Monday, April 22, 2013

More False Hero Worship



The man who lifted up the tarp to check and see what – or who – was in his neighbor’s boat is not a hero.

In fact, he seems pretty stupid.

Yet he’s been called a hero for several days now, principally by NBC News (I heard Lester Holt refer to the man as a hero twice on the Saturday “Today” show) and by other national media outlets including CNN, CBS, and many others.

His name, while that’s not really important, is David Henneberry.  At the peak of the biggest manhunt in the nation’s history, with most of the Boston metro shut down, he’s having a smoke in his back yard – which, by the way, is ground zero for the terrorist hunt, something he must have known – and sees  blood and a severed flap on the tarp covering his neighbor’s boat.

So what does dufus do?  Call the cops?  Call 9-1-1?  No.  He grabs a ladder and goes into his neighbor’s yard to see what he can see.

He’s lucky he didn’t get a round between the eyes.

This is quite possibly the stupidest man in Watertown, Massachusetts. 



Above is a photo of the outbuilding at our home (which, for the uninitiated, we refer to as “The Morrissey Compound”).  It’s about 10 feet wide and a little more than 12 feet long.  It’s the kind of shed you’d find on a lot of suburban properties.  We keep our garden tractor in it, store our snowblower in it during the off-season, and there’s room for plenty of yard tools, implements, a wheelbarrow, and a bunch of other stuff.

And plenty of room for a person to hide in.

Let’s suppose that some heinous incident of terrorism has taken place in Madison, and the city is locked down, like Boston was, and every cop in the area has converged on the city and its suburbs to help with the manhunt.  Let’s suppose that the media have been blaring 24/7 that the fugitive is possibly wounded, is likely armed, may have bombs, and is dangerously unhinged, and that if you see him, you shouldn’t try to corner him – you should call the cops.

Let’s suppose my good neighbor Anthony is out in his back yard catching breath of fresh air, and happens to see a trail of blood drops on those old 2x12 boards in front of the doors of my shed, or maybe a bloody smudge on one of the doors.  Do you suppose he would climb the fence between our properties and go see what – or who – might be in the shed?

If you were Anthony, what would you do?  Do you suppose he might call my cell phone and tell me what he’d just seen?  And, perhaps if he didn’t get an answer, leave a message, and warn me that he was going to call 9-1-1 and report it, just to error on the side of caution?

You see where I’m going with this.  And you know what you’d do in a similar circumstance.

David Henneberry, hero?

I don’t think so.

6 comments:

  1. Curiosity only kills SOME cats.

    ReplyDelete
  2. The hero worship going on in this episode is literally insane. It will be interesting, someday, when all of the facts of the chase come out to see how poorly the cops and others actually acted and reacted to the situation. I think the biggest bullshitter so far is the Watertown chief of police, with his narrative (in between being sure to praise his brave officers no fewer than at least ten or twenty times) of how that first shootout went down. There is literally no way it happened the way he says it did. But alas, they are all heroes for a day. Even the guy that made the coffee.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hero? No. Instinctive? Yes....and lucky. At least he called authorities when he discovered the man hiding in the boat. He should've called authorities right away when he saw something amiss. I just hope this doesn't turn into the same debate that followed the killing of Osama bin Laden of "who should get the credit...Bush or Obama?"

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hey there! I know this is somewhat off-topic but I needed to ask.

    Does building a well-established website such as yours take a lot of
    work? I am completely new to running a blog however I do write in my journal everyday.
    I'd like to start a blog so I will be able to share my experience and views online. Please let me know if you have any kind of ideas or tips for new aspiring blog owners. Appreciate it!

    Also visit my web site; xpressosoft.com

    ReplyDelete
  5. It is appropriate time to make some plans for the
    future and it's time to be happy. I have read this post and if I could I want to suggest you few interesting things or advice. Perhaps you could write next articles referring to this article. I desire to read more things about it!

    My website forex trading options

    ReplyDelete
  6. Great article! That is the kind of information that are meant to be shared
    across the net. Disgrace on Google for now
    not positioning this post upper! Come on over and
    visit my website . Thanks =)

    Also visit my site :: Orthowiki.Pl

    ReplyDelete