What is Up In Altoona?

ChromeCultStudios · Post by **ChromeCultStudios** » Wednesday Oct 12, 2005

Elementary School Locked Down
The Washington & Jefferson Elementary School in Altoona was locked down yesterday afternoon after shots were fired in a nearby neighborhood.

Altoona police responded to a report of shots fired just two blocks from the elementary school. No victims were found at the scene; however, multiple bullet casings were recovered. Shortly thereafter, Brian O'Rourke, a man wanted for a crime in Pittsburgh, arrived at the hospital with a gunshot wound to his forearm.

The police investigation into the incident and the search for additional suspects are continuing.

Geetarzz · Post by **Geetarzz** » Wednesday Oct 12, 2005

Half way houses and junkies..........thats whats happening to altoona.

BDR · Post by **BDR** » Wednesday Oct 12, 2005

Geetarzz wrote:Half way houses and junkies..........thats whats happening to altoona.

Amen, Altoona is turning into the asshole of Pa. It's a shame because it's a great area, but it's being polluted by people who take no pride in anything.

r:>)

YankeeRose · Post by **YankeeRose** » Wednesday Oct 12, 2005

"Half-way houses and junkies"...
NO...with a shooting, I'd say it's
more DEALERS, not users. Where would you suggest the half-way
houses are put? You mean none of you have ever known someone fresh out of a stay in Prison and they're starting over, or an addict getting clean? In Schuylkill County, a few years ago in a tiny little town called Saint Clair, there was a scene out of the Old West - a shoot out with police that left 2 or 3 dead...one was from New York - the bottom line is, it's SOCIETY as a whole and the "NIMBY" crap is pathetic, THAT is part and parcel of the problem. Another part of the problem? IDIOTS! I saw a woman on the news last night...I try not to watch the news too much, it gives me a feeling at times akin to feeling ill, but there was a deadly accident up here last night, several are in the hospital...of course, teenagers - and I was wondering if there was any word on their condition...this so called "Mother" said, "what else can you do but hope nothing happens to your child"...WHAT ELSE CAN YOU DO BUT "HOPE"??? Her comment was almost as moronic and heartless as locking a child out of the house. Okay...
I'm "getting off of the Soapbox" now, sorry! Can we try to have just a little compassion, or even empathy, you know, putting yourself in another person's shoes?

Peace,
YankeeRose

lonewolf · Post by **lonewolf** » Wednesday Oct 12, 2005

Halfway houses for Pittsburgh criminals should be located in PITTSBURGH
Halfway houses for Philadelphia criminals should be located in PHILADELPHIA
Halfway houses for Altoona criminals should be located in Altoona

Anything else just doesn't make any sense, economic, social or otherwise.

Mikey Wax · Post by **Mikey Wax** » Wednesday Oct 12, 2005

Hard to put myself in a junkie's shoes.
I say don't mess up in the first place.

AtoMikEnRtiA · Post by **AtoMikEnRtiA** » Wednesday Oct 12, 2005

BadDazeRob wrote:
Geetarzz wrote:Half way houses and junkies..........thats whats happening to altoona.
Amen, Altoona is turning into the asshole of Pa.

this is dissapointing to see and hear about. As much as I hate central pa, i really did like the Altoona area.. shame to see it's going down hill so fast..

jim bagrosky · Post by **jim bagrosky** » Wednesday Oct 12, 2005

Lonewolf hit the nail on the head on this one.

YankeeRose · Post by **YankeeRose** » Wednesday Oct 12, 2005

Can't put yourself in an addict's shoes? Alcohol, Nicotine, Caffiene, riding your m/c, sex, chocolate, playing PS2...namely, anything you would find it difficult, or nearly impossible to give up. I had no idea Philly and Pittsburgh people were being sent HERE - that IS asinine! They've run out of room? Highly unlikely. (Warning: this next part just MAY be Sarcasm, so read "lightly"...)
Although, wouldn't "corporate" $ types allow that it brings more jobs, more revenue to the area, if only due to more half-way houses, Counselors, Doctors, Nurses and even Police being needed? ALL of them need to eat, need places to stay - well, some of them, eventually - and they'll most likely take those jobs that nobody else wants! Think about it!

