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Chris Dorner, and all the bad things in the news lately — Parallax Forums

Chris Dorner, and all the bad things in the news lately

rwgast_logicdesignrwgast_logicdesign Posts: 1,464
edited 2013-02-14 06:23 in General Discussion
Now I know this is FAR from light hearted techno babble, and in know way do I want to start any crazy debates or flame wars. Im just curious about something.

So for those of you don't know there is an ex LAPD Police Officer/Navy Sharp Shooter causing a whole bunch of problems in Southern California right now. I don't know all the details of this story but basically the guy was fired from the LAPD two years ago, he says it was unjust, and the LAPD says he made false statements, I dunno, and I dont care which side is telling the truth. Anyway the guy had a legal battle with the LAPD over his job which didnt go anywhere for him. So FF two year later he wrote a manifesto and hit list including his ex girlfriend, her police officer father, and a bunch of other cops. Since last week hes killed 3 police officers in SoCal, maybe more there's been a fire fight on TV the last few hours. He managed to evade and hide from the police until today where they found him in Big Bear California, A ski resort town, about two hours from LA, and 45 minutes from me. He has been there since Thursday hiding out in a house, and apparently taken the home owners hostage and tied them up.

Im sorry if I made any mistakes in the above brief description, please feel free to correct me, hadn't been paying 100% attention to the news. Also for thos of you who don't know what im talking about just Google Chris Donner Man Hunt.

This is what im curious to know. Since thursday this story has been all over SoCal, scheduled programming interrupted 5 hour live coverage stints etc... Its been pushed down are throats so much, that the LAPD along with private donators offered a million dollar reward for his where abouts, and informed the media they would be getting two updates a day on the case. This is all one channel talked about for two hours straight!! This interrupted my daily viewing of the Steve Wilcos Show :\!!!!!! J/k! J/k! What is going on in other states as far as the news on this guy? Is this a big deal nationally? Were states like Arizona and Nevada on the look out for this guy since he disapeared on Thursday, or is this story only a big deal hear in Southern California?

I also saw a story this morning about some guys ex-girlfriend stabbing him in the face and killing him, and overheard something about another shooting yesterday or the day before. What is going on with this country the last few months theres just been such horrific things going on! I thought people were going nuts because they thought the world would end in December, but it didn't and people are still being crazy violent, pretty soon the US is going to be like the middle east.

Comments

  • xanaduxanadu Posts: 3,347
    edited 2013-02-12 17:39
    More of my NY friends and family talk about it than anyone here in CA. Same with earthquakes here in socal, I always hear about them from the east coast first lol..
  • ElectricAyeElectricAye Posts: 4,561
    edited 2013-02-12 19:28
    rwgast_logicdesign wrote: »
    ... What is going on in other states as far as the news on this guy?.....

    Yeah, we're hearing about it here on the east coast, too. Also, I think since the Newtown shooting, the press has been covering gun violence that they all had stopped reporting on simply because people just get numb to it after awhile and nobody will ever do anything about it anyway. Don't worry. It will take a little longer than usual but then after a while the press will stop covering it and you'll feel better.
  • rwgast_logicdesignrwgast_logicdesign Posts: 1,464
    edited 2013-02-12 19:42
    LOL, when I was about 8 or so I went on a trip to see my family in New Jersey/New York, this was in 1992. There is a small boonies town above Yucca Valley (where I live) called Landers, maybe 10 miles away at most. Anyways im not sure if you lived in SoCal then, or remember this, but there was a 7.3 quake centered in Landers. I remmber sitting in this hotel room in Morris Town NJ and the news wouldn't stop going on and on about this thing, they kept showing pictures like this

    Landers_quake_bowling_alley.jpg
    wreckedhouse.jpg


    I mean this Quake was pretty big, and unfourtantely these structures were right on the fault line, the first picture is bowling alley. So you know the news isnt saying anything about the bowling ally being right on the fault or anything like that and they just kept showing images like this talking about how the power was out, there was no running water etc ect. Were sitting there thinking are dogs are dead are house must have crumbled, all the telephone circuits to the area were busy, or down, happens every time there's a catastrophe (Couldnt get a hold of grandparents, after the OKC Mirror building bombing, couldn't get a hold of my NJ/NY family after 9/11). So all the family members we were vising out on the east coast kept calling us asking if we had seen what had happened blah blah, while no one from southern California called us till a day or two later. Anyways long story short, got home everything was fine, a glass cover fell off the light fixture in the kitchen, nothing else.

