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NOT TO FEAR, GOOD CITIZENS!!! THE INVESTIGATION IS IN CAPABLE HANDS!!!
Owl_Eagle
”Guns Before Butter.”
Posted on 10/16/2002 6:38:36 AM PDT by xsysmgr
The victims are engaged in the most mundane of tasks: shopping, buying gasoline, going to the post office, or to school. The bullet, traveling at 1,500 feet per second or more, reaches its target even before the rifle's report, and in the blink of an eye a routine errand becomes an appointment with death. There is a sudden empathy for the people of Israel, for now no one in the suburbs surrounding Washington leaves home without wondering if he . . . just . . . might . . . be . . . next.
The police, despite an unprecedented commitment of personnel and equipment, remain baffled and frustrated as the death toll creeps higher, their efforts only seeming to egg the murderer on to further carnage. At the center of the investigation, looking wearier by the day, is Charles Moose, chief of police in Montgomery County, Md., where most of the crimes have occurred. The atmosphere surrounding the investigation has predictably devolved into a circus, one edging ever higher on the O. J. scale, and Chief Moose finds himself in the unenviable role of ringmaster. His every utterance is parsed, his every decision criticized by the sages, all those retired cops and G-men who have sprung from obscurity to populate the cable-news shows.
Each day Moose must face the ravenous creature known as the media, whose differentiated organs very closely resemble actual human beings. He must toss out enough chum to maintain the beast in its alert and agitated state, for when properly maintained it can be a useful tool in the pursuit of his goal. But he must take care not to overfeed. If placed on too rich a diet, the beast becomes complacent. And if the offerings should for some reason grow meager, Moose runs the risk of seeing the beast turn on him and chew him to ribbons.
There will be no satisfaction of course — and indeed there shouldn't be — until the sniper is captured or killed. But Chief Moose is in for a wild ride until that happens. The public, whose knowledge of police work is derived mainly from watching television programs like Law and Order and CSI, seems to expect that a group of detectives can swoop into a crime scene and, after plucking a molecule or two of DNA from a blade of grass, have the bad guy in irons in time for the eleven o'clock news. Well, as we've learned from watching the sniper kill with seeming impunity for two weeks, real life is quite a bit messier than that. To begin with, even an investigative team that included Ellery Queen, Hercule Poirot, and Sherlock Holmes would need some evidence to work with, and this killer has left behind little but corpses. And there is reason to look askance at what little has been found so far.
Officers searching the area near the Bowie, Md. middle school where a 13-year-old boy was shot discovered a tarot card, on which was written the message: "Dear policeman, I am God." Found nearby was a shell casing of the type consistent with the ammunition used in each of the shootings. News reports have it that no other shell casings have been found, this despite intensive searches at all of the other murder scenes. It occurs to me that the recovered casing might be a red herring, not ejected from the murder weapon at all. The killer may well have plucked it from the ground at whatever firing range he used to hone his deadly skills, only to place it at this crime scene so as to divert investigative attention from himself, or even to pave the way for an eventual defense in court. Consider: If the sniper is so careful as to retrieve his expended casings at every crime scene but one, and at this one he not only leaves a casing behind, but with it what amounts to a calling card, does it not seem that he intended for both these items to be found?
Complicating things further for Chief Moose is the fact that the shootings have occurred in an area spanning two states and the District itself, with local and state police departments from each jurisdiction joined by the FBI, ATF, U.S. Marshals, and God knows what other agencies now having a hand in the manhunt. And in each of these agencies you will find some top-notch cops and you will find some considerably less so. Owing to the scope of the investigation and all its political ramifications, it will be impossible to exclude people who might be carrying fancy credentials and shiny gold badges from some revered law-enforcement agency, but who nonetheless haven't the first clue about investigating homicides. Better to have 20 detectives who know their way around a crime scene than a hundred who can't find the stove in the kitchen.
In June of 1994 the nation and the world was similarly abuzz with the yet unfolding O. J. Simpson carnival. For a day or two Mr. Simpson was on the loose, his whereabouts unknown, and a friend asked me to speculate on the outcome. I told him I thought the proper conclusion, in the time-honored Los Angeles tradition, would be a nice long car chase culminating with Simpson's death in a shootout. Alas, only the car chase came to pass, and you know the rest. Here's hoping for a more fitting end for the sniper, and may it come quickly.
— Jack Dunphy is an officer in the Los Angeles Police Department. "Jack Dunphy" is the author's nom de cyber. The opinions expressed are his own and almost certainly do not reflect those of the LAPD management.
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Owl_Eagle
”Guns Before Butter.”
Somehow I find this name prophetic here on FR. I'm waiting for him to say cheese befoe he jumps into the shower.
Could this be terrorism and not a whacko serial killer?
Are we having other problems with terrorists anywhere?
What are the methods and tactics of those terrorists?
Do those terrorists outline methods of random killings by sniper?
Does the perpatrator operate alone or with an accomplice?
What prior skills would provide the perpatrator with such intimate knowledge of DC Metro roads and traffic flows?
Are these driving skills and knowledge commonplace among most DC Metro drivers?
What sort of profession would provide someone with this skill?
Are certain types of people drawn to this profession?
Are superior marksmanship skills require to shoot a .223 rifle accurately from 50 to 150 yards?
What other skills or character traits would be required to calmly, deliberately, and repeatedly shoot innocent strangers?
It seems to me that LE is not asking the right questions.
I think it's being done by demonRATs. They're trying to cause as much unrest as possible prior to the elections. IMHO, the demonRATs deserve to be placed at the top of the list of enemies of the U.S., with Saddam and Bin Laden somewhere further down the list. Neither of them has done as much to damage our country as the demonRATs. If you really want to look into the face of pure evil, look at Hitlery.
There's A New Sherrif In Town
Owl_Eagle
”Guns Before Butter.”
Have fun anyway. Maybe the "powers that be" gave us Chief Moose for a reason! :) Surely you can't expect FReepers to leave a name like this alone!
Are some pseudo-witnesses deliberately giving LE the wrong information?
Is witness credibility being considered with a view toward possible ulterior motives, such as attempting to deflect attention from a particular ethnic/religious group?
Is it really helpful to release conflicting or contrasting composites of the same (hardly distinctive) vehicle?
Are we (LE) attempting to make decisions based on equal weight given to all witnesses, so that, in the event of failure, we can fall back on "conflicting stories?"
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