Friday, January 17, 2014
Shitty, Shitty, Bang! Bang!
A moviegoer lost his life inside a Pasco County [Florida] theater Monday afternoon after a dispute over texting with a retired police officer.
According to the sheriff's office, the dispute happened before the 1:20 showing of 'Lone Survivor' had even gotten underway at the Cobb CineBistro at Grove 16 complex on Wesley Grove Blvd. Investigators say two couples had gotten into an argument over noise.
"The victim was on his cell phone; he was texting. We believe he was making some kind of noise. This noise led to an altercation between the suspect and the victim," Sheriff Chris Nocco explained. A witness recalled seeing the agitated man -- later identified by deputies as Curtis Reeves -- get up and leave in an apparent attempt to find a manager.
When he came back alone, the argument escalated. Charles Cummings told FOX 13 he heard the victim say he was texting his 3-year-old daughter before Reeves pulled out a pistol. "Their voices start going up, there seems to be a confrontation, somebody throws popcorn, then bang, he was shot," said Cummings, who was there to celebrate his birthday.
"I heard the victim say, 'I can't believe...,' then he fell on us." "I asked if the guy was OK, and he started gurgling blood and then fell," recalled Cummings' son, who said he ran to call 911.
Both the man, identified by deputies as Chad Oulson, and his wife Nicole, were struck by the single shot. Oulson, 43, was hit in the chest and died, while Nicole was hit in the hand when she put her hand up in front of her husband. She suffered non-life-threatening injuries.
An off-duty Sumter County deputy inside the theater was able to grab the gun and detain Reeves until deputies arrived, the sheriff added. Reeves, a 71-year-old retired Tampa police officer, was arrested and charged with second-degree murder.
A 2005 Tampa Bay Times article also described him as a former director of security for Busch Gardens. Moments after he was named as the suspect, Tampa police issued a statement saying Reeves had retired back in 1993 as a captain. "He was instrumental in establishing the department's first Tactical Response Team," the statement explained. "We are not aware of any contact with the department since his departure more than 20 years ago."
Nocco said his detectives considered if this could be a 'stand your ground' case but decided the criteria did not apply. [Well, it IS Flori-DUH, isn't it? And hey, it worked for George "These assholes always get away with it" Zimmerman.]
"It's absolutely crazy it would rise to this level over somebody just texting in a movie theater," he offered. "I can't believe people would bring a gun to a movie," added Cummings, a Marine who served in Vietnam. "I can't believe they would argue and fight and shoot one another over popcorn or even a cell phone."
I can believe it because it happened.
And they didn't "shoot one another." Only one guy had a gun, and he killed the guy with the popcorn. No doubt he deserved it.
What a country.
Tempers flared, and the guy with the gun killed a young husband and father because he was texting [his 3-year old daughter, it was reported].
And no one's even talking about another school shooting. It's all so boringly common and not anything to bother with anymore. Ho-Hum.
"Shit Happens."
Kids get shot, wounded, or killed in school shootings. Guy gets shot in a movie theater.
Oh, look! Over there! Sarah Palin said something!
Charles Pierce "TWO DAYS IN GUN AMERICA":
And, in the past couple of days, we've had a school shooting in New Mexico, the killing of a man in a movie theater for the crime of texting his daughter, and a Republican group in Oregon which thought the best way to honor Martin Luther King, Jr. and Abraham Lincoln was to raffle off a rifle.
I mean, why not? Only one of those two guys was murdered with one. There is one thing all of these three events have in common, in addition to tragic stupidity. There is in all three of them a fundamental undercurrent of contempt by the gun lobby and its financiers and the politicians that they sublet at every level of government for anyone who is revolted by the damage they have done to society.
The power of the arms industry in our politics is brute and unyielding. Its lack of compassion is made of iron and its ability to make itself the victim nearly inexhaustible. Witness, for example, the Republicans of Multinomah County...
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35 comments:
Move along, there's nothing to see here except another senseless shooting.
