Avoiding the Sniper
Dog News lives in the target zone so I been sending her various thoughts. Here below are some of what I think were my brighter ideas. Some of my ideas may be a bit dumb, but I hope on balance I have shared ideas that Y"all will find worthwhile thinking about. I have updated this mini-essay several times, most recently mid-day Thursday Oct 17. If you want to print it out, figure 5 pages.
She told me about a friend seeing a vehicle that looked exactly what the police were watching the public to be on the look out for, but all the police phone lines were busy, so I suggested calling that into the news media. Have them tail the suspect vehicles until the police clear them. The friend was not able to leave her job, at the time of the witnessing. Another thought is to have standard forms, downloadable from police web site, for witnesses to fill out when something fresh in their mind but access to the police not practical. At the time of the anthrax scare, and at times of bomb threats, we have had similar forms from the police that spell out what should be done when an incident occurs.
Put in perspective that while the sniper has killed 11 people in 11 days, in the same time period there have been 14 unrelated homicides in 5 of the 6 communities where the sniper has been active, while even more people die in traffic accidents (68 a year in DC, 660 in Maryland, 935 in Virginia). This is not really as bad as people in other countries have to put up with all the time. Get a pen pal in another country to understand what it is like for them and see that we might be over-reacting to this latest crime spree.
Is this a good time of year to visit Disneyland? Get away from the daily worries and have a good time somewhere else? Your auto club can probably print out maps of driving routes that take you to interesting places that are not on the sniper past visitations or even close.
If you want to get away for a while, consider that while you have a good job, there are hundreds of thousands of people around the country who are out of work. Perhaps you can organize a trade. You get away and live in someone else community for a while, and someone else take over your job and income until you ready to come home. In academia this is called taking a sabattical. Some Professor and family trade homes and jobs with some other Professor and family in some other city. The University has teacher all the time. Professor and family have nice place to live. Basically they trust each other, something like exchange students.
Say, how about exchange students your kids go live in some other city until DC is safer place again? Travel broadens the mind, so it is educational also.
The sniper is not neccessarily someone with police or military training, because so far all the victims have been people who were easy targets for someone who is a good shot, and desires to continue killing random victims. Ask someone who does have relevant training to suggest to you how to avoid being an easy target.
I think that right now, many people in the communities, that the sniper is preying on, could use a police briefing, not on the kind of stuff that the media is demanding, regarding progress or lack of progress finding this serial killer, because past criminals of this nature have gone on killing sprees that have lasted months or years before they got caught. Rather, what I think the people need is community policing meetings briefing the people on how to minimize risk of becoming a next target, and which of these various ideas are most constructive.
I have in the past suggested that Homeland Security Professionals could benefit from a seminar series put on by professionals from other walks of life - health and computer auditors for example. For other posts by me on security topics see my security category, or ask for copies of one of my Word documents on security issues.
- Your pooch pals need to be able to run outside while you remain indoors. I can send you attached to e-mail, some of my joke collections that will have you ROFL so much that you won't care about the real world until this is over.
- If you not have much in the way of a back yard for the dog, where you could have a long cable with the leash to it so dog can run back and forth, find a wooded area where you can walk out of sight of the highways.
- When you have to be outside, in the role of a pedestrian, do not remain stationary. Walk briskly, not in a straight line, but zig zag. Wear dark clothing, stay in dark shadowed areas, so that you are not an easy target.
- This is directly opposite to the kind of advice I would ordinarily give a bicyclist. Living in Evansville Indiana, where the crime rate is almost zero, so that we have the privilege of laws like it being illegal to play radio so loud in auto that it is annoying to adjacent cars in traffic, a lot of young people seem to be extremely careless about personal safety. I find pre-schoolers in middle of side streets with no look outs for traffic, wearing dark clothing at night. I see college age kids on bicycles, with no lights, just tiny reflectors, no safety helmet, dark clothing, on limited access highways at night, where the speed of the motorists like 50 mph. These kids are accidents looking for an auto to hit them.
- But when a sniper is around, a person needs to emulate these kids.
- Perhaps people going about their business in groups, so you guarantee that if a member of the group gets struck, survivors will have some clues to share. Think group of friends, neighbors, co-workers traveling together like a military expedition, with multiple lookouts in all directions, so if you fired upon, there's someone else looking in every direction. Have the group carry a camera to capture clues to share with the police.
- So far the sniper has shot at people outdoors, loading car in parking lot of strip mall retail outlets, waiting at a bus stop, mowing yard, at a gas station. So, you need to patronize establishments that have parking garages attached to where ever it is you want to go. Doesn't downtown have an underground garage? Don't some shopping centers have attached parking garages, where you can walk between car and shopping, and be hidden from sniper view at all times? Is there a safe subway system where you can go from indoors to indoors?
- The 10th incident, Monday nite, sounded like it was in the bottom level of an open air split level parking structure, not a real enclosed garage. When I say to park in a garage, I mean one that when you get out of your car, you are not visible outside the garage to some sniper. For the sniper to get you, also have to be inside the garage.
- In answer to one of my questions, dog news has informed me that several shoppers, inside the split level partially covered parking garage, witnessed a man standing behind his Astro Van, quickly taking the shot, and then getting into the van and leaving.
- The 4 gas stations were MOBILE SHELL SUNOCO EXXON
You want to patronize one of those brand names on the assumption the next gas station will be a 5th brand name.
- MICHAELS CRAFT STORE was location of FOUR of the shootings, either right there, or in a shopping area that had one.
Look up in Yellow pages where they all located.
Mark on a map.
Do not go anywhere close to any other such store.
- After the sniper is apprehended, use that map to assist in deliberately shopping near Michaels Craft Stores so as to undermine whatever economic purpose was why the sniper was frequenting those areas.
