The Place Where Ludington Talks
Mistakes Were Made in Scottville Robbery/Dog Shooting
If you're from the West Michigan area, you have probably heard of an event that happened just about a mile north from downtown Scottville just yesterday. Here's one of the first accounts of the incident from WZZM out of Grand Rapids, about what happened.
AMBER TOWNSHIP, Mich. (WZZM) -- Multiple law enforcement agencies are involved in the search for whoever broke into a Mason County home, threatened the resident, and shot the resident's dog.
Mason Co. Sheriff Kim Cole told WZZM 13 the incident was reported around 11:30 Thursday morning at a home in the 500 block of W. Hansen Rd. in Amber Twp., just west of US-31 north of Scottville.
The resident was coming home and saw someone coming out of the house. That individual then pointed a gun at the resident. The resident then drove away, calling 911 while also heading toward a deputy seen moments earlier conducting a traffic stop.
Deputies arrived on-scene within a minute and a half, the Sheriff said, and went into the house, where they discovered the suspect had fled, apparently out the back door and into some woods. They also found the resident's dog had been shot and injured. The dog was taken to a veterinarian for treatment.
U.S. Forest Service officers are helping the Sheriff Department with the search, as are canine units from Lake County and Michigan State Police. There may be another suspect, in addition to the armed individual.
Upnorthlive Live, affiliated with two other TV stations to the north, had their own story with an interview of the Sheriff and the victims of the break in, a little more comprehensive for their evening news reports. Fox 17 out of Grand Rapids had another report of their own. If you look through all of them, you will find that none have a meaningful description of the suspects. This was noted even in one of the Mason County Press' articles about the incident's eventual clearing.
However, the initial report from MCP claims:
"Cole said the first deputy was on scene within two minutes of being dispatched but did not locate a suspect, being described as a black male, about 5-feet, 10-inches wearing a black hoodie and a baseball cap.
The victim, who is black, was not harmed."
We note that the two homeowners were a mixed couple, but wonder why the three big news stations and later local news reports seem to avoid the issue of the race of the criminal perpetrators. Mason County has less than 1% of their population being black, so this trait would be rather easy to spot here if the nearby public was apprised of it, the black hoodie and baseball cap would have also been helpful. The City of Ludington Daily News (COLDNews) accounts seem to have glossed over that fact earlier but later updated it, deep inside the story.
Leaving out a very distinguishable identifier in the overall story is perhaps within many of these media general idea of political correctness, so that they do not get charged with their own racial profiling, but before we blame the media for the oversight, the police agencies may not have conveyed that information all that quickly to the media, and what they did was unreliable.
And, even though many Scottville schools were within the manhunt's search area, they were never notified of the events happening that day by law enforcement.
The Mason County Press reported MCC Schools, whose grounds are less than one mile from the robbery/shooting scene were never notified even though the school day wasn't even halfway through, strangely enough, a half of a county away, the Ludington Schools notified their people of the situation. Both schools apparently got their news from social media, not from the multiple law enforcement agencies at the site.
“Unfortunately the MCC School District did not receive any notification from law enforcement regarding this incident,” MCC Superintendent Mount said. “It was only through social media and news that we were even made aware of anything happening. All contact with law enforcement were initiated by us.
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Jasper on
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What is rather disheartening is the fact the Mason County Sheriff's Office could not be bothered to help locate an elderly man back in Fall of 2014, because as stated by Kim Cole: "Did not want to endanger his officer's." This poor elderly man died and his remains were found in the PM River just a few weeks ago. But, Cole and the MCSO went into full assault mode with assault weapons, k-9 dogs, MSP helicopter, and face painting like it was "WAR" on this situation.
An elderly man with medical issues & the possibility he might have a BB gun?----No this man was left to die alone in the remote woods, only to be found months later floating in the PM River, because Sheriff Cole did not want to endanger his officer's. This is pathetically sad.
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Permalink Reply by XLFD on
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Welcome to the Ludington Torch, Jasper.
It is very telling about the sheriff's priorities, considering that in a February snowstorm his own inept deputy, Michael Fort, got got caught up in a snowdrift and the sheriff used plenty of resources to try and rescue him. An older somewhat-demented guy gets out of a taxicab in the middle of nowhere in moderate October weather never to be heard from again and it's no big deal to him.
If you don't recall, Deputy Fort beat up one of our hospital's nurses back in January and got away with it. To Sheriff Cole, this was no big deal, but it should be a big deal for anyone who expects our police forces to be accountable when they willfully error like Fort did.
