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Coffee House => Coffee House Boards => CH / General => Topic started by: KennyR on September 01, 2004, 03:34:53 AM
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Ok, I know it for sure now, I'm living in a place where the national and local media just don't care about what's happening. A few days ago there was a gang fight near where I live, and apparently a samurai sword was used, and someone had their leg nearly severed.
But I look up the news to see what happened: no mention. Instead, reports on our economy (which has never really changed in 30 years), the latest happenings in the Big Brother house, oh, and STOP PRESS! Prince William seen with unknown girl at Saint Andrews! Really life-changing stuff.
This happens constantly. Really serious things do happen locally, and yet never get on even the local news. Around here, the best source of news is the police scanner; I don't expect any official report of what's really going on, despite a formidable array of CCTV cameras on every street corner!
And yet, I notice much more trivial things get mentioned if they happen in Glasgow. "Youth chased by gang" or "Man gets bitten by dog" might get reported and be on the Scottish news on TV, but if a man was torn apart by a gang here or a roving group of dogs is going around eating people, nobody would care.
Oh well. I'll just have to buy myself a police scanner. I think serious local events are much more important than a purse snatching in Bearsden.
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I tell you what, listening in to police scanners for the most part is as boring as hell, but every now and again something comes on the air that really gets the pulse racing - car chases especially are fascinating to listen to in real time.
Also good for getting interesting titbits of news, as you point out most local news coverage is... poor to say the least.
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I used to pick up some kinds of personal radio transmission down at the bottom end of the FM frequency scale on an old cheap hi-fi I had. I don't think it was supposed to do that...
Wish I still had it, I live right by a police station. :-D
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I went one step further in SA.
As I was leaving the hospital one night I bumped into a guy from the Flying Squad and we had a casual conversation about the night's events. It was around 1am and he had all his kit with him. He offered me a ride-along and I couldn't say no. I knew he wasn't stuffing around when he gave me a vest with a ceramic plate in the front. We ended up going over 200kph down the highway trying to get to the scene of an alleged bottlestore robbery. When we got there it was pitch black and there was no sign of a break-in but there was some movement in the shadows up on a balcony. That's when the guy said to me "Keep your arse against the car because you have no plate in the back of your vest"
Nice one eh?
He and his partner got out with their R5 rifles and started shining their torches up at the balcony. I crouched with my arse against the car, facing the other side of the courtyard, hoping things would be okay. All I had was a pistol. Thankfully the Midnight Strollers on the balcony came down without a fuss and that was the end of the matter. But I promise you there is an element of fear that tarnishes the adrenalin rush a little. If there had been two bad boys with AKs on either side of the courtyard, up on the balcony, I would have had very slim chances indeed.
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that_punk_guy wrote:
I used to pick up some kinds of personal radio transmission down at the bottom end of the FM frequency scale on an old cheap hi-fi I had. I don't think it was supposed to do that...
Wish I still had it, I live right by a police station. :-D
I've got a CB that the salesman told me has the "funnies", I had no idea what that was, so asking around someone told me that means it's been illegally modified so it'll transmit on police channels.
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At my last apartment, someone was killed on the streetcorner my apartment sat on. The murder was wielding a knife, and was completely naked except for one sock. He ran across the street to the corner of my apartment, and stabbed someone to death. I heard about it when a friend of mine in St. Louis saw it on their news and wanted to know if I was okay. Never saw a blip about it here in Chicago.
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@KennyR
It seems to be something peculiar to Reporting Scotland. As you say, reports on extremely trivial Glasgow occurrences but nothing of bigger events in the rest of Scotland. These stories are mixed in with the likes of "murder occurs in Barcelona as Scot lies peacefully in bed just 7 miles away". Very bizarre and exasperating to the point of throwing TV out of window etc.