Off topic:
A minor curiosity though: BENGHAZI is driving the wingnuts crazy, right? It would be a rare thing if they got anything right and sadly they think in such circular fashion and are so arrogantly certain of their conspiratorial conclusions....
Just wondered. In any case, I personally don't care that much about bloggers with twisted logic in general. I don’t like blogs that are fake and at my blog and at others I try very hard NOT to make judgements about others.
As I just did in the above paragraphs.
I'm so funny!
And you liberals don't have a thing to say about this in your blogs. You only know haw to ridicule Sarah Palin don't you idiots!
CNN: (CNN) -- A few weeks before a texting dispute turned deadly inside a Florida theater, suspect Curtis Reeves had another run-in with a moviegoer, prosecutors said.
During Reeves' first court appearance on Tuesday, prosecutors said they had heard from another theater patron who said the 71-year-old former Tampa cop saw her texting and "glared at her the entire time throughout the movie" during a screening about three weeks ago.
When the woman got up to use the restroom, Reeves followed her and "made her very uncomfortable," prosecutors said.
CNN affiliate WTSP later identified the woman as Jamira Dixon of Wesley Chapel, the Tampa suburb where Monday's shooting took place.
Shooter charged with second degree murder Atty: Shooter had previous text incident Heroes step up at movie theater shooting Man killed in theater over texting
"He became just upset about the whole situation and kept staring and kept giving us dirty looks," Dixon told the station.
To even suggest that this is "stand your ground" is beyond ridiculous. People argue sometimes, that doesn't give a person with a gun the right to kill someone. Or perhaps in FL it does. But this is what the gun culture and (Republican) legislators working for the NRA gets you.
Mary must be off her meds... I don;t have any idea what the this she is talking about is...
Shaw, I've heard that the shooter is already looking to possibly use stand your ground saying he felt threatened.
Let's not lose sight of the fact that the guy is a former police captain who should now how to deescalate a tense situation.
But perhaps there is another issue here, one which some folks may miss.
Understand, I am not giving the guy a pass or anything but as America grows and gets more diverse, a certain segment of society does not like what they see.
I go to the movies all the time and there are always folks on the cells, talking or texting, in spite of the message before the movie to not do so.
How do you teach kids respect for laws and rules when people just disregard them.
There used more respect for social mores, now, not so much and our culture may be worse for it.
The question we will all face moving forward is how we deal with those who chose to exercise their rights [even gun rights] at the expense of others.
Who gets to decide at what point one persons rights impinge on anothers and what we should when that happens.
Hey Mary... you forgot the rest of your post over at another conservative blog... you should get a class on cut and paste blog commenting...
Dervish, I can see it now... right after the announcement to not use your cells in a theater, they will remind everyone to take their weapons out and leave them at the refreshment counter...
Only in Florida... and Texas.
Dave Miller: "I go to the movies all the time and there are always folks on the cells, talking or texting, in spite of the message before the movie to not do so.
How do you teach kids respect for laws and rules when people just disregard them.
There used more respect for social mores, now, not so much and our culture may be worse for it."
I understand from the reports I've read that the movie was not playing at the time the victim was texting.
I have no idea what the rules are regarding texting in that particular theater. I can understand being annoyed at someone doing it during a movie, but it is was done BEFORE the feature, I don't see what this ex-cop's problem was. In fact, a woman has come forward and reported a similar incident by this same guy.
I think he's unstable and was just itching to use his firearm on anyone.
The reports of his behavior after his arrest are troubling.
Dave, Mary comes here often and leaves incoherent comments. They usually get deleted. This one stays because it is so symptomatic of folks like her. I have no idea what she's talking about.
Back to the discussion. In a country that fetishizes firearms and where everyone is armed, these sorts of horrors will continue to happen, I'm afraid.
Not everyone who owns a firearm is mentally stable, and this tragedy proves it.
Why do you wish to deny a middle schooler his 2nd amendment right to carry a shotgun to school?
I suppose we could ask why the parent is not negligent for allowing a child access to the gun locker but they'll probably resolve that on Duck Dynasty (season premier tonight).
