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

iVillage Member
Registered: 07-25-2003
Tue, 06-08-2004 - 10:20am
<>

No, this is not something people do in this country or the world. It is something that one person did. That's why its described as a bizarre story.

Renee

iVillage Member
Registered: 04-16-2003
Tue, 06-08-2004 - 11:22am
Despite your long rationalization, you continue to miss my point, and it is an important one. When people have been pushed to the point of futililtly, and have nothing to lose,they are capable of doing many things. This is not irrational, it is desperation. As a civil society, we should be aware of this phenonomena. When we see people who are despsrate, with nothing to lose, we should act not dismiss. Saying that not everyone will do this, means you don't pay attention to indicators that someone will. Think of all the people who saw the signs, but because "no one would do something" ignored them.
iVillage Member
Registered: 05-06-2003
Tue, 06-08-2004 - 11:37am
>>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. <<

People have different breaking points. I think we're talking about multifactorial etiology here - different reactions to different stressors in different environments. In different circumstances, this guy could have reacted entirely 'rationally', while someone else might take the 'irrational' route. Who knows?

iVillage Member
Registered: 04-09-2003
Tue, 06-08-2004 - 1:00pm
Clearly YOU feel that it's a bizarre story, because you titled the thread, "Bizarre Bulldozer Story."

Does the fact that you gave it that title qualify as proof? Uh, no.

iVillage Member
Registered: 04-03-2003
Tue, 06-08-2004 - 9:22pm
Just like it was "one person" who stole a M-60 several years back and went on a destructive rampage with that armored vehicle. So it's obviously something that "some people" do here from time to time, for whatever reason seems appropriate to them.

That it isn't common doesn't mean that "people don't do that here". They clearly do.


~mark~

iVillage Member
Registered: 07-25-2003
Wed, 06-09-2004 - 10:29am
And you continue to assume you're so much more insightful and caring than the rest of society apparently and could fix everyone's problems or at least prevent any damage they want to do if only they'd listen to you.


Families, friends, co-workers, neighbors, doctors, therapists, social organizations, and the police 'save' people like Heymeer every day usually years before they get to his state, but there is no such thing as a fool proof safety net. There are choices in life that all of us make that bring us closer to one another or isolate us from our fellow human beings and that includes those who can provide professoinal assistance to us.

Certainly there were people who knew Heymeer was furious and probably something of a loose canon as well, but I think it's very naive to imagine that someone who wasn't close to him (and believe me, this type of person long ago dismantled any close social network he may have had), could have the insight or influence to do anything to prevent Heymeer from going berzerk.

Renee

iVillage Member
Registered: 04-16-2003
Wed, 06-09-2004 - 10:37am
<>

This sounds like a personal attack and has no place on this board. How does it advance the discussion.

iVillage Member
Registered: 07-25-2003
Wed, 06-09-2004 - 10:40am
<>

Absolutely. That's my point. For Heymeer to engineer that 'tank' required a lot of forsight and planning, so this isn't a case of someone just snapping. Most people have at least a degree of resiliency that pulls them back even if they on occasion are in danger of going over jumping off the cliff, and even when most of us reach our breaking point, over a nonviolent situation, it doesn't include homicide or suicide.


Edited 6/9/2004 10:50 am ET ET by wrhen

Renee

iVillage Member
Registered: 07-25-2003
Wed, 06-09-2004 - 10:53am
The situation is described as bizarre in the story, and was described the same way when I heard it reported about on the news yesterday.

What other adjective would fit? It's certainly not a commonplace situation.

Renee

iVillage Member
Registered: 07-25-2003
Wed, 06-09-2004 - 11:17am
That's more akin to someone in a fit of passion ramming their car into the object of their rage. Still not something that 'all' of us would do.

The planning, engineering, and construction that was required for this is in another category all together. All I'm saying is that this guy was a long way down a road that most of us never get on or turn back long before getting to the point he was at.

We are not all like Heymeer and just waiting for the right situation to loose it.

Renee