Some maniac went on a cross-town cop-shooting rampage today.\u00a0 From what I see on the news, he shot a policeman\u00a0on the west side of Tucson, then shot two additional pursuing policemen as he headed east.\u00a0 They caught him somewhere in my neighborhood.\u00a0 One policeman is on life support and not expected to live.\u00a0 I’m not sure about the other two.\u00a0 The perp, I’m surprised to learn, is alive.<\/p>\n
I knew something was up when I went out for a motorcycle ride at 11:15 this morning.\u00a0 Riding west into Tucson, I noticed that the police\u00a0were blocking off my return route eastward.\u00a0 I didn’t think it’d be a problem . . .\u00a0the blockade would probably be down by the time I headed home, and if not, there were two\u00a0other ways to get home.<\/p>\n
At 12:00, as I attempted to ride home, the blockade was still up, so I tried\u00a0alternate route one\u00a0. . . only to run into another police blockade.\u00a0\u00a0I tried alternate route two and ran into another blockade.\u00a0 All major roads into my neighborhood were closed.<\/p>\n
During the 20 to 30 minutes I was trying to find a way home, I was checking different radio stations, trying to find out what was going on, but not a single Tucson station was saying anything about the roadblocks.<\/p>\n
I finally was able to find a way home, using small residential streets only a former local school district bus driver would know about, but never did hear anything on the radio.<\/p>\n
The story’s out now,\u00a0three to four\u00a0hours after the shootings.\u00a0 But where was news of the road blockages back when Tucson citizens needed it?\u00a0 It’s not like I’m the only person who couldn’t get home . . . thousands of people were affected.\u00a0\u00a0Surely, hundreds of people must have\u00a0phoned radio and TV stations trying to find out\u00a0was going on.<\/p>\n
Why the news blackout?\u00a0\u00a0I can certainly understand why police would\u00a0want to keep the ongoing pursuit of an armed and dangerous criminal quiet.\u00a0 But when major roads are closed and neighborhoods that are home to thousands of citizens are inaccessible . . . not to mention when\u00a0armed gunmen are driving around in those neighborhoods shooting at people . . . surely FAA licensed broadcasters have some responsibility to let the public know what’s going on.<\/p>\n
You know those broadcasters knew what was going on as it was happening.\u00a0 Tucson is a big city.\u00a0 The TV stations have news helicopters.\u00a0 They listen to fire and law enforcement radio bands.\u00a0 They’re in touch, even on a sleepy Sunday afternoon.\u00a0 Well, they let their customers down today, and the only reason that makes sense to me is that they did it at the behest of the police.<\/p>\n
So who do these FAA licensed broadcasters serve?\u00a0 And what else aren’t they telling us?<\/p>\n