Bizarre Bulldozer Story

iVillage Member
Registered: 07-25-2003
Bizarre Bulldozer Story
54
Sat, 06-05-2004 - 12:42pm
Residents of this mountain tourist town of 2,200 described a bizarre scene as the bulldozer slowly crashed through buildings, trees and lampposts, with dozens of officers walking ahead or behind it, firing into the machine and shouting at townspeople to flee.

"It looked like a futuristic tank," said Rod Moore, who watched the dozer rumble past within 15 feet of his auto garage and towing company.

One officer, later identified as Trainor, was perched on top, firing shot after shot into the top and once dropping an explosive down the exhaust pipe.

"He just kept shooting," Moore said. "The dozer was still going. He threw what looked like a flash-bang down the exhaust. It didn't do a thing..."

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20040605/D830SQHG0.html

Renee

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iVillage Member
Registered: 03-18-2000
Sun, 06-06-2004 - 10:28am
Out of control rage. Bizarre.
cl-Libraone~

 


Photobucket&nbs

iVillage Member
Registered: 04-16-2003
Sun, 06-06-2004 - 7:20pm
The man had been fighting with the city council for three yrs over their granting a zoning permit for a cement factory next to his muffler ship. If you are familiar with cement factories they produce DUST, and in my opinion shouldn't be permitted in town. The cement factory is no longer in town because the "tank" demolished it. It also damaged about 15 other buildings, mainly of those business that supported the zoning change.

It is the perceived futility and injustice that sent people, including terrorist, beyond sanity.

iVillage Member
Registered: 07-25-2003
Sun, 06-06-2004 - 8:43pm
That's it; the bottom line is we're all potential terrorists, right, hayashig?

Renee

iVillage Member
Registered: 04-03-2003
Sun, 06-06-2004 - 9:11pm
Under what for each of is or would be the proper motivation or cause? Yeah, probably. Most if not all of us are capable of irrational behavior under the right (or wrong) circumstances.


~mark~

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-23-2003
Mon, 06-07-2004 - 10:47am

Most if not all of us are capable of irrational behavior under the right (or wrong) circumstances.


Sadly, very true.

cl-nwtreehugger


Community Leader:


iVillage Member
Registered: 04-16-2003
Mon, 06-07-2004 - 11:12am
RIGHT-the word is POTENTIAL. We do have free will.
iVillage Member
Registered: 07-25-2003
Mon, 06-07-2004 - 2:58pm
Ahhh, but not all terrorism is irrational even when it involves suicide. In the case in question, however, I'd agree, though, that it was an irrational act.

While we all can and do act irrationally at times, only a small fraction of one percentage of us ever act with premeditation to kill or destroy the subject of our frustration.

Put anyone else in the situation Hayasig described and no one would have done what Heemeyer did and you'd be hard pressed to find anyone who would deliberately try to kill themselves or anyone else.

Renee

iVillage Member
Registered: 04-16-2003
Mon, 06-07-2004 - 5:06pm
<>

You have no basis for making this statement. Obviously, someone deliberate tried to destroy the buildings--it happened. Think of the news stories where children have killed teachers and peers. When these things happen you just can't say "no one would have done that" because people have done it. I am not certain it was a suicide attempt, don't forget there was a policeman on the tank shooting in.

To you this may have been an irrational act, but I certainly don't. Because I can conceive and follow a thinking process that would lead to such an act--it is rational.

iVillage Member
Registered: 07-25-2003
Mon, 06-07-2004 - 11:07pm
<>

And what world do you live in where people take out their frustration with government beaurocracy and inaction by armoring a bulldozer and going on a rampage?

Yes, someone did. That's waht I said. Heemeyer did. That's not something anyone else would do or others would have already done it. What I said was only a fraction of a percent of people would deliberately attempt to kill themselves or others in the same situation. We don't all have an inner terrorist just waiting for the chance to come out. A million people in Heemeyers situation would have delt with it many different ways some better then others, but less than one in a million would have probably planned and carried out their own or anyone else's death. People all over the world live and deal with worse more frustrating issues every day, just like students who kill their teachers are not dealing with issues and problems that that millions of other students aren't dealing with all the time.

<
To you this may have been an irrational act, but I certainly don't. Because I can conceive and follow a thinking process that would lead to such an act--it is rational.

>>

You better watch it there; you don't seem to be thinking very rationally at the moment. Heemeyer didn't have a way to get out of the bulldozer; he intended it to be his coffin. I think you're giving yourself a bit too much credit; we can all understand how Heemeyer went over the edge (although I suppose you don't consider his actions to be beyond the pale); that doesn't mean we'd all make the same choices he did. If you choose to believe that encasing himself in that thing and tring to kill those he held a grudge against, is a rational act knowing that he was most likely committing suicide and if not, assuring himself of a life sentence in prison, I'd like to know what you would consider an irrational one.

Renee

iVillage Member
Registered: 04-03-2003
Tue, 06-08-2004 - 8:53am
>>>"And what world do you live in where people take out their frustration with government beaurocracy and inaction by armoring a bulldozer and going on a rampage?"<<<

The same one as you and I evidently, as it happened not just on this planet, but in this country.

>>>"That's not something anyone else would do or others would have already done it."<<<

Invalid argument. It's highly illogical to claim that it's not something anyone else would do or it would already have been done. Somebody else could attempt it tomorrow for all you know. Unlikely of course, but being unlikely isn't the same as saying it couldn't happen.


~mark~

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