- You can hope that the police have all the Michaels Craft Store shopping areas staked out, and are running simulations what to do if this one is the next place the sniper raids.
- If you have a vehicle anything close to the description the police looking for, ask them to move it to police impound lot or other place of their choosing, so as to get similar vehicles off the streets and make it easier to find the one and only one left.
Suppose you are a retail commercial store and you want to protect shoppers visiting your establishment. Did you see the police putting a sheet like on a clothes line to protect the crime scene and victim? A shopping center could put something like that up to protect their parking lot patrons from visibility from the highways. Not a permanent structure, but temporary curtains on a split level parking lot. Put stuff in windows of stores like you batten down the hatches to protect against a storm or a riot, so the customers can be inside, not seen through the windows, and thus safe from sniper, while inside.
Shoppers need to be able to have their cars loaded in an enclosed area as they leave the store. It could be like a tent up against the building. Car drives into the tent, gets loaded, drives out. Someone to move the cars who should be wearing bullet proof vest and heavy plastic helmet like riot police, so that they can see where they going, but their head protected from bullet.
Customers arrive. Stop in tent covered area, give car keys to person in the plastic helmet, at which point there is a receipt that identifies car description and who drove it here, helmeted person moves it to parking area, turns in copy of receipt and the keys to person near cashier desk, with identification of parking space added. Customers ready to leave. Identify selves. One of the helmeted workers gets corresponding car keys, with paper saying which parking space that car located, goes to get it, drives it into tent covered area. It gets loaded. Customer leaves.
Customer is never exposed to sniper, except through windows of car, in the scenario that I have described. The only people exposed to sniper are helmeted people who are wearing bullet proof clothing. The cost for this would be minimal. What do curtains, or tent cost, or block up the windows of a store? The cost is the labor for the people wearing the bullet proof clothing. Hey, the economy could use some more people with jobs. Would shoppers be willing to make a donation to a fund for this kind of protection, so they have places they can go with this added peace of mind?
Do you have a drive in garage at your home that is large enough to accomodate a visiting vehicle? If so, use the Internet to order groceries, alternatives to Pizza, other stuff. Each neighborhood could have a weblog category that announces new businesses that have setup e-business services for their community, then webloggers can subscribe to that announcement category, and use it to link to the new announcements. (See Al's Understand Radio News Aggregation if you unfamiliar with this concept.) Sign up as a customer, specify wants, give directions to get to your home - store phones you before making a delivery to make sure someone ready to accept delivery and make payment. Then when this is all over, e-business has had a boost in your area. If sniper not caught any time soon, you have now setup infrastructure that can be used for Christmas shopping.
Business district organizations need to study how to get people from enclosed parking areas to retail establishments, without becoming exposed to the sniper.
Transit systems like buses and taxis need to review where their people wait for them, and find ways for the people to be enclosed, while at same time the drivers able to see when someone is waiting for them.
Do we need an Amber for Cops? ... someone calls in some alert, and a signal is sent to all police, irrespective of which agency, informing them of where some event occurred, then they react according to their stations relative to that location and type of event.
Employers need to think about this also. Do your employees drive to work and have their cars in a parking lot visible from the street? Do your people arrive and leave at predictable times? What can you do to make your employees less at risk?
Has Halloween been canceled? What does this do for the kids fun, and the economy of the stores that cater to their business?
Think gift certificates, substitute events, e-halloween, and contests in safe areas with top prize being like trip to Disneyland (something kids want, and also get you out of town for a great trip).
Ask Amtrak for a special evening or weekend trip. Kids from the neighborhood are driven to an enclosed railway station and board a train that will go on a special trip out of town, perhaps with a different return route. Many of the cars will be like neighborhood block parties for groups of people who cannot do outdoor stuff while this scare is going on. Kids visit with the various neighborhoods on the Amtrak trip. Can older kids be connected to the Internet from this?
Stores with web sites combine visitor # onto their web site with a program to print e-gift certificates that can be cashed in after the sniper is caught, in one of several special kids party weekends.
Have some quality time parents and children at home on grand tour of kids friendly web sites. Familes vote which is best in several categories (different, wild, fun, educational) and send them (the kids friendly website organizers) e-gift certificates from the local stores, that can be cashed in at national chains that have outlets in your community.
Result - local commercial economy does not get hurt, parents and kids have quality time, internet innovation is stimulated.
Assuming there is a shopping mall where people can drive into an enclosed garage, and there is some security like I been talking about, a shopping mall could have a Halloween weekend, in which extra security is put on for the weekend. Down the middle of the mall have little shoppes selling halloween related stuff, and each of the main stores provide gift certificate discount coupons, in which the kids have something to cash in when the sniper is no longer an impediment to going shopping. Stores know what to do - buy one get one free coupons.
Have a treasure hunt in the mall ... each store may contribute a clue that is related to the stuff they sell. The first 25 kids per hour to come in with the right answer receive a gift certificate discount coupon or something even better.
Are you annoyed by the Gun control people trying to take advantage of the big scare? The pro-2nd amendment crowd can fight back with a Neighborhood NRA watch ... people who have gun permits, and have had appropriate weapons training, could escort their neighbors on errands, prepared to shoot back at the sniper. Have a web site where people can sign up to have the Neighborhood NRA watch provide them with an armed escort. The police would be asked to swear in these people as temporary deputies with special badges showing that they have been checked out and are trusted to be traveling the city with weapons ready to fight the sniper.
[dws.] Asks QUOTE To: Anyone who publishes material related to the sniper in DC, Please do not give the idiot (sniper) in Washington a title that feeds his/her ego. "The Beltway Sniper" is too glamorous. Refer to him/her with a title that is more fitting, and less likely to be bragged about in prison, such as "The Murdering Coward". UNQUOTE [dws.]
2:50:57 AM 
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