State Police Officer Dies in Pennsylvania Ambush

[Gerald]

Law enforcement officers from three states were searching on Saturday for a suspect or suspects who ambushed two troopers at a state police barracks in northeastern Pennsylvania, killing one and wounding the other.
The slain trooper was identified on Saturday afternoon as Cpl. Bryon K. Dickson. The wounded trooper, who was identified as Alex T. Douglass, was in critical but stable condition after undergoing surgery at Geisinger Medical Center in Scranton.

Like these events are always tragic, and it is hard on the whole community.


http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/14/us...T.nav=top-news





Note: SEPT. 13, 2014

[BrucePartington]

Is the world going insane, or are these incidents becoming more visible?

[Wolferz]

Originally Posted by BrucePartington

Is the world going insane, or are these incidents becoming more visible?

Mass media clamors to put bad news on the wire. It's in their nature.

Considering the rise of the police state and some of the underhanded things they've been doing to otherwise innocent folk, I'm surprised it isn't happening more often.

Law enforcement views itself as an army fighting a war against everything criminal.

http://www.policemag.com/channel/pat...or-patrol.aspx

The only problem with this mindset is that all too often innocent people get caught in the crossfire and suddenly the police become judge and jury and will make your life a living hell, leaving you with little recourse or remedy short of a huge attorney bill.
How to lose a large sum of money through police interdiction...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/inv...-targets-cash/

There have been numerous law abiding citizens who found themselves on the receiving end of an interdiction traffic stop and had their money seized, even when no contraband is found.

If you're going on a family vacation, don't carry cash.
If you're moving to another state, don't carry cash.
If you're headed somewhere to buy supplies for your restaurant, don't carry cash.

That's three examples of people who were interdicted by law enforcement and were perceived to be in the drug trade and had a large sum of money stolen from them by a police officer, thanks to their usage of increased powers from the Patriot Act. The seized cash gets sent to a Federal interagency sharing program where it gets divvied up and passed around.
I call it legalized highway robbery because maybe one in a hundred traffic stops are found to be actually hauling contraband. The other ninety-nine are just ordinary folk who don't trust banks or can't have a bank account for whatever reason. But, it's enough to arouse suspicion and levy an accusation.

Like I said, I'm surprised it isn't happening more often.

[BrucePartington]

Thanks for the heads up Wolf. I've just skimmed through he articles (will read them later) but I find this whole matter rather disturbing. When I left Pittsburgh in 1993 to return to Portugal, I left my heart there (US) for all the good it did to me. Not any more, as I see the good ol' USofA slowly becoming a police state, with law abiding citizens being harassed and extorted by those who proclaim to "Serve and Protect", and being recruited to the prison system workforce. This saddens me deeply.

[Platapus]

I wonder if "law enforcement officers from three states" would be involved if "just" an ordinary citizen were killed?

[Aktungbby]

^Probably in this case; as on the map off the I-84- only 10 min. dash to the New York/New Jersey boarder getaway wise. Just to cut off the easterly escape route.

[em2nought]

Originally Posted by Wolferz

Mass media clamors to put bad news on the wire. It's in their nature.

Considering the rise of the police state and some of the underhanded things they've been doing to otherwise innocent folk, I'm surprised it isn't happening more often.

Law enforcement views itself as an army fighting a war against everything criminal.

http://www.policemag.com/channel/pat...or-patrol.aspx

The only problem with this mindset is that all too often innocent people get caught in the crossfire and suddenly the police become judge and jury and will make your life a living hell, leaving you with little recourse or remedy short of a huge attorney bill.
How to lose a large sum of money through police interdiction...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/inv...-targets-cash/

There have been numerous law abiding citizens who found themselves on the receiving end of an interdiction traffic stop and had their money seized, even when no contraband is found.

If you're going on a family vacation, don't carry cash.
If you're moving to another state, don't carry cash.
If you're headed somewhere to buy supplies for your restaurant, don't carry cash.

That's three examples of people who were interdicted by law enforcement and were perceived to be in the drug trade and had a large sum of money stolen from them by a police officer, thanks to their usage of increased powers from the Patriot Act. The seized cash gets sent to a Federal interagency sharing program where it gets divvied up and passed around.
I call it legalized highway robbery because maybe one in a hundred traffic stops are found to be actually hauling contraband. The other ninety-nine are just ordinary folk who don't trust banks or can't have a bank account for whatever reason. But, it's enough to arouse suspicion and levy an accusation.