Dave: "Who gets to decide at what point one persons rights impinge on anothers and what we should when that happens."
Have we lost all sense of proportion? How does annoyance in a movie theater justify shooting a person to death? How does the alleged use of 'popcorn' equate with the actual use of a lethal weapon? This act cannot be, nor should it ever be, justifiable under "Stand Your Ground." I am starting to think people have lost all moral bearings - that society is unravelling at the seams if we equivocate on atrocities like this.
i've said it before and i'll say it again, i'm very happy to live in a country with strict gun control. i can't imagine ever needing to carry a gun around with me.
hmmmmmm..."I have no idea what she is talking about"
neither do most politicians.
They say things with such sincerity that we accept whatever it is they are saying. Later they apologize for those same said things with such sincerity that we forgive them for saying the things they said, whatever it was.
I think sincerity is develping a very bad name.
A discussion of gun violence in the same manner becomes a absurdist exercise ala Edward llAlbee or Samuel Beckett.... there is a consensus understanding that a problem does exist,gun violence,but there is such a gut reflex among some that no discussion should take place because that would admit that there is one.
“Sometimes it’s necessary to go a long distance out of the way in order to come back a short distance correctly.”
~Edward Albee,Zoo Story
I am wishing, with all sincerety, the short distance correctly.
Octo... don't think I was thinking of this incident with my statement... this was horrendous, 100%.
But my question is behind things like smoking, parenting, eating, etc.
How do we decide when we have to terminate rights because people are unable to safely and responsibly exercise them?
Young people are shooting each other every day and night in America's cities.
Move along? We all do it every day, pausing to ring our hands over it only when a mentally-unstable person gets in the act?
Where are the discussions over the everyday violence poor people trapped in poor neighborhoods must put up with daily and nightly?
Only a willfully unknowledgeable person would deliberately ignore the fact that a country drenched in guns will have gun violence every day, even in its rich neighborhoods, like Newtowne, Connecticut.
Where's the conversation about this country having more deaths from guns than any other country in the world?
It's not only in poor neighborhoods, it's all over the country.
billy pilgrim: "i've said it before and i'll say it again, i'm very happy to live in a country with strict gun control. i can't imagine ever needing to carry a gun around with me."
That statement alone, billy, could bring a firestorm of invective and recriminations from folks who believe there should be absolutely NO restriction on anything having to do with the 2nd Amendment.
And they don't believe there is any correlation whatsoever in any way shape or form between the fact that we are the most heavily armed country on the planet and also we are the country with the most deaths by firearms.
Dave: “ How do we decide when we have to terminate rights because people are unable to safely and responsibly exercise them?”
Good question: Which rights? The right to brandish a cell phone or the right to Stand Your Ground? A cell phone is far less fatal than a gun; yet the right to carry the more fatal appliance is the one defended most vigorously. When an accidental death by gunshot or an unjustifiable homicide makes headlines, the outrage fades quickly, and hardly anyone notices anymore.
Stricter gun control laws? Hell no! An annoying cell phone user? Blast away!
During my parenthood years, I tried to teach my children the relationship between responsibility and freedom. Parents reward good behavior with confidence and trust - and punish misdeeds with more supervision and less independence. A reasonable proposition for raising children, I thought. Yet, ours has become a society that fails to practice this relationship.
We equate freedom with excess and excess with freedom. We covet freedom but spurn responsibility. We facilitate overindulgence without moderation or self-restraint. Every partisan controversy degenerates into spin and mutual finger pointing - turning fractious with no consensus or resolution in sight. Every public controversy represents a failure of freedom because people no longer practice responsibility.
I find myself increasingly angry with our so-called conservative friends who thoughtlessly mock and taunt with sneer and jeer whenever we try to hold a serious discussion on issues of life and death. Frankly, their callous disregard appalls me.
Perhaps the madness within our midst reflects the accelerated grimace of a culture gone mad - when a people can no longer distinguish right from wrong, and adults refuse to act as responsible role models for their children.
