5/29 Downtown Section 3rd Platoon

Good evening. I'm Bob Lonsbury. And from the banks of the mighty Genesee in Rochester, New York, this is downtown section, third platoon. I was in the Army a long time ago. I think I mentioned that probably fairly frequently. But I spent all but my basic training time at a place called Fort Benjamin Netanyahu Harris in Indiana. My four years in the Army, I never left the central time zone. But there at Fort Bend, we had a PX post-exchange and a fascinating place where they'd convinced us that we could buy cool stuff on the cheap. And back in those days, every soldier, every GI, seemed like had to buy a stereo set up and an expensive camera because stereo equipment and expensive cameras were all very available at the PX and for prices we were told were really good. Well, I never quite had enough extra in the pay to buy the stereo equipment or the camera, but I did spend a lot of time with the PX. And I remember over on one side of it, They had, like, T-shirts and stuff like that, had special stuff printed on them, like a lot of military stuff, a lot of, like, military attitude stuff. And... I remember one of those shirts. It had a saying on it, and the saying was, run from the best, die like the rest. And then it had behind the words, like some overlay of some, you know, G.I. Joe, some American soldier with the kit and the gear of our day. Run from the best, die like the rest. And, you know, I thought that was a pretty cool T-shirt. And if I'd had extra money in the check ever, I think I would have bought that T-shirt. And that line, though, has stayed with me, run from the best, die like the rest. And I couldn't help but think of that today in this situation up, was it Lake Avenue? The state police were chasing a bad guy. The thing started out at Hudson and Avenue D. Hudson and Avenue D is a tough spot in the city of Rochester. A sad spot, the way I look at it. If you and I could stand together at Hudson and Avenue D, and if we had a little time to go for a jog or a walk, we would go like a block north and we'd catch Dayton Street. And then we'd walk a block west, and we would come to the point where Anthony DePoncio was shot in the back of the head here, Rochester police officer. And then from where Anthony DePonzeo was shot, we could walk two blocks to the north, and we could come to the spot where Officer Anthony Mizerkowitz was shot dead in an ambush.

And if from there we walked back about a block and a half to the east, and then I think just a half a block or so to the south, we would come to the place where Officer Daryl Pearson was shot and killed. All in one little place there. And they've cleaned most of them up now. But in that same little area, I can remember five separate streetside memorials, which over the years have been built intended, marking spots where individuals, citizens, fell at the hands of criminals. So when you talk Hudson and D, that's a space that where a lot of tears and a lot of blood had been shed. At any rate, it was a Hudson and D this morning that the troopers tried to affect a traffic stop on a vehicle. Now, when this is done, the report they tell the TV people is, oh, we're making a traffic stop, which makes, you know, you think, was a tail light out or something like that? That's not what these are. These are purposeful. And more often than not, there's someone in there. There's some reason, there's some excuse, maybe stolen car, maybe who knows what. But the troopers lit up this person and this person fled. Well, one of the lessons you learn is that the New York State Police will chase you. Don't run from the troopers. Okay. There was another T-shirt they had at that same little side place at the PX back in the day. It was similar to that one I described. It said instead, don't run. You'll only die tired, right? And you don't run from the New York State Police. New York State Police don't operate under the same orders as the Rochester Police Department. And while the state police are always very circumspect and always consider public safety as they consider whether or not to initiate and continue a pursuit, the state police also comes into it with a certain attitude, a certain culture. You don't run from the New York State Police. And so this guy decided to run and the troopers were on his ass. And I say more power to him. He ends up up on Lake Avenue, car partially disabled. Troopers get out. They do some law enforcement agency, I don't know which, gets out, lays one of those spike strips, further disabling the vehicle. It continues on, and it sideswipes one vehicle and then comes into oncoming traffic and strikes, another vehicle, head on. three people in that vehicle. Thankfully, they receive only minor injuries. However, the fleeing vehicle, it catches fire and it burns quickly. The troopers try to extinguish the fire. The troopers try to extract the driver. They're unsuccessful in each of those undertakings, and the driver is expired.

