More scary activity along the Schuylkill River Trail in Plymouth Township

[O.H. Lee]

The bad guy in this case seems like a real bad guy all around. I can't resist pointing out that he is a supposedly elite Lower Merion High School graduate and up until yesterday a LM resident. Anyone who knows me knows that I've always felt that that school is extremely overrated, and this case doesn't weaken my argument. ................

So all of this occurs because out of his 44 years on earth, he spent 4 years at LMHS in the mid 1980's ?

[hkp]

Can I just point out that when this happens in Philadelphia, non-Philadelphians are quick to point out what a shi+hole Philadelphia is. And when this happens in the surrounding suburbs, many (just look at Philly.com) are only too happy to offer condolences. Except those that don't read the details and just assume it happened in Philadelphia (again, see philly.com)

I already pointed out that this occurred in FKD's "Leave it to Beaver" stomping grounds.

RIP Officer Fox. I'm 85% positive I met him last year when I was running in a park by Germantown and Walton. Some guy kept walking into Walton trying to sell bottles of water to moving cars. The officer asked me a question about the guy (can't remember exactly what it was) but he seemed very professional and respectful. When the officer did confront the gentleman, he didn't talk down to the guy or throw his weight around. Again, it may not have been the same guy, but in my brain the faces match up. RIP no matter what.

[billy ross]

I agree that the SRT location is just coincidental and not an issue of out of control crime.

But what exactly more would you have wanted Thomas' family to have done? He was a suspect in a decade old cold case that the authorities couldn't charge him in. How does his family (if there is any) demand prosocial (is this a real word) of him?

I believe that he was living with his mother. He was definitely driving a stolen car. If my son brings home a fancy vehicle while he has no job, that doesn't fly. If my 44 year old kid is sponging off of me while having no direction in life, that doesn't fly. Giving a drunk a drink is not helping them. It makes them a worse drunk. Or in this case, a dead drunk (druggie is probably more accurate, though).

So all of this occurs because out of his 44 years on earth, he spent 4 years at LMHS in the mid 1980's ?

Two lives were tragically wasted here. One did nothing wrong. The other did everything wrong. His despicable actions come from a broken culture and a sick set of 'values'. Blame his schools. Blame his family. Blame his social circle. Whatever you blame, acknowledge that something went drastically wrong somewhere that hopefully could have been avoided; Quakers like to say that there is the light of God in each one of us, and that it is our job to help that light shine. Clearly this guy had a problem with his inner light, and now it's too late to fix it.

What's the lesson to draw from this waste? That the belief that happiness can be attained through the possession of material goods and fancy lifestyle is a fool's errand. It's sold to us relentlessly via media and our culture, and the fools who buy into it spend their lives fruitlessly trying to outspend their incomes in trying to make themselves happy, then end up miserable and desperate when their financial (and other - social, relationships, etc) world collapses because it's unsustainable. In reality, happiness comes from making others happy. There's the irony. LM isn't about service to others. It's about taking care of #1 - getting your kids into the best schools, avoiding taxes, avoiding the poor and the less fortunate, all while living as much like royalty as you can afford. That's why it's a sick place, and that's why sick things will continue to happen there. The irony is that this happened in Plymouth, but it's a case of the sickness from LM spilling over into Plymouth. I'm not a huge fan of Plymouth, but nor do I have an axe to grind against them either. Question for you - did the original accident that led to this chain of events occur in Norristown or in Plymouth? I'm going to guess that the bad guy had drugs in his system; how else could he have crashed that car so badly (three times, I think)? How do you steal an Infiniti? I thought modern luxury cars have electronics that makes stealing them uber-difficult. The stolen car thing seems like something from 30 years ago, when all you needed to do was to just break the steering column.

[OldMama]

Hey, I'm not a big fan of suburbs in general and Lower Merion in particular. Still, I can't get behind your idea that this tragedy can be laid at the feet of the Lower Merion psyche. Living in Lower Merion does not make every family materialistic and status conscious any more than living in Philadelphia makes every family eager to lay around all day and live off the dole. And I'm not willing to lay the blame at this family's feet without knowing more about them. Truth is, nice people have nasty kids. And nasty people have great kids. I see it all the time. Yes, I would have questioned my kid if he came home with a fancy car. But at this point, I feel most comfortable blaming the grown man who committed these crimes. He made the decisions that got him to this point.

