4 police officers shot in Virginia

... and two died.

And it all started with a THEFT.

One wonders why we even call the police for theft anymore, and why police respond with lights flashing and sirens blaring.

Obviously, this guy was armed and willing to kill, but one wonders what might have happened had the police not been called. Someone would have lost some property, but no one would have died.

Anyway, this is in the news (even the BBC!!!) because it is rare, awful, and violent.

And that always is appealing to the news media.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-12737116

State of Florida has gone to hell

Three police officers killed in 28 days.

And six so far this year.

What the hell has happened to my hometown?

http://www.cnn.com/2011/CRIME/02/22/florida.officer.shot/index.html?hpt=Sbin

Recent rash of police shootings nationwide

A recent rash of police shootings nationwide? 

So says CNN.

In the book I show that stories about crime and criminal justice rarely offer important context. That is, they typically fail to show the important details needed to give the story meaning.

Here is an example of the opposite. Even the headline offers context:

"Dangers real, but deaths increasingly rare for police officers."

Exactly. It is a dangerous job. But officers are rarely killed on the job.

As noted in the article: "Police shootings are very, very rare events in this country," said Peter Manning, a professor at Northeastern University's College of Criminal Justice. "When they happen together (like this week), it's even rarer."

With this context -- if the news and entertainment media just showed cops being killed -- we'd all carry around misconceptions of the realities of police work.

Kudos to CNN for providing this context.

As for me this one hits way too close to home. Two officers in my hometown of St. Pete slaughtered in an ambush. It's a horribly sad day.

http://www.cnn.com/2011/CRIME/01/25/police.officers.shot/

Violent rhetoric leads to shooting of member of Congress

Sarah Palin ran an ad through her PAC targeting 20 people. Three of them retired. 16 were defeated. And the one who won?

She was just shot in the head by a lunatic with an automatic weapon.

This is not a coincidence. When people in positions of power use dangerous rhetoric to incite violence, there are people out there willing to carry it out for them.

As for Tea Party favorite Sharon Angle, who herself was narrowly defeated by Senator Harry Reid, her call was this:

"You know, our Founding Fathers, they put that Second Amendment in there for a good reason and that was for the people to protect themselves against a tyrannical government. And in fact Thomas Jefferson said it's good for a country to have a revolution every 20 years. I hope that's not where we're going, but, you know, if this Congress keeps going the way it is, people are really looking toward those Second Amendment remedies and saying my goodness what can we do to turn this country around? I'll tell you the first thing we need to do is take Harry Reid out."

Hey, idiots: PEOPLE ARE LISTENING to this stupidity!

Developing story: Beward of the "fringe looking character."

A "fringe character" shoots his member of Congress.

Be afraid. Very afraid.

http://www.npr.org/2011/01/08/132764367/congresswoman-shot-in-arizona?sc=tw&cc=share

http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_theticket/20110108/ts_yblog_theticket/report-congresswoman-giffords-shot

Shootings, bodies, abuse everywhere

CNN (and many other media organizations) have a habit of drawing you in to further stories that are "related to" the one you choose to read on their website.

For example, I read saw that two police officers were shot, so I clicked on that link to see the details of the story. http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/12/22/pennsylvania.police.shooting/index.html?hpt=T2

And among the stories they recommend I read were:

We recommend

You might like:

• Father accused of child abuse, abuse of corpse in Alabama CNN Justice
• Chicago police officer killed in double shooting CNN Justice
• Illinois man dies in crash; wife leaves car, vanishes CNN Justice
• Leaked cables point to vital but volatile US relationship with Turkey CNN US
• Four bodies found near New York beach This Just In

Warning, it's all bad news.