You know, I'm sorry for that person. I'm sorry mostly for that person's family. But I can't help but think of that a t-shirt back at Fort Ben and the PX. Run from the best, die like the rest. When you break the law, bad things can happen to you. And in this situation, an individual broke the law and paid with his or her life. That's on that person. That's not on the New York State Police. This is downtown Section 3rd Platoon on news radio, Wham 1180. Back, this is downtown section 3rd platoon. He spoke in the last segment. Of course, obviously you've caught on the news. There was a situation today involving a pursuit in the city of Rochester, a police pursuit, a car fleeing from members of the New York State Police, the troopers. And... That pursuit ended with the fleeing vehicle becoming disabled thanks to a law enforcement spike strip. And then the vehicle sideswipes one and crashes, drives head on into another vehicle. Fortunately, the occupants of that second vehicle largely uninjured. However, the operator of the fleeing vehicle is deceased as a consequence of the wreck and subsequent fire. Well, one thing I'd like to make as an observation, if I could, is... I've seen this reported as, you know, man dies after police chase. That's not what happened, right? With respect, and I'm not crapping on the reporters or anything else, but that's not what happened, right? Man dies after police chase. That's a mischaracterization. Man dies after criminal flight, right? That's what happened here. Man dies after criminal flight. Who is the agent? Who's the chooser? Who's the one who's in command? Right? Ultimately, the troopers are deciding whether they pursue or not, and they've got their criterion and such like that. But in, they got this thing in Latin called sine qua non. Ask him a quaid boy about it. Sini quo known. which translates to, I think, without which nothing. Meaning, if this one thing doesn't happen, then all this stuff that follows after it doesn't happen. The sine qua non, right? Where does responsibility lie at the sine qua known? What is that? That one thing, which if it doesn't happen, nothing else which follows happens. If this individual had complied with the lawful order of the state police to pull over as communicated by the lights and then the sirens of the troop cars, if this individual had submitted to that lawful order, sine qua known. The whole deal is over. Okay? Right?

Maybe you've got an appearance ticket. If you've got a warrant, you have to go see a judge, and then you'll get an appearance ticket. But this is New York. The Democrats are going to turn you loose. But if there had simply banned obedience to law, if there had simply been compliance, nobody dies as a result of a police chase. People die as a result of a criminal flight. And these troopers today, in this matter, were doing their duty. They were acting according to the high standards of their profession. They were acting in our interest and at our behest. They were protecting us and our community. And so in the natural piss on the cops approach that it seems like this modern world likes to take, I hope that you have already decided which side you're going to be on, and I hope that you are on the side of the people who are on your side. And that is, in this situation, these members of the New York State Police. And there will be those who will say, well, we need to look at and review and we should back off and we can't tolerate. No. No. If right now... Somebody fails to respond when a troop car lights him up and they take off. Those troopers should be on their ass. Right? No. The reason everybody runs is because we have created the situation where there is no consequence for running. We've created a situation where if you're a criminal in the city of Rochester, your expectation is, hey, they're going to stop chasing me. I can get away. I don't have to stop. That's why, like here's the thing, you'll have grease. They'll pick up somebody with their license plate readers, okay? That's a stolen car. Let's pull it over. And then they'll take off like a bat out of hell. And Greece will chase them. And they'll end up, you know, ultimately catching them typically somewhere in the city. Right? Why do those people run? Why does everybody run? Because unfortunately, politically driven decisions imposed on law enforcement agencies by politicians have, oh no, we don't know, we don't chase. Uh-oh, we don't chase. And so in the folklore, the general understanding of the criminal class in our region, it is, hey, cops don't chase, right? They have to quit. I don't. And that doesn't make our streets safer. It makes our streets more dangerous because everybody runs. Nobody complies. And that is dangerous. And that leads to situations like this. But as I say, again, don't run from the New York State Police because they will chase you as they should and as I hope they always will.

The Attorney General will get involved in this. Various members, no doubt, of city council and the county legislature, and you know who I'm talking about, will get involved in this, right? The people in front of this federal building are protesting on that corner. They'll have something to say about this. But your voice ought to be heard as well, and your voice ought to be in support of these troopers and of this principle. Which is, obey the law. Obey the law. Well, you don't know. This is unnecessary, and it's over-policing. It's over-policing. Bull crap. It's common sense. And I'm sorry this individual is dead. I'm heartbroken for this individual's family. God bless them, right? And no one knows and feels that more I'm certain than these troopers. But nobody dies of a police chase. People die of a criminal flight. And this individual chose over a sustained period of time to engage in a criminal flight. And that cost this individual his or her life. That's what happened today. This is downtown section third platoon on news radio, Wham 1180. Welcome back. This is downtown section third platoon. There's one person I wish I could meet. You probably saw that story yesterday, a flying school out by Brockport, and a flight instructor in a single-engine aircraft. I don't know much about airplanes. The pointy part goes forward, okay, and the wingy parts stick out to the side. There's typically some kind of tail device. Under that, I don't know much about planes. But you had a flight instructor and a student. Well, it's got to be a fascinating kind of thing. By the way, the weather yesterday, I don't know if you remember, was spectacular. What would it be like to be up over the upstate New York countryside? The green, the sky, it just must have been spectacular. And imagine what it's like to be like a flying student. You've got two things going on there. It looks like. You probably are a little afraid, right? Because like, oh, I'm flying a plane, right? But you also are like probably way excited. I'm flying a plane, right? It's like that kind of, ooh, yeah. You're excited. You're up there. I mean, it's probably a great experience, I would think. And a beautiful day, and you got those headphones on breaker, breaker, one, nine. That's not how they talk on airplanes? Okay, whatever. Yankee, Zulu, five, on your five-nine or bout. I mean, is that how they talk? Okay, but you got those things on, and you're there, and you're in this plane, and look at this, the blue, and look how high we are. That's the student, right? And then you have the flight instructor.