BDR · Post by **BDR** » Wednesday Oct 12, 2005

lonewolf wrote:Halfway houses for Pittsburgh criminals should be located in PITTSBURGH
Halfway houses for Philadelphia criminals should be located in PHILADELPHIA
Halfway houses for Altoona criminals should be located in Altoona

Anything else just doesn't make any sense, economic, social or otherwise.

Again, AMEN ... this was my point. Rehab ours here, Pittsburgh, Philly and everyplace else can keep their problems in their own back yard. If that makes me not compassionate or apathetic, then so beit. There's a half-way house on every corner in Altoona and it's all someone else's garbage, just like the landfills in our region where they're digging up bodies from the big city.

This will sound course, so I'm ready for the onslaught, but MANY who go into rehab are there with one thing on their mind: Making new connections. Then, they see our rural areas and think, "wow, I can start fresh here," then you've got drive-bys near elementary schools, herion where there was once only weed and shoot outs at rural honky tonk clubs where before a good fist fight was as dangerous as things ever got.

I don't feel sorry for the majority of junkies because there's no desire to turn it around. They're just angling for a new way to get high, sell drugs and kill those who look at them funny.

Sorry. That's the way I feel.

Oh, and Kevin, Superman rules.

r:>)

Geetarzz · Post by **Geetarzz** » Wednesday Oct 12, 2005

I am addicted to nicotine. caffine, and beer. BUT... I don't go out and rob steal or cheat people to get the things that I crave. I have had this problem hit home and I no longer have compassion. It's has hit home in 2 ways,being related to the fiend, and being related to the little old lady that he steals from to get his fix. They don't need compassion, they need jailtime. Not just a place to go so they stay out of jail.

BDR · Post by **BDR** » Wednesday Oct 12, 2005

YankeeRose wrote: ... NO...with a shooting, I'd say it's
more DEALERS, not users.

Dealers are users are dealers are users are dealers are users are dealers are users are dealers ...

Superman never used drugs.

r:>)

RobTheDrummer · Post by **RobTheDrummer** » Wednesday Oct 12, 2005

The problem is, people take these hard drugs and they are then hooked! We need to find ways not to rehab and react to people using drugs, but to prevent people from using in the first place. There are too many after-the-fact programs and not enough preventitive programs. The relapse rate is astonishing with hard drugs, especially when their counselor tells them, "oh, it's ok to relapse", to me, relapse is just another word for doing it again!

tom · Post by **tom** » Wednesday Oct 12, 2005

Compassion for the criminal??????
These people are the bottom of the barrel, and they are using the rehab to get themselves out of prison..
Baltimore, Philly, Pittsburgh, and elsewhere are sending their problems to Altoona.. Their families are moving here to be close to their relative in rehab... Their dealers are moving here to cultivate a new market for their trade.

Altoona government allowed this to happen, an dthey are oblivious to what is happening in the city.. I don't think the Judges even realize what is going on.. I remember seeing an interview with Judge Carpenter, where he blamed the drug problem on thte Interstate System

What can be done now???? Once the horse takes a shit, you can't put the shit back into the horse...........

BDR · Post by **BDR** » Wednesday Oct 12, 2005

RobTheDrummer wrote:The problem is, people take these hard drugs and they are then hooked! We need to find ways not to rehab and react to people using drugs, but to prevent people from using in the first place. There are too many after-the-fact programs and not enough preventitive programs. The relapse rate is astonishing with hard drugs, especially when their counselor tells them, "oh, it's ok to relapse", to me, relapse is just another word for doing it again!

MORE PROGRAMS?!?!? ... sounds kind of liberal if you ask me ... LOL

Geetarzz is right, these f*ckers need thrown in jail and kept there, away from decent people.

On Krypton, there was no such thing as drug abuse ...

r:>)

MOONDOGGY · Post by **MOONDOGGY** » Wednesday Oct 12, 2005

This isn't really a solution or anything, but what would make someone crave a new high and start using acid or meth or heroin? I've never tried crack or weed. Heck, I've never even drank or smoked, so I really don't know how it works. I just always thought that it was so stupid to blow your money on drugs when I could save up for a new bass or put it towards my Thunderbird or whatever hobby you enjoy. I can see if you're addicted, but why would anyone have such a desire to start drugs in the first place? I just don't get it.

