Photographer Killed

[LesPalenik]

71-year-old photographer Edward French was at the scenic Twin Peaks viewpoint overlooking the city on Sunday morning at about 7:50am when he was approached by a young man and woman. The duo shot French, took his camera, and drove away in a dark gray Honda Accord.

You might expect some bad guys at night, but on Sunday morning?

https://petapixel.com/2017/07/19/photographer-killed-sfs-twin-peaks-camera-robbery/

[Rob C]

To some, that represents freedom.

Fill a country with drugs, civilians with guns, poor to non-existent education and mafias beyond the law - what law? which law - and the bits stop fitting. Add unbridled breeding without concern about parental responsibility and the fuse is lit. Throw in what passes for popular entertainment with its glorification of violence and the humiliation of women as sport and the measure of a man, and you're blowing on that fuse.

And nope, it's not just in America, it's all over the world.

Rob

[LesPalenik]

To some, that represents freedom.

Fill a country with drugs, civilians with guns, poor to non-existent education and mafias beyond the law - what law? which law - and the bits stop fitting. Add unbridled breeding without concern about parental responsibility and the fuse is lit.
Throw in what passes for popular entertainment with its glorification of violence and the humiliation of women as sport and the measure of a man, and you're blowing on that fuse.

And nope, it's not just in America, it's all over the world.

Rob

Yes, young people all over the world are exposed more and more to a lot of violence in movies and computer games which leads to desensitization and subsequently to violent acts in real life. Unfortunately, photographers with their expensive gear are an easy and highly visible target. Just a few months ago, a 58 year old Toronto teacher was stabbed to death while snapping photos of the sunrise in Costa Rica.
Paradoxically, at the same time, solo backpacking by young and mature women across many countries throughout the world is on rise, and luckily without any tragical consequences (most of the time).

[Otto Phocus]

You might expect some bad guys at night, but on Sunday morning?

Criminals are predators. They will look for the easiest victim, in the easiest place, at the easiest time.  They are often opportunistic predators also.

Sad story indeed. 

[rodney.dugmore]

To some, that represents freedom.

Fill a country with drugs, civilians with guns, poor to non-existent education and mafias beyond the law

Well Id say america has the first two sorted and Trump is working on the education part

[BernardLanguillier]

Some day people may understand that the true standard of living in a country is defined by that of its poorest 10%, not by that of its richest 1%.

This is the key reason why Nordic countries, Japan,... come on top of many rankings in terms of nicest place to live.

The correlation with lack of crime is simply perfect.

Cheers,
Bernard

[Rob C]

Some day people may understand that the true standard of living in a country is defined by that of its poorest 10%, not by that of its richest 1%.

This is the key reason why Nordic countries, Japan,... come on top of many rankings in terms of nicest place to live.

The correlation with lack of crime is simply perfect.

Cheers,
Bernard

That's fine, insofar as it goes, but how do you bring it about in lands where the majority - or a near-majority - of people live by tribal order: whose football team is dominant this season? Where many parade through the streets and even residential roads banging drums and playing hellish music badly, waving flags and wearing sashes and peeing onto people's lawns because they drank so much they can't contain it any longer? And anyway, why should some people own lawns if others can't? Obviously, they stole those lawns from us, the righteous people.

I don't think the first world is ready yet for sophisticated living. First we have to use our clubs and break heads; then, when we've done that, realised there are no more forests left from which to fashion new clubs, we can progress to the rubber tyre necklace and gasoline.

So advanced, yet so backwoods by nature.

;-)

Rob

[Rajan Parrikar]

Last year my car was broken into and windows smashed when I parked here at Twin Peaks to show the sights to visiting family late evening in May. I had been gone but 5 minutes. I went to the police station and was told these thieves work as a pair (one guy breaks in, the other walks away with your stuff). One of the cops was candid about how bad the situation is and the wages of living in a far left swamp.

[Rob C]

Just watched a short programme on France24 (they are all short - especially the interesting ones) on the vanishing presence of the French bistrot: apparently, there used to be around 300,000 of them in France, with 50,000 in Paris alone. Seems they die our first in the sticks, then in the towns, with the surviving city ones becoming more tourist-trap than genuine meeting, reading, drinking, eating, arguing and dating haunts for local people.

Sad to see cultural shifts like this.

http://www.france24.com/en/20170721-france-focus-french-bistrots-cafes-gastronomy-culture-tradition-history-paris-cat

I suppose that losing such places - assuming they ever existed in one's own country - is one reason why contemporary people may have such a limited sense of community, and only of gang. I don't think one could ever equate a British pub with a bistrot. Or should that be bistro? I've seen it referred to both ways... are they diffent things? Graham?

Rob C