;-) I'm trying not to tilt too far in either direction, but I'd like some words from some folk above Moose to clear this matter up. Bush's modified-limited yesterday was not what I was looking for.

--KL

[mhking]

You are correct and it would be open towards 50. Route 7 is to the back of Home Depot. The top of the deck is the same level as rte 7. There are shops/stores on two different levels there so the deck is kind of like an overhang providing extra parking. The Home Depot is on the lower level with a ramp leading from it to the top of the deck. Parking is available on top of or under the deck.

IIRC (it's been more'n 10 years since I have been at that plaza - and it was much smaller with no deck then), 50 runs beneath the Seven Corners intersection itself, while 7 is up top. 50 has no lights there, just offramps, but 7 has lights - is this correct?

If so, and if the car left headed east on 50, my impression of this guy having intimate knowledge of the DC area highway system would inch closer toward a realistic issue.

[dinasour]

Pretty good discussion here: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/769517/posts

This is a post civil war law (not a constitutional issue) that has a lot of loopholes, if someone needed to exploit it. For example, as I understand it, the Navy doesn't apply, so they could send in the Marines.

It could be repealed, as well, but Tom Daschle would want UN approval first.

[ottersnot]

it makes sense that the sniper would take out a high number of federal employees.
That would imply that the sniper would know that someone was a federal employee just by looking at them, or had followed the person/researched them.
Just guessing that's not likely.

[evad]

30 FEET?????? My goodness, if you can't get a good description from 30 feet of the driver, shooter, and van, there is something wrong. That would also put the shooter IN the garage, not out.

Yes..there are definite inconsistencies with the 30 foot scenario. I personally haven't heard it on FOX and I've been listening most of the day.

[mewzilla]

There's also the size of the drone to worry about. Ten tons, isn't it? And like 26' or so? Over a densely populated area? I don't know...

[tomkat]

I do not assign any credibility to this supposed eye witness..
I think he WAS across rte 50...

agreed

[Kip Lange]

Someone explain under what circumstances we can use our miltitary for the common defense? I am clueless.

As far as I know -- when the President, as C-I-C, orders it...am I wrong? Congress can dissent, of course, but he has the say on national security, oui? (in theory)

--KL

[Elenya]

I just want an explanation as to why we're going to use such expensive *war* machinery on what has still only been confirmed to us as a "civilian killing spree". Y'know? ;-)

An explanation would be nice. I'm not holding my breath, though.

[homegroan]

I don't think it's a "conspiracy", I just find it an interesting area choice. Why not L.A.? or Chicago?
Just a thought.Maybe a sick motive.

I remember, when I was living in Rhode Island, someone was ticked off with the DMV and drove their car right through the building.

Maybe someone has it in for Moose.....didn't he recently move to Mont. County? from Portland...where the last cell was found??
The most shootings were in his county.

[Letitring]

As a premiere shopper, I can assure you it wouldn't bother me one bit to have a bunch of Army and Marine types running around my mall. :)Seriously, I've no idea what the rules are when it pertains to this. I do know there is alot of difference in the way our Law Enforcement people are trained, vs. the way the military is trained. Thank Goodness. I don't mean that disrespectful. Just that our military is trained to KILL the enemy, and leo's are trained to arrest us. :)Generally speaking.

[eno_]

The main problem with a drone is narrow field of view. Extremely unlikely the drone would be over the site when a shooting takes place. It COULD get to a shooting faster than a police car, but so could a helicopter, and the stabilized optics and cameras on police helicopters are amazingly good - good enough to pick a face out of a crowd from a great enough distance that you could not hear the helicopter over local traffic noise. The drone thing sounds like more wild trashing on the part of a clueless Chief Moose.

[Solson]

Predators are pretty noticable and considering normal flight paths of aircraft, etc. predators will be noticable.

I just really question the effectiveness of the predators. Then again, I also question the effectiveness of sending 240 squad cars to the scene of the crime rather than establishing a perimeter on ALL adjacent main thoroughfares with lookouts and potentially roadblocks.

[areafiftyone]

I seriously doubt they will use drones. That's a little too much. But the helecopters should have been used from the getgo.

[Smogger]

A muslim's motivation is religous in nature - he is doing it to get his 72 virgin reward in heaven (that big whorehouse in the sky). Thus, to him, it is a moral act, by the will of his satanic god.

I agree completely. The point of fact is that in either case the person is hardly insane.

[jacquej]

That I know, but under what circumstances may they be used to defend the population?

At what point does this shift from a "law-enforcement" issue, and become a national defense issue?

Is it just too hard to folks to comprehend that we could be under attack within our own border, even though it has obviously happened... WTC comes to mind, and now I am wondering about OKC and the inexplicable plane crashes.

And about Charles Moose. He seems like a nice, well-meaning guy, but I cannot comprehend why he is the spokesman for this mess. Surely it has gone beyond his pay-grade by this point!

While he may have many talents as a police chief, it doesn't inspire confidence to have someone who can't even pronouce "this" properly be the public spokesperson for the effort to find the perps and stop these citizen assassinations.