Family Value, traditions more important than injuries

[Frank Hipper]

I take no small amount of pleasure in seeing that the updated article in no way makes my earlier post in this thread look foolish.

Again, to the guy/s making the threats; Clorox is delicious, and refreshing.

[Big Phil]

I just saw this in the paper, and thought it was worth the update. Bolded some interesting points.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/642 ... versy.html

Harassment case dropped in high school cannon misfire

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

EVERETT, Wash. -- A telephone harassment charge has been dismissed against a woman who was accused of threatening a 16-year-old boy who nearly lost a leg when a ceremonial cannon exploded at a high school football game.

The misdemeanor case was brought against Dana Lynne Snyder, 41, amid an uproar over reports that Brett Karch, who was 16 when he was injured Oct. 6, was being harassed as he lay in a hospital by people who feared the injury would end 30 years of celebrating Snohomish High School football victories with a cannon blast.

Everett Assistant City Attorney Mike A. Fisher moved to dismiss the charge Thursday in Municipal Court.

"Ms. Snyder feels vindicated by the city's willingness to dismiss the charge and is ready to move on with her life," said her lawyer, David J. Seeley of Kirkland.

Frederick P. Langer, a lawyer handling Karch's health care claims with the Snohomish School District, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Karch was one of five Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps members who were injured while firing the cannon. Newspaper reports that he had been harassed while recuperating were published in December and generated widespread reaction on the Internet, as well as 400 e-mails to Snohomish town officials.

Seeley said the results of his own investigation, which he shared with prosecutors, showed that "the public perception of the facts is quite a bit different than the reality."

He would not go into specifics, but documents obtained earlier by The Herald of Everett indicated that a neighborhood dispute rather than the cannon was at the heart of the matter.

Court records show Snyder allowed Karch to essentially live at her home for much of the last two years, and the teenager and his mother told Everett police she was angry that he refused to testify on her behalf in a civil dispute between her and a neighbor.

"What's the point here of getting in the middle of this?" Fisher said. "It just made no sense from a prosecutor's perspective trying to prosecute this."

Early this year, Snohomish police investigated other harassment claims involving the cannon blast, including reports alleging that Karch made improper phone calls, court papers show. No charges are expected in that probe, interim Police Chief John Turner said.

Police sought assistance from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in determining why the cannon blew up. The federal agency has not issued a written report but told police there "were problems with the metallurgy of the cannon," Turner said.

The cannon was built by students in the school's metal shop after a previous version gave out in the 1980s.

Karch had helped roll it to the field. He and two other cadets packed the barrel with about 5 ounces of gunpowder. There was a 10-second countdown and Karch pulled the trigger.

[brianeyci]

Well well now everybody who said that the community was being a dick has to bend over and take it in the ass because they turned out to be wrong...

...or not. From the information available the community was being a dick. Now that additional information's surfaced, rational people should change their mind. There's no shame in that. That in no way means that the original comments were hypocritical or that the new information made all the naysayers look like fools.

Everybody's so afraid of something like this happening these days, giving an opinion and suddenly being wrong after more facts, that they'd rather not comment at all and withhold judgment forever. I say that's unhealthy discourse. "No comment" is what politicians say, not rational people, unless there truly is not enough information to make a judgment.

[SAMAS]

These small town assholes can go fuck themselves.

Can you imagine the thought processes of some of these "adults" who travel to a hospital so they can threaten an injured kid over fucking football?

"I'm gonna go over there and give that little shit a piece of my mind!"

[Keevan_Colton]

Someone gets blasted by a fucking cannon and nearly has a limb severed...and the game goes on?

What the fuck?

[Flagg]

Someone gets blasted by a fucking cannon and nearly has a limb severed...and the game goes on?

What the fuck?

The "What the fuck?" is more that it happened in a progressive area in a progressive state. I could totally see this happening in the south, but that it happened in Washington state is a fucking surprise to me.

[Darth Wong]

Well well now everybody who said that the community was being a dick has to bend over and take it in the ass because they turned out to be wrong...

...or not. From the information available the community was being a dick. Now that additional information's surfaced, rational people should change their mind. There's no shame in that. That in no way means that the original comments were hypocritical or that the new information made all the naysayers look like fools.

Everybody's so afraid of something like this happening these days, giving an opinion and suddenly being wrong after more facts, that they'd rather not comment at all and withhold judgment forever. I say that's unhealthy discourse. "No comment" is what politicians say, not rational people, unless there truly is not enough information to make a judgment.

Indeed. If the news media got the facts of the story totally wrong, logical conclusions from those facts as initially reported are still logical conclusions. The only people who should be embarrassed are the news media. Although this article is fairly light on facts itself: were the earlier reports totally wrong on the facts, or was there actual harassment but not enough to warrant criminal charges?

[The Duchess of Zeon]

The dumbasses should have just purchased a real cannon on the internet. They could get a fully operational replica of a civil war Parrott rifle made out of modern steel from several companies which make them for civil war reenactors and cannon shooting competitions, for around 20,000 - 30,000 USD fully equipped, i.e., less than the cost of one of the soccer moms' SUVs.

[Flagg]

The dumbasses should have just purchased a real cannon on the internet. They could get a fully operational replica of a civil war Parrott rifle made out of modern steel from several companies which make them for civil war reenactors and cannon shooting competitions, for around 20,000 - 30,000 USD fully equipped, i.e., less than the cost of one of the soccer moms' SUVs.

Or they can just use a gods damned mortar which is a fuckload cheaper and makes just as much noise.

[Uraniun235]

Or they can just use a gods damned mortar which is a fuckload cheaper and makes just as much noise.

But that doesn't look nearly as cool!

[Patrick Degan]

The stupid cannon tradition aside, they didn't even stop the game that was being played. I can't even imagine the thought process.

What thought-process?

[wilfulton]

Looks like we've gone through denial and anger. Ouch. Still have to get through barganing before they finally accept the fact that they made a shitty cannon and it blew up.

I wonder what that would look like?

There's not much to say really that hasn't already been said, as it is absurdly stupid to use a gun tube made out of scrap metal that has already begun developing stress fractures. Somebody obviously forgot that this was the bane of the very first cannons ever made. Poorly wrough steel would fire a very limited number of shots before blowing up and killing the gun crew.

I'm thinking though that even if the school didn't want to shell out the money for a replica cannon, there should be no shortage of old retired gun tubes laying around that could be used. If you're just firing blanks out of them it shouldn't be too hard on them.
(Or would it? I'm not an artilleryman and all I know is you retire gun tubes on tanks after about 1500 rounds)

[Big Phil]

Three of my friends in Snohomish still don't know anything about this other than what they've read in the paper. One of them has a kid who plays football for Snohomish High, so you'd think if anyone would be aware of this he would, but nothing.

My suspicion is that there were a couple of assholes who got on this kid's case back in November, and the kid's mother (or the kid) blew this up into something bigger than it really was.

[Death from the Sea]

I wonder if the kid overloaded the cannon with too much powder? and if so did that cause the cannon to blow up or at least play a factor?

At Texas A&M University we have a cannon that is fired by the calvary every time we score at a football game... but it uses actual blanks with brass cartridges and so there is no room for error there...