Shooting incident, part 321. Empire State Building.

[OneEyedTeddyMcGrew]

Breaking news:
Several people reportedly shot at Empire State Building; gunman shot by police. More details soon...

Is there something in the water over in the States at the moment?

EDIT: A slightly more detailed report.

Several people shot outside Empire State Building
The Associated Press
Published: Friday, Aug. 24, 2012 - 6:35 am
Last Modified: Friday, Aug. 24, 2012 - 6:41 am
NEW YORK -- New York City officials say several people have been shot outside the Empire State Building and that the gunman is dead.

City police say three or four civilians have been wounded in the Friday morning shooting and that the shooter is dead.

A fire department spokesman says it received a call about the shooting just after at 9 a.m. Friday and that emergency units were on the scene within minutes.

The spokesman had no information about how many people were wounded or their conditions.

The shooting occurred at 34th Street and Fifth Avenue.

[Andras]

19 people were shot overnight in Chicago, with 8 at one time. Where is your outrage for that?

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/loca ... 9779.story

[OneEyedTeddyMcGrew]

Because, for whatever reason, it didn't make the papers over here.

[General Zod]

19 people were shot overnight in Chicago, with 8 at one time. Where is your outrage for that?

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/loca ... 9779.story

So what you're saying is you're being a petty fuckstick because he posted one story and not the other?

[Flagg]

None of those shot were killed, either. But don't let facts get in the way of Faux Outrage.

[Andras]

19 people were shot overnight in Chicago, with 8 at one time. Where is your outrage for that?

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/loca ... 9779.story

So what you're saying is you're being a petty fuckstick because he posted one story and not the other?

Since violent crime is rising in Europe and falling in the US, maybe I should ask what's in the water over there?

http://www2.dse.unibo.it/zanella/papers/crime-EP.pdf

[Flagg]

19 people were shot overnight in Chicago, with 8 at one time. Where is your outrage for that?

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/loca ... 9779.story

So what you're saying is you're being a petty fuckstick because he posted one story and not the other?

Since violent crime is rising in Europe and falling in the US, maybe I should ask what's in the water over there?

http://www2.dse.unibo.it/zanella/papers/crime-EP.pdf

Translation: "Stop posting stories about shootings, I can't clean my gun, masturbate, and post horseshit at the same time!"

Didn't we have this discussion last week?

[Andras]

Hah, the gunman shot one person, and the police shot 9:

from CNN:
[Updated at 11:26 a.m. ET] A gunman fatally shot a former coworker in the head outside the Empire State Building Friday morning before he was killed by police officers, New York Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said.

The suspect, 53-year-old Jeffrey Johnson, was a "disgruntled former employee" of a company located inside the Empire State Building, Kelly said. As he tried to flee the scene, a construction worker alerted two police officers, who pursued him down 33rd Street, Kelly said.

Johnson pulled a .45 caliber gun on the approaching police officers but it not clear if he actually shot any rounds as police opened fire on him, Kelly said.

Nine people were wounded or grazed in the crossfire, Kelly said.

"Some may have been accidentally shot by police officers," Kelly said.

[Flagg]

Hah, the gunman shot one person, and the police shot 9:

from CNN:
[Updated at 11:26 a.m. ET] A gunman fatally shot a former coworker in the head outside the Empire State Building Friday morning before he was killed by police officers, New York Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said.

The suspect, 53-year-old Jeffrey Johnson, was a "disgruntled former employee" of a company located inside the Empire State Building, Kelly said. As he tried to flee the scene, a construction worker alerted two police officers, who pursued him down 33rd Street, Kelly said.

Johnson pulled a .45 caliber gun on the approaching police officers but it not clear if he actually shot any rounds as police opened fire on him, Kelly said.

Nine people were wounded or grazed in the crossfire, Kelly said.

"Some may have been accidentally shot by police officers," Kelly said.

How is that funny, exactly? Unless you're a psychopath, I mean.

[LadyTevar]

It's more Ironic than Funny, honestly.

[His Divine Shadow]

Actually it is sorta funny in a dark gallows humor kinda way. But I'm also a sociopath so you know...hard to tell.

