Our crappy institutions and the Press which covers for them

Perhaps you’ve heard that last week the LAPD tried to do a controlled detonation of a supply of illegal fireworks and wound up destroying a bomb squad vehicle, injuring 17 people (mostly cops), and very nearly burning down an entire neighborhood. There are lots of ways to safely dispose of a batch of fireworks, hitting them with a fire hose to pick just one obvious example, but the LAPD wanted to bring out all of its expensive toys and put on a big show for law-and-order and, well, we sure got one.

Incredible….

And now, instead of taking the “L” and admitting that maybe they screwed up, the LAPD is playing the “we have no idea how a massive trove of illegal fireworks caused an enormous explosion” card. And the Press, which used to be in the business of exposing Governmental hubris and stupidity, has decided to play right along. Check out this NBC report on the incident.

First off, you’ve gotta love the constant use of the passive voice…

“The fireworks stored at Arturo Ceja III’s home caused an explosion.”

Wait… did the fireworks cause the explosion? Or did a bunch of morons trying to blow them up cause the explosion? Hmmmm…. it’s a big mystery!

“where a police bomb containment vehicle was destroyed in an explosion”

“Was destroyed…” welp guys, that’s the entire story, it was “destroyed”… absolutely nothing else worth mentioning.

Second, what about that headline!? As if the fact that a man was arrested for illegal fireworks is the most interesting thing about this story! Talk about burying the lede.

Supposedly the LAPD has begun an investigation into the explosion. Um… I think I have a prety good idea what happened… and it wouldn’t take me six months to produce my report either.

There’s a lot of talk these days about how Americans no longer trust our elite institutions. Well, when you see a story like this and then you watch the Press rush in, rally to the cause and cover for obvious ineptitude in pursuit of a goal with which they agree (eliminating illegal fireworks), it’s not really that hard to figure out why that trust is eroding.