by Barry Hastings
There’s nothing like a tragedy (or a disaster) to bring out the shallowness of local television broadcast news. They repeat the remarks of local officials, witnesses, kibitzers, cops every half-hour, hour after hour, and are still doing it, eight days after the event.
They very quickly begin slinging slogans like, ‘We Are Kalamazoo,” and “Kalamazoo Strong” they’ve lifted from aftermath of the Boston Marathon bombing, or other nightmare scenarios, with all the creative ingenuity of the moronic meretricious messengers their employers demand they be “on air.”
They’re like schizoids; on the one hand calling for reason, healing and comforting, on the other re-hashing every gory, frightening tidbit they can garner. And they just keep doing so, hour after hour, day after day.
WWMT-TV for example, spoke to several of Jason Dalton’s (direct descendant of the lead-slinging Dalton gang of old?) neighbors during the day following his shooting rampage (not “spree”), who told them he is known in his neighborhood as a man who, on more than one occasion, has fired pistol shots into the air to “scare off kids trespassing on his property,” though cops say there was, “no prior indication,” he was coming unglued.
Geez, folks, have none of you studied (or even heard of) the laws of physics? (What goes up, must come down.) A falling bullet, even at extreme range, is a very dangerous item, and will easily penetrate the thickest skull, and even more easily, soft body tissue. A guy who uses firearms to frighten kids should not, under any circumstances (short of a threat to his life), be allowed ownership of them. In addition to the 9mm pistol he used to kill six innocent people, and seriously wound two others, Dalton kept 14 long guns, four more pistols, in a home with two children.
(Anyone wanna’ make a bet on how many of them were safely locked away?) My guess is this is a man who spent many, many lonely hours caressing his guns, daydreaming about himself in gunfights with bad apples, and receiving hearty plaudits from fellow citizens for his courageous acts of daring-do in defense of home, country, and Second Amendment. In reality, “19-gun Dalton” is a deranged, depraved, depressed and despairing coward who, like so many of those he emulated, proved a bad-ass only to the unarmed — helpless men, boys, women, and little girls. He certainly didn’t offer much resistance to captivity. I hope he has a long, long life behind bars, in the most barren, wintery part of the U.P.
Another Channel 3 habit, offering clips of upcoming news stories with quotes from people like Kazoo Public Safety Chief Jeff Hadley’s, “I’ve never known a police officer who wanted to get in a gunfight.” Gee, Jeff, are you sure? (Or is it you’ve never known a police officer who’d admit to it?) There sure seem to be plenty of them who like shooting unarmed folks all over the country. Why would Kalamazoo be exempt?
Another thing that bothers hell out of me, is why do we see so many grossly obese police officers? What good would they be in an extended foot chase? Pudgy officers are a shooting waiting to happen
And another thing — the “Protect and Serve” motto painted on just about every police vehicle we see. Even cops admit they can’t protect people from much/most of the danger in everyday life. What they call “protection” actually amounts to locking people away so they can’t harm any more innocent people. They’re lucky if they catch half the perps (and then it’s usually due to stupidity of the perps, or luck, not to brilliant police work).
Network television shows us case after case (every Friday and Saturday night) where cops draw immediate conclusions from crime scenes, end by convicting no one, or the innocent. 10,000 gun homicides annually is all the evidence you should need in the “protection” discussion. Allowing upward of half-a-million Michigan people (of who knows what character) to carry concealed handguns, has not made us safer. (Where are all these good guys with guns the NRA talks about so often, when the bullets start flying?) Looking for cover, I’d bet.
Police officers, on every level, (anyone licensed to kill) should be randomly tested, at least twice yearly, for both alcohol and drug abuse. And those so involved, or with spousal abuse, should be permanently disarmed. All three are big problems, and seldom discussed. All are complicated by the fact most officers will lie through their teeth to protect fellow-officers from dismissal or demotion.
Barry County had a case, just a few years ago, where the sheriff (still holding office) lied on an insurance claim (about a quarter of a million $$ worth), saying an officer was serving “under-cover” when killed in a highway accident. Sure, he was trying to assist the officer’s family, but is insurance fraud the way to do it? Never heard a word from other local elected officials about it, though. Everyone in the county knew the officer was spending his time in a rural area tavern, and with a woman not his wife. And cops wonder why fewer and fewer of us have much respect for them. People around here believe that’s why the FBI raided his office a couple of years back. Nothing (to date) has come of it, though they took his computers and some records.
(The sheriff is another of those who’s added a lot of pounds since being elected to office.) His department is one of those, proliferating around the nation, being quietly militarized. They wear black SWAT-team gear on patrol, and the department’s back yard is filled with cast-off military vehicles that will come in real handy when the local Muslims (all three, or so, of them) attack. Who knows what’s in their gun racks — bazookas? missiles? Stealth fighters? (Talk about pathetic news outlets. . . how about pathetic sheriffs. . . and electorates?)
Our country is truly in deep, deep, and rapidly eroding, crap. And all politics is local.
A note: I have a pie-chart for American humanity. Draw a circle; divide it by three. In one section write ‘good’, in the next, “OK.” In the third, write ‘marginal.’ This rule has pretty much worked in every aspect of American human relations I’ve explored over many, many, many years. The good include the very, very best, down to the best of the OK. Generally, you can count on the good to do the right thing. The OK include those just under “good’s lowest point, to just above ‘marginals” highest. Many of them are right on the edge of “good.” But, as many, are close to the dregs. The highest part of “marginal” can be worked with, but it’s an effort; the lowest is the abysmal muck.
History often demonstrates tie rule. In our war to preserve Independence, it was nip and tuck. But for the French, we’d have been toast — still buying tea from the East India Company, stamps from the Royal Post Office. Patriots numbered about a third of the Caucasian population (but many black people joined the fray, and comprised about 10% of Patriot forces). Another third thought keeping the King, and British rule, was the way to go. The last third went this way and that. Many left for Britain, or Canada. Others moved much further west.
In our Civil War, a third of the country (and that not the brightest third) picked a fight with the colossus of the next 200 years. Got their butts kicked, soundly. Americans have ever been fractious (in roughly “thirds”), and have a tough time pulling together. We did get it together when facing a supreme test, 1940-45, and to some extent through the cold war. Now it looks like something similar will be required to help us out of the crazy, self-inflicted mess we’re in.
I think it’s coming, and is closer than most think. I know it ain’t gonna’ be fun, or pretty. (Much of the effort of “good” and “OK” in life is expended in marginalizing, or incarcerating, marginal. We should try to do something about that.)
Evidently Barry doesn’t know much about history except the final outcomes.
As for the Civil War, the South repeatedly kicked the Union’s ass with less men, less supplies, less rest, and less everything early in the war. How many generals did Lincoln go through before finally settling on Grant? If it weren’t for a great Quartermaster General and unending supplies and troops, the Union would have lost. If the South would have had a likewise Army with supplies and troops, it wouldn’t have been much of a fight.
If Lee would have let Stonewall Jackson have his way early in the war and chase the Army of the Potomac back to Washington D.C., the war may have been over just after it started. If Nathan Bedford Forrest would have been given a major command instead of being under the incompetents he was under, the war may have been different in a large degree. But such is speculation.
The South fought valiantly, with honor, and knew when to surrender – Lee did the right thing at the right time. It was time for the country to become one again. Probably not for the better, but we’ll never know.
Barry, stick with what you know, however, you haven’t demonstrated there is much known by you.