As young kids, your told drugs are wrong, and I can see how some youngster like to do stuff simlpy because it's Wrong. But most schools also teach how drugs absorb all your money and most likely will take your life. Then some kids say, "well my parents did drugs so I learned from them." That's ridiculous! If anything, that should show you what not to do. Once again, I just don't get it.

Mikey Wax · Post by **Mikey Wax** » Wednesday Oct 12, 2005

YankeeRose wrote:Can't put yourself in an addict's shoes? Alcohol, Nicotine, Caffiene, riding your m/c, sex, chocolate, playing PS2...namely, anything you would find it difficult, or nearly impossible to give up.

The problem here is that none of the above are ILLEGAL!

Post by **Jim Price** » Wednesday Oct 12, 2005

As an Altoona native, I am very concerned about how things have deteriorated around here in recent years.

I've lived in a residential suburban neighborhood near Greenwood since I was 8 years old. Growing up through the 70's and 80's, it was a fairly nice neighborhood overall, except for a small trailer court just up the street from me, run by a drunken idiot landlord who used to rent out his trailers to the lowest scumbags he could find - including a drug-dealing motorcycle gang, another group of drug dealers, a violent dysfunctional family (we saw the husband try to run down his wife with the family car in front of our house), and even an accomplice to one of the most brutal murders Blair County has ever seen (anyone remember the Betty Jo Shade killing?). Even the landlord himself got decked by one of our neighbors after he made lewd gestures at the neighbor's teenaged daughters.

How did we deal with the trailer court and its riff-raff? My family and the other neighbors banded together into our own unofficial "neighborhood watch" group, and kept an eye on the trailers, and alerted the police if we saw anything suspicious. (Our vigilance resulted in two drug busts at the trailers, and also the arrest of a would-be armed robber casing one elderly neighbor's house.)

Eventually, the landlord sold off his trailer court to another landlord and moved away. The current landlord is a lot more responsible, and we haven't had a problem from the trailers in years. But over the years, many of my neighbors moved or passed away. Now just a few months ago, a heroin dealer got busted in a house 70 yards from my home, where a kindly old couple used to live.

As bad as the trailer court was back in the day, I felt safer back then than I do now living in this town. Back then, we knew where the trouble area was and could keep an eye on it. Now it is random, and you don't know if the new neighbors moving in to the house next door are decent or drug dealers!

I think like my neighborhood did back then, neighborhoods in this town now need to band together and watch each others' backs. Form neighborhood watch groups throughout the city, and keep an open eye on these rehab houses and report suspicious activity to the police. And then hope the police act on the tips, and not sit back and wait for something bad to happen!

f.sciarrillo · Post by **f.sciarrillo** » Wednesday Oct 12, 2005

This is the main reason I will never live in altoona. The town is turning into a cesspool. It turning into going from the largest welfare recipient city per capita in the state to the biggest trash hole in the state ..

I guess you can saying a nutshell that this whole area is going to pot. Everyday you see on the news about a drug bust here in Tyrone, Belwood, Altoona, Claysburgh, Hollidaysburg, etc. It's pathetic and I blame the police for it. They arrest these people, talk to them and let them go the same day to sell more. They need to put more emphasis on the drug laws. Start cracking the whip and do something more to these people than just slapping them on the wrist ..

BDR · Post by **BDR** » Wednesday Oct 12, 2005

... and they need to target the right people in their big, elaborate drug raids you see every four to five months on TV 10. They're picking up the nickel and dimers and recreational dope smokers for a "dog and pony show" and the real problem people are usually untouched. Why? Probably because it's easy to arrest someone who doesn't sell but has a little weed for personal use than it is to conduct an undercover investigation and get to the bottom of a cocaine or heroin ring.

I'd just as soon they leave "Ol' Hank" who has a plant in his basement alone and go after the ones making the bi-weekly trips to and from Philly for the hard drugs.

Never met a pot smoker I didn't like, nor have I met one that ever shot anyone.