[billy ross]

I'm not saying that you're condemning your kids to damnation if you raise them in LM. What I am saying is that the opposite is what the conventional wisdom sells us, and clearly that's false, at least in this instance. Pointing out the folly of the CW doesn't need to go all the way to proving that the opposite of the CW is true.

[Gladys]

Anyone know if the dog has recovered? 6abc said the dog was shot as well.

opps found it apparently the dog survived.... i assume that means he will recover. What will happen to him now?

Of course the human officer is the top priority i was just wondering what happened to Nick, his canine partner.

http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/gallery?...810201&photo=7

[Debbie1125]

The dog was grazed by the bullet. Nick was shown on the news last night with one of those cones around his neck.

I feel so bad for the poor dog because they go through mourning for their human companions and partners. I think he was wounded trying to protect Officer Fox.

This is just a heartbreaking story all around.

[Gladys]

Thank you for telling me. I have no doubt, knowing dogs and guide dogs, that he most likely did try to protect his best friend. Dogs do mourn. I had two and lost one last year. the remaining one went through a very hard period. As did I. I just hope whatever is best for him is done, he needs love, I think they value K9 officers and we can hope he is matched with a good partner, or family for the rest of his years. I wonder if the widow will want to keep him.

It's always horrible when these things happen to anyone. This one is especially heartbreaking. That poor widow. A baby and one on the way. That's hard under the best of circumstances. I pray she gets all the help she and her children need for the rest of their lives.

[NickleDimer]

I'm with billy on this one. If a cop-killer went to a 7,000 student school district 30 years ago, I immediately dismiss it as deficient. I did the same thing with Harvard after I heard that the Unabomber went there.

[PhilaCap]

Everyone that goes to Harvard is a serial killer.

[Gladys]

Everyone that goes to Harvard is a serial killer.

It's what the ivy league does best. Only the best serial killers go to Harvard that's why it's color is crimson.

[NickleDimer]

Exactly my point, guys. How many serial mail bombers have gone to Philadelphia U? Zero.

-billy_ross

[billy ross]

I'm with billy on this one. If a cop-killer went to a 7,000 student school district 30 years ago, I immediately dismiss it as deficient. I did the same thing with Harvard after I heard that the Unabomber went there.

You don't know Harvard. One third of Harvard alums are living with their moms 30 years on. The Unibomber was actually very Harvard. For every Tommy Lee Jones there's an Al Gore. You just generally don't hear about the ones that are so impractical that they can't fight their way out of a paper bag. I know plenty o' Harvardians, and I had the misfortune of spending a weekend there in February, which only renewed my antipathy towards the institution and its insufferable attitude.

[NickleDimer]

Please explain this insufferable attitude.

It sounds like you are becoming an expert on forming broad generalized opinions of a large group of people based on a few isolated experiences while tolerating only those who share your opinion. What's another word for that behavior?

[Juan]

It's what the ivy league does best. Only the best serial killers go to Harvard that's why it's color is crimson.

I prefer my ivy league deviants be of the Dartmouth variety if I have a choice

[O.H. Lee]

Two lives were tragically wasted here. One did nothing wrong. The other did everything wrong. His despicable actions come from a broken culture and a sick set of 'values'. Blame his schools. Blame his family. Blame his social circle. Whatever you blame, acknowledge that something went drastically wrong somewhere that hopefully could have been avoided; Quakers like to say that there is the light of God in each one of us, and that it is our job to help that light shine. .....

I usually agree with a majority of your thoughts, but this is B.S.

I blame Andrew Thomas. Not his school, not his parents, not his situation in life, not anything else. Just him. Some people are just evil. He is one of them.

[billy ross]

I usually agree with a majority of your thoughts, but this is B.S.

I blame Andrew Thomas. Not his school, not his parents, not his situation in life, not anything else. Just him. Some people are just evil. He is one of them.

