Bank Robbery in Madison Park
BREAKING NEWS! When I stopped for groceries on my way home from work, I discovered that a bank robbery occurred in the last hour at the Washington Mutual Bank in Madison Park. A police officer on the scene informed me that the suspect escaped with his loot, but no one was hurt. The officer also kindly showed me a security camera image of the man, who is in his thirties with a mustache, ponytail, baseball cap, and green hoodie. Police cars are circling the neighborhood looking for him.
Unsurprisingly the branch is closed for the day, although the Bank of America down the street is bravely still operational. Maybe next time WaMu will be nicer? [p-i]
Hey, I don’t even see this story on any of the news sites yet. METBLOGS SCOOP!
Depending how this robbery occurred, you may not see any mention of it on the news. Robberies happen so frequently that it almost has to be a slow news day for them to make the cut in the MSM.
True. There was a full media contingent on the scene though, so they’re definitely covering it, whether they decide to publish or not. Robberies in Madison Park are pretty uncommon.
Nicer, those are the most attentive and wonderful bank employees of all time, hands down. And by the way, get a life.
Actually, that comment was intended only as a joke (although I make no claims on quality), D.Sanchez. If you clicked through to the article I linked, it’s about how banks are using excessive niceness to drive off bank robbers. I certainly am not blaming the WaMu employees, particularly since I have no idea whether they’re nice or not–I don’t use the bank myself. You can unclutch your pearls now, okay?
It is more useful that we can publish the like on local blogs. With 3 million people living in Seattle and surrounding environs, crime of this magnitude is not newsworthy or useful in regional, but mainstream broadcasts. The amount of time afforded for regional news is prohibitive in radio or online audio and in video online or in television. Local web sites however, no matter how mainstream they are, have no excuse as their space is unlimited and their content should be searchable and personalizable per zip code :)
I heard about the robbery through email from my wife, the pseudo-classic way local information is spread. Next I’ll find at least a couple neighborhood-type places to republish the information, and perhaps it will spread from there. A robbery just somewhere in Seattle might as well be in Shanghai, but a robbery down the street is something else for the people who live there!
Not only is it more newsworthy per hyper-local interest, but it’s more useful. Most thieves strike in an area they know well for casing a job, easier getaways, more possible motives, the like. Most also return to crime scenes.
Aside from the before and after, there is some chance that a witness who was not at or near the scene when police arrived could view a local blog, then contact and help police. Let’s say you were walking home a few streets away and got a good look at someone who at the time you did not realize was a thief. You would only know to inform and help the police if you had a hyper-local source of media about the crime. Publishing locally lets readers in the hood keep their eyes open, making us individually and collectively safer.
Making the local rounds online sounds like the sort of thing Seattle Police or other city officials should be doing. They would keep lists of local blogs where they can spread relevant word of hyper-local crimes and issues, for safety of both readers and neighborhoods. People would appreciate the local service, and now and then, investigators may even get some help.
We the people can do the same to some extent, but I’m not sure such critical information should depend on interested community volunteers, only. Why? Well, I’m German-American for example. Let’s say I run a local blog and I watch the police blotters and I’m known for passing along local information such as this. One day a German-American guy knocks down an old lady in a cross walk and drives away; I might decide not to report that one. Hey, it’s not like I’m a city official or something! I really do think this is the kind of technology-flexing public service our “local,” really regional media or our local government should provide.
All said, whether it’s the mainstream media or other pseudo-public entities, or if it’s government at any level, we the people increasingly have it in our hands to fill institutional gaps and serve ourselves.
BG
What an interesting, thoughtful comment. Thanks for posting it, Brian!
Brian said: “All said, whether it’s the mainstream media or other pseudo-public entities, or if it’s government at any level, we the people increasingly have it in our hands to fill institutional gaps and serve ourselves.”
Well said. I couldn’t agree more.