Just a few blocks down the street from me – on my daily route to and from work – something huge and bad has happened within the last 72 hours. At least 3 agencies, including state and federal (ATF, Animal Control, Sheriff’s Office confirmed so far), have been cooperating – and doing and excellent job of not releasing information.
For the first 24 hours the helicopters annoyed me. I counted at least 3, and identified 2 as news crews from Kansas City. KCTV 5 and Channel 9 had mobile units camped out for the first 36 hours – and one crew was still there 2 days after the initial raid. The Emergency Response Command Unit ( a big honkin’ RV) just left.
The way people respond to the excitement and lack of information interests me as much as the language skills and usage of the people commenting on the local paper’s online post (blog). Interesting discussions about appropriate use of written language and the relationship to class and social status relates to class discussions – as does the lack of civility (and moments of kindness) on the message boards. Several well-intentioned members of the accused s’ families have been compulsively attending and contributing to the discussions – which have some rather silly participants as well as some real trolls. The back and forth disturbs me and compels my attention. Loads of lurid elements and history connected to that patch of real estate. The packs of wild dogs are real, and I remember the guy the exotic dancer ran over (he went to sleep in the middle of the road walking home from the club) but many of the stories strain credibility way too far.
- Video from Lawrence Journal World.
- LJW blog post with insane dialogue #1 – comments are where the action is.
- LJW blog post with insane dialogue #2 – see comments