    Kind of goes a long with what you are saying, we were on the east coast at the time, and all are family on the east coast were the first people to call us.

    As far as this Chris Dornner stuff, it seems like its on every basic cable channel I get for half the day, I think he just killed himself or something, finally over.
    wreckedhouse.jpg
    403 x 195 - 67K
    Landers_quake_bowling_alley.jpg
    973 x 641 - 151K
  • ZetsuZetsu Posts: 186
    edited 2013-02-12 19:59
    I am more interested in whats going on over the cops shooting Innocent civilians that they thought were him. I guess there was a truck, (not even the same make, model, or even color) that they suspected he was in, so they opened fire. Happened to be two women delivering papers.....
  • Dr_AculaDr_Acula Posts: 5,484
    edited 2013-02-12 20:36
    Is this a big deal nationally?

    Yes, all over the news here in Australia.
  • NWCCTVNWCCTV Posts: 3,629
    edited 2013-02-12 20:51
    Not constant coverage but we have heard a lot about it here in WA.
    cops shooting Innocent civilians
    This has been an issue in Seattle for years. The cops always shoot first and ask questions later. Especially since the 4 cops were killed in Tacoma a few years ago.
  • User NameUser Name Posts: 1,451
    edited 2013-02-12 20:52
    I don't watch TV news, so I can't say what's there. But I read the entire manifesto (fascinating reading!) yesterday on the internet. Feel a little sorry for the guy. Was kinda hoping he'd make it to Mexico and find a little out-of-the-way place to hang out. Slopes of Picacho del Diablo or something.

    Anyway, I loved all the crazy mentions in his manifesto, like Queen Latifah and Dave Brubeck. I'm really sorry he's being hunted down. I know what it's like to be the lead story on news. It sucks royally.
  • jonesjones Posts: 281
    edited 2013-02-12 20:53
    It was pretty hard for me to ignore the Dorner situation. I live in the mountains he was hiding in (I say was, as he is now deceased) and they closed ALL of the roads leading in when the standoff started. That's an interesting thing to hear an hour before I'd normally leave work to pick up my wife and drive home. When I saw the cabin burning on the news, I knew it wouldn't last much longer so we just went and had dinner, and by the time we were done the road was open. As for discussing it, not a lot. I heard some comments, made a few myself, but no one really focused on it much. OTOH I work alone, so on a normal day I don't hear many comments anyway! I think people in southern California, like any big metropolitan area, are resigned to having an occasional bizarre crime committed and just sort of shrug and try not to let the tragic aspects beat us up too much. There's sadness just under the surface about the victims, but I think most of us try to avoid focusing on that too much out of emotional self-defense. I felt no sadness when I saw the cabin burning, however.

    WRT to the Landers earthquake, I remember it very well. I lived in the same home at that time and we felt it very strongly though we had no damage. Worse, however, was the fact that the Landers quake triggered a quake in Big Bear awhile later which I think was the first time one quake was shown to trigger another on a separate fault. Incidentally, if I recall, the epicenter of the Big Bear quake wasn't far from where the nutcase met his end today. Anyway, I can suggest that being in the shower covered with soap, which is where I was when the Big Bear quake hit, is not a great place to ride out an earthquake. Not only is it hard to keep one's balance, but I found myself staring at the shower head really, really hoping the water stayed on so I didn't spend the next several days covered in dried soap. Fortunately, it did. Even for that one, which was a 6+ only about 10 miles away as the crow flies, damage was slight but it was quite a ride.

    Finally, about the innocent women who were shot by police, I expect that will get a lot more attention when the lawsuit is filed.
  • MicksterMickster Posts: 2,694
    edited 2013-02-13 05:12
    Been following it here in UK also.

    US cops in general get away with lots of stuff such as roadside robbery, under the pretext of "safety"...LOL. In a country where any-old jalopy is allowed on the road. If I had a dollar for every time I hit a chunk off a re-tread!

