[ppaul]

Toms River, not that big - two recent shootings like this! Is it something in the water?

Probably.
But we should be asking, "Why does every tin-pot, small town in America need a SWAT team?"

[blackdog]

Because the feds give grant money to swat teams. If the feds gave grant money to municipalities for hiring one legged midgets to swing from trees while singing show tunes, the municipalities would be lining up for the cash.

[JMK]

Toms River, not that big - two recent shootings like this! Is it something in the water?

Probably. But we should be asking, "Why does every tin-pot, small town in America need a SWAT team?"

The hell it's not (big, that is)! Toms River itself is basically just the downtown area of Dover Township, which has 80,000+ people in it. Dover Township has the second-largest municipal police department in the state, if I remember correctly.

And also bear in mind that this latest shooting did not take place in Toms River, it took place in Seaside Heights, which is a tourist town to the east, on the beaches.

My father retired last year from Dover Township PD as a lieutenant after 33 years. He was in charge of the Emergency Services Unit (i.e., SWAT team), was an experienced hostage negotiator, he trained their snipers, and was an instructor at the county police academy. You'd be surprised at how often ESU is legitimately called out to respond to emergencies. And not once in its history have they ever shot anybody!

Bottom line: the police in Dover Township are very professional.

The only fatal shooting in the force's entire history occurred about 3 or 4 years ago, when a guy fired several shotgun blasts at two officers, who repeatedly told him to drop the weapon and surrender (he'd already wounded another person). It was basically a suicide-by-cop, and he was determined to die.

Most of the cops in Seaside Heights are part-timers, not full-time professionals, because the town is largely deserted from October to late-April. I actually had a teacher in high school that had been a part-time cop there when he was younger. I'm not denigrating Seaside PD, but as my father has said, a lot of cops today are too quick to shoot.

However, in this case, this was just plain murder, of which anybody is capable, whether they're a cop or not.

[Cable225]

But we should be asking, "Why does every tin-pot, small town in America need a SWAT team?"

As I said earlier, TR is not exactly a tin-pot town. And a reason for the SWAT team is the drug trafficing industry in Seaside Heights.

Having said that, I'm not defending it, but I just wanted to give some of you out-of-staters a little insight.

[F16Fighter]

I LIVE in Toms River -- there are easily about 250,000 people within a 20 mile radius, and during the summer months the population may swell to double that. Since the cop in question was from the "edgy" resort town of Seaside Heights, visited by all sorts from the city (Philly/NYC clientele), anything can happen, believe me.