This story is awful on so many levels. Let me clear. I don’t approve of vandalism and I’m sincerely grateful no one got hurt. But when I read this line, I couldn’t stop laughing.
With their vehicles crushed, “We had nothing to pursue him with,” said Chief Deputy Philip Brooks.
Reading the details did not dampen my mirth. All I could picture was a Dukes of Hazard episode. Thinking the perp may have seen one too many reruns.
Yutsano
Brilliant and wrong all at the same time!
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
Yes, this is like a dad laughing when his child makes a sarcastic remark to mom: I should be serious and all, but damn that was funny.
jl
I would think there would be at least one security cam aimed at the parking lot.
FOIA!
I denounce reject and revile this dastardly deed, and the whole country needs to see the security cam vids. (Edit: in order the understand the threat that evil doers pose to us all, of course.)
cathyx
That’s going to be costly.
Tata
So, uh, did they later borrow the municipal lawn mower or what?
Svensker
Exactly. So wrong, but hilariously funny. And very much like a TV episode.
jl
Why is the video in the link ‘unavailable’? Cover up?
FOIA!
jl
@Tata: The suspect got stuck and they ran over to road maintenance and got a steam roller?
SiubhanDuinne
Wait, they didn’t hear anything because the windows were closed and the air conditioning was running?
I didn’t know they even had A/C in Vermont.
beltane
@jl: This happened not far from me and I’d be quite surprised if there were any security cameras involved.
muddy
What, no hat tip for Muddy? I posted this in the open thread earlier. humph
@beltane: Was it even hot enough up there to be running the a/c today? I am well south of there and I didn’t need it. Government waste! Call for a tea party. Iced tea that is. And none of that sweetea BS.
Actually I spent much of the afternoon in the millpond with the dog (he is now an addict), so maybe it was hotter than I thought.
Jamey
Vermont cops? Anybody here see “Super Troopers”?
Tehanu
His getaway was in a tractor and they “had nothing to pursue him with?” Ah, the perfect crime … except every tractor I’ve ever been stuck in back of on a country road was going what, 5 miles an hour?
Maude
@muddy:
I’m south of you and the humidity has been just awful.
Tata
@jl: At least the cops weren’t reduced to commandeering Jazzies parked in front of the Senior Center.
A girl can but dream!
Southern Beale
And yet, the gun nuts insist we all have to be armed to the teeth so we can take down the government if necessary. Hmm….
muddy
@Maude: Yeah, it’s 65% here right now. I may have missed the worst of it because we were in the water all afternoon.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mudpix/7707707210/in/photostream
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mudpix/7707707408/in/photostream
Elizabelle
Rolled they cars.
Stoled they donuts.
Elizabelle + 3
Spatula
YAY
Mnemosyne
Am I the only one wondering if the cops had taken some “samples” from the evidence room and that’s why they didn’t hear the commotion?
Maude
@muddy:
Ooh, thank you for the pix. I bookmarked them.
It’s 78 here. It was 77 in NYC this a.m. I am hoping it will rain tomorrow.
I have fans and I am fin unless it gets above 95. Then I whine.
I worked in a dry cleaner and I saw someone from there and I asked how she was doing in this heat. She said, I have no words.
It gets 20 degrees hotter than the outdoor temps and the presses run on steam.
muddy
Yeah, some work in the summer is just unbearable. My son is a chef and this one place he worked didn’t have very good ventilation, it was sometimes over 130 in the kitchen. Workers would be rolling out the back door and puking in the alley.
Citizen_X
@Tehanu: Yeah: they had nothing to pursue a fucking tractor with!
Couldn’t they just run after him?
James Hare
I had to leave Vermont just a few months ago and this really brought memories back. The strangest thing about Vermont is how it blows urban/rural stereotypes out of the water. Vermont is rural as heck and the population density is really low.
Vermont is the best state for Obama in the lower 48. Washington, DC is a little better but not much. Vermont will have single-payer in 2014 if Obamacare is still around.
Just goes to show you our bloghost is not so weird after all. There are plenty of Democrats in rural areas.
redshirt
Killdozer is the best, for now – hard to see how you top him.
Tractordozer is a good start though! Fight the Power!
redshirt
@James Hare: Yeah, but they’re hippies. The rednecks of Vermont are as anti-Obama as any West Virginian good ole boy. There is just not that many of them.
mai naem
I’m surprised this doesn’t happen more often. This country’s law enforcement/court system is so fcuked up. It’s all about getting money for the cities, nothing to do with real safety issues. Yes, I know this guy was arrested for marijuana possession but the traffic stuff pissed me off. Yesterday, we had a cop sitting on either side of an intersection which already has a photo camera. I drive by an area which has a no left turn during rush hour because its near a school. Well, when school’s out during the summer, a cop sits there waiting for people to make the illegal turn for an easy $200 ticket.
Citizen_X
Iz in ur parkin lot, crushing ur doodz.
(Sorry, it had to be said.)
Betsy
Northeast Kingdom. Like Vermont inbred with new Hampshire for several generations.
Another Halocene Human
@jl: It’s VT. Maybe they had a Zamboni in a shed? Hmm, can a Zamboni outpace a tractor?
Another Halocene Human
@mai naem: They do enforcement because that illegal turn has the potential to cause what in the industry is known as an “angle crash”. US cars are designed to withstand rear-end collisions well, angle crashes not so much. The US traffic control standards actually slightly increase the incidence of rear-end collisions but decreases the incidence of angle crash.
Enforcement is a necessary component of traffic control. Sorry, we’ve done studies, you just can’t cheat on enforcement (seriously, it would be cheaper not to bother).
Bottom line, cops never go out there ticketing for illegal turns and red-light running, people die.
Now, if you want to talk about bogus tickets, I can rant a blue streak about speed regulations and speeding tickets…
Another Halocene Human
@James Hare: VT has progressive taxes and invests in education.
Another Halocene Human
@Citizen_X: Have you ever seen “Super Troopers”?
ShadeTail
http://www.wcax.com/story/19180748/man-on-tractor-crushes-vt-police-cruisers
The hell? That wasn’t an accident, morons, he did it on purpose.
Dr. Squid
FTFY.
BD of MN
@Citizen_X:
A couple of weeks ago I was down on my uncle’s farm in SW MN and as a good city kid does when afforded the opportunity, I climbed up on the tractors. The mid-turn, AWD John Deere that pulls the plow has tires that are 7 feet tall, it has a 560hp twin turbo diesel engine, weighs around 40,000lbs, and easily does 25mph…
Anne Laurie
@SiubhanDuinne:
If I looked out my office window and saw a guy in a tractor crushing cop cars, I’d come down with a severe case of selective deafness my own self.
I do believe this is a clear-cut case of “oustside my pay grade” in action.
300baud
Original arrest was for marijuana possession. See, if they had just left his weed alone, he a) wouldn’t have had reason to be mad at them, and b) would have been too mellow to pull a stunt like this.
JPL
@300baud: He should have joined the tea party and carried a sign. Get the govmint out of my weed.
Comrade Javamanphil
@Tehanu: Did you see the tractor? I bet that thing can do 30, maybe 40. The morning reporter on WCAX the day after was constantly on the verge of cracking up. Granted, that station is staffed by a plethora of 12 year olds.
Neil
Wrong. WCAX is the grown up WGOP station. WPTZ is the overly fake Today show rip off. ABC22 is the high school AV club given a broadcast tower.