Does anyone besides me see how utterly lame this is?
Meanwhile, the dumbed-down, defenseless sheeple cower in their burrows or walk around like they're treading on eggshells. Pitiful.
"Land of the free, home of the brave"? Obviously, not any longer.
Posted on 10/22/2002 5:53:37 AM PDT by mikeb704
As this is written on early Monday evening, Montgomery County Police Chief Charles Moose has a strange request. He wants the sniper to call back because "The person you called could not hear everything you said. The audio was unclear and we want to get it right. Call us back so that we can clearly understand."
Perhaps the call didn’t come from the sniper, but from another person of high interest to investigators, as they say. Either way the chief’s request is unusual. Many Washington, D. C. area residents are terrified and wonder when the nightmare will end.
Schools have been closed and homecomings cancelled. Some football games have been moved to unadvertised locations. Gas pump areas are covered by tarps. Folks are crouching and zigzagging into stores. That is, when they go into stores.
So frustrated are the police that they’re having witnesses hypnotized in hopes of nudging their memories. It’s getting to the point where merely driving a white van is daunting. Defense secretary Rumsfeld has authorized the military to try to catch the sniper.
Can you imagine if, instead of just one, there were two or three dozen snipers operating simultaneously across America? My guess is that much of the country would be in lockdown status with the accompanying economic devastation. Foreign terrorists undoubtedly are taking note.
So why, when there are so many resources devoted to the murderer’s capture, can’t the police apprehend him? How many more people will die before it all ends?
I sense the public’s increasing disillusionment with law enforcement. JonBenet Ramsey. Chandra Levy. Elizabeth Smart. All highly publicized cases in which the police failed to catch the perpetrator.
Yet one must wonder if they deserved so much attention. The all-news cable TV networks have dialed the news cycle up to warp speed. They must have breaking news or bulletins or alerts every few minutes to justify their existence. Consequently, they constantly report the same events even if there aren’t any fresh developments.
Then you have understandably distraught, grieving parents wanting to use the media to spread the word on their child’s disappearance. They hire or borrow public relations assistance to get airtime and the news channels are happy to accommodate.
Often, law enforcement officials play right into the gotta have "new" news all the time scam. They hold press conferences in which the answers are mostly either we can’t comment on that because it’s currently under investigation or we are hopeful that we’ll capture the person or persons responsible. Other times, they’re even less helpful, as when Salt Lake City’s police chief assumed a false bravado and said, "My caution to this suspect if he is listening is: We are going to get you. And if you've got Elizabeth (Smart), you'd better release her now." You may have noticed that never happened. Did the cop really believe he could intimidate the criminal with a transparently empty threat? Or was he just getting in more face time on camera?
Complicating matters is inept police work. The D.C. police came off looking like the Keystone Cops in their Chandra Levy investigation. After Miss Levy’s remains were found, police conducted what they described as a thorough search of the area. Yet Fox News Channel’s Greta Van Susteren walked in the area afterwards and found numerous items including a rope, a shoe, an empty condom wrapper and other stuff. Maybe they relate to Chandra’s death. Maybe they don’t. Regardless, the materials should have been first found by the police and examined.
In the sniper case, I don’t think publicly announcing that the military has joined the investigation is helpful. I don’t see that the police talking about tarot cards and notes, and sending the shooter messages via television is necessary. The killer must love all the attention. Maybe it spurs him on to newer crimes so he can drive home and see how his latest offense is being covered.
Then there are 24/7 cable TV’s round-the-clock talking heads. With scant information, they sagely answer most questions with an "I don’t know and we shouldn’t speculate" and then deliver 120 seconds of pure conjecture.
All the saturation has done its job. A Newsweek poll shows that almost half of all Americans – 47 percent – are very or somewhat worried about they or their family being shot by a sniper. That fear simply isn’t realistic. It’s not justified.
It behooves us to keep the serial sniper’s crimes in perspective. To hope that the wall-to-wall coverage by the media and the police communicating to him through it do not encourage him. To realize that government – at any level – can’t really protect is. And to pray that the killings stop and the killer is brought to swift and firm justice.
Does anyone besides me see how utterly lame this is?
Meanwhile, the dumbed-down, defenseless sheeple cower in their burrows or walk around like they're treading on eggshells. Pitiful.
"Land of the free, home of the brave"? Obviously, not any longer.
Sniper to police chief: *Listen real close, now...BANG!*
Yep.
He's coming in loud and clear. Unfortunately.
I agree completely, but I'm fairly certain that the evidence uncovered so far points to directly to Islamoterrorism, and that the Feds are frightened to death about the possibility of innocent Muslims (and people who look like Muslims) being the targets of a very pissed-off populace.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.