Hello readers, it's time to catch up again after falling behind yet another week. I can't wait until this quarter's over and I don't have to think about blogging anymore (same goes for Twitter, which I need to update so badly). Blogging is not something that I do regularly and one of the first things I will do when this quarter's over is delete this whole blog.
In the meantime, I did promise some more funny and/or interesting moments out of the Daily Record's police blotter. Unfortunately, doing a search in the Daily Record's online archives yielded a bunch of missing information -- apparently, most of the blotter for the end of February is missing, so I can only do what happened this past week (I wanted to catch up on what happened the last week of February).
In addition to the many odd complaints about animals in the roadway (whether or not they were a direct danger to drivers is still unknown) and about certain people just walking around (I guess people in small towns complain about almost anyone they've never seen before), I saw these interesting items:
A man was reportedly pushing his bicycle through a pasture on Dry Creek Road. (February 19-22) (again, small town people complaining about someone they've never seen before)
A person driving a maroon vehicle was reportedly driving down Fourth Avenue pulling three or four men behind them on skate boards. (February 19-22) (dangerous situation -- someone could have been hurt badly -- but could have been funny just to watch on the street. I guess it's just people trying to find something to do in a small town...)
Four pairs of tennis shoes were reportedly hanging from electrical wires on Pearl Street. (February 22-24) (interesting, even though this actually is a dangerous situation)
A large amount of broken glass was reportedly in the roadway on Dolarway Road. (February 22-24) (again, another dangerous situation, yet interesting to see in the blotter)
The power was reportedly out at a residence on Manastash Road. (March 1-2) (I didn't think you were supposed to call the police for this; I thought you called your power company.)
A man reportedly cursed at someone in a parking lot in Ellensburg. (March 2-3)
A 25-year-old man was reportedly giving someone weird looks on First Street in Cle Elum. (March 3-4)
This was all I could really find for the last couple of weeks. Most everything else involved serious situations such as assaults or burglaries. I will try to post a final entry for the quarter using this week's police blotter sometime on or before Wednesday. I'm just glad that this quarter is pretty much over and I don't have to think about blogging anymore.
Elizabeth
Sunday, March 7, 2010
Saturday, February 20, 2010
Third Blog Post -- Catching Up With the Blotter
Hey everyone, sorry about the delay. This is an extremely hard assignment for me to keep up with, considering that I don't blog in real life. I guess Steve just wants us to prove to him that we can post entries on blogs. I'll try to do better for the rest of the quarter. In the meantime, I have read the Daily Record Police Blotter archives for the past three weeks to try to dig up some interesting events that I have ignored. I don't know how funny or interesting any of these events are to you, but these are the events that made me wonder about why someone would report them to the police:
Four puppies were reportedly chasing cars on Sunlight Drive. (January 27, 2010)
A dog was reportedly carrying around a dead chicken on 15th Avenue. (January 29, 2010)
A 65-year old Ellensburg man wearing a tan coat was reportedly opening doors for people and telling them "good morning" as they walked into buildings on University Way. (February 4th, 2010) (Someone called the police to tell them about this man? Are you sure he isn't just a nice man willing to open the door for you?)
A person reported seeing a large amount of paint spilled on 5th Avenue. (February 4th, 2010)
A 30-year-old Cle Elum man reportedly was standing next to a crossing sign covered in mud watching trains pass. (February 10, 2010) (Wow, someone reported THIS to the police? Sounds like not a lot goes on in that small town!)
A person reported someone was using a garbage Dumpster on Main Street. (February 10, 2010) (Could the person using the Dumpster have been a store/restaurant employee rightfully using the Dumpster to take out their garbage?)
A man was reportedly sitting in his truck by a boat launch at Irene Rinehart Park, got out of the vehicle, walked toward a trail and stood in the bushes for 20 minutes. February 19, 2010)
A man reported that an older woman took a picture of him as she drove by on Third Avenue in Kittitas. (February 19, 2010) (Sounds to me like some man is making a big deal out of nothing. I would be more concerned about the older woman taking pictures from behind the wheel of her car!)
A person reportedly entered a building on Walnut Street listening to music. (February 19, 2010)
Not to mention the numerous blotters, too many to post, about animals in the middle of the roadway, making loud noises, or, to put it simply, acting like animals. I don't think people should really call the police to report an animal in the road unless the animal poses a direct danger to those people who are driving.