    Mickster
  • prof_brainoprof_braino Posts: 4,313
    edited 2013-02-13 07:58
    Sound like the root cause of this is the LAPD culture, and is consistent with past track record.

    A problem like this take decades to correct, and mostly involves the perpetrators retiring and dying off. The risk is that they have enough time to initiate new members to replace them and continue to cover the tracks. Sounds like Donner was stuck in a bad place with few options. Very bad thing to put a giant guy covered in weapons in a bad place with few options.

    If something good can come from this, maybe the powers that be will make another pass at mending the LAPD. It probably won't be the last, though.

    I didn't see this story until I saw your post this morning. I don't have network TV in my house, so we are relatively free from infotainmnet.
  • davejamesdavejames Posts: 4,047
    edited 2013-02-13 08:07
    Hi All - let's make sure this thread doesn't devolve.
  • ercoerco Posts: 20,256
    edited 2013-02-13 08:30
    davejames wrote: »
    Hi All - let's make sure this thread doesn't devolve.

    +1, another OT thread that didn't need to be started
  • PJAllenPJAllen Banned Posts: 5,065
    edited 2013-02-13 09:02
    erco wrote: »
    +1, another OT thread that didn't need to be started

    + 1
  • lardomlardom Posts: 1,659
    edited 2013-02-13 09:12
    Quote by davejames
    Hi All - let's make sure this thread doesn't devolve.
    This subject can easily lead to a rant. This forum is the best I've been involved with. There is a great sense of community here. YouTube comments, OTOH, can be as gross as anything you might see in a public bathroom. I once made a YouTube comment and the reply to my comment at first made me angry. The person who made the comment hurled an insult but never addressed my reasoning. I clenched my teeth but decided further discussion was a waste of time.
    I will not ruin my connection to this community. I'll reserve my strongly held opinions for a different forum.
  • rwgast_logicdesignrwgast_logicdesign Posts: 1,464
    edited 2013-02-13 09:51
    Is this off topic? The Forum description reads, General Chatter.. Im actually asking a serious question, I almost didnt post it.

    As far as the thread devolve'ing I also hope no such thing happens, I deleted my second post containing some opinions as it really wasn't relevant to the actual question posed in the first post. And while my opinions may be pretty in the middle, I know people feel strongly about things like this so im sure they may have still offended someone or started an argument.

    The point of the thread was just gauge how many people were seeing this at least half the day on basic cable channels, and to point out it seems as though theres been an awfull lot more violence in the news lately. Crime hasnt went up if you do a little homework, the media is just reporting more things on a national (in this case international!!) level than they use to..
  • lardomlardom Posts: 1,659
    edited 2013-02-13 11:22
    @rwgast_logicdesign, You didn't say anything controversial. You asked if this was big news. It is. The subject could change direction. To me, a lot of the names and writing styles are familiar so actually I see most of what is said as harmless. That said, I'll still stay away from political, social and religious issues.
  • PJAllenPJAllen Banned Posts: 5,065
    edited 2013-02-13 11:23
    rwgast_logicdesign wrote: »
    Is this off topic? The Forum description reads, General Chatter.. Im actually asking a serious question, I almost didnt post it.
    I copied the "forum description", to wit:
    Primarily for questions regarding any Parallax product or general programming needs, and also friendly chatter.
  • rwgast_logicdesignrwgast_logicdesign Posts: 1,464
    edited 2013-02-13 12:17
    hmm I thought it said general chatter, but I wouldn't consider this unfriendly. Maybe a bit heavy hearted, but has not been unfriendly. I just think the way the news has been going for the last few months is nuts, makes you think everyone is going nuts with blood lust or something
  • jonesjones Posts: 281
    edited 2013-02-13 12:41
    Apologies all around if I in any way contributed to the devolution of the thread. His question seemed harmless enough and for those of us close to the situation it's certainly been hard to ignore.
  • davejamesdavejames Posts: 4,047
    edited 2013-02-13 13:35
    Guys (and gals if reading) - I was just sayin' let's be careful.

