Man beaten to death at San Antonio Station

[neroden]

I automatically don't trust anything from Media Matters,

You should. They're extremely reliable about citations and sourcing. Extremely. Really all they do is go through and debunk blatant misinformation, of course; they don't break any actual news stories themselves. Columbia Journalism Review has been known to do the same thing. So has Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting; of the three of them, FAIR's the only one which is slightly unreliable.
There's some real odd biases in the news media, including one where white male terrorists are *never* referred to as terrorists, but if they're Muslim, why then they're referred to as terrorists.

http://fair.org/take-action/media-advisories/can-white-people-be-terrorists/

Over the past 10 years the Instapundit has had a game he calls "Name the Party!" The game is that if the politician caught in a lie or breaking a lie is a Republican, the party affiliation is in the headline or the first paragraph. If the offender is a Dem, the affiliation tends to be in a paragraph buried in the article. This isn't 100%, but it is frequent enough that it is not an accident.

Absolute nonsense; he's just cherry-picking.
I've got a much nastier collection of items where Fox News in particular, literally misidentifies the party of Republicans caught in serious scandals, pretending that they're Democrats. Doesn't seem to happen the other way around for some reason...

As for Breitbart, he's known for backing O'Keefe's ridiculous setup/entrapment operations where he attempts to goad people into saying things which sound bad when taken out of context (the people he's targeting are generally merely trying to be polite to the crazed weirdo). This is why he has a bad reputation.

 

[William W.]

Sooooo,

This is what we have:

-There has been a murder at the Amtrak station in San Antonio.

-The story has been confirmed as happening.

-The victim was beaten to death on a bench next to the station.

-The suspected perpetrator has been arrested, and will face justice.

-We've all learned to be more aware of our surroundings whenever we are somewhere alone at night.

-Hopefully Amtrak and the local PD will do what they feel is right to improve security (if needed), and passengers using SAS (or any other station at night, really) will know to stay in staffed areas with other people around.

Let's keep the family of the victim in our thoughts and prayers, and hope that something like this doesn't happen again.

 

[NW cannonball]

Actually, the fact that a lot of the media did not report it does not surprise me. They also did not report many dozens of traffic fatalities and probably a few rail grade crossing or suicide or just Darwin Award events. It is in general not uncommon that very few accidental or even incidental fatalities are actually widely reported. So frankly I was sort of baffled by the excitement from both sides and the use of either non-report or report to arrive at all sorts of conspiratorial conclusions. Oh well.....

"conspiratorial conclusions" yeah, maybe.

Another case of "paranoid delusional person lashes out against imagined persecutor" maybe.

It will be months before the facts are published.

Meantime - better visible security at San Antone -- maybe helps.

Meantime - I'm not worrying visiting San Antoine, or the Amtrak station there -- maybe security could be improved - but right now I'm not worrying.

 

[NW cannonball]

Sooooo,

This is what we have:

-There has been a murder at the Amtrak station in San Antonio.

-The story has been confirmed as happening.

-The victim was beaten to death on a bench next to the station.

-The suspected perpetrator has been arrested, and will face justice.

-We've all learned to be more aware of our surroundings whenever we are somewhere alone at night.

-Hopefully Amtrak and the local PD will do what they feel is right to improve security (if needed), and passengers using SAS (or any other station at night, really) will know to stay in staffed areas with other people around.

Let's keep the family of the victim in our thoughts and prayers, and hope that something like this doesn't happen again.

Good summary.

I don't fear San Antoine.

 

[Ryan]

Good summary indeed. Maybe we can leave the media bias stuff behind now.

 

[William W.]

Agreed. I'm surprised that a moderator hasn't stepped in at this point. This thread has gone way outside what it was supposed to be.

 

[Ryan]

Actually, they have - the thread was locked for a few hours until the story was confirmed.

 

[dart330]

Here is the third source that was mentioned earlier.

http://www.kens5.com/news/Man-beat-to-death-in-front-of-crowd-at-Amtrak-station-in-San-Antonio-266136491.html

 

[Devil's Advocate]

In addition to all the other shocking aspects of this story I'm also surprised the bail is so low for someone who is accused of a random act of murder. I'd expect no bail at all to be a worthy consideration in this case. Sad day for the city and a sad day for Amtrak. Texas is already whipped into perpetual hysteria thanks to all the propaganda of the current election season and this event will only make it even worse. Not looking forward to the immediate future.

 

[dart330]

And a 4th: http://www.foxsanantonio.com/news/features/top-stories/stories/man-beaten-death-at-amtrak-station-5000.shtml

 

[VentureForth]

Where were (are) you when all these were posted?

