{"id":7784,"date":"2024-02-19T20:12:58","date_gmt":"2024-02-19T20:12:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/?p=7784"},"modified":"2024-02-20T00:55:38","modified_gmt":"2024-02-20T00:55:38","slug":"death-in-burnsville-minnesota","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/death-in-burnsville-minnesota\/","title":{"rendered":"Death in Burnsville, Minnesota"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/maps\/@44.7730673,-93.3581416,12z\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/brendans-island.com\/blogsource\/20240129ff\/20240219-BurnsvilleMNGoogleMapsStreetView33rdAndEastBurnsvilleParkway-658.jpg?w=640&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"Google Street View: Burnsville, Minnesota, East Burnsville Parkway, near Highway 77. (May 2023)\"\/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Burnsville, Minnesota: East Burnsville Parkway. (May 2023) Google Street View, used w\/o permission.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Sunday morning&#8217;s incident is more than three hours down the road, but still registered as &#8216;my part of the world&#8217;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Among the very few &#8216;up&#8217; sides is that, so far, local and regional news has paid more attention to the folks who were doing their jobs, and less on the person who caused their deaths.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/kstp.com\/kstp-news\/top-news\/suspect-dead-after-fatally-shooting-2-burnsville-police-officers-1-ems-responder\/\">3 Burnsville first responders killed after domestic call escalates to gunfire; suspect also dead<\/a>&#8220;<br>Kilat Fitzgerald, Kyle Brown KSTP (February 18, 2024)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This isn&#8217;t what I&#8217;ll be talking about this week, not even close. But the multiple killings feel like they happened &#8216;just down the road&#8217;. So I&#8217;m whipping this off Monday, making a few points before moving on to something more interesting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><a name=\"news\"><\/a>News and Views<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">When a town that&#8217;s not one of my country&#8217;s major cities makes international headlines, it&#8217;s seldom good news. That said, this BBC News article focused on one of the folks most of us will miss.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/world-us-canada-68336601\">Minnesota shooting: Wife of killed police officer says &#8216;he had to do what was right&#8217;<\/a>&#8220;<br>James FitzGerald, BBC News (February 19, 2024)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;&#8230;State authorities said officers were called at about 01:50 local time (07:50 GMT) to the address in Burnsville, a city about 15 miles (24 km) south of central Minneapolis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;They were responding to a &#8216;report of a domestic situation&#8217; involving an armed man, said Supt Drew Evans from the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;The responders later learned seven children, aged two to 15, were also &#8216;barricaded&#8217; in the property. They went on to spend &#8216;quite a bit of time negotiating with this individual&#8217;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;The attacker then opened fire, killing the three victims and inflicting non-life-threatening injuries on a fourth policeman, who was named as Adam Medlicott&#8230;.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Another breath of fresh air was that a Burnsville representative talked about &#8220;three of our neighbors who dedicated their lives to service and keeping our community safe&#8221;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">She also said that &#8220;Burnsville is a place where we take care of each other, lean on our neighbors in times of need, and act together to make our city the best it can be.&#8221; \u2014 and urged support for &#8220;our law enforcement and first responders, who show their heroism and strength of spirit every day in their line of work&#8221;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And she didn&#8217;t once denounce the technology used by the person responsible (in my opinion) for those deaths.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The U.S. Conference of Mayors statement, however, did the conventional virtue signaling in regards to &#8220;the scourge of gun violence&#8221;. And, to the credit of that national organization, stated that &#8220;America&#8217;s mayors are heartbroken&#8221; at the deaths.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.house.mn.gov\/members\/Profile\/News\/15550\/37886\">Burnsville Legislators&#8217; Statement on Fatal Shootings in Burnsville<\/a><br>Rep. Kaela Berg (DFL), Minnesota House of Representatives (February 18, 2024)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.usmayors.org\/2024\/02\/18\/statement-by-u-s-conference-of-mayors-on-burnsville-shooting\/\">Statement by U.S. Conference of Mayors on Burnsville Shooting<\/a><br>U.S. Conference of Mayors President Reno (NV) Mayor Hillary Schieve on this morning&#8217;s shooting in Burnsville (MN) that took the lives of two police officers and a fire department medic (February 18, 2024)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><a name=\"cultural\"><\/a>Cultural Quirks and Obsessions, Remembering Malthusian Angst<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">My own views are \u2014 well, a bit counter-cultural.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I think <strong>technology matters.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For example, doing research and writing is a great deal easier now than it was in my youth. But I was writing and digging facts out of archives long before word processors and the Internet came along. I still use skills developed then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And I&#8217;m not writing now because my desktop computer makes me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">My native culture&#8217;s obsessions <strong>could be worse.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I could be seeing headlines denouncing &#8220;computer crimes&#8221; in my news feed, along with impassioned pleas for tougher computer control laws.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And &#8216;decent citizens&#8217; could be striving to control what we&#8217;re allowed to post and read. Well, striving harder: and getting more traction in their efforts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I&#8217;m also moderately pleased that the seven children, presumably part of the household involved in the domestic incident, have not been cited as contributing factors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Back in the day, when &#8220;The Population Bomb&#8221; and Malthusian angst were in fashion, I&#8217;d have seen at least mention of people who have &#8216;too many children&#8217;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><a name=\"least\"><\/a>At Least Four Families are Hurting<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I&#8217;m very sad that four families have been directly hurt: those of the two police officers, the firefighter\/paramedic\/medic; and those who, for whatever reason, were not eliminated by the person who killed the first three \u2014 and is also dead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I&#8217;ve seen nothing about whatever reason or unreason set off Sunday morning&#8217;s slaughter. That&#8217;s arguably good news. Looks like law enforcement is doing a careful investigation. And local media, at least, aren&#8217;t indulging in \u2014 I&#8217;ll stop now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As for why I think human life matters, and related topics; I&#8217;ve talked about that before:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/capital-punishment-it-could-be-worse\/\">Capital Punishment: It Could be Worse<\/a>&#8220;<br>(February 3, 2024)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/stoneman-willie-readings-posthumous-celebrity\/\">&#8216;Stoneman Willie&#8217;, Reading&#8217;s Posthumous Celebrity<\/a>&#8220;<br>(October 2, 2023)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/euthanasia-for-the-mentally-ill-not-a-good-idea\/\">Euthanasia for the Mentally Ill: Not a Good Idea?<\/a>&#8220;<br>(January 18, 2023)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/couneys-baby-incubators-vs-the-progressive-era\/\">Couney&#8217;s Baby Incubators vs. the Progressive Era<\/a>&#8220;<br>(February 8, 2021 )<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/where-have-all-the-people-gone\/\">Where Have All the People Gone?<\/a>&#8220;<br>(November 23, 2018)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sunday morning&#8217;s incident is more than three hours down the road, but still registered as &#8216;my part of the world&#8217;. Among the very few &#8216;up&#8217; sides is that, so far, local and regional news has paid more attention to the &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/death-in-burnsville-minnesota\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"A quick response to bad news from a town a few hours down the road from my home. Why I care, and why I don't blame technology.","jetpack_seo_html_title":"Death in Burnsville, Minnesota: Police Officers, Paramedic Killed","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[192],"tags":[84,15,194],"class_list":["post-7784","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-journal","tag-family","tag-life-issues","tag-minnesota"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7Dwtw-21y","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7784","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7784"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7784\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7805,"href":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7784\/revisions\/7805"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7784"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7784"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7784"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}