Cold. Damp. [47F and 99%RH, possibly]
I did get some stuff done yesterday. Beautiful weather for outdoor work. Bright overcast, shirt sleeves temps, not dripping wet.
I cut the grass and leaves, blew the debris, cleaned up some corners of the yard. I refilled the fish pond. Then I washed my Expedition. That took a few hours. I ended up scraping every inch with a credit card to get the pine sap and road tar off. I started out to just get the sap off the roof before I install my rack, since it will eat the paint, and I won’t be able to easily get to it after the rack goes on.
Well…. that took a bit, and I ended up doing the same treatment to the whole vehicle when I saw how damaged the paint on the roof was getting. I only wash the vehicles a few times a year so I was due. Perfect light and temps to wash a vehicle, but DANG that thing is big.
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Apparently some celebrities were in town at our local mega-church. I was listening to the scanner when the event ended. Nothing much to hear, but our Special Response Group was out there working, and LOTS of other cops too. Wonder who paid for all that?
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In other news, the Secret Service Threat Assessment Center released a report about “Targeted School Violence” that is worth a read if the subject interests you, or you end up debating gun control would-be tyrants. https://www.secretservice.gov/data/protection/ntac/usss-analysis-of-targeted-school-violence.pdf At least read the Executive Summary. They admit that outside law enforcement really can’t respond and that it has to be addressed before it starts. Their recommendation is essentially closely evaluating kids and deciding if there are causes for concern, and then DOING SOMETHING to help the kid. That sounds awesome, except for all the surveillance, investigation, data gathering, and dossiers.
And then, you actually have to do something, and it has to be effective…
“Four attackers in this study (11%) were referred to their school’s threat assessment team prior to their attack. In each of these four cases, a student or teacher at the school reported to someone in a position of authority that the attacker had made a direct threat toward classmates or school staff”
In the first 4 cases, the teams either didn’t think the threat merited investigation, or thought the threat minimal. For the kid who was referred a second time, they took it seriously enough to expel him for 3 weeks, but let him BACK IN for the next semester. All 4 kids went on to attack their school within a year or two.
Bullying or being bullied is another indicator/precursor the just doesn’t get addressed….
“WHO KNEW ABOUT THE BULLYING: From case-to-case, there were differences among who was aware of the bullying
experienced by the attacker. In almost half of the cases (n = 16, 46%), at least one of the attacker’s parents was
aware that their child experienced bullying. In 16 cases (46%) a classmate was aware, and in 12 cases (34%) a school
official was aware. In five cases (14%), there was evidence that all three groups knew that bullying was taking place”
Go and read the whole thing if you’re interested. It’s a big bucket of fail.
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With that cheery thought, I’m getting ready to send my kids out the door and start my day.
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