Fireworks, guns, and death

[Az]

Thank you Charleton Heston and the NRA.

Just came back from the Detroit fireworks (they were awesome). The event was marred by gunplay. About 2 minutes into the fireworks someone stole or jostled someone elses sunglasses (not sure of the cause). For some reason this prompted the man to pull a gun and start firing into the crowd. 8 people hit. 2 in critical condition and 1 in unknown condition. Me and my GF were sitting nearly on top of the incident. But with all the booming all we knew about it was the sudden charging of the crowd trying to clear the area.

http://www.freep.com/news/locway/shoot24_20040624.htm

[DrWeird]

1. Yet most fireworks are illegal.

Go figure.

[Az]

2. Fireworks can hurt you

Guns are nice and safe. Never hurt anyone.

[NightTrain]

3. That's why I call him "Charlatan Heston."

[Festivito]

4. I'm so angry.

Local TV stations interviewed a brother-in-law of victim with chest and arm wounds unable to talk but did nod. Channels 4 and 7 only covered it tonight.

This shooter seems nuts. A group of teenagers 17,18 year-olds are near the Hart Plaza sign. The shooter steals someones Cartier glasses off their face, then returns to become the shooter as though to rid himself of witnesses, the gunfire sound to be hidden against the just begun fireworks.

He dropped the gun at the shooting site. Police already describe him as 34 with good descriptions given. Despite my general cynicism I'm certain Detroit Police will find the right guy. They're not the keystone cops Tonya Harding had hoped.

We just got Jimmy Kimmel to eat crow over his defaming Detroit to be burning if the Pistons won. Instead we honked horns until the wee hours, slept the next day, and then had a quickly planned beautiful parade ending at Hart Plaza. hundreds of thousands, perhaps a million braved the rain on a workday to wave at the Piston players, and there were no Kimmel fires.

Now some nut fires a gun.

I'm so angry.

[BlackVelvetElvis]

5. John Ashcroft would be very proud.

I hope those people pull through.

[Az]

6. Count is up to 9 people hit now

The crowd seemed to be on edge before the fireworks last night. There were occaisional surges in the crowd of people running away from things. I got the impression that all the terror alerts had left the people expecting something.

[markses]

7. Bring lawyers, guns and money

;-)

[noonwitch]

8. Did you get pictures or video? The Detroit Police need them.

I didn't go to the fireworks, because I hate crowds, but I did go a few times back before they banned alcohol (not that I drank, but I stopped going because of all the drunks). It was not pleasant back them and I was relieved that they banned alcohol after the beating incident back then.

This is so bad for Detroit, especially after how peaceful last week's Pistons celebration was. I hope that everyone who was hurt is okay. I'm not quite ready to blame the NRA-most gun crimes in Detroit are not committed with legally obtained weapons.

[Az]

9. Nope, didn't really see anything

First we knew of it was when the crowd started charging out of the area. Thought we were going to get trampled for a bit there. At first we thought it was someone setting off smokebombs or something. Crowd was definately on edge before the shooting though.

[gpandas]

11. how is one nut case "bad" for an entire city?

[Az]

12. Publicity and comfirming rumors

When I was in Japan I wore a teeshirt that said Detroit Summer. While being a 6' long haired blonde already had cleared space around me this teeshirt really cleared a path.

Detroit has a reputation. It's difficult to get rid of this sort of thing. The best you can hope for is for nothing to happen and some other city ratchets up the violence. Even then there will be a lingering memory of Detroit equals violent. But when something like this happens, despite it being one nut, it puts violence and Detroit back in front of the public eye. The association gets strengthened. And it becomes harder to remove again.

[gpandas]

13. never lived in a big city, but i think all big american cities ...

have this image problem. it's sad that racism still exists, but i think it is the guiding light in this problem. concentrated poverty is the other beacon, and,as many americans seem to think it is a communicable disease, they stay away in droves. big cities are the big losers in a legislature and presidency that are not apportioned entirely on population. some are more equal than others. check out farm subsidies for an example.

[Ripley]

10. Glad you're okay AZ.

I hope that's not a "preview" of the 4th.