Who knows? Is this some old goat been doing this forever? Or is it some young guy or gal trying to get hours and find a place, a career in the aviation industry? I don't know. But, you know, if you're the instructor, you got some, that's a serious job, right? I'm responsible for this person's instruction. I'm also responsible for this person's safety. All right. We got up here and we need to get back down there. We need to do it in one piece. And I need to do it in a fashion that will encourage and lead and teach and allow this student to become the best pilot that he or she can be. It's kind of a, I bet, I've never been up there, but I bet that it's a very cool thing, that that dynamic is important. These are crucial lessons you need to learn if you're the student, but no doubt it also occurs in this environment of wonder and excitement. So the plane's up there, and all of a sudden the thing went to crap. best i can make out the propeller there on the nose the plane it developed a fatal defect cracked lost a piece i don't know but propeller moves around really quick And if any, if it gets out of whack, like if, you know, if you lose a piece on this part of the propeller, all of a sudden there's more weight on one side than the other. And that is going to tear the engine apart, right? It's like back in the Army, when they told us, how do you shoot down a helicopter? You shoot towards the rotor in the engine. If you hit either the rotor or the engine, the helicopter comes down. The rotor, if you ding that and get just one of the blades so it weighs less or whatever than the other blades, all of a sudden that gets out of balance and before long that aircraft is going to tear itself apart. And something along those lines happened to the propeller. And so immediately you have a complete loss. But as the propeller came off or something, it threw bits of metal or I don't know. But the front of the aircraft, the nose, where the engine was, it became misshapen. There was a significant damage to the engine. And this took oil and other fluids from the engine and just painted the windscreen, right? That whole thing blows into the face. And so here's what happens in that much time in that aircraft.

All of a sudden, you have no engine, right? You have no engine. And so it just got quiet instantly. And further, you have just had the engine blow this oil back onto your windscreen, and you now can't see anything out in front of you. And by the way, you have beside you, the student pilot who just crapped his or her pants, if they're a normal person like you or me. And you, by the way, Mr. or Ms. Flight instructor, you need to resolve this problem. Imagine that moment. I want to talk to both those people, the student. What the hell was it like? And I want to talk to the instructor and I want to say, what was it like? Right? What was it like? And what did you do? Because in that moment, there are two lives in the plane, who knows, down on the ground, and you have to bring them down. And by the way, you have no engine and the front of your nose is all effed up. And so in terms of wind passing over it, it's going to be a very destabilizing thing. And also, you can't see out your front window. So have a nice day and good luck with this. And how did it turn out? The instructor brought the plane right in on a runway and landed like it was just another day. I want to talk to those people. I want to hear their story. And I'm never going to be a pilot. I'm not smart enough, whatever like that. But I'd like that instructor pilot to tell us handling that much stress that quickly, how did you do it? What would you teach us? How did you? Because you handled one hell of a bad problem perfectly. We might have one hell of a bad problem in our life one day. Give us some advice on how to handle it. That was a heck of an achievement. That was a true aviator. This is downtown section, third platoon on news radio Wham 1180. Downtown section third platoon. I got a text from my daughter, Blue-Eyed Ellie, a little bit earlier today. She is finishing up her first year at Yale, where she's going to college. The semester ended maybe almost a month ago, but she stayed and worked a couple weeks, make some extra money, helping to put on the graduation ceremony. And then she has just finished up today and tomorrow another couple of weeks working, make a little bit of extra money.

helping to put on alumni gatherings, reunions, if you will, down there. And it's interesting. She's had an extraordinary experience. My wife came from very difficult circumstances. My wife was a foster child for a time. She was raised by every shirt-tail relative you could find in very unusual in trying and sometimes abusive situations. my wife grew up literally a hundred plus miles from the nearest grocery store in the middle of the nevada desert in a place that really is more ghost town than anything else In my background, you know, pretty tough times down in Canistillo. You know, born my mother was a teenager. She dropped out in the 10th grade, spent the first two years of my life she did at the Rochester Psychiatric Center. But the point being we both are from very humble situations in terms of money and in terms of, say, social standing or whatever else like that. We both, my wife and I, have been blessed. She was able to go to college. And she became a newspaper reporter subsequent to that. And here the last couple three years, she went and got a master's degree at St. John Fisher. And she's been a schoolteacher this last year with that master's degree, enjoying that a great deal, a very accomplished person. She's been on a school board down there where we live. And, you know, I was able to find a way to make a living. And we've been very blessed. But we are culturally and economically very humble people. And we're grateful feeling highly blessed. But, you know, we're humble people. She's a desert rat from out in the middle of nowhere. And I'm 100% hillbilly through and through. And we have this daughter who very educationally oriented, very go out and lead and do things oriented. And in a weird kind of fluke, we got in the mail when she was, what, just starting her senior year or something like that, a little pamphlet. from Yale, you know, that place. And you get all sorts of crap from all kinds of colleges when you have a junior, a senior in high school, right? I mean, it just, they flood the zone with mailings. And most of it doesn't get red. And this thing from Yale just got pushed aside. Except for my son Scott, who...