

Man carrying umbrella, not rifle, was on his usual route - DanielBMarkham
http://www.thenewstribune.com/2013/03/20/2521320/man-mistaken-for-wielding-gun.html

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anigbrowl
False headline. They weren't hunting for a man with an umbrella, they were
hunting for a man with a gun, who turned out to only have an umbrella.

Here's the much more comprehensive reporton which it is based:
[http://www.thenewstribune.com/2013/03/20/2521320/man-
mistake...](http://www.thenewstribune.com/2013/03/20/2521320/man-mistaken-for-
wielding-gun.html)

Strangely, although some sentences are lifted word-for-word, there's no link
to or credit of the original article, which a) amounts to mild plagiarism and
b) prevents many readers from getting valuable context (such as the
explanation of a 'partial lockdown' being that schools merely locked their
outer doors until they received an all-clear from the police). to provide only
half the facts while omitting any link to the source borders on dishonesty.

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kmfrk
Text-only Google cache:
[http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:http://...](http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:http://freedom-
or-safety.com/blog/citywide-multi-jurisictional-manhunt-swat-teams-
helicopters-schools-closed-over-man-with-
umbrella/&hl=en&client=opera&hs=zEX&channel=suggest&strip=1).

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dmix
It's a shame the phrase "police state" has been so abused. But this is quite
an adequate moment for its usage.

~~~
rayiner
What exactly is "police state" about this situation? Police reacted on a tip
and it turned out the tipster made a mistake. I didn't get the memo that we're
now calling "police state" every time the police actually do their jobs.

~~~
joe_the_user
The job of the police would seem to me to be "exercising appropriate
discretion" rather than sending an army to any place where there's vague
implication something bad might happen.

~~~
rayiner
It wasn't "any place" it was a school, and it wasn't a "vague implication" but
a rather specific report (guy, black mask, gun) (the fact that a report is
wrong does not mean it is vague). That seems to warrant a pretty serious
reaction.

Indeed, there was a report of a gunman in my law school a few years ago. The
place was locked down, SWAT came, there was a helicopter, the works:
[http://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/Gunman-Seen-at-
Northwes...](http://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/Gunman-Seen-at-
Northwesterns-Chicago-Campus-82798722.html). It's standard operating procedure
when dealing with sensitive areas with lots of people.

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lambdasquirrel
sometimes I wonder if this sort of policing is like an allergy, an immune
system gone overactive.

~~~
smokeyj
More like a metastasizing cancer.

~~~
dromidas
I'm glad we're able to pay them hundreds of thousands of dollars to provide
them with "trainin" as quoted in the article.

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MiguelHudnandez
While the article at freedom-or-safety.com is down, here's an alternate
article: [http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2013/mar/20/umbrella-
mistak...](http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2013/mar/20/umbrella-mistaken-
assault-rifle-sparks-manhunt-oly/)

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teeja
Anyone else got the feeling that the US still hasn't gotten over a serious
case of the jitters yet?

~~~
e40
You can partially blame the 24/7 news cycle for this. It overstates risks and
uses fear to drive viewership.

~~~
jeremysmyth
Only partially? I thought that the culture of fear created by sensationalist
news was precisely the reason the US has a violent crime rate that's two
orders of magnitude above any other functioning democracy.