    While this may be within the Forum Guidelines (not saying it isn't), this is a hot topic and opinions could flame quite readily.

    I was not saying to close this down.

    The other moderators may wish to chime in...and of course, the Forum Owners have final say.
  • ercoerco Posts: 20,256
    edited 2013-02-13 21:23
    PJ Allen wrote: »
    I copied the "forum description", to wit:
    Primarily for questions regarding any Parallax product or general programming needs, and also friendly chatter.

    +1 A place for everything and everything in its place.

    There are dozens of other public discussion forums where rwgast and pals can talk about Dorner, gun control, human trafficking, and general other "troubling social issues" all day long. Feel free to use those to find a more suitable general audience. Meanwhile, exercise good judgement and limit posts in this Forum to more appropriate tech subjects of general interest here.
  • davejamesdavejames Posts: 4,047
    edited 2013-02-13 21:35
    erco wrote: »
    ...more appropriate tech subjects of general interest here.

    ...but...but - what about PIES?!?!?!
  • ercoerco Posts: 20,256
    edited 2013-02-13 22:13
    C'mon Dave. You KNOW that's a tech subject of universal interest. Besides, you're a moderator and you guys can get away with ANYTHING! Kind of like the LAPD... oops, there I go! Strike that, reverse it.

    BTW, I'll owe you a photo of me wearing my highly-prized "Twinkie the Kid" Hawaiian shirt.

    Yes, I'm dead serious. :)
  • User NameUser Name Posts: 1,451
    edited 2013-02-13 22:17
    I certainly detected no evidence of an impending donnybrook on this thread. Nevertheless, if I offended someone's delicate sensibilities, I'm sorry.

    Meanwhile, I've got no time for Twinkie talk. ciao.
  • rwgast_logicdesignrwgast_logicdesign Posts: 1,464
    edited 2013-02-13 22:57
    I just want to say I think you guys are taking things a bit far, so far no one has been offended, there have been no insults flung at anyone. There has been very little opinion given.

    I didnt open this thread saying lets all give are feelings about Dorner, or the LAPD. The spirit of my post was more of a Geee whats going on, why is there so much bad news, and when something like Dorner happens why does the media feel the need to take over scheduled programming for such long stints repeating things they just said Over and Over. I sure didnt ask anyone to share there politics Most of the conversation here has been friendly banter, So far everyone is mature enough not to shout out whatever they think, if they know it will offend, I give a lot of credit to the people in this forum to know how to handle a conversation without getting out of hand... I dont think anyone can disagree that it seems like the media is force feeding us more violence than ever. The reason I posted here is basically because I wanted to hear what other intelligent people had to say, and I know there not going to turn it in to a you tube thread.

    As I said before, I thought twice about posting this, even though it seems as all the members here are capable of holding a friendly conversation about such a heavy subject, Im requesting this be closed, I know ya got the power davejames. Im truly sorry if I offended some one in some way, or was the cause of some one being offended by opening this thread, it was never my intention and I probably should have used less specific subject matter to get my original point out.
  • cgraceycgracey Posts: 14,155
    edited 2013-02-14 03:10
    My cousin told me some interesting things about the LA County jail recently, as her work has taken her there.

    Guess how many inmates are in the LA County Jail? Most people say, "I don't know, maybe 1,500". The answer is... 28,000!

    The jail is two high-rise buildings in downtown LA.

    Because the jail is technically overcrowded, inmates are rotated onto buses and driven around the city. An old man I know said that's called "diesel therapy".

    The news will make you distracted and sick if you watch it. It's a lot of agenda-driven hype that makes people despair, as every issue gets intentionally misframed, causing cognitive distress in the poor soul who happens to watch it - unless they've been watching it for so long that they've been defeated by it. I got rid of our TV five years ago and we haven't missed it a bit. We just have a DVD player for the kids. Meanwhile, I check the mainstream news sites only to get an updated idea of what they want me to think. Kind of like "know thy enemy".
  • User NameUser Name Posts: 1,451
    edited 2013-02-14 06:23
    Chip, you're a man after my own heart.

    Our TV gets used practically every day...for Just Dance 2 and Beatles Rock Band. The kids and their cousins have a great time.
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