The video below shows a man on a car-jacking spree, taking three cars in succession and driving the wrong way on an interstate before finally being caught. Practically the whole thing was captured by cameras from helicopters. It is incredible that no one seemed to have been seriously hurt. For more details you can read here.
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First, I have to say, though it isn’t a good skill I was impressed with the driving ; he seemed to have evaded lots of police.
Second, the article says he was wanted for a drug case. So busting a guy for some drug charge leads him to do things that actually endanger others.
The terrifying thing is that there was a 4-year-old in the first car. Egads.
It really was almost exactly like Grand Theft Auto in parts, which was weird. And I agree with smrnda that he actually did a pretty good job driving the wrong way down the expressway, all things considered.
As to smrnda’s other comment, yeah, that’s a good point… though OTOH I will say the cops showed some admirable restraint there. In a lot of jurisdictions, that guy would have been shot full of holes at a couple points near the end of the chase. Credit to them for keeping calm and just chasing him down…
This goes to show you: light and lightspeed communications make police work a lot easier!
Did you see how the cops tried incompetently to intervene at 4:07, tackstripping cars that were coming from the OPPOSITE DIRECTION!!?!!!?? OMG LAWSUIT!
I wonder if the police restraint was owing to the fact that they knew cameras were rolling and that the crime was unusual enough that it would definitely attract attention? Could be a good argument for recording *all* police interactions with the public.
I think putting the lives of hundreds of innocents at risk is a small price to pay to pursue a miscreant. From the cops’ perspective, who knows if they’ll ever get the chance to catch another one?
What I find curious about high speed pursuits is that car manufacturers have had the technology to speed limit vehicles since before WWII. Indeed, every vehicle is speed limited (albeit at grotesquely illegal speeds). The law is funny. If you speed, you could go to prison but those who respondent condition boys from a young age to associate speed with [insert positive emotive stimuli here] and then sell children ludicrously overpowered performance sports vehicles (explicitly designed and marketed for illegal use, crashes = $$), those murderers are respected by Society (which shames the children for being victims).
~40,000 dead and like ~2 million injuries / annum in the US alone. But on the flipside, ~10 million car accidents needed to remain competitive. So it’s not like they’re dying for nothing. It’s for a good cause.
Marcus @#4,
What were they throwing? I couldn’t figure out.
That was remarkably clear and stable footage. I wonder if the cameras are getting better or if the chopper was lower or what.
I think the scariest moments of my life include the time I was driving down an off ramp and saw someone speeding up that off ramp followed by a bunch of cops. I was able to pull over, which is difficult to do on an offramp, and they flew past me.
It’s something I keep in mind when I think of the scary things that could happen to my kids as they learn to drive.
I was also wondering about the cars caught up by those spike strips.
I’m not certain what they are, but I’m assuming they are some sort of flexible/collapsible strip/band with spikes on it, intended for puncturing car tires and slowing suspect’s vehicles during chases and at roadblocks and such.
Was also somewhat impressed by the restraint, you would think that someone who endangered the lives of so many people, caused so much property damage, and repeatedly evaded arrest/capture would get treated at least as bad as some peaceful protesters. Guess the cops gotta keep their priorities straight…
After he switched cars, sure, but remember there was a four-year-old boy in the first car. As a father of two, the oldest of whom just turned five, that kinda scares the shit out of me. Yeah, they pretty much had to try and stop him, at least in the first car.
After that, they may have had insufficient or contradictory information. In general, I agree with you that cops should generally not engage in high-speed pursuits. I think this was probably an exception.
Mano, it was a portable spike strip. Geez, haven’t you played Grand Theft Auto? Rhetorical question… seriously, though, it was freaky how much that video looked like a game of GTA, heh…