what didn’t happen should be celebrated by west chester…and beyond.

Screenshot

We have seen this scene of the opening screenshot so many times now. It’s captured in time. It’s a tragedy that didn’t happen, but could have.

The law enforcement, a lot of whom were local, did an amazing job. There are people who went to the protest who have sort of fluffed this off as not being a big deal, and they need to get their head out of their asses because it could’ve been a very big deal. It could have been horrible beyond imagination here in our corner of the world.

And while I have seen article after article and TV story after TV story, talking about the perpetrator and what he was carrying, and then last evening they conducted a search of his house and found more things, but I haven’t had to read about, and I think there should be some public officials standing up and really praising those who keep us safe in our communities.

Law enforcement was simply amazing here. It might be their jobs, but they are heroes.

So you have from the date of the protest which was Saturday, June 14th, West Chester Borough Police Department, Chester County Sheriffs office, FBI. Then yesterday add East Whiteland Police Department, the county and a bomb squad, which would be the one from Montgomery County that Chester County has access to – they serve Montgomery , Chester and I think Bucks Counties. I think they are then part of a larger task force, so after things were discovered where the man originally arrested from Saturday lives, who knows who all else was there, which had to include ATF at this point and Chester County Detectives and more.

My point is all of this law enforcement did this smoothly and by the book, avoided serious catastrophe, death, injuries, mass panic and where please are the elected officials? One would have thought a presser would have at least occurred by yesterday given maybe by Mayor Lillian DeBaptiste of West Chester Borough and perhaps the Chester County Commissioners, since this happened literally in the county seat with say a backdrop of the Old County Courthouse or in front of the Chester County Justice Center thanking these brave law enforcement folks for living their training so excellently, right? But where is it?

Where is the Governor of Pennsylvania or State Senators and State Representatives serving the area, including East Whiteland where the defendant lives praising law enforcement for doing something so amazing and preventing catastrophe that you quite frankly don’t see enough do you?

Law enforcement on any level doesn’t do their job for glory, it’s what they are trained to do. But people need to say thank you, and what their actions has averted and by “people”, I mean elected officials. On the TV interviews every day residents and people are all saying thank you, but where are those folks elected to public office and I do not mean local supervisors and borough officials because they do say thank you. I mean the state, county, and higher.

I am saying thank you but I am just a blogger. So time to step it up officials, as our men and women in our corner of the world have done something amazing.

Now onto other things. The accused as far as I can tell is still out on bail and one of the TV reports said his whereabouts are unknown, which after all that has happened is not comforting. I was told he made bail because bond was posted. It was high bail ($250,000), it was made. We don’t have to be comfortable with this, but that is the system, and maybe for certain kinds of arrests, the system needs to change? I don’t have those answers.

Then people are talking about why his house wasn’t searched completely after Saturday? Again, from what we can tell from media reports, law enforcement at first only had a warrant to search his personal space with the home, his bedroom I guess? It is not solely his home, and public records show the home is owned by family member, probably parents? And from the 6ABC report Leland Pinder did last evening where the accused’s brother was interviewed, it is in fact a family home so they would have had to have obtained a second warrant to search the whole house as far as my research would indicate.

Then as to the gotcha armchair warriors on social media talking about the accused’s 2nd Amendment rights, the answer is pretty clear: no concealed carry permit. Take a gun safety glass, it’s one of the things people are taught. This will undoubtedly raise a back and forth on guns in this area again, but the thing is this: there needs to be better mental health requirements surrounding gun ownership. And for things like this when people are out on bail, would it be the worst thing to have the people accused of things like this to be on ankle monitors?

For sure, this sequence of events has indeed shaken Chester County and various municipalities up. But let’s take a moment to THANK law enforcement for what they have done with no loss of life, etc. It’s remarkable in today’s world.

Thanks for stopping by.