I saw a bunch of legitimate criticisms of the news source offered by the OP.

Source?

Citation needed?

The huff post ref was anecdotal, not requiring explanation. In other words, had the article come from the Huffington Post, I don't think there would have been a page and a half of criticizing the source.

That is an opinion, which you are likely to disagree with. Now gracefully disagree.

 

[Bob Dylan]

I don't believe any of the blogs or the Cable News Channels (unless they show video of actual events without talking head spin!)

I'm basically a Progressive Liberal but I don't believe the opinions in Huffington Post either! Her Majesty Arriana is a hustler after a buck ( she doesn't pay her "reporters") and used to be a big player in Conservative Republican circles!

If you want to find out what's going on you need to read recognized,respected publications and listen to reputable media like CBC, BBC etc and not listen

To the crap on Americas media outlets and on the internet! ( exception: AU!!LOL)

 

[Ryan]

Actually, I'd much rather just get back to the topic at hand. I even said so, a few post ago, see?

Good summary indeed. Maybe we can leave the media bias stuff behind now.

When someone posts a Huffington Article as a source, feel free to rail against how biased and untrustworthy it is. It'll be entertaining. But as I also said earlier...

if the only defense of Brietbart is "the left does it too", that says volumes about the "quality" of their reporting.

 

[NW cannonball]

In addition to all the other shocking aspects of this story I'm also surprised the bail is so low for someone who is accused of a random act of murder. I'd expect no bail at all to be a worthy consideration in this case. Sad day for the city and a sad day for Amtrak. Texas is already whipped into perpetual hysteria thanks to all the propaganda of the current election season and this event will only make it even worse. Not looking forward to the immediate future.

The likely reason the bail is so low - the court realizes that the court released someone might be dangerous, and the court knows the alleged perp from before, and the court knows the alleged perp showed signs of delusional fearful thinking, And the court knows that the alleged perp is unlikely to flee justice.

Thinking the relatively low bail has no effect on delusional pre-emptive accused. And now the madman is in custody, my worries about SAC gone too.

It will be a long while before anyone has a believable "story" about what happened., because the alleged perp seems to be insane.

Meantime, I welcome some kind of "security" at stations -- but don't see how that would help in this case, as reported so far.

BUT - this unfortunate happening. --

Not fear San Antoine -- hope better comfort from renta-cops. But they really no help, where I've seen.

Me, no worries - loonies everywhere - what threats were exchanged in this case don 't know

expect nobody here will ever check up on the actual case a year or so down the line.

 

[the_traveler]

I'm confused about the KENS report.

... the victim ... waiting for a bus ..."

I thought another report said he bought a train ticket? :huh:

 

[NW cannonball]

There will, we hope, be an investigation, and we all hope there will be some enlightenment at the end of it --

I doubt that anyone here will follow up months or years later -- "was it a failure of security? or did some citizen nutcase assert rights? or? madman in train station? or?

Right now, I don't fear the train station. More "security" there might be good, or not. Right now, I trust my skills at calming the paranoid. But that could fail any time.

 

[cirdan]

Actually, the fact that a lot of the media did not report it does not surprise me. They also did not report many dozens of traffic fatalities and probably a few rail grade crossing or suicide or just Darwin Award events. It is in general not uncommon that very few accidental or even incidental fatalities are actually widely reported. So frankly I was sort of baffled by the excitement from both sides and the use of either non-report or report to arrive at all sorts of conspiratorial conclusions. Oh well.....

Agree, sort of.

But this wasn't a random Darwin incident or traffic fatality (and even if it was, I think you could expect at least local news sources to look into it).

I'm not saying there's a conspirational cover-up. Conspiracy theories are mostly for those too lazy to understand the real causes of things, or just the plain plain statistics that say sometimes strange things happen to random people. In addition, news sources and journalists work in a ceratin way and to a certain market-driven logic which influences the type of stories they are likely to pick up, and this skews our perception of the frequency of different classes of incident.

I don't claim to know enough about this incident to offer any further theory of my own. Until I see evidence to the contrary, I take politically motivated implications with a grain of salt.

 

[andersone]

If we give Roger Walters a grain of salt

from the Floyd Classic Brain Dead

"We have to keep the loonies on the path"

my sympathies to the victims family

tragedy is never well received

 

[jis]

I don't claim to know enough about this incident to offer any further theory of my own. Until I see evidence to the contrary, I take politically motivated implications with a grain of salt.

Likewise.

