Sniper Talk

I know this will make me seem like an insensitive punk, but all this sniper talk in the news reminds me of is Goldeneye for N64, that game was awesome. Ok, but I really do feel bad for the victims and their families. Whoever this sniper is (or copycat, or gang, who knows) needs to be caught, placed in a burlap bag and beaten with reeds. That's pretty standard, really.

I gotta say, though, is it just me or are the police and the press handling this thing in the most inept way possible? Every day, I see or hear something idiotic on the news. Last week, some lady from the investigation team or whatever was saying that witnesses of the shooting need to do a better job, that they should try to take down the license plates, get a good look at the shooter's features, and figure out which direction the shots were fired from, etc. Yeah right, if I am walking on the street or getting gas, and someone next to me gets popped, I am really gonna actually stop, turn towards the direction the shot came from, pull out a pen and notebook, write down the license plate, and keenly note the appearance of the shooter who is 100 yards away. Hellllllllllllllllls naw.... I am ducking to the facking ground, that's what I'm doing. Why don't they just ask me to pull out a camera, wait for the flash to warm up, and take a few pictures too?

Then today, the big news was reported that children in the area are "not safe anywhere at any time." What a news flash, but apparently, this was information that the press knew yesterday, but were asked not to release. Hmm.... After intense pondering, I really can't think of one good reason why this would be news to keep secret

But instead, last week when they borrowed the air patrol services from the military, they announced it as if they were Terrell Owens celebrating a touchdown. Nice, now the killer knows that if he is to strike again, better to do it during daylight instead of night, when shots can be seen from the sky. Way to go guys, what a great job of forcing the sniper to to shoot only in the daytime, when more people are outside anyways. Actually, they didn't even do that, because after the announcement people still got nailed at night.

If I were living around that area, I would be at least a little annoyed by how this whole thing is being handled. It's not like you can expect them to break the case right now, but at least they need to be more professional and responsible. And you know the more the press coverage this thing gets, the more satisfaction the killer(s) get. I don't really understand why people like to watch this kind of news so much. It doesn't help viewers avoid getting shot, it just makes everyone scared to go anywhere. There's almost no substantial information they are reporting, only wild stabbing at possible leads.

CNN and MSNBC must be making a killing these days, it's one thing after another. 9/11, then anthrax, West Nile, and now this. If there's one thing in common with all these stories, it's the fact that they all show that humans, and more specifically Americans, are not invincible. We'd like to think that in such an advanced society, we are safe and don't have to worry about anything. It's hardly a wonder that atheism is so popular, because nobody feels like they need God. I'm not gonna make this into a long religious thing, but let me just observe that we can do all the genetic research we want, we can build nuclear weapons, we can do plastic surgery, pour trillions of dollars into government and law enforcement and trust in Alan Greenspan, but humans are humans, and humans are not perfect. All you need to do is look at the suffering around the world, and watch the news in this country to see that plenty of bad things can happen to us no matter how much we try to cling to the illusion of safety.