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Pastimes : The Boxing Ring Revived -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: cosmicforce who wrote (4473)	2/16/2003 12:16:32 PM
From: Lane3	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 7720

People were wise to the notion that hiding under your desk for a city-killer 20 MT blast was just unnecessary. I've been wondering lately whether they knew all the time that hiding under a desk was pointless. I've been reflecting on the DC evacuation plan and the similar pointlessness of it. Surely those who put it together know it couldn't possibly work. DC is a disaster every rush hour. Releasing government workers during a snow storm causes immediate gridlock. They tried staggered release times which had those who lived furthest away leaving first. That was a bust. So how in the world could you evacuate the city once people heard about a chemical release? The same is the case with the duct tape and the plastic. Dumb. It seems to me that the people who publish this stuff must know how dumb it is. No one smart enough to put together a plan could be that stupid. Yet they do it. It must be that folks perceive that the populace wants to be reassured that there's a plan. It's a common theme in sci fi movies that the government doesn't warn that an asteroid is going to hit or the earth is freezing, to name a couple of plots I recently saw on TV, because they know that it would just cause a panic and lives wouldn't be saved. So I suspect that all this advice is just a charade, a wink/wink publication for the benefit of those suckers that it comforts. And the duct tape manufacturers.

To: cosmicforce who wrote (4473)	2/16/2003 12:28:39 PM
From: Lane3	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 7720

We're seeing more and more examples of moral depravity, it seems. I saw this tape on the local news. It was chilling. If you ever find yourself sanguine about human nature, this story will disabuse you. As Man Lay Dying, Witnesses Turned Away By David A. Fahrenthold Washington Post Staff Writer Saturday, February 15, 2003; Page A01 D.C. police released a startling surveillance tape yesterday that shows a daylight killing at a Northeast Washington gas station and witnesses doing nothing to report the crime or tend to the victim as he lay bleeding on the concrete. The videotape, from the Hess station in the 500 block of Florida Avenue, shows in gruesome detail the Jan. 31 slaying of Allen E. Price, 43, of the 2100 block of Fourth Street NW. Police said they were shocked by the apathy of those who were there, including one man who continued pumping kerosene after looking briefly at Price's body. At a time when homicide detectives are struggling to solve cases, police officials said the tape depicts the astounding levels of meanness and indifference they confront on the city's streets. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, police and prosecutors watched numerous cases collapse as witnesses were shot or intimidated. In this instance, several people at the gas station did not appear to be frightened but seemed not to care after the shot was fired and the gunman ran. "That's just one of the worst things I've ever seen," Police Chief Charles H. Ramsey declared yesterday after screening the tape at police headquarters. "There just aren't words to describe something like that." The shooting happened quickly and with no apparent warning near the large Florida Avenue market complex, in a crime-ridden area just blocks from Gallaudet University. The snippet of color videotape that police released -- taken by a camera positioned atop the gas station -- begins at 9:08 a.m., with traffic passing steadily on the avenue and several cars in view at the station. At 9:09 a.m., the shooter appears at a distance, walking up Sixth Street on the far side of Florida Avenue. He appears to be a man in a black coat, but the image is blurry. He weaves through traffic on Florida Avenue and appears to run the last few feet toward the kerosene pump where Price was standing. Police have analyzed the video frame by frame, and Ramsey provided a running commentary, stating: "Boom! That's the gunshot." Price then drops from view, and the gunman runs back across the Florida Avenue and disappears from sight. A homicide lieutenant said yesterday that the killer is believed to have targeted Price. Police have announced no motive or suspects. After the shooting, one witness -- who was just feet away from the gunman -- looked for a moment at Price's body and then turned away. Not only did he finish pumping his kerosene, but the man paid for the purchase and drove off, giving the camera its clearest look at Price lying by the pump. Police have not found that customer. For the next few minutes, the camera records a series of cars pulling away from the station, with at least one new car pulling up to the kerosene pump where Price lay. But it is not until about 9:13, more than three minutes after the shooting, that the gas station's manager is seen approaching the body. The manager, Philip Donkorsaid yesterday that he did not hear the gunshot from his bulletproof booth and was not aware of the shooting until a customer told him. He said he found Price on his back. "He's dead. His eyes open. His mouth open," Donkor said. "Right then, I saw that he was dead." Police said that someone in the area finally flagged down a police car, and it arrived about seven minutes after the shooting. <snip>