[PRCo] Re: Coatesville Arson

Mon Feb 23 09:12:31 EST 2009

The problem seems to be a drug culture, and I don't know what can solve it.  It's one of the reasons we have one of - if not the highest prison rates in the world.  And it's not cheap.  Far too much of our tax dollars goes into this field.  It's too profitable for those who are looking for 'get rich quick' options.

This is another instance where I'd like to hear Rich's viewpoint, being that he is somewhat on the front lines.

Throwing money at a problem does not solve it.  This country has a lot of practice trying to do that.

Cheers

John

> From: fwschneider at comcast.net
> Subject: [PRCo] Re: Coatesville Arson
> Date: Sun, 22 Feb 2009 23:05:26 -0500
> To: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org
> 
> Look 20 minutes to either side of your home, John. None of this 
> world is what it was 40/50 years ago. It isn't where your mum came 
> from either. I noticed in Sheffield, England, ten years ago that 
> the hoodlums from the council homes (reads projects in American) were 
> removing the streetcar fare vending machines from the posts and 
> taking them home to smash them and get the money. Then you find the 
> broken and empty ticket machines in the dumpster. I remember a 
> distinct feeling that I was being trailed in Manchester, England, 
> once. My solution was to walk into a McDonalds, walk through and 
> out the other door. It solved the problem. The guy disappeared. 
> Funny ... never had that feeling in Germany, Austria, Switzerland or 
> even India.
> 
> I used to kid (heckle?) the business write of the Reading Eagle / 
> Reading Times, before I retired, that the front page of his newspaper 
> was the murder of week page. Lancaster was still rather sedate. 
> The drug culture has reached Lancaster County with a vengeance and 
> now we see it here too ... hardly a week or two goes by that we don't 
> have another murder somewhere in the county ... mostly in the city 
> but, as I recall reading in a Minnesota paper two years ago, that 
> those who sell illicit drugs love the country and small towns because 
> the police are not as efficient.
> 
> If we go back much more than half a century, murders in this county 
> were so rare than when one happened (about 1950 or 1951), it was 
> narrated on a prime-time TV show called "The Big Story." They did 
> not normally happen here. This was a God fearing county where you 
> knew your neighbors and no one would have thought of stepping over 
> the line. And the last place you wanted to do something was a little 
> town like Columbia where the police knew everyone; you could be sure 
> 50 years ago to be arrested there within minutes if you did something 
> wrong because the town cop knew every bad egg. People in Lancaster 
> County left their doors unlocked 50 years ago ... city or county.
> 
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Big_Story_(radio/TV)
> 
> My township hired it's first policeman in 1953 or 1954. We had 
> 7,000 inhabitants then and one cop. Today we 33,000 people and more 
> policemen, detectives, etc., than the city of Lancaster did in 
> 1953. Then the big offense was the guy who forgot to stop for a 
> stopped school bus or, in 1957, the speed trap they set up on the 
> Lititz Pike to get the high school kids in a 35 mph zone at after 
> school. This month the went into the high school with a team of 
> police and dogs and arrested three seniors as coccaine and heroine 
> dealers and put them in jail. They knew who they were after before 
> they went in.
> 
> I was having dinner the other day. Some how I got into a 
> conversation with the waitress who was taking a semester of work at 
> University of Pittsburgh on-line because she had to come home and 
> take care of a sick mother. I asked where she planned to go after 
> she got her degree. There was no doubt in her mind. She likes 
> Pittsburgh. Her field is criminology and police work. And she said 
> there is no shortage of demand for her field in Pittsburgh today. 
> (When I worked out there 25 years ago, it was a very safe place.) 
> Like Bob Dietrich's daughter and the rest of us, there is a certain 
> allure to the people in that part of the state. But sad that we 
> have to admit that there is no shortage of demand for police.
> 
> But we know the problem exists in Montana and Philadelphia, Maine and 
> and Portland, probably Lancaster SC as well as Lancaster PA.
> 
