No, actually, I’m not being entirely facetious. 99%, perhaps, but that last 1% is a different story. I am referring, of course, to the armor-plated bulldozer (complete with .50 caliber machine gun) that tore up a Colorado town yesterday:
GRANBY — A 52-year-old welder nursing a grudge against the town fathers and driving a bulldozer converted into a war machine ripped the heart of this high-country ranching town from its foundations Friday.
Among the structures destroyed or heavily damaged in a relentless 90-minute rampage were Granby’s town hall and library, a bank, the town’s newspaper, an electric cooperative building, Gambles Store, an excavating business and a house owned by the town’s former mayor, as well as a concrete plant adjacent to the business of the man believed responsible for the bizarre assault.
It’s not really funny: although the, well, rampage somehow didn’t hurt anyone being attacked, the guy responsible shot himself afterwards. For that matter, I don’t particularly think that driving around town with what’s essentially a homemade armored car and shooting at things is an example of what one would call reasonable behavior; Jim Henley aside*, I suspect that a tumor or recent change in brain chemistry was what set this guy off.
That being said, I’m not surprised that a zoning violation was the apparent cause: it’s amazing how much sheer emotional energy and contention get generated by the simple application of rules about who can build what and where. I’m also struck by these two lines:
“He said, ‘By God, I am going to bulldoze those businesses,’ the businesses of all the people who’d done this to him,” Brown recalled.
“People knew he was building the armored bulldozer, but they didn’t know why he was building it,” said Nelson. He said Heemeyer welded one-inch armor plate around the bulldozer.
Because, of course, there are so many possible reasons why a man would need a homemade armored bulldozer. A pity that Ms. Brown and Mr. Nelson never compared notes…
Moe
*Who, BTW, wrote a really interesting post on comic book superheroes a few months back. If you haven’t checked it out, check it out.
“That being said, I’m not surprised that a zoning violation was the apparent cause: it’s amazing how much sheer emotional energy and contention get generated by the simple application of rules about who can build what and where.”
*cough* Israel/Palestine? 🙂
(ok it’s a about more than that, but construction and deconstruction seem to be significant flash points)
What’s really worrying about this whole affair is the fact that once the guy got his bulldozer up and running, he was evidently able to drive around pretty much with impunity; there was nothing the police could do to stop him. The last thing we need right now is for people to start Getting Ideas…
Frankly, short of issuing military-grade anti-armor weapons to SWAT teams, or having the USAF/ANG provide close air support, there really isn’t much that the police could do.
And I don’t know about you, but while the idea of some random guy going strange and running amok with an armored bulldozer isn’t terribly appealing, I like the idea of handing military firepower over to the cops just in case even less.
I have to agree. I used to drive similar dozers for the Marines and they are 45,000 pounds of “I can go where I want to.” The average policeman with an issued nine millimeter is not going to be able to do much against that other than get people out of the way, which is exactly what they did.
“A pity that Ms. Brown and Mr. Nelson never compared notes…”
Moe, that’s understated brilliance.
I don’t why, but I find the whole thing entirely hilarious. The armored bulldozer is like something out of the A-Team. Maybe TV violence does desensitize us after all.
Trying not to overlook the apparent suicide of the driver, and the economic hardship the leveling of downtown Granby will cause, but hey – Armored Bulldozer on a Rampage!!
Clint Eastwood, The Gauntlet? Ok, that’s a tenuous connection.
Seriously, though, I can remember several years ago when some oddballs managed a majority in the county council where my folks live. By “oddballs”, I mean the kind of folks who call midwives to avoid giving their kids social security numbers. The first thing they did was repeal all the zoning laws. In my opinion, the consequences were more grave and lasting than an armored bulldozer rampage.