Monday, March 14, 2005

Out In a Blaze of Boring

Friday was a really interesting day in Atlanta. I'm sure if you found this blog you already know what happened, at least the rough details.

I won't ask the obvious questions, like "How did he make it out of the courthouse?," or "If I can imagine that he might use MARTA why can't someone that has been through police training?" Sadly, I already know the answers to those questions.

What really bugs me is what went on after they caught the guy who had been called "a monster" for pretty much 24 or so hours until he was caught. All of the local channels pretty much cancelled all of their programming and resorted to covering every detail they had available after the guy was busted. If you rely on the bunny ears like me, that leaves 6 channels of Baptist church service programming and TBS. And the coverage might not have bothered me so much if the content had been different.

What followed was a series of reports on Brian Nichols. After hours of being an alleged suspect (is it still alleged when it's on tape and there are lots of witnesses?) the rest of the broadcast time was spent humanizing a man that had just cold-bloodedly murdered four completely innocent people. There were stories about the local semi-pro basketball team he tried out for complete with interviews with people saying they never suspected the type of behavior he exhibited the day prior. There were stories about where he had lived. There were probably other stories, too, but disgusted, I decided it was time to go to the driving range.

Why, after exhibiting such "bravery" and calling himself a "warrior" (apparently warriors go out of their way to slay unarmed judiciary employees) did he decide to go silently? Apparently because the woman he held hostage talked him down.

I'm glad he didn't hurt anyone else after the federal agent he happened upon in Buckhead, but I think most of us were hoping he'd not go out like such a pussy. I'd rather have paid for a few bullets than the inevitable drawn-out trial, the subsequent series of appeals to keep him off of death row, not to mention the expense of keeping him up in jail. I think we're definitely about to witness some of the shortcomings of our judicial system.

Perhaps if the media hadn't been swarming around like the most obnoxious busy-body on the block, the police might not have noticed the white flag of surrender.

1 comment:

Brian said...

I don't know...maybe it wasn't that unreasonable to assume Nichols wasn't going to ride MARTA, as no one else ever does.

It is a shame that he's not dead, but I'd hate to think how a shootout in that apartment complex might have gone down. This guy obviously didn't have any reservations about taking out uninvolved persons.