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Permalink Reply by wildfire on
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This is very distubing that the 64 yr old man had to lay their n die w/o help from scottvilles finest, and why do we here about this now after all this time? the MCSO kept this in hiding files also, You know it makes you wonder why the guy went from his apt, to hawley road, and what happen in the mean time in the cab, maybe it was MCSO off duty driving or waiting their for him, do these cops have something over all these people that are ending up died, makes u wonder.
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Permalink Reply by AQUAMAN on
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Sure stump, LE is, and has been gearing up for a war against the US citizens for several years now. Buying up billions of rounds of ammo, leaving public shelves at gun dept. stores empty. Buying armored vehicles, war surplus and new alike, to attack in the streets and woods. Hiring more LE officers, about twice the need, just in Mason County alone. Arming themselves to the teeth, and practicing their excessive force daily for when the need might arise later. There is definitely a "military presence" everyday out in our streets, look around people, be alert to your surroundings, quit sleep-walking and looking the other way.
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The MSP came out in full 'special forces' mode as seen in the Upnorthlive video This is why any clear thinking citizen has to be concerned with their Michigan state troopers. They are their own state department with very little oversight by other state agencies, and practically no oversight by the people.
Sixteen months ago, two MSP officers did a home invasion on another person's home who lived on Hansen Road, Bill Marble. They not only pointed guns at Mr. Marble they shot him dead, they didn't kill his dog, however. The shooter in that case suffered no consequences of his actions. These guys are black and (probably) not police officers, they'll suffer some serious consequences if they're found. They can't say that they were in fear for their life from the dog and the homeowner and be believed.
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A question/concern-----what would these "special op" cops have done if they located the alleged "suspect(s)" ? Would the "special op" cops gone in full combat war mode? Or would they(hoping)captured him(them), and let the legal system perform their job. Cops these days appear to be the judge and jury, which they are not!
The entire situation appears to be questionable(IMHO). Why no updates from the Sheriff? People were freaking the "(f) out after Cole announced the area was "safe." So, why did Cole not inform why the area was safe????
Thousands' upon thousand of dollars were expended that day.
"Serve and Protect?" In all reality that motto is a misnomer----- Law Enforcement are to enforce the law(s), not serve and protect that is spalshed all over the side of many law enforcement vehicles across the U.S.A.
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Considering the cops were informed that the suspects were armed, had shot a dog, and were melatonin-enhanced, it is fairly likely there would have been a bunch of officers claiming they were in fear for their life when they did something incredibly heroic in their minds.
The police cannot be so dumb as to take it as mere coincidence that a black man in lily-white Mason County was being home-invaded by two other black men. This wasn't a random middle-of-the-day burglary, something more is involved.
Yet, without a suspect being apprehended, it does make one wonder about the all clear given out without any more updates. With the $3 million yearly the county at large spends on police forces, it seems like we could at least hear something to alleviate our fears of having armed gunmen invading our homes in the middle of the day.
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The question still remains----How many suspects were there? (1) one or (2)? If one followed the MCP & LDN the reports of suspects changed. Even the surrounding area's news media had different variations of the event.
Whom to believe the accuracy of the reporting? Not only from local news reporting, but also the "big guys," upnorth live, 9&10 etc----the spin was different on all news media.
So much for accurate reporting, so who is to fault for this? Is it the MCSO not providing accurate info to other news agencies regarding this disturbing situation?
Notably observed----is the controversy with the various School Districts and their protocols for said situation. One can only hope that whomever is in charge of notifying the possibility of intimate danger to students by whomever is responsible for this type of situation----it appears the MCSO was a complete failure!
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If one takes the time to research many crimes that are committed are crimes perpetrated by someone that knows the victim. For example----CSC is mostly committed by "not a stranger, but rather a family member, or someone within very close contact with the victim.
IMHO----this situation that occurred was done by someone that knew the victim's-----not just some random situation, and shooting their dog was a "warning."
But, yet the contemporary "mod squad" went into full "War." It is mind-boggling to say the least.
As you so eloquently stated XLFD, "This wasn't a random middle-of-the-day burglary, something more is involved." EXACTLY!!!!!
Stay tuned-----"FOR THE REST OF THE STORY." But, will anybody hear it from the MCSO??? Time will tell!!!!
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Off soapbox after this post-----why did the MSP helicopter pick up Kim Cole in the midst of when they were summoned for assistance? Why? Why? These copter's require astronomical amounts of fuel. Looking for logic on this----why did the Sheriff feel the need for a flight in MSP copter???
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Kim Cole is a showboat Sheriff, nothing more, or less. He's a media hound to boot. That is the only logical reason for doing as he does in most situations. When you grew up getting beat up, both psychologically, and physically, by your fellow students for being a putz, you have to do something in life to try to overcome these psychological deficiencies imho. You never saw Fiers, Hartrum, or any other Sheriff in the past doing these things, did we?
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