Someone else died yesterday
Feb. 9th, 2007 10:20 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mousmeThere was no news coverage of this death, because clearly this guy was unimportant. He might be a blurb in a newspaper somewhere, known only as "the victim, a middle-aged man."
We were involved in a car theft (imagine that, in a company that deals with stolen vehicles?). When our trackers found the car, the thieves were still in it. They spotted the trackers and panicked, flooring it. Our trackers have a strict policy of "no pursuit" unless there's no way they've been seen, which wasn't the case. So they followed at a really discreet distance while the thieves floored it through several red lights.
...
And rammed into another car. There was a middle-aged couple in there. The man, we think, has died. No news of the woman.
Our company is mostly worried that this will backfire on us, although I fail to see how it's our fault that these men broke the law, and then decided to break a few more laws before killing someone (albeit accidentally). No one seems particularly upset that someone died.
The office was full of talk about Anna Nicole Smith, the random celebrity who died yesterday.
Whoever this man was, no one but his family will ever know his name. He doesn't get a splash in all the tabloids (and his family are probably grateful for that), and no one outside his family cares that he died.
All in all, I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing.
We were involved in a car theft (imagine that, in a company that deals with stolen vehicles?). When our trackers found the car, the thieves were still in it. They spotted the trackers and panicked, flooring it. Our trackers have a strict policy of "no pursuit" unless there's no way they've been seen, which wasn't the case. So they followed at a really discreet distance while the thieves floored it through several red lights.
...
And rammed into another car. There was a middle-aged couple in there. The man, we think, has died. No news of the woman.
Our company is mostly worried that this will backfire on us, although I fail to see how it's our fault that these men broke the law, and then decided to break a few more laws before killing someone (albeit accidentally). No one seems particularly upset that someone died.
The office was full of talk about Anna Nicole Smith, the random celebrity who died yesterday.
Whoever this man was, no one but his family will ever know his name. He doesn't get a splash in all the tabloids (and his family are probably grateful for that), and no one outside his family cares that he died.
All in all, I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing.
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no subject
Date: 2007-02-09 03:24 pm (UTC)i can understand why your company's worried. the family of the man could say that if the thieves weren't being tracked, they wouldn't have sped through the red lights and therefore nobody would be dead. not saying it's true, but i live in a sue happy society so my brain goes to these things.
no subject
Date: 2007-02-09 03:38 pm (UTC)I just find it appalling when somehow, the criminal activities of others are made into *our* responsibility.
It's like hostage situations, in a way. The guy says "Don't make me kill them," thus foisting off responsibility of his actions onto the police/negotiator/whatever. "Well, I wouldn't have killed that guy if you hadn't tried to get in here. So his death is on your hands and not mine." Even though, y'know, no one made him take the hostages to begin with, and the decision to kill was his alone.
Meh.
no subject
Date: 2007-02-09 03:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-02-09 05:31 pm (UTC)But people who run from cops and run red lights and speed and end up seriously injuring or killing someone can somehow escape the blame in the eyes of the public because, "The police shouldn't have chased him because they know that's dangerous."
You know what? Those no pursuit policies are gonna come bite the public on the ass some day when someone runs and it turns out he's a really bad guy who goes on to kill people or rape people or what-have-you.
Of course, this is why we use the helicopter in pursuits. We start out with the cars chasing, but as soon as the helicopter gets there, all the cars back off and follow from a distance. But it still chaps my hide.
and 50 people
Date: 2007-02-09 05:32 pm (UTC)not bird flu mind you...
but HUMAN FLUE
over 12,000 people die every year from it...
mostly old folks and young folks...
WAIT until somebody HERE gets de burd flu
mojo
no subject
Date: 2007-02-09 06:30 pm (UTC)