Sunday, December 14, 2014

When Duty Calls


Flags are flying at half staff in Connecticut today, not that anybody in that state needs reminding of the horrific event that once again stunned our nation with its raw savagery.

 Sandy Hook Elementary School, 12/14/12

We expect to occasionally hear the unfortunate news that a first responder is suddenly cut down in the line of duty. However, all first responders know death is in their job description.

It takes an extraordinary event like the Worcester fire tragedy or 9/11 to grab us by the throat so we suddenly pay attention again.

Teachers on the other, are not expected to die in the routine performance of their daily duty.  Columbine changed that.  Sandy Hook moved the bar a little higher.

And since not much has changed, the next one will be even more unspeakable.

Shouldn't they call this "Shelter in Place"?

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sandy Hook was a false flag event to push through the gun control legislation.

http://www.corbettreport.com/the-sandy-hook-controversy-james-tracy-on-grtv/

Larry Kelley said...

With all due respect, Mr. Tracy is an embarrassment to anything relating to journalism.

Any whacko conspiracy theorist could have a field day with ANY breaking news story over the past 4 or 5 years by citing original tweets issued in real time vs the story that comes out a day later when cooler heads have investigated the event.

Anonymous said...

I still want to know why the perp let the Asst Principal live -- while murdering both the Principal and School Psych in his first violent act.

An un-armed woman trailing blood is NOT going to escape unless the shooter decides to let her -- and between ricochets and shrapnel, we don't even know if he intended to shoot *her*.

I want to know what provoked this -- something quite specific did and THAT is the thing we aren't being told about. The mental health people do a LOT of stupid things, often using children's civil rights for toilet paper, and I'm thinking they created this monster.

Same thing with Virginia Tech -- FERPA dies with the student, yet VT won't release any of that perp's judicial records. Why?

They are hiding something -- they created a monster who bit them....

They create monsters -- and then ask us to let them create more...

Jason Perry said...

Stunning that some believe that a great government conspiracy "created" a mentally ill young man, set him to the task of killing children, and was able to cover all of this up, in order to push through gun control legislation.

Yes, that must be it.

Aside from the pure silliness of such a belief, it does harm by detracting from a serious discussion of the issues and turns tragedy into a (weird) talking point.

Richard S. Bogartz said...

Thank you, Larry, for the post and for your comments.

Larry Kelley said...

You're welcome.

Dr. Ed said...

Jason Perry said Stunning that some believe that a great government conspiracy "created" a mentally ill young man, set him to the task of killing children

Larry, for the record, what EXACTLY did the Town Meeting vote/say about Bush/Cheney? What is the exact text of what the Town Meeting (and hence the Town itself) considered to be true?

I'll put my reputation on the line here -- (A) this is NOT Aspergerger's behavior, (B) It's not something I'd expect an Aspie to even be able to *DO*, and hence there (C) was a shitload of something else that overcame all of this.

Kinda line a woman who had been raped deciding to strip naked in front of a frat house and scream "rape me!" -- Questions would be asked about "why" if she did that....

Dr. Ed said...

One other thing -- I don't know about Sandy Hook, but the V/T shooter reloaded at least twice and that requires both hands along with some coordination. It's also harder to hit someone with a gun than most people realize.

What I fail to understand is why people don't fight back -- laptops, shoes, purses, chairs -- a fuselage of objects flying at the perp's head is going to make it rather impossible for the perp to shoot anyone because the hand holding the gun will be raised to protect his/her/its head.

Jamming almost anything (including clothing) into certain parts of a gun will prevent it from being reloaded --- that is how the Gabby Gifford shooting was stopped, a woman familiar with firearms prevented the full clip from seating.

And if you can smash the perp's head in -- if you can kill the perp who is trying to kill you -- that's called "self defense" and used to be considered legitimate.

Anonymous said...

Don't bring a laptop to a gunfight.

Dr. Ed said...

Don't bring a laptop to a gunfight.

A unit in Vietnam was pinned down in an ambush, and they were down to about 4-5 rounds per man. LT said "men, we can stay here and ALL of us will die, or we can charge and at least some of us might live."

They fixed bayonets, charged, and didn't lose a man.

You can stand there and let someone murder you -- I intend to make it as difficult as possible.

Anonymous said...

Let's Roll.

Anonymous said...

I often wonder why those poor people just Neil and let their heads be Cut off by ISIS and other Islamic radicals. I think I'm gonna try and make A run for it even if it means they shoot me in the back.

Anonymous said...

Kneel. (I can't trust my iphone to listen well enough.)

keithw said...

Its funny how some judge the actions of people facing death, saying "they shoulda done this", "they coulda done that" or "I woulda done this" while never taking into account the psychological weight of the incident.

Everyone thinks they'll fight for their life, but many don't. Some of the people descending the stairs of the WTC just sat down and perished. People with survivable injuries sometimes just give up and succumb. Some hostages wind up developing Stockholm Syndrome instead of fighting their captors.

You can't truly know what you will do yourself until you've been there and have seen yourself in action