Watching Car Chases
Entry posted by caldrail
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I was watching one of those cop programs last night. The usual sort of thing, car chases across america with exciting heavy metal music and a breathless commentary. There was one that stood out. It started as they all did, with a suspect making a break for it and piling down the highway without regard to safety. At one point he swerves to avoid an obstacle, and at over a hundred miles an hour, very nearly loses it completely. Thing is though, what I notice with all these chases is that the suspect runs out of enthusiasm. The police obviously don't give up, and refuse to do anything that causes collateral damage or injury if they can help it. Anyhow the suspect has been through the initial 'high' of the chase, the desperation at trying to escape it, and finally comes off the pace feeling in a hopeless situation. He actually pulls into a petrol station to fill up! At this point he's dawdling along with a multitude of police cars with whooping sirens and flashing lights dawdling after him. Then, all of a sudden, one police car rams him sideways at some speed. A somewhat frustrated police officer there I think. The suspects car smashes into a pump, ignites it, and the police audio says "Oh no, he's hit an Exxon!".
No he didn't. He was rammed into it. I do understand the frustration of the police officer concerned but this was one instance where collateral damage took place!
There's a part of me that views this sort of program with some concern. Its turning justice into entertainment, and to be honest it doesn't actually do anything to dissuade others from this behaviour other than the cops always get their man, but since the criminal mind always believes he won't get caught isn't there a danger that such programs encourage car chases?
Illness of the Week
This time its me, suffering a bout of flu or some such bug. All sympathetic replies most welcome. Sniffle.
Target of the Week
I do hear that the US are preparing to shoot a satellite out of the sky. The malfunctioned object has a fuel tank full of poisonous hydrazine and understandably the US don't want it plummeting to earth on a sensitive area. I guess this sort of thing is one hazard of space flight. Mind you, what happens when Virgin finally manage to get their orbital joyrides going?
This is your captain speaking. We're experiencing technical difficulties at the moment so please be patient whilst our cabin crew do their best to restart the engines. Incidentially, if you look out the right side, you can see the US missile on its way to intercept us...
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