GUN NUTZ!
I'm sure this will draw fire but here it is... we are reverting back to the untamed beast and haven't a clue as a society why.
See ya...
It's darkly fascinating that in a country where so many willingly traded freedom for security, or the illusion of security, since 9/11, so many of the same people are willing to trade safety for the illusion of freedom with the gun madness
Illusions indeed. Unchecked perceptions often are.
Octo, your last sentence says volumes... i fear it is true...
Some more info on the movie shooting.
The shooter had been in arguments at the same theater before.
The texting occurred during the previews and was not interrupting the actual film.
A total waste of human life.
The shooter must have some mental problems.
"The shooter must have some mental problems."
So address mental illness and the lack of good care.
In a perfect society there would be no guns but that is not going to happen in the US. Would a background check have helped in this case, no because he was an x LEO.
There are far more gun deaths done by thugs and it is doubtful they have background checks to acquire their firearms.
What is the answer?
There is no answer, skud. It's too late.
You and others just have to accept that we now live in a country where mass shootings, criminal shooting, and accidental shootings are the norm.
Thanks to the criminal organization, the N.R.A., we'll just say "Oh, well." Each time we hear of a young father or mother being shot by a gun idiot, each time some crazed gun person kills a bunch of people, or each time young children get their heads blown off because of a gun "accident" in the home.
Oh, well.
It's the price we have to pay for our "freedoms!"
Sadly you are right Shaw. However, the reason is not because of a "Criminal NRA" (it is a legal entity although there is little question its ethics are very questionable), the manufacturing companies that produce firearms for the military, the police, the hunters, the legitimate sportsman, and collectors. Nope. It's because the influence of money and lobying on politicians as well as the extremist like Nugent and others (as well as the NRA RHETORIC) that whip the willingly non thinking into a frenzy over even sensible gun regulations.
So, eassentially the problem is the people who allow themselves to buy the BS. I am a firm supporter of, and an advocate for the right to bear arms, responsibly and with the understanding that all firearm owners, regardless of the reason they own firearms have a obligation to secure their right to bear arms through regulations and laws that also protect the general non firearm bearing citizens of this nation.
Don't know how many have seen Dead in Tombstone, but reading this post caused me to recall the movie. America, in different ways, is becoming one big Tombstone.
Another middle school shooting today.
Philadelphia, but there were no deaths. An armed middle school is a polite middle school.
In environmental news, Freedom(lmao) Industries filed for bankruptcy protection. Yup, they're the ones needing the protection all right.
And some good news, North Carolina's abortion ultrasound law was struck down
(O)CT(O)PUS ... said:
<< During my parenthood years, I tried to teach my children the relationship between responsibility and freedom. Parents reward good behavior with confidence and trust - and punish misdeeds with more supervision and less independence. >>
That is how I did it as well. And I know Dave would agree.
I am willing to bet you had great success! Shoulder to Shoulder.
KP,
Just in case (O)CT(O) doesn't return to see your comment, I'll say this much: According to what I've learned from (O)CT(O)'s remarks on these boards, he had great success, which, among many things, included his daughter, an army officer, I believe, who served several tours in Iraq.
Ducky,
Gun deaths, pollution, and abortion! Oh my!
Remember when all we had to fret over was "law and order?"
Haven't we come far.
RN: It's because the influence of money and lobbying on politicians...
And where does that money come from? I'd say it is the manufacturing companies that produce firearms and their front-group, the NRA. Apparently RN thinks the money comes from somewhere else?
If you say so WD.
RN said, "influence of money and lobying on politicians as well as the extremist like Nugent and others (as well as the NRA RHETORIC) that whip the willingly non thinking into a frenzy over even sensible gun regulations."
preicsely. It really doesn't matter where the money comes from, and no doubt, manufacturing interests,gun and affiliated, throw tons of money on battling any consideration of sensibility.....but ultimately...it is the BOUGHT politicians who are truly reprehensible.
okjimm, you get it. Perhaps WD will now get it as well.
Thanks for putting it so clearly.
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