[General Mung Beans]

Hah, the gunman shot one person, and the police shot 9:
...
Nine people were wounded or grazed in the crossfire, Kelly said.

"Some may have been accidentally shot by police officers," Kelly said.

They don't know which of the nine was hit by cops, and it probably isn't all of them.

[Max]

Welcome to America. Enjoy our weekly mass shootings.

[Beowulf]

Mass shooting doesn't seem like a very applicable term to me. It implies that the shooter shot at multiple people, who weren't cops. This asshole only shot one person before the cops arrived, and started a firefight with him. We don't even know if he shot at the cops. If he didn't then it's 1 person shot by this guy, and 10 by the cops.

[Max]

True, but I was also taking into account the shootings in chicago. With reports coming in that the "empire state bldg" shooter carrying an extra clip makes me wonder if he didn't intend to go down taking more than just his ex-co worker.

[Zaune]

True, but I was also taking into account the shootings in chicago. With reports coming in that the "empire state bldg" shooter carrying an extra clip makes me wonder if he didn't intend to go down taking more than just his ex-co worker.

Doesn't necessarily mean he was going to start blowing away random bystanders. Maybe he was just planning to fight his way past the first police response and lose himself in the crowd while they called for backup.

[Tanasinn]

So, who's going to fund the NYPD when citizens shot by trigger-happy cops sue them down to the nails in the floorboards?

[Flagg]

So, who's going to fund the NYPD when citizens shot by trigger-happy cops sue them down to the nails in the floorboards?

The NYPD will just say the cops had a right to use deadly force and blah blah blah unsung heroes.

[Dark Hellion]

19 people were shot overnight in Chicago, with 8 at one time. Where is your outrage for that?

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/loca ... 9779.story

So what you're saying is you're being a petty fuckstick because he posted one story and not the other?

Let's be fair, the only reason this got news coverage is because it happened in front of an important building as opposed to somewhere in the Bronx.

The fact is that ~10 times as many people have died in gun crimes over petty reasons in the same space as these so called mass shootings have killed. Probably many more times that have died in car accidents because of massive driver stupidity.

But these aren't sensational news stories to poor outrage against so they are largely ignored, even though they should be very important in discussing the prevalence of crime and death in the U.S.

See, the thing is that this is the same kind of shoddy tactics that the right uses, posting sensational stories meant to raise the hackles of the target audience and allow them to spew out spleen against whatever the constructed boogeyman is. At least the right has the decency to let the puppet masters pull the strings, the left seems to invite its outrages without this necessity. Being on what you think is the more moral side does not mean that shitty thought practices become less shitty.

[General Zod]

Let's be fair, the only reason this got news coverage is because it happened in front of an important building as opposed to somewhere in the Bronx.

If only that actually had anything to do with what I posted.

But these aren't sensational news stories to poor outrage against so they are largely ignored, even though they should be very important in discussing the prevalence of crime and death in the U.S.

See, the thing is that this is the same kind of shoddy tactics that the right uses, posting sensational stories meant to raise the hackles of the target audience and allow them to spew out spleen against whatever the constructed boogeyman is. At least the right has the decency to let the puppet masters pull the strings, the left seems to invite its outrages without this necessity. Being on what you think is the more moral side does not mean that shitty thought practices become less shitty.

Or you could grow up and stop whining about which story someone decides to post? Frankly you sound like a massive whiny crybaby right now.

[Flagg]

Let's be fair, the only reason this got news coverage is because it happened in front of an important building as opposed to somewhere in the Bronx.

If only that actually had anything to do with what I posted.

But these aren't sensational news stories to poor outrage against so they are largely ignored, even though they should be very important in discussing the prevalence of crime and death in the U.S.

See, the thing is that this is the same kind of shoddy tactics that the right uses, posting sensational stories meant to raise the hackles of the target audience and allow them to spew out spleen against whatever the constructed boogeyman is. At least the right has the decency to let the puppet masters pull the strings, the left seems to invite its outrages without this necessity. Being on what you think is the more moral side does not mean that shitty thought practices become less shitty.

Or you could grow up and stop whining about which story someone decides to post? Frankly you sound like a massive whiny crybaby right now.