Like I said, I'm surprised it isn't happening more often.

This is disturbing stuff because it's so hard to transfer money fast from bank to bank now, sometimes we just withdrawl the cash and deposit it again. I've been riding around with $10,000 cash on me before. I've paid for cashier's checks only to have them held for a few days. What's the point of a fracking cashier's check then? Burn it all down man, I'm not a criminal - our gov't is.

[Jeff-Groves]

Looks like I wasn't far off on my thoughts don't it?

Originally Posted by Wolferz

Mass media clamors to put bad news on the wire. It's in their nature.

They just give us what we want after all.
It is easy to blame the press for things like this. Then again, there are shows like "Cops" where we just wait for them to riddle that damn "crack-blackguy" with lots of bullets.

Or when they show car chases on the news?
Aren't we all waiting for the big dramatic crash and, hopefully, some fatalities? It's so exciting after all!

Or what about recorded "live!" suicides?

We love that. We want that.
They are just answering the call.

[Aktungbby]

Originally Posted by Nippelspanner

They just give us what we want after all.
fatalities? It's so exciting after all! We love that. We want that.
They are just answering the call.

"Ave, Imperator, morituri te salutant" NOTHIN GOOD?($$$) GOES OUTTA STYLE BBY!vs Literally!

Originally Posted by Aktungbby

"Ave, Imperator, morituri te salutant"

[Sailor Steve]

Originally Posted by Nippelspanner

They just give us what we want after all.
It is easy to blame the press for things like this. Then again, there are shows like "Cops" where we just wait for them to riddle that damn "crack-blackguy" with lots of bullets.

I'm not.

Or when they show car chases on the news?
Aren't we all waiting for the big dramatic crash and, hopefully, some fatalities? It's so exciting after all!

I'm not.

Or what about recorded "live!" suicides?

We love that. We want that.
They are just answering the call.

Maybe you do. I certainly don't.

Originally Posted by Sailor Steve

<snip>

Steve, look at my post again, and notice that I put we in italic.
I thought the purpose of this was clear.

[Onkel Neal]

Originally Posted by Nippelspanner

They just give us what we want after all.
It is easy to blame the press for things like this. Then again, there are shows like "Cops" where we just wait for them to riddle that damn "crack-blackguy" with lots of bullets.

Or when they show car chases on the news?
Aren't we all waiting for the big dramatic crash and, hopefully, some fatalities? It's so exciting after all!

Or what about recorded "live!" suicides?

We love that. We want that.
They are just answering the call.

To a degree, that's true. It's why tabloids are still selling, why non-entities like the Kardashians and Miley Cyrus are on the CNN front page -- daily!


But I still blame the press, they are supposed to be educated, they could set and hold a higher standard.

Originally Posted by Platapus

Well this has turned out to be another swell GT thread.

Don't blame me, I just got here But I would be interested in ideas on improving the tone of GT.

[Platapus]

Originally Posted by Neal Stevens

But I still blame the press, they are supposed to be educated, they could set and hold a higher standard.

But they are educated and they do have a high standard. It is called profit.

It is a mistake to think that the news services today are the same as the news services of yesteryear. For decades news reporting was a profit loss for the corporation. There was no money in news reporting. It was offered as a service and the other programming paid for the costs of the news.

Then, it was discovered that news reporting can be entertainment and therefore sold as a profit making venue for the media corporation. No longer were other shows carrying the freight for the news shows. Now the news shows are expected to work at a profit.

So what is a well educated news media professional supposed to do? The focus on selling a product their customer's like.

That's why there is a Fox News and a MSNBC. Each has a customer base, and each service caters to that customer base. Good business practices.

If you hold the news media business to an unrealistic level of them providing a public service, it is not surprising when the news media falls in our vision.

We want (or think we want) the news service to do (public service), when in reality they are doing (make profit for the corporation).

If you look at them from a business viewpoint, the news media is doing quite well and are exceeding their standards...... it is just that their standards may be different from what we want.