Snipering

[owen76]

Couldn't the aftermath of the snipering lead to a hasty decision to put cameras in to moniter the public? Also, has anyone else noticed many of the victims were in areas with the same names as Civil War battles? TV is encouraging him. I heard that a reporter said something about children as targets and then that kid was hit shortly after. Then they said he hit that FBI person. If he knows that he will be really happy. Just too much info is being released.

[Xenon]

It is the same name as civil war battles because most of the battles were fought here.

The majority of the cities here are named after civil war battles. I dont think it is connected.

[Chuck56]

8ball, No I sure wouldn't want the FBI (Famous But Incompetent) around any more than necessary, and especially not ATF.

I think all the heavy stuff is being brought in because the shooter is operating in a multi state area, and that opened the door for Federal intervention. I'm not sure if they were invited in prior to the shooter going into Virginia or not. Once somebody asks for their assistance, you can't get rid of them.

[bshver]

The "Posse Comitatus Act" (18 USC 1385) "Whoever, except in cases and under circumstances expressly authorized by the Constitution or Act of Congress, willfully uses any part of the Army or the Air Force as a posse comitatus or otherwise to execute the laws shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than two years, or both" (http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/18/1385.html)
However, as seen on this Coast Guard site , "Posse Comitatus clarifications emphasize supportive and technical assistance (e.g., use of facilities, vessels, aircraft, intelligence, tech aid, surveillance, etc.) while generally prohibiting direct participation of DoD personnel in law enforcement (e.g., search, seizure, and arrests). "
It seems to me then that civilian law enforcement is using military aircraft to simply perform "surveilance," and, therefore, are not violating any federal laws. Military personnel, to the best of my knowledge, are not actively involved in ground searches for the sniper(s).
Bringing the military into this matter is, truly, a political move. Is the sniper was not killing people in Washington's backyard, there would probablt be less publicity, and less political pressure to bring the military in to help.
However, I think that using the military, in this situation, makes sense. I do not see how capturing one/two serial killers, who are terrorizing communities, will hurt my civil rights. It is not as if the military is being used against innocent law-abiding citizens, and it this is not a case of a questionable, vague, controversial law being enforced. The man (or men) who are commiting these crimes are mudering people seemingly at random. Premeditated murder has been against the law since the beginging of law. These men should be captured using all reasonable means necessary, and they should be tried in a court of law, just as the Constitution dictates.

[geepod]

I may be way off, but it is good to have a conspiracy theory every now and again !

What are the chances of this sniper being CIA meant as a diversion from the government getting the OK for war with iraq ?
Certainly on the news it seems that iraq is taking a back seat behind this sniper ?

im sure i will get flamed for this but CIA is my bet !

[8*B@LL]

Originally posted here by Chuck56
8ball, No I sure wouldn't want the FBI (Famous But Incompetent) around any more than necessary, and especially not ATF.

I think all the heavy stuff is being brought in because the shooter is operating in a multi state area, and that opened the door for Federal intervention. I'm not sure if they were invited in prior to the shooter going into Virginia or not. Once somebody asks for their assistance, you can't get rid of them.

yea, the FBI is involved because of the multi-state nature, but the military is involved because they think they can get away with it.

[owen76]

Geepod, I have thought about it being the government. I think the govt. would be behind it to get consent for more public monitoring, not to get Iraq out. I'm suprised they haven't tried to blame the snipering on Iraq. However the anthrax attacks from last year probably were the govt. All the samples were sent to Democratic leaders and liberal news stations. Then it got out of hand.

[Chuck56]

Owen, I can see cities and other larger metro areas trying to institute video monitoring, like is in some areas of the UK. As I understand, or maybe I was dreaming it, it's already been discussed in some places.

Seems as though, too, there was a poll taken and over 60% of Americans would not object. I'm sure this poll focused on the East and Left Coast areas. In my rural area, I guess those monitors would be useful for warning against coyote attacks against the herds of sheep.

[MrBert]

I was watchin CNN today and it really pissed me off. They were going on and on about how video games may have caused this. showing clips of counterstrike and other first person shooters. it does not seem right to me. I have been playing thoes games since the original doom and let me tell you i have never wanted to go out and shoot people. I just could not belive that they lumped this in to a catagory with colombine. Speaking of witch. you all should see michale moores new movie 'bowling for colombine". it came out a week ago in NY and LA got great reveiws at canns.

[8*B@LL]

MrBert, you should have seen it yesterday when they had some idiot on as a guest who basically said "this could have links to the SNIPER GAME doom, which has a code 'i am god' that lets you go arround and kill people but not die."

not only is doom about as far from a sniper game as you can get(i mean it didnt even have freaking mouse look!), but the cheat code for god mode was "iddqd", not "i am god".

i swear, i dont know how these people get on these shows!