Boy Hurt by Cannon Blast Feels Twice Wounded.

Boy hurt by cannon blast feels twice wounded
Accident in football town elicited threats, not get-well wishes

By CAROL SMITH


SNOHOMISH -- The cannon shot that ripped into Brett Karch's leg, causing a gaping combat-style wound, has also torn a hole in his hometown community of Snohomish.


Karch, whose leg was nearly amputated and who faces more than a year of physical rehabilitation with an uncertain outcome, has been the target of physical threats because of fears his injury will jeopardize the community's tradition of firing the ceremonial cannon before each high school football game and after touchdowns.
<snip>

According to Karch's medical records, security guards notified police after Karch received disturbing phone calls and visits from parents and students, some of whom threatened to "break his other leg" or worse, if he didn't keep quiet about the accident. Hospital staff had to move him to a secure room where they monitored visitors.

Callers and visitors told Karch they would "make sure his other leg got blown off," and that "there would be retaliation" if the family cooperated in an investigation that could end the cannon tradition, said Mary Bissel, Karch's mother. "That's when I kind of got a little upset," Karch said.
<snip>


http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/296584_cannon20.html?source=mypi



I hear that someone got charged with making these threats and I hope she gets the book thrown at her.

Come, Thag. Go now, slay mammoth!!!

:eyes:

I never got it. They think I'm weird.

My sentiments about the community, their reaction, and the implications of such behavior and beliefs are unacceptable to post at DU.

What I can acceptably say is that when a news story reads like the Shirley Jackson short story "The Lottery", it's time to seriously look at the community that that story comes from.

PB

Crude, crude people.


I'll have to check out that book.

Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery"

  There's a side to Americana that she explores that I feel is very real and only semi-perceptible. There's another short story I read, created much more recently (within the last 20 years) about a girl who twirls the baton for some social event. As you read more and more, you realize that she's got razor blades on the baton so that when she performs the act it cuts her hands. As she bleeds more and more she enters a trance state with the baton "Like a windshield wiper in the sky, wiping away the clouds and revealing the face of Jesus". Part of some religious/cultural intermix in the lost suburbs of a dark heartland.

  I really, really wish I could remember the name of that one.

  And if you liked the Shirley Jackson story, you should try to contact Lewis Shiner (an author) and see if he'll send you a copy of his amazingly disturbing very very short story called "Six Flags over Jesus". It is truly amazing. I don't have his e-mail address at the moment but you can Google his official website with a bit of luck.

PB

I love creepy short-short stories like that. Here is site that I read from:

http://www.horrormasters.com/sub-genre.htm

It's kind of cheesy looking but has hundreds of creepy stories and most are free.

...so I appreciate the pointer. I love, very much, a well-written creepy short story.

PB

I don't give any money to the Cable Companies. I don't support ESPN or Fox news.







Edited so the pantywaists won't tease me for punctuation.

the kind that form lynch mobs and take pictures of smiling faces over the body...

I feel that this sort of mentallity exists in other communites as well. This one just got caught.








edited for grammar because you never know when the big grammar brother is watching.

Brett Karch (the boy) and his mother (Mary K. Bissell) have a long criminal history with Dana Snyder, but neither Karch nor his mother ever mentioned her as being behind the harassing phone calls??? No, just the wicked, sports-crazed town of Snohomish - afraid of losing a stupid cannon tradition. Yea right!!
How opportunistic.
Mary Bissell is a convicted felon ... check her out first before you condemn Dana Snyder or send your money anywhere.
http://dw.courts.wa.gov/index.cfm?fa=home.casesummary&casenumber=92-1-00982-4&searchtype=sName&crt_itl_nu=S31&cc=%20%20%20&fd=1992-08-07
I live in Snohomish and we are not at all the way this article portrays us.

  I am not saying you aren't correct in stating that there may be more to this story than meets the eye. However, your willingness to bring up unrelated court-records in an attempt to color our perception of the victim borders on and quite possibly is a character-assassination attempt.

  Would you please explain what one has to do with the other?

  When bad things happen to good people, it's a crime. When bad things happen to "bad" people...should it be any more acceptable?

PB

Just a bunch of dates, letter and numbers. I don't see any information in that that would change anything.

Threats seem to have little to do with cannon
Snohomish boy in middle of neighbors' spat, police reports say

By Scott North
Herald Writer


SNOHOMISH - A nasty neighborhood dispute, not mean-spirited support of small-town football tradition, appears to be behind threatening phone calls a Snohomish High School student allegedly received after being injured when a ceremonial cannon exploded in October, documents show.

... more

http://www.heraldnet.com/stories/07/01/19/100loc_a1threats001.cfm

The harassment wasn't just from one person. And it doesn't really show what documents. Police reports? Everyone knows police reports are always accurate right?:sarcasm:

The original article implies that it is a community behind the harassment. You can see by the responses here that that is how people interpret it. But as the truth behind the story is coming out, it looks like it could very well be just the one person responsible, due to a neighborhood spat. Only one person has been charged and she has a criminal history with the family.
My kids and their friends go to the high school, love the games, but always thought the cannon was kind of annoying. That's why we questioned this article from the beginning.

thoughtless assholes in one place.

It just hasn't been brought out by something like this happening. Of course that's just my speculation. I feel it's not a mentality unique to this town.

I am not a sports fan, usually. I'm a fan of politics. But I was at a party this summer and a friend of mine's ex-husband was there (they're on extremely good terms) and he happened to have worked security for a college football game that occurred earlier in the day. He was very upset because some high school kids had been given the job of guarding the field directly after the game which, in this case, was a victory for the home team. They had no experience in crowd control and their youth had not matured into much strength, physically.

He told a few stories of the teenagers being berated and even physically attacked so that the locals (who probably also have school age kids) could get onto the field to celebrate, literally, 3 or so minutes earlier. Disgusting.

It is astounding but unsurprising in my experience to see how quickly civility, society, everything, falls apart on a whim. It's very disturbing.

PB

Adults attacking the kid or teens is way over the top. It seems every year there are more and more stories like this. Even in Little League games. Either the parents are out of control or the kids themselves. People have been killed too. We had a father kill another father at a hockey practice a few years back not to far from me. That was all over Court TV. It is everywhere and very disturbing.


Politics can be very nasty. But not nearly as violent. I've notice DU getting a little more heated up now that candidates are starting to announce their candidacy.

The town was unfairly charecterized in this article which is based upon a press release from the injured boy's attorney. This boy was welcomed back with great applause at a school assembly prior to publication of this piece. Someone was charged with making one phone call which was a result of a long standing dispute with this boy prior to his injury. What she did was not correct and she should be charged however the demonization of this town in this piece is based on inaccurate assumptions and untruths.

Snohomish is an extremely blue town btw.