Lois Lane had a 6-foot water bong ...

r:>)

YankeeRose · Post by **YankeeRose** » Wednesday Oct 12, 2005

"Neighborhood Watch"...that's one of the things I was thinking the "hoping" Mother might be able to do, other than just HOPE her child doesn't get shot by a stray bullet, but I didn't want to go on and on. MORE Jail time for people with addictive personalities? What will that solve in the grand scheme of things, but fine! However, are you going to allow the Prison to be built "in your back yard", or will you fight THAT tooth and nail, as well? I agree that people have got to stick together, look out for one another and help one another out, but GOOD LUCK! Unless something catastrophic happens, people just don't care. Period.

Up in this HELL HOLE, some creep recently stole my son's bike...it had a flat tire, so they had to carry it off of our front porch.
As for the joke of a cop? My former neighbors who moved to Altoona a few months ago, one night a drunk was trying to get into what he thought was his house..."the dick" showed up the next day, so for a stolen bike? "Nevermind!"

I've been basically robbed of thousands of dollars, many times over, by car dealers and by someone who supposedly "loved" me...there are just plain rotten people in the world and drugs don't have a THING to do with that, ever.

...and hey mon, de shoot out in Saint Clair didn't have a ting to do wit de beans or de 'shrooms!

rreihart · Post by **rreihart** » Wednesday Oct 12, 2005

YankeeRose wrote:You mean none of you have ever known someone fresh out of a stay in Prison and they're starting over, or an addict getting clean?

Ummm, no....and trying not to.

BDR · Post by **BDR** » Wednesday Oct 12, 2005

YankeeRose wrote:MORE Jail time for people with addictive personalities? What will that solve in the grand scheme of things ...

Murderers and potential murderers are in jail, WHERE THEY BELONG, away from my family, my kids, my friends, not on the streets popping caps in people's asses ...

YankeeRose wrote:are you going to allow the Prison to be built "in your back yard", or will you fight THAT tooth and nail, as well?

I live in Huntingdon County, I have TWO state prisons in my backyard. Those who live there, for the most part, stay there, they aren't selling crack on the corner or firing rounds at the schools where my kids attend classes — they're locked up, just where they belong. Those prisons create good employment for families who need it.

I'd rather have 10 of these state prisons near my home than even ONE of Altoona's half-way houses.

If this were Krypton, they'd be banished to the Phantom Zone and that would be that.

r:>)

Bit*chenWomen1029 · Post by **Bit*chenWomen1029** » Wednesday Oct 12, 2005

Ok, Like a drug user is a drug user..... i feel if they are going to go after druggies, then they need to get them all..... incase any of you forgot "DRUGS ARE ILLEGAL" >> not just hard core drugs but ALL drugs.

And i think being addicted to beer or caffeine, or PS2 is highly different them being addicted to drugs. Everytime there is a damn drug bust it is usually people from new york or philly or pitss or md that moved here to sell drugs or got outta rehab and decided " Gee Altoona is a nice place to sell drugs and hell all i get is a slap on the wrist for doing it if i get caught" So they stay and them we have even more crime.

I have 3 daughter all are under age 3 and i know how bad Altoona is now, i am scared for what it will be when they are older.this might Sound crazy to you but i tell my 3 year old now how bad drugs are and i want her to be like me... NEVER TRIED ITNEVER WANTED TO AND I CANT STAND ANYONE WHO DOES THE SHIT!!! I THANK MY DEAR MOTHER FOR THIS ATTITUDE TOWARD DRUGS!!

As for the ones who say "PEOPLE ON WEED DONT TRY TO KILL PEOPLE ETC" ,,,,, A DRUG IS A DRUG , WEED IS A DAMN DRUG, AND I DONT CARE HOW MANY TIMES YOU TRY TO SAY ITS BETTER THEN DRINKING ETC... IT IS A ILLEGAL DRUG!!

As for the shooting yesterday, it was like two houses away from my older sister . THank god my niece is in an after school program for reading or else they would have been in the line of fire. She walks to w&j to get my niece around that time everyday! It was drugs, I know this cause she went to school with one of the people in the car that was firing and she knows them and YES THEY ARE INVOLVED WITH DRUGS.

Altoona is almost as bad as philly and new york anymore!! ITS SICK!!!

Bit*chenWomen1029 · Post by **Bit*chenWomen1029** » Wednesday Oct 12, 2005

Yankeerose,

Tell me if im wrong but... You almost sound as if you are defending these criminal s ? Why is this?

ROCKPAGE

What is Up In Altoona?

What is Up In Altoona?

amen