The crash and the cop

Perhaps it's a sign of our cultural debauchery, but when I learned about that horrific crash landing (if we may call it that) in San Francisco, my very first thought was: "How much time will pass before someone comes up with a conspiracy theory to explain this accident?" Shamefully, that question popped into my head even before "How many people died?"

And now my own thoughts about the origin of this crash have begun to take a paranoid turn, based on the video embedded above.

So far, I've seen no other major indicators of hinkiness -- except, of course, for the obvious indicator: What happened to that aircraft was very, very weird. I'm not too impressed by the kind of speculation you can find here and here. We probably should not make too much out of the fact that a chief exec at Facebook was scheduled to be on that flight.

Still, that cop in the video...! The way he acts really bugs me. If nothing else, the video forces us to ask this question: By what right does a police officer prevent a witness from speaking to reporters? Law enforcement is supposed to protect the First Amendment, not abrogate it.

I'm not anti-cop. Those guys do tough jobs, and most police officers deserve our deep respect. On the other hand, the police must operate within limits -- and in recent years, those boundaries have become rather too vague.