mike101 said;
"In the mid 70's, some of the Hispanic population of Camden, NJ were rioting, setting fires in the downtown area, etc. The police from Camden and surrounding towns cordoned off the whole damn city! My friends and I spent the rest of the night trying to sneak into Camden, just to see if we could. We could not. The only way in would have been to go around Camden, drive to Philly, jump in the Delaware River, and swim over. And Camden is a hell of a lot bigger than 2600 acres."
Just a couple of questions:
How long had the riot been going on before the city was sealed shut?
How much manpower from other agencies was used and how long did it take them to arrive on scene?
Do you really believe that they sealed off a city in less then two hours?
Here is a little example of how these things work: Back in September we had a train derailment near here. I was working an evening shift 4p-midnight. The train derailed at 4:17. About 4:25 someone noticed that there was vapor leaking from some derailed tank cars and the fire department was called. The fire department arrived on scene about 4:33. The firefighters were unable to get eyes on the placards on the leaking cars from a safe vantage point so they began to suit up their hazmat team and sheriff's deputies (two working for the entire county at the time) began to go door to door at nearby residences evacuating people. Additional fire personnel located the conductor and the manifest so they could attempt to identify what was in the cars that were leaking. The wind speed and direction was measured and about 4:40 the decision was made to close the interstate because the derailed cars were only a few yards up wind of the highway. I was assigned to assist a state trooper with closing the interstate at the North end of the affected area. The trooper an I took our squad cars down onto the Southbound lanes and got traffic stopped, then diverted up the ramp. Unfortunately many people didn't get the message and drove up the ramp and instead of following the detour sign, went right back down the ramp and back onto the interstate, driving through the affected area.
We placed cones where the squad cars were sitting and I took my squad up to the top of the overpass and blocked the ramp going back down the into the Southbound lanes. I then began directing traffic to make the left turn to follow the detour sign. There were still several drivers who were fearful of leaving the interstate and ignored my direction to turn left, drove around my marked squad car blocking the ramp and continued South on the interstate. I ended up stretching yellow crime scene tape across the entire ramp.
Around 4:45, the county Emergency Service and Disaster Agency (a volunteer organization) was activated. They began arriving on the scene within about 5 minutes. The other fire departments in the area called out their hazmat teams and dispatched them to the scene, the DOT began arriving with large lighted signs for the detour route about 3 hours later.
All in all it took over 4 hours for sufficient people from all the various agencies involved to arrive on scene to really get everything locked down and secured so that all entrances into the affected area were sealed off. And the area around the train wreck was much smaller then the college campus or Camden. the fact of the matter is, unless you have the personnel you need on site in a staging area, you don't seal off anything of any size and complexity within two hours. It's physically impossible.
FMJMIKE said,
The Police were too busy chasing a false lead. That's not being psychic. Thats being incompetent !!! The murderer had time to mail packages and film videos between the murders.
Too bad the cops were not searching for a possible murderer on campus. They had assumed the murderer had left campus !!! An assumption that is criminal and/or incompetent and should be reason for firing/charging those responsible.
What leads did they have to follow? Please post a link to the investigator's notes on the first homicides. I must have missed the part about the detailed note the scumbag left at the scene of the first murders telling the police of his nefarious plans.
I suppose you will support the police sealing off your entire town, locking it down, permitting no movement until the suspect is in custody the next time there is a violent crime in your town.
Jeff
