Monday 15 April 2024 11:11:52 1713197512


Busy weekend in NEA. Jonestown paper has the two shootings up (and a Trump-bashing toon) - the one in Jonestown Friday the Saturday night special in Wynne. It seems the one in Jonestown involved one dead and one shot but not dead but no report of others being shot. Apparently an investigation is in progress. The Saturday affair was in Wynne, around seventy klicks (little military slang for you) south of Jonestown. Population around 8300 from what looks like a peak in 2000. Seems a number of people were shot at a block party. Block party, Saturday night, what could possibly go wrong?

Well, you got one dead and nine injured. I guess that means ten shot, since the deader was definitely injured. That's some shooting, likely we'll be informed at some point that an AR-type weapon was involved. Kalashnikov may dominate in killing elsewhere in the world but here in the US Mr. Stoner's brainchild seems to be favored. I like the AR-10 myself, but I digress.

NEA Report reports (something they do well) that:

Victims were transported to St. Bernards CrossRidge Community Hospital in Wynne, Forrest City Medical Center, and hospitals in Memphis, Tenn., and Jonesboro. One victim was transported by helicopter to the Regional One Health Elvis Presley Trauma Center in Memphis.

What's that, nine gunshot patients in at least five hospitals? And a helicopter ambulance for one at 5K minimum? An ambulance ride from Wynne to Jonestown isn't cheap, over $1500 a pop and more to Memphis. Excuse my bad language but... nah, my mom taught me better than to talk like that... who's paying for all that? Someone please tell me that all the participants in this event were gainfully employed taxpayers who have insurance.[1]

Authorities believe additional injured individuals may have been transported to hospitals in private vehicles.

If so at least the taxpayers aren't on the hook for the ambulance but we still have to pay for patching them up. Why the hospital needs that