So, Belle and I were driving home this afternoon, planning to make Vicksburg, but about 20 miles north of Grenada, MS, the traffic on I-55 just shut down. This about 5:30 pm. We figure it's a wreck and spend our time stuck in traffic, a cop and an RN, dreaming up scenarios thatmight explain the delay.
So, we're creeping along at 2 mph, and after an hour or so, two police cars shunt us off onto a little country road, a pig trail if you will. It's long past dark by now and we're on this little pig-trail, barely paved, with all of the I-55 traffic. We finally get into Grenada, and we find out t what the story is.
It seems lie this disaffected military critter decided to go apeshit, take a a hostage, and get into a standoff with the Mississippi constabulary on the interstate highway.
So, of course, they decide to close the interstate. Public safety. They called the SWAT team, which is always a bad idea. I've been a cop for over 35 years, and if I've leaned one thing, it's that SWAT is great in concept, but terrible in execution. They never get it right.
The critter decided to kill himself, which was a great idea. I've linked one article here. That ended the standoff, which is how these things normally end, by the way. By the time it was over, Belle and I had been stuck in horrible traffic for over four hours, driving down pig-trails and possum-trots, and frankly I don't have any sympathy for the sonofabitch.
This critter screwed up the Sunday afternoon of Belle, which is an unforgivable sin. He also screwed up the Sunday afternoon of thousands of innocent people, out for a Sunday drive, and the truck drivers who make a living carrying the freight that we all depend on. He caused countless thousands of people inconvenience and economic loss.
Now, I don't want to hear anyone whining that he might have had PTSD. We don't now anything about him, and even if he did have battlefield trauma, he should have handled it better. I know lots of guys who were battlefield stressed, and they didn't ruin anyone's afternoon.
Screw him, and the horse he rode in on.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I think I'll have a stiff drink before I go off on a rant.
2 comments:
I'm not a fan of lawyers, but.....it's time to sue the deceased's estate, his family, his grocer, and the kid who delivered his newspaper in a class action suit for "time lost." Include the SWAT team and the police agency's management for good measure.
No one involved has enough money to adequately compensate the thousands of people who, collectively, lost millions of dollars worth of their own time, but if class action suits started exacting a heavy toll on everyone involved, there would be less pontificating and more action. Cops - SWAT teams and hostage negotiators in particular - seem to believe if they can drag things out long enough everyone can win. They're just as delusional as the crazy guy who started it.
I understand compassion, I understand the need to protect the public, yadda, yadda, yadda. There is, however, a time to Get On With The Task At Hand and resolve situations like this. Multi-hour negotiations between badge-wearing social workers and crazy people ain't the answer.
Combat aircraft are very expensive, but when one damaged aircraft shuts down the flight deck it gets pushed over the side pretty damn quick to keep air ops running. There'a a lesson in that.
Ugh, I spent the night in Grenada once, in a gas station diner booth. That was a long night!
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