Saturday 4 April 2009

911 on your speed dial is not a safety feature.

All the usual suspects have had ample time to exhibit their lack of focus and ignorance, so why should I be any different??
Every network, every talking head on tv tells us of the tragedy that occured in Binghamton NY yesterday. Right up the interstate from where I am, in fact.

what I see and saw.

Remember Va. Tech and the video footage of it all? Remember the accounts of "not knowing how many shooters were involved, or even WHERE the shooter(s) were" while we were all watching the video clips being run worldwide?

I do. And I noticed an eerily similar situation replay yesterday in Binghamton.
Cops, lots of armed cops, hunkered down by buildings and cars, waiting. Watching.
I heard one account this morning of a local person who
"watched more than a dozen police cars fly by my house, so I decided to follow them to the scene. When I arived, I got out of the car, and heard pop.pop.pop.pop.pop.................(many quick gunshots).
The police then ushered me and others out of the area, to safety. "

Sure its easy to second guess the police and their responses. Especially from the other side of a tv screen.
But at what point are Americans going to fix their focus properly, and not on nonsense like "prayer vigils" and "psychological experts being sent to the area to help people cope..." ?
At what point to heavily armed officers hunkered down outside waiting for everybody to be killed, become moot? I mean whats the point? Why even respond???? In case the shooter(s) emerge and make themselves visible viable targets for said heavily armed officers???
Imagine the 911 calls. Imagine being involved in situations like this, and calling 911 for "help"
"911, what is your emergency?"
"We're being shot to pieces. Send help".
"ok, officers are on the way".



"911, what is your emergency?"
"We're STILL being shot in here!"
"Officers are on the scene. Let us know when the shooting stops and officers will come inside and help".

Oh, you think I dont know how much THAT little commentary will piss off people, especially police officers?
Like I care.
Like anybody inside those situations care.
You go back and re-read my previous days commentary, about how soldiers and marines are TRAINED to run towards the gunfire.
NOT get to a safe location NEAR the gunfire, and wait for SOME kind of signal, or 12 level authorized directive to act.

As a society, we are becomming more and more helpless by the day. In that helpless becomming society, we are more and more dependent on things like heavily armed police officers to PROTECT us (as opposed to conducting body counts while dressed like Rambo).
Not exactly a good trade there.
Didja notice the difference between how police respond in sutuations like Va Tech and Binghamton, and say............Oakland California shootings? Know the situation?
In Va Tech and Binghamton, crazed gunmen killed innocent trapped victims, at will and apparently at random. Officers waited outside. For whatever unquestionable reason, they waited outside.
In Oakland California, cops were killed. Assasinated.
No waiting around there. THAT guy got pursued actively and violently like he SHOULD have been pursued and dealt with.
Are you connecting any dots yet?

I'm NOT anti-police.
I'm anti-massacres. I'm anti-sheep mentality. I'm anti "ooooh I hope the police get here soon to help me....."
Protect YOURSELVES, because unless you yourself are a police officer, and or unless the shooter in your particular hypothetical situation makes HIMSELF available to the police, you're on your own. Better knowing that going into any situation.

People (you know, educated types) scoff at fools like myself whenever phrases like "protect YOURELVES" are uttered. "Why, we cant possibly become a society where we all walk around carrying guns....."
No, we cant all walk around with guns. But we KNOW that crazed loonies have them. And when the police come-a-runnin' to respond to one of those crazed loonies, unless said crazed loony makes himself visible and viable as a target, OR unless said crazed loony kills an officer or two, hes NOT going to be stopped until HE stops HIMSELF, as recent history has shown us.
And you're ok with that?

Its true that no one can prepare for every disaster or possible disaster that may occur.
Its true that there are no easy answers to situations like this one in Binghamton (or Va Tech or Sampson Alabama...........)
We live in a world where NOTHING is guaranteed, and little is truly safe. We BELIEVE it to be safe (and for the most part it is) but it can all go "pop.pop.pop.pop.pop" in a heartbeat.
So. I suppose you can go in a few directions here. Be prepared to die, I guess is an obvious one. That one makes sense without incidents like the one in Binghamton.
Be prepared to save lives, too. Maybe yours, maybe others, maybe a BUNCH of others.
Know that there ARE a few good people, walking around with guns, and sometimes, it works out for the good.
Not without risks, as this guy can tell you, but for the good.

I'd be willing to go out on a limb, and say that any one of the victims in yesterday's shooting, would have LOVED for the Burger King concealed permit holding citizen, to have been present in their building in Binghamton, yesterday.


People like him, and me, are not the crazy loons that the media and other enlightened types infer we are.

The loons who do things like shoot up people at random, are the bad guys.
Cops, are the good guys, but cops cant protect you from the crazies.
Sometimes you have to protect yourself, and each other, from the bad guys.

I'm so sick of the bad guys.
I'm so sick of people like myself being portrayed as a bad guy.
I'm so sick of good people being deceived into believing that people like myself are bad guys.

Its sad.
As sad as what happened in Binghamton yesterday.

1 comment:

  1. I'm so sick of the bad guys.
    I'm so sick of people like myself being portrayed as a bad guy.
    I'm so sick of good people being deceived into believing that people like myself are bad guys.

    ~~~Sometimes "Bad is Good", sometimes bad is bad as in 1%ers.

    cjc

    ReplyDelete