Grand Rapids Nesties
WendyGR
member
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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
What a crazy night!
it was kind of surreal...watching the news while reading police scanner recaps on facebook and twitter. the social media aspect was interesting. everyone talking and commenting on what was going on in real time.
Re: What a crazy night!
Surreal is the only word I can use.
What a sad sad day!
Very scary! I don't usually flip channels (we have a pop up channel menu), but last night at 8:00 I did and was shocked at what was going on. I couldn't stop watching. I didn't turn the tv off until 11:00. We have a police scanner too, but I forgot we had one until just now. I should have turned it on!
My T&P are with the victims family and friends.
Ditto. I'm still processing everything.
I was thinking about the hostages last night. I'm very curious to know more about the after effects of being held hostage. I am SO glad that they are alive.
We were streaming a police scanner online from my phone last night (technology is amazing) and couldn't turn it off, it was really intense.
What a tragedy.
JuliD - I am so sorry for your neighbor's loss.
It would be one thing to be held hostage. Awful, of course. But being in held in your home?? How do you come back from having your safe haven's back door kicked in and a man killing himself in the place where you relax, rest and share time with family?
I was mugged in my apartment building's garage when i lived in Milwaukee. The guy had me pushed down in my car and i can still smell his wet gloves. Gross. Thankfully my lease ended that same month and i was out of there, but it was hard going back in the garage to my assigned spot. What those people experienced was so much worse.
I wonder this too. Do you move? Do you completely redecorate your home so it looks different?
Yeah I was wondering the same thing. I think I would have to move. It seems like there would be too many triggers in that house to set off bad memories. But then, who would buy that house?
I sorta knew what was going on when I stopped on Fox last night for their 10pm broadcast. But I didn't give it much thought.
Around 11pm H called me to let me know that things were OK at the hospital (he's Butterworth security now). I was confused, and he asked me if I knew what was going on. I told him I knew about the shootings and the hostage situation. Well the hospital called in extra security in case that guy got taken to the hospital. So he was just reassuring me that things were OK there. I went to bed shortly after we talked, so I didn't know about the guy's suicide until this morning.
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You didn't give much thought to a guy in Grand Rapids who killed seven people, including two kids, led police on a chase through the heart of the city, and was currently holed up with three more hostages?
I'm going to give her the benefit of the doubt and guess what she meant was that she heard rumblings. I've heard bits of info about police stand-offs or a murder suspect in the news in GR and not given it much thought at the time either. I'm guessing Danielle didn't have all the details you mention.
If it weren't for me, TH wouldn't have known what was going on. When we left work at 5 pm, word was just getting out about the 2nd shooting but there really wasn't any info. We don't turn on the news until 10 pm. I just ran downstairs after dinner to do a quick check and clicked on the scanner. That was right when the suspect ran into the house and I got hooked then.
Had I not logged in online just before I left work, I probably wouldn't have known about it either as I was flipping radio stations like crazy on the way home. I never left a station on to listen to news. If I was flipping news stations and saw a standoff situation on there, I would have never know how serious it was. There have been several standoffs in the past couple of years.
We watched channel 8 all night, around 9 we started listening to the scanner.
We are in Muskegon, so even though we were a little bit away, it still hit close to home.
This morning I signed on facebook, and found out a friend from High School was a hostage. She was visiting the couple that lived in the house. Very scary, and very close to home.
Our news had very little to say on the events. H and I were constantly hitting refresh on our cell phones all night.
This, but I'm also incredibly proud of our city. I don't want to say that this would have been ignored where I grew up, but it certainly wouldn't have generated as much community support and concern as it has here.
I think there's a vigil tonight. I don't know the details, and I'm going to be at class. One opportunity to show support for the victims and the city.
It's safe to say that everyone has different reactions to breaking news. And that's okay. I was rivitted to media last night to the point that Jim was worried for me.
I woke up at 3am and couldn't get to sleep again for a while. It's one (very sad) thing to know that the victims were people who knew him. But, just or not, the randomness of this hostages was terrifying to me. And I also thought about them returning home.
I'd imagine that a good part of the population has tragedy hangover today.
I have class tonight, and I'm wondering if mental health and crime issues might come up tonight. How do you make someone with a significant criminal history stay on his medications that provide proper brain chemistry?
I've now seen info for 2 different services. Here's one:
For those of you who wish to honor the memories of the lives tragically taken yesterday in Grand Rapids, there will be a candlelight vigil tonight at 8:30 p.m. in front of the Gerald R. Ford Museum in Ah-Nab-Awen park.
And here is the second:
The City will host a Community Healing gathering on Wednesday, July 13, 2011, at 7:00p.m., at 2nd Congregational United Church of Christ 525 Cheshire Dr. NE.
What I caught was that a guy was holed up in a house. I heard nothing about the murders. Once H called me I watched the news some more. But flipping channels I didn't get all the info when I "wasn't giving it much thought." <--And by this I meant that I never thought about the possibility about the guy getting taken to the hospital where my H was WORKING and him having to guard and obviously out of control person.
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When this isn't so raw, there are so many interesting conversations to be had:
- Why was I (and 11,000 others) glued to the scanner, television, and FB while this happened?
- The phrase "this doesn't happen here" has been said over and over. Certainly this is extraordinary circumstances, but I wonder how much of this is veiled and unintentionally race-related. This doesn't happen here (in the better - whiter) neighborhoods of Grand Rapids. But shootings and stand offs have happened in other areas of town.
- The whole mental health and crime issue.
This is not the time for those conversations. This is the time for mourning and support. But someday, I'd like to come back to these if anyone's interested.
Actually, I said to DH last night, "aren't most serial killers white?" At least that's the impression you get on all the crime shows.
I would be interested in discussing these topics. I know it isn't for everyone, but I think they are all worthy of exploring.
Serial Killer and Spree Killer are very different (psychology wise and by definition). Throw in the mental health issues and you've got a whole 'nother possible psychology behind his actions.
All very interesting topics I'd love to chat about when the time is right.