-Caveat Lector- from alt.conspiracy ----- As always, Caveat Lector. Om K ----- <A HREF="aol://5863:126/alt.conspiracy:517014">Denver Post article</A> ----- Subject: Denver Post article From: "ronin" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Fri, Apr 23, 1999 7:34 AM Message-id: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> APRIL 22, 18:20 EDT Colo. Police Defend Response By TED ANTHONY AP National Writer Jefferson County Sheriff John Stone AP/Ed Andrieski [16K] LITTLETON, Colo. (AP) - Police on Thursday defended the way they responded to the school massacre, insisting they were rescuing students within minutes of the first 911 call but had to move cautiously because of the danger of bombs and bullets. There was the possibility of explosives scattered around the school and the risk of sparking a bigger gun battle, they said. ``They were trying to do the best they could,'' said Sgt. Jim Parr of the Jefferson County Sheriff's Department. Sheriff's spokesman Steve Davis said the first police car arrived at Columbine at 11:21 a.m. Tuesday, moments after the shooting, to back up Deputy Neil Gardner, who was on duty inside the school and had radioed for help. A SWAT team entered within 20 minutes of the first 911 call and pulled out some students, Davis said. Several other SWAT teams didn't appear to enter until about 1 p.m., about a half-hour after authorities said the last shots were heard. The defense, a response to reporters' questions, comes after scattered criticism, some of it from viewers who watched as the tragedy unfolded on live TV and saw what they considered to be armed officers doing little to help. ``A lot of people are angry,'' Columbine student Michael Staver told the Denver Rocky Mountain News. Staver's teacher, Dave Sanders, reportedly lay dying for up to three hours. Sanders was the only adult to perish in the attack. Parr responded: ``Do we wish we could have gotten him out sooner? Of course we do.'' Police said they had to move cautiously. They said they didn't know how many gunmen there were - or where. Fleeing students had dropped scores of backpacks in hallways and the cafeteria, and each one could have been a bomb, they said. ``If we went in and tried to take them and got shot, we would only be part of the problem,'' said Donn Kraemer, a member of the Lakewood SWAT team. ``We're supposed to bring order to chaos, not add to the chaos.'' In addition, when officers first arrived, water was pouring from ceiling sprinklers and tiles were broken and hanging down. Tables and chairs were overturned, and shell casings and exploded pipe bombs littered the floors. ``It has been, to me, a textbook of how to conduct an investigation, how to do it the right way,'' Attorney General Janet Reno said Thursday. ``They've just been extraordinary, not just that day but in terms of coordination as a follow-up.'' People in the Denver region have generally praised the response. But some wonder about what-ifs. ``It would have been hard to live with if I found out that my child could have been helped,'' said Maxine Rohrbough, grandmother of Daniel Rohrbough, 15, who died in the shooting. ``I don't know they could have because of the bombs and things,'' Mrs. Rohrbough acknowledged. ``If they had rushed too much, they may have triggered a greater tragedy. So I can't criticize them.'' Others haven't been so hesitant. On Thursday, the Denver Rocky Mountain News published two letters - one from Michigan, another from Texas - that came down hard on police. Christopher R. Gonzalez of Dearborn Heights, Mich., wondered: ``Just what were the police doing while the two juvenile gunmen spent an hour shooting people?'' ``Police are paid to do a job,'' he wrote. ``Sometimes that involves getting shot at.'' And Cecil H. Rigsby of Austin, Texas, upbraided the SWAT teams and police for what he called a ``cowardly performance.'' ``To watch more than 200 heavily armed SWAT team and other police officers in body armor, standing around discussing strategy while hundreds of children were trapped inside was painful,'' he wrote. ``Where were the heroes?'' A Denver Post editorial praised the SWAT team's courage, saying its members ``crept carefully through the bomb-laden school, wary of snipers, to find caches of children and lead them to safety outside.'' Investigators cautioned against a rush to judgment. ``The triage, the postmortem of our investigation, will come later,'' Parr said. ----- Aloha, He'Ping, Om, Shalom, Salaam. Em Hotep, Peace Be, Omnia Bona Bonis, All My Relations. Adieu, Adios, Aloha. Amen. Roads End Kris DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion and informational exchange list. Proselyzting propagandic screeds are not allowed. Substance�not soapboxing! 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