First, an aside. My wife works across from the church where the funeral will be held. A detective stopped by work today and explained the plethora of all-day road closures as part of this enormous funeral, and he basically said they shouldn't come to work on Wednesday. Parking will be at the Plymouth Community Center and SEPTA will shuttle people to the church. It should be quite an undertaking.

Second, I love Shakespeare because he shows how people who try to do good can commit such evil. I don't think that people's evil actions are preordained, at least not most of the time. I am really creeped out by sociopaths - I have run across some sociopaths, and they are truly frightening because they have zero conscience. I don't know whether Andrew Thomas was a sociopath or not, but if he wasn't then like all of us he tried to be good. Very few people wake up and say that they want to be a bad guy that day. Even bad guys generally look at themselves as good guys, or at least normal. The gradual accumulations of failings which cause people to commit evil could usually be broken at some point if the right breaks happened, and this is what Shakespeare harps on.

[billy ross]

Please explain this insufferable attitude.

It sounds like you are becoming an expert on forming broad generalized opinions of a large group of people based on a few isolated experiences while tolerating only those who share your opinion. What's another word for that behavior?

You happened to bring up something on which I have some expertise. Had your mentioned a Big Ten school, or a Big East school, or a Pac Ten school, or Penn State, I would have have nothing to say, because I am not particularly familiar with them. However, I competed against Harvard at least four times a year for four years of college. I have in my dresser a Harvard shirt which I took from the back of a Harvard athlete when I beat him, and I proudly wear it every so often.

Thus I'll explain the 'insufferable attitude'. Boston in general and Harvard in particular have an odd combination of a stunning lack of humility and a despicable willingness to twist the truth and to tell half-truths to place themselves in a better light, and what blows me away is that they get away with it, generally speaking. The vanity and duplicity are nauseating. Combine that with the fact that I (except for four years of college) am a lifelong Philadelphian, and it particularly bothersome. You should at least be aware that Philadelphians suffer from an excess of humility - this comes from our Quaker roots, as Boston's - and Harvard's - lack of intellectual honesty comes from the Puritans. Philadelphians' excess of humility shatters our self-confidence in some ways and often crosses the line to self-flaggelation or even self-loathing (negadelphianism, "Philadelphia is not as bad as Philadelphians say it is"), but at least it causes us to be introspective and to acknowledge our flaws, and has thus caused us to be cutting edge in many social causes. Thus to see grandstanding at Harvard over and over and over and over again causes my jaw to drop to the ground, because I am just stunned that others are blind to the fact that it is based upon trumped-up claims. Most people who know Harvard are aware of the arrogance, though, even Harvard people themselves - it's something that comes up over and over again. Pay attention, and you'll see it. To get back to my original point, while very many people come out of Harvard and go on to lead the world, a surprisingly large minority come out and lead dysfunctional lives. It's a dirty little secret, but Theodore Kaczynski was not an outlier at all among Harvard alums in his unwillingness to live in this world and his social and mission dysfunction. He was, though, an outlier in his willingness to kill for his radical beliefs and lifestyle.

[O.H. Lee]

......

Second, I love Shakespeare because he shows how people who try to do good can commit such evil. I don't think that people's evil actions are preordained, at least not most of the time. I am really creeped out by sociopaths - I have run across some sociopaths, and they are truly frightening because they have zero conscience. I don't know whether Andrew Thomas was a sociopath or not, but if he wasn't then like all of us he tried to be good. Very few people wake up and say that they want to be a bad guy that day. Even bad guys generally look at themselves as good guys, or at least normal. The gradual accumulations of failings which cause people to commit evil could usually be broken at some point if the right breaks happened, and this is what Shakespeare harps on.

Billy, what's in your kool aid ?

You know he is a strong suspect in the disappearance of his fiancé in 1999.

The white collar crime of counterfeiting and fraud does not make him a dangerous evil felon, but two murders do.

Fraud=bad

Murder=evil

[lemko]

I prefer my ivy league deviants be of the Dartmouth variety if I have a choice

Cornell is at the apex of the Ivy League!