 

[Paulus]

I'm confused about the KENS report.

... the victim ... waiting for a bus ..."

I thought another report said he bought a train ticket? :huh:

Thruway bus? And wasn't the Eagle bussing SAS-DFW there lately?

 

[City of Miami]

Thruway bus? And wasn't the Eagle bussing SAS-DFW there lately?

Well, he would have an 8 hour wait for that bus since it would leave at 7am the next morning. He was said to live in Cibolo which is NE of San Antonio just outside the 1604 loop; the Eagle goes through there but the train doesn't stop.

 

[Bob Dylan]

Slight correction John; The Sunset Ltd runs through Cibilo on the old SP Main, the Eagles us the old MP/ Katy lines between SAS and Austin so he probably was waiting on the #1 which departs @ 2:45am West Bound!

With people in the Station that time of night I'd venture a guess that they were waiting on #1, not #22 (or the bustitution) which leaves @ 7am as you said, or # 2 which leaves @ 6:25am on the new schedule!

 

[tricia]

Given that Amtrak has scheduled two of its long-distance trains into San Antonio, a major city, with middle-of-the-night arrival and/or departure times, both Amtrak and the city's tourism boosters need to make sure the station and platform are safe for passengers. Period.

Whether that's best accomplished by Amtrak staff, local police, private security guards, or ??? is something that local folks can best sort out.

But they really need to get on this, and publicize whatever they do.

I'm not a nervous nellie about big cities. I have relatives in San Antonio and have been meaning to visit them by train despite the difficult timing of Amtrak's stops there. Not now.

One of Amtrak's most attractive qualities for me (and I'm sure I'm not alone in this) is that I can travel alone without a lot of the stress associated with other forms of travel--don't need to navigate strange roads, don't have to pack with airport security measures in mind, don't have to worry about much at all on the train. Certainly I expect not to be beaten to death by a deranged stranger either on a train or while waiting for a train on platform or in station.

I'm not shocked that such a thing can happen in a Big City. I AM shocked that this attack not only happened where it did but went on for so long without anyone responsible for security at that station intervening, either before or during the attack.

Amtrak really needs to publicly respond to this event, both with abject apology to the victim's family and with specifics about improved security.

 

[neroden]

Regarding the killing, it sounds from the news story as if the assailant was actually clinically severely paranoid. That happens. It's very hard to deal with. Most often it's drug-induced. Other times it's just mental illness, though it's a very rare sort of mental illness; severe paranoia is one of the mental illness symptoms for which involuntary commitment in psychiatric institutions was invented.

The psychiatric institutions were defunded in the 1980s by Reagan. There was a "deinstitutionalization" movement which encouraged moving the severely mentally ill into halfway houses rather than institutions, and Reagan misused this movement by deinstitutionalizing lots of people *without* funding the halfway houses.

As a result, lots of mentally ill people were dumped on the street, and it's now *very* hard to get someone committed *or* in a halfway house, even when they have severe clinical paranoia. I've been following this for decades as it affects people I know personally, and it's one of the great shames of the United States. The program of throwing mentally ill people out on the street also created a large portion of the homelessness problem (since most of the severely mentally ill people who would previously have been committed, cannot handle renting and managing an apartment by themselves, and tend to get kicked out by their landlords, quite justifiably).

I am going to bet that when the full story comes out, it will turn out either that:

(1) the assailant was on paranoia-inducing drugs, or

(2) there were already multiple attempts made to get the assailant committed over the last several years, and the state government refused to keep him in. (It's possible, even, that they threw him out of a mental institution or out of a prison with nothing but a train ticket. This happens.)

Unfortunately I know of other stories along the same lines, though usually not in train stations. (For instance, a case where a man's entire family and friends were pleading to have him committed because he was dangerous; they couldn't get him committed and he murdered his mother in a fit of paranoia.)

This is my informed opinion. I may be wrong because I'm guessing.

I didn't write this earlier because I wanted to write it calmly. The disgraceful state of our mental health system in the United States has upset me for roughly 30 years.

 

[Bob Dylan]

As others have said you don't have to be afraid of using the Sunset Station in San Antonio! This was one of those could happen anywhere things but I agree that I'm shocked that no-one helped when the wacko attacked the unfortunate victim!

The area is well lighted, always lots of folks around as its major tourist area with upscale hotels, cafes, clubs and condos around the Station and is next to the Alamodome!

I feel safer here waiting on a train @ night than in say Oakland ,Washington,LA, Chicago or New York!!! Don't be afraid to ride the Eagle or Sunset to San Antonio!!!