Seriousely. And again, did we not have this exact same fucking conversation last week with you dumb cunts being told to fuck off?

[Flagg]

Anyway, NBCNews.com is now reporting that all bystanders shot were shot by cops. So this becomes a story despite it happening in front of an important building as opposed to somewhere in the Bronx.

[Dark Hellion]

So I am the whiny crybaby because I think that political discussion should be about more than simply jumping on the next sensationalized media story that points outs my preconceived notions and wailing at it with faux outrage? Both the things I pointed out have been pointed out in the past by such raving gun nuts as Broomstick and Mike Wong, where was this same vitriol for them?

I find it sad that the fact that I would like those of similar political beliefs to hold themselves to a higher standard of political discourse than the opponents they deride somehow makes me part of a conspiracy of gun masturbaters (hint, I don't own a gun and haven't fired one in over 15 years). It also ironically proves my point about mirrored tactics, this being the construction of a strawman other to rail against as opposed to actually looking at what the opponent is saying.

And important to note is that a completely different poster pointed this out than the last time. So unless Lonestar and Andras are engaged in some conspiracy together this should have given some pause that maybe there was some substance to at least examine in why these dissents were made. But that requires one to assume that people who disagree with them may have valid reasons to do so and not that they are some simply dismissable fuck-suffix.

[General Zod]

So I am the whiny crybaby because I think that political discussion should be about more than simply jumping on the next sensationalized media story that points outs my preconceived notions and wailing at it with faux outrage? Both the things I pointed out have been pointed out in the past by such raving gun nuts as Broomstick and Mike Wong, where was this same vitriol for them?

I find it sad that the fact that I would like those of similar political beliefs to hold themselves to a higher standard of political discourse than the opponents they deride somehow makes me part of a conspiracy of gun masturbaters (hint, I don't own a gun and haven't fired one in over 15 years). It also ironically proves my point about mirrored tactics, this being the construction of a strawman other to rail against as opposed to actually looking at what the opponent is saying.

And important to note is that a completely different poster pointed this out than the last time. So unless Lonestar and Andras are engaged in some conspiracy together this should have given some pause that maybe there was some substance to at least examine in why these dissents were made. But that requires one to assume that people who disagree with them may have valid reasons to do so and not that they are some simply dismissable fuck-suffix.

I was under the impression that hijacking a thread to talk about your own pet issue was frowned on and against the rules. Silly me.

[Broomstick]

Mass shooting doesn't seem like a very applicable term to me. It implies that the shooter shot at multiple people, who weren't cops. This asshole only shot one person before the cops arrived, and started a firefight with him. We don't even know if he shot at the cops. If he didn't then it's 1 person shot by this guy, and 10 by the cops.

10 innocent bystanders shot by cops qualifies as a "mass shooting" in my book.

So I am the whiny crybaby because I think that political discussion should be about more than simply jumping on the next sensationalized media story that points outs my preconceived notions and wailing at it with faux outrage? Both the things I pointed out have been pointed out in the past by such raving gun nuts as Broomstick and Mike Wong, where was this same vitriol for them?

I'm a gun nut now? ::: Looks at favorite crossbow. Sighs. Says goodbye to old friend....::::

Does this mean no more throwing hot tar off the roof, then?

But more seriously – Hellion does have a point in that this happening in front of a famous building in a wealthy part of New York City has a LOT to do with this getting national and global time in the media. Andras said as much as well in this thread, yet no one jumped on his ass. As OneEyedTeddyMcGrew pointed out, the 19 people shot overnight in Chicago didn't make the national/global news even if they were every bit as much human beings and suffered just as much pain. Hell, that didn't make the local news over here in a neighboring county!

Now why is that? That's one of the questions that should be raised when discussing crime, violence, guns, and so forth. But I guess we have to listen to Flagg be a poo-flinging potty mouth first.

Yes, the fact the NYC shooting was in front of the Empire State Building really does factor into why this was regarded as Big News by the media. For the most part US society doesn't give a fuck if poor people or brown people are shot dead in the street, or while sitting in their living rooms. The folks in and around the Empire State Building? They might be important, so it's news.