From Bwtm

Revision as of 21:46, 12 February 2006

Shootings and Gun Fights are just part of the general crime statistics.

Shots fired and gun fights

The first time there was a shooting in my neighborhood was in the early '80s. A robbery gone bad, hostages taken and then several killed.

In August 2005 there were shots fired just down the block from my house.

I was in Lancaster in late September 2005 and there were shots fired from one gun, then, a short time later, a gun battle with two weapons and 10-12 shots.

Wednesday, January 11, 2006 there were shots fired in my neighborhood, several blocks away, at 6:00am. Four shots, spaced out a bit. Ten minutes later there were shots exchanged, two weapons. Nothing in the news, never any police sirens.

Crime statistics are reportedly going down. But crime, like these shootings seems to be closer to me now. Drivers are more aggressive on the freeway. People are fighting for this or fighting for that.

Homicides Down In San Diego

01-13-2006 4:22 PM (San Diego, CA) -- San Diego Police say homicides in the city were down for the third year in a row. According to a report published in the "San Diego Union Tribune," there were 51 homicides last year, eleven less than in 2004, and a long way from the record 167 at the height of the crack-cocaine epidemic in 1991. San Diego police also reported nearly 50 percent fewer gang homicides in 2005, dropping to 12 from 22. Officials credit the decrease in part, to officer interaction with the community. The paper says, preliminary figures through November 2005 showed violent crime overall down two percent. That includes murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assault. It dropped to 6-thousand-25 cases from 6-thousand-168. Copyright 2006 Metro Networks Communications Inc., A Westwood One Company

Accidental Shootings

Vice President Dick Cheney, center, accepts a rifle from National Rifle Association President Kayne Robinson, right, and NRA Vice President Wayne R. LaPierre. Cheney later accidentally shot and injured a man during a weekend quail hunting trip in Texas

Cheney Accidentally Shoots Fellow Hunter

Vice President Dick Cheney accidentally shot and injured a man during a weekend quail hunting trip in Texas, his spokeswoman said Sunday.

Harry Whittington, 78, was "alert and doing fine" after Cheney sprayed him with shotgun pellets on Saturday while the two were hunting at the Armstrong Ranch in south Texas, said property owner Katharine Armstrong.

Whittington "came up from behind the vice president and the other hunter and didn't signal them or indicate to them or announce himself," Armstrong told the Associated Press in an interview.

"The vice president didn't see him," she continued. "The covey flushed and the vice president picked out a bird and was following it and shot. And by god, Harry was in the line of fire and got peppered pretty good."

The shooting was first reported by the Corpus Christi Caller-Times.

She said Whittington was bleeding but not very seriously injured, and Cheney was very apologetic.

"It broke the skin," she said. "It knocked him silly. But he was fine. He was talking. His eyes were open. It didn't get in his eyes or anything like that."

She said emergency personnel traveling with Cheney tended to Whittington, holding his face and cleaning up the blood.

"Fortunately, the vice president has got a lot of medical people around him and so they were right there and probably more cautious than we would have been," she said. "The vice president has got an ambulance on call, so the ambulance came."

Study: U.S. Policy of Spreading Democracy Fosters War