It's like _!
Mar. 14th, 2008 02:13 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rain_gryphonU cn haz Ceiling Cat!
*****
Of all the crimes in the world that I might think about committing, trying to rob the police station would be pretty low on the list.
*****
Some people do get unaccountably ambitious. Back around 1995 or so, I lived in northern Indiana, close to a town named Warsaw, which was the county seat. One day some guy just went absolutely nuts, shot both of his kids, shot the policeman who lived next door and came running over to help, then chased his wife around the neighborhood with a knife (the gun apparently jammed). She got away, so he loaded up his car with guns, and drove off to hide somewhere in the country, shooting at (but missing) a couple more random people on the way.
There was a general freakout, of course. All the gun stores sold out within a day, and everyone was seriously on edge. Amazingly, IIRC, nobody got shot by accident.
The fellow went nuts on a Wednesday, and by Saturday the town of Warsaw had a small army of police in it, from all over the state. The people who were old enough to remember compared it to the sort of thing that used to go on in the 30s, when Dillinger and the Barrow Gang were roaming about cleaning out banks.
At any rate, that Saturday morning, here he came driving back into town, taking potshots at passersby (with a .22 short, of all things) as he rolled down the main street. Cops came swarming out of the cop shop like hornets. He turned the corner and came in sight of the police station from about 75 feet distance, banging wildly away with his popgun. He got totally swiss-cheesed within two seconds, of course. I had come within an ace of going to town that morning, and I still regret that I missed seeing it.
For many years, the light pole that the car finished up against bore a big dent and some bullet holes, as did the offices of the CoCo Wheats Corporation. They finally replaced the lamp post a few years ago.
*****
Wikipedia has nothing on the incident. I need to add a 'Famous Maniacs of Warsaw' section. It's news to me that the Warsaw Library burned Theodore Dreiser's books, but it doesn't especially surprise me. Having tried to read Theodore Dreiser's books, neither does it especially sadden me.
*****
Of all the crimes in the world that I might think about committing, trying to rob the police station would be pretty low on the list.
*****
Some people do get unaccountably ambitious. Back around 1995 or so, I lived in northern Indiana, close to a town named Warsaw, which was the county seat. One day some guy just went absolutely nuts, shot both of his kids, shot the policeman who lived next door and came running over to help, then chased his wife around the neighborhood with a knife (the gun apparently jammed). She got away, so he loaded up his car with guns, and drove off to hide somewhere in the country, shooting at (but missing) a couple more random people on the way.
There was a general freakout, of course. All the gun stores sold out within a day, and everyone was seriously on edge. Amazingly, IIRC, nobody got shot by accident.
The fellow went nuts on a Wednesday, and by Saturday the town of Warsaw had a small army of police in it, from all over the state. The people who were old enough to remember compared it to the sort of thing that used to go on in the 30s, when Dillinger and the Barrow Gang were roaming about cleaning out banks.
At any rate, that Saturday morning, here he came driving back into town, taking potshots at passersby (with a .22 short, of all things) as he rolled down the main street. Cops came swarming out of the cop shop like hornets. He turned the corner and came in sight of the police station from about 75 feet distance, banging wildly away with his popgun. He got totally swiss-cheesed within two seconds, of course. I had come within an ace of going to town that morning, and I still regret that I missed seeing it.
For many years, the light pole that the car finished up against bore a big dent and some bullet holes, as did the offices of the CoCo Wheats Corporation. They finally replaced the lamp post a few years ago.
*****
Wikipedia has nothing on the incident. I need to add a 'Famous Maniacs of Warsaw' section. It's news to me that the Warsaw Library burned Theodore Dreiser's books, but it doesn't especially surprise me. Having tried to read Theodore Dreiser's books, neither does it especially sadden me.
no subject
Date: 2008-03-14 07:01 pm (UTC)I wonder what the original text was that got munged into that quote. There is notably no attribution. What does it mean to have a closing quotation-mark followed by a space and then an opening quotation-mark? Isn't that the same as an ellipsis?
no subject
Date: 2008-03-14 07:52 pm (UTC)There are many things that I could do. Much of life consists of learning the difference between what could be done, and what should be done.