Police release more officer comments about nightclub fire (Austin TX PD "burn baby burn.")

AUSTIN AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF | Saturday, March 05, 2005 | By Tony Plohetski

[DrewsDad]

BLOODHOUND GANG LYRICS

"Fire Water Burn"

The roof, the roof, the roof is on fire,
The roof, the roof, the roof is on fire,
The roof, the roof, the roof is on fire,
We don't need no water let the mother****** burn,
Burn mother****** burn.

[Tall_Texan]

Austin isn't that big a city, and 129 police calls in 365 days only makes it #5??

My thought is "who were the top four"?

Just like a bad news story reported here sometimes turns into a jokefest, I'm sure that's what these cops were doing. You'll get a pretty warped sense of humor after awhile working for the police or an emergency room. It's a coping mechanism. Notice, too, that it wasn't just white cops making these wisecracks.

[Tall_Texan]

Oh, I thought the joke had more to with "Disco Inferno" from the Trammps, made famous by the movie "Saturday Night Fever" with the chorus:

"Burn, baby, burn. Disco Inferno.
Burn, baby, burn. Burn that mother down."

[ArmstedFragg]

How many careers have been wrecked by failure to follow this basic rule of professional conduct?

It goes back quite a ways, too. Remember the "Gorillas in the Mist" message in the Rodney King incident?

[ArmstedFragg]

You'll get a pretty warped sense of humor after awhile

For some reason today, everything seems to remind me of the Rodney King incident, possibly because the media played a large part in hyping that incident. It had an example of one of those 'warped sense' moments you referred to when Larry Powell, requesting an ambulance for Rodney described him as a "victim of a beating", followed by a nervous little laugh. The laugh was given quite a sinister connotation at trial, but was most likely one of those coping/nervousness things you described.

[DrewsDad]

And dispatcher Ashlye Bauerle wrote, "You hear that Midtown is on fire!! The roof of a club . . . That's funny! Gives a whole new meaning to the roof, the roof is on fire," the documents said. Her suspension was three days.

Depends on which comment you're talking about.

>>Just like a bad news story reported here sometimes turns into a jokefest, I'm sure that's what these cops were doing.

Now they'll have to go to FR to post their comments instead, since the PC Cops are on their case.

[El Gato]

This story is from the Onion, right?

Nah, just Berkley on the Colorado.

[El Gato]

Austin isn't that big a city, and 129 police calls in 365 days only makes it #5?

It's also a college town. Home of the University of Texas. Sixth street, essentially right downtown, is full of drunken college students, and even 20 and 30 somethings acting like they are still college students. I'll bet the highest calls are from those bars catering to the students.....although it could be a biker bar of course. Fort Hood is less than an hour away as well, and the road(s) between Killeen and Austin are especially hazardous on weekend evenings.