> And there is at least one person on this list who sees the results of 
> drugs first hand every day ... a doctor working in a hospital in a 
> ghetto in North Philadelphia.
> 
> fws
> 
> 
> On Feb 22, 2009, at 10:11 PM, John Swindler wrote:
> 
> >
> > Hi Phil
> >
> >
> >
> > I am reminded of the admonition: "be careful what you wish for - 
> > you just might get it".
> >
> >
> >
> > So when people 'wish' for and undefined 'change', they just might 
> > get something far different.
> >
> >
> >
> > As for Coatesville and Wampum, those are singular instances. It's 
> > the murders in Homewood and North Philadelphia that go on almost 
> > daily. The Post Gazette is available on line, and while checking 
> > for PAT news, one is struck by realization that this is not the 
> > Pittsburgh I remember from 40/50 years ago. Certain neighborhoods 
> > are much more violent today.
> >
> >
> >
> > The trouble with history is that, with few exceptions, there really 
> > isn't much new under the sun.
> >
> >
> >
> > Cheers
> >
> > John
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >> Date: Sun, 22 Feb 2009 10:54:06 -0800
> >> From: pcc_sr at yahoo.com
> >> Subject: [PRCo] Re: Coatesville Arson
> >> To: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org
> >>
> >> Mr.Swindler;
> >>
> >>
> >> There are more than exceptions available aren't there. As we 
> >> observed elsewhere
> >> we are expecting great change with our new president but official 
> >> historians say
> >> we are still struggling with the same social ills of President 
> >> Lincoln. Actually,
> >> many of those 'ills' are millenia old aren't they. Same for crime.
> >>
> >> King Solomon said: "There is nothing new under the sun." While the 
> >> specific
> >> reference is to human creative ability (actually, lack thereof) it 
> >> can also be
> >> 'applied' to the destructive ability of 'humans.' Murder started 
> >> with Cain and
> >> Abel and has been with us ever since at all ages. However, it is
> >> always startling when the murderer is young isn't it. You will 
> >> find the same
> >> with every generation since time began; it's not new is it.
> >>
> >>
> >> Phil
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>> ----- Original Message ----
> >>> From: Phillip Clark Campbell <pcc_sr at yahoo.com>
> >>> To: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org
> >>> Sent: Friday, February 20, 2009 11:35:48 AM
> >>> Subject: Re: Coatesville Arson
> >>>
> >>> This made national news as well.
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> Phil
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> ----- Original Message ----
> >>>> From: John Swindler
> >>>> To: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org
> >>>> Sent: Friday, February 20, 2009 6:46:13 AM
> >>>> Subject: [PRCo] Re: [PRCo]
> >>>>
> >>>> Motive? Didn't have a life, and way too much free time on his 
> >>>> hands.
> >>>> There's a lot of that going around. Our society has become way 
> >>>> too wealthy.
> >>>>
> >>>> It was some 35+ years ago that Geissenheimer commented "didn't know
> >>>> any young railfans that got themselves into trouble". Of course the
> >>>> nit-pickers will come up with exceptions, but what Harold was 
> >>>> trying
> >>>> to say was that hobbies and sports, etc can help keep kids out 
> >>>> of trouble.
> >>>> I doubt if there are any ax murderers or arsonist on THIS list.
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>> Cheers
> >>>>
> >>>> John
> >>>
> >>>>
> >>>>> To: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org
> >>>>> From: fwschneider at comcast.net
> >>>>> Subject: [PRCo]
> >>>>> Date: Thu, 19 Feb 2009 22:13:29 -0500
> >>>>>
> >>>>> Since this was on this website, I'll ask John Swindler openly 
> >>>>> if he
> >>>>> saw the news today ...
> >>>>>
> >>>>> This didn't break in time to make the Lancaster papers but it 
> >>>>> is on
> >>>>> Comcast's home page late tonight ...
> >>>>>
> >>>>> Roger Barlow, age 19, was arrest for setting 7 arson fires in
> >>>>> Coatesville in the last year. He is considered a "pyromaniac 
> >>>>> who set
> >>>>> the fires so he could watch the homes burn." He is in jail in lieu
> >>>>> of $9,000,000 bail. That's a lot of zeros. No motive given.
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >
> > _________________________________________________________________
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> 
> 

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