Mass Shooting At Muni-Meeting - Poconos - Reporter's account: 'All I saw was holes go through the wall'

Officials: 3 dead in shooting at municipal meeting in Poconos

ROSS TWP., Pa. - Three people have died after a gunman opened fire at a municipal meeting in the Poconos.

Read more from WFMZ.com at: [link to www.wfmz.com]

Sounds familiar no. Wonder what meds this 59 year old crazy ass cracker was on

Since a lot of GLPers seem to live in NE PA how about we all get together for a beer?

the power to tax and regulate, is the power to destroy.

Theft is a crime. It's pretty simple.

when ppl got nuthn left to lose.......they lose it

I'm thinking it was rural when he bought it in 1990 and now the town has grown up to it and they are trying to find any code violation to get him out.

Not too far away from me. Since I work in a Municipal office, I really see both sides of this one. I know nothing of this guy or his story, he sounds like he's probably got some big time mental issues, and being taken away from his home, despite what a dump it was, probably pushed him over. I hate the rules too, and I feel really bad for some of the people coming in, trying to comply, not having any money, etc. etc. But, you guys who are defending his right to live any way he wanted, if he's dumping his poop in the stream (and I have no idea if he was) and polluting your water and you and your kids get sick, how is that right? What's the answer, I don't know. Whatever it is, it's not going in and blowing people away with a gun. I don't know if "they" wanted his land, maybe they just wanted him to not pollute what he did have. Anyway, nothing will help the dead ones, or him, now.

I fuckin' hate stories like this...

Sometimes I don't think these politicians understand the damage they can do, the wreckage they can cause...

So as far as I'm concerned, the blood is on the hands of Rockne Newell and the people who stole his land...

Goddamn that's sad...

That's a nice concept . . . reminds me of an episode of Andy Griffith, when the old guy owed the city taxes and his place was a mess and the town got together and fixed it up and painted it . . . in an ideal community, that's how it should be.

But this is America, 2013.

This guy hardly seems like a small town's nice elderly guy who just needed some neighborly support.

He had been in this dispute for 18 years!

The story says he has been "unemployed for years due to an injury from a crash" ... HOW injured is he? Could he not work at all?

The article says his property has "visibly cluttered items, including tires, cinderblocks and piles of lumber" ... the assumption would be that HE put them on the property and those things are ALL very heavy items. Says he's a scrap dealer and that requires a good degree of physical activity.

So if he could do all that for the past many years, then he could probably have gotten a labor-related job.

Read some of the comments at the end of the article - his neighbors know how filthy his place is.

He appears to be a defiant old dude who does not give one damn about hygiene or polluting the land.

NOw you think this guy should have gotten help from religious groups or senior citizen helpers (he would have been 41 when this dispute began) and maybe someone could have taught him about proper living - but likely not because he seemed to be very defiant about the entire matter.

You help those who TRULY need help, and sometimes that's not altogether easy to know for sure, but the truth is, some people are just lazy and filthy and have no respect for this great planet.

zakk says "they" stole his waterfront land

I just saw this, and don't know the details, but I'm from the Poconos, and all of the little townships are run by crooks. I come from a family that settled that area, and who are land owners. They will fuck you out of your land. They took two access points to my parents property making their land basically worth nothing. With the shit that was going on in Middle Smithfield township I'm surprised something like this hasn't happened already. My dad was in a big article in the Pocono Record during his fight with the township a few years back.

I have a piece of residential land, that was part of a Planned Residential Development, that was changed to a commercial zoning... Cool I own 3 acres of commercial... No! It's in the middle of the woods!!! They are fucking crooked as hell up there, which is why I moved to Texas 9 years ago.

With all that said, shooting people is fucked up, and this is a sad story.

Apparently you don't understand the concept of decent living, of citizen responsibility.

The right to own land is a sacred right and with it comes RESPONSIBILITIES.

Owning land does NOT mean you can pollute, live in filth, have a place that devalues the land of your neighbors, and/or looks like a garbage dump.

They didn’t really care about him cleaning up the place. They just wanted him gone. And wanted to sell his property to someone else that would be a “more desirable neighbor”.

UNless you're a corporation. then you can legally do whatever you want to the land, leave it in any condition imaginable and have the county pick up the tab for cleaning it up. Go Team America!

BS!

If you have no respect for this great land, you have no right to own a piece of it.

And if you don't believe that EVERY citizen has certain obligations to live and act appropriately as smart and respectful citizens, then you are traitor.