Well, anyway, these are the most interesting items from the Daily Record police blotter for the past few weeks. Again, these may not be funny or interesting to you, but they definitely are items you would only see on a small town police blotter. These items don't give you the whole story about the event, so you never know for sure if the event really was serious enough to get the police involved. Maybe the man saying "good morning" to everyone was trying to scope out a person to rob or attack? Maybe the woman taking a picture of a random man was going to have it published somewhere without permission? The police blotter may make it sound funny, but you really don't know how serious the event is because the blotter doesn't give the whole story. That concludes this post; I'll be back this week sometime with more funny and/or interesting events from the Daily Record Police Blotter!
Four puppies were reportedly chasing cars on Sunlight Drive. (January 27, 2010)
A dog was reportedly carrying around a dead chicken on 15th Avenue. (January 29, 2010)
A 65-year old Ellensburg man wearing a tan coat was reportedly opening doors for people and telling them "good morning" as they walked into buildings on University Way. (February 4th, 2010) (Someone called the police to tell them about this man? Are you sure he isn't just a nice man willing to open the door for you?)
A person reported seeing a large amount of paint spilled on 5th Avenue. (February 4th, 2010)
A 30-year-old Cle Elum man reportedly was standing next to a crossing sign covered in mud watching trains pass. (February 10, 2010) (Wow, someone reported THIS to the police? Sounds like not a lot goes on in that small town!)
A person reported someone was using a garbage Dumpster on Main Street. (February 10, 2010) (Could the person using the Dumpster have been a store/restaurant employee rightfully using the Dumpster to take out their garbage?)
A man was reportedly sitting in his truck by a boat launch at Irene Rinehart Park, got out of the vehicle, walked toward a trail and stood in the bushes for 20 minutes. February 19, 2010)
A man reported that an older woman took a picture of him as she drove by on Third Avenue in Kittitas. (February 19, 2010) (Sounds to me like some man is making a big deal out of nothing. I would be more concerned about the older woman taking pictures from behind the wheel of her car!)
A person reportedly entered a building on Walnut Street listening to music. (February 19, 2010)
Not to mention the numerous blotters, too many to post, about animals in the middle of the roadway, making loud noises, or, to put it simply, acting like animals. I don't think people should really call the police to report an animal in the road unless the animal poses a direct danger to those people who are driving.
Well, anyway, these are the most interesting items from the Daily Record police blotter for the past few weeks. Again, these may not be funny or interesting to you, but they definitely are items you would only see on a small town police blotter. These items don't give you the whole story about the event, so you never know for sure if the event really was serious enough to get the police involved. Maybe the man saying "good morning" to everyone was trying to scope out a person to rob or attack? Maybe the woman taking a picture of a random man was going to have it published somewhere without permission? The police blotter may make it sound funny, but you really don't know how serious the event is because the blotter doesn't give the whole story. That concludes this post; I'll be back this week sometime with more funny and/or interesting events from the Daily Record Police Blotter!
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Second Blog Post-- A Ride Along With the Police
Well, here goes... the second blog post of this quarter. This time, I actually have an idea of what to write! Last night, I spent 4 hours riding along with an Ellensburg police officer in order to get some kind of an idea of what they do during the evenings.
As I predicted, the night was pretty uneventful. Most of what happened last evening were traffic stops where the officer I rode with just let the driver off with a warning (one stop actually happened as a person was going into their driveway). I only saw one arrest take place (a lady who was driving with a suspended license). My officer also spent about 20 minutes driving around a trailer park looking for a car that had been involved in a collision earlier that day, plus he responded to one noise complaint near the CWU campus.
Other than that, there was not a lot of police action last night. However, the officer I rode with made up for it by taking me to the KITTCOM emergency dispatch center and the Kittitas County Jail. I met several of the staff members and took tours of both facilities.
As uneventful as last evening was, I also found it informative. I noticed my officer practicing many of the rules that Professor Jackson discussed in class, I learned about law enforcement in Ellensburg, and, most importantly, I got some inspiration for this weekly blog post. Given the crime rate in Ellensburg, next week's post will probably be more commentary on the police blotter.
As I predicted, the night was pretty uneventful. Most of what happened last evening were traffic stops where the officer I rode with just let the driver off with a warning (one stop actually happened as a person was going into their driveway). I only saw one arrest take place (a lady who was driving with a suspended license). My officer also spent about 20 minutes driving around a trailer park looking for a car that had been involved in a collision earlier that day, plus he responded to one noise complaint near the CWU campus.
Other than that, there was not a lot of police action last night. However, the officer I rode with made up for it by taking me to the KITTCOM emergency dispatch center and the Kittitas County Jail. I met several of the staff members and took tours of both facilities.
As uneventful as last evening was, I also found it informative. I noticed my officer practicing many of the rules that Professor Jackson discussed in class, I learned about law enforcement in Ellensburg, and, most importantly, I got some inspiration for this weekly blog post. Given the crime rate in Ellensburg, next week's post will probably be more commentary on the police blotter.
Friday, January 22, 2010
First Real Blog Post -- Kind of Disappointing
Well, this here is the first official blog post I am doing for this class, and I must say, I'm a little disappointed! I told you last week that I would highlight hilarious police blotter stories from the Ellensburg Daily Record, but as I looked at this week's blotter, nothing really struck me as hilarious. In fact, a lot of it looked like crime you would see in any town.
Most of the crimes I saw on this week's blotter had to do with auto break-ins and auto thefts, which is not really that exciting to me considering that I am from Sunnyside, where it is not unusual to open Monday's newspaper and see "20 cars stolen over the weekend!" The rest of the crimes involved other thefts, vandalism, a gas drive-off by an elderly woman, and even some space-wasters such as "a dog was reportedly barking" (probably a nuisance) and "two people were reportedly standing outside of a vehicle that was in a ditch" (may have seemed suspicious, but how do you know that's not their car?)
Yeah, my first weekly blog about the Daily Record's police blotter is disappointing. I definitely was expecting more funny small town police blotter entries, but there weren't any this week. I mostly enjoyed reading the blotter itself, which is much more detailed than Sunnyside's police blotter -- I mean, in Ellensburg, all of the crimes, arrests, and ambulance calls are extremely detailed (fire/ambulance calls even include the age of the person and their medical condition). In Sunnyside, the police blotter is a daily news article consisting of "15 domestic incidents, 13 assaults, a report of animal abuse, etc...". I don't know, I guess the crime rate in Sunnyside is so high that a traditional police blotter would take up too much space on a newspaper page.
I hope I can create better blog entries in the future. This Tuesday I get to ride along with an Ellensburg police officer as a class assignment, so I'm sure that experience will yield some interesting blog stories. I don't know... I might end up seeing only a few smashed car windows.
Most of the crimes I saw on this week's blotter had to do with auto break-ins and auto thefts, which is not really that exciting to me considering that I am from Sunnyside, where it is not unusual to open Monday's newspaper and see "20 cars stolen over the weekend!" The rest of the crimes involved other thefts, vandalism, a gas drive-off by an elderly woman, and even some space-wasters such as "a dog was reportedly barking" (probably a nuisance) and "two people were reportedly standing outside of a vehicle that was in a ditch" (may have seemed suspicious, but how do you know that's not their car?)
Yeah, my first weekly blog about the Daily Record's police blotter is disappointing. I definitely was expecting more funny small town police blotter entries, but there weren't any this week. I mostly enjoyed reading the blotter itself, which is much more detailed than Sunnyside's police blotter -- I mean, in Ellensburg, all of the crimes, arrests, and ambulance calls are extremely detailed (fire/ambulance calls even include the age of the person and their medical condition). In Sunnyside, the police blotter is a daily news article consisting of "15 domestic incidents, 13 assaults, a report of animal abuse, etc...". I don't know, I guess the crime rate in Sunnyside is so high that a traditional police blotter would take up too much space on a newspaper page.
I hope I can create better blog entries in the future. This Tuesday I get to ride along with an Ellensburg police officer as a class assignment, so I'm sure that experience will yield some interesting blog stories. I don't know... I might end up seeing only a few smashed car windows.
Monday, January 11, 2010
Introduction
Hello! I'm Elizabeth and this is a blog I'm writing for my COM 326 class. This is supposed to be about crime in Ellensburg, but it will be a hard blog to write since Ellensburg is a small town with a fairly low amount of crime. I suppose this blog will be about the many different incidents I see in the Daily Record's police blotter, along with stories I hear from Ellensburg police. There are several hilarious incidents in the Ellensburg newspaper compared to what I see in Sunnyside's newspaper, so each week I will highlight a few police blotter stories that I find hilarious, along with asking the police department for any stories they may have. I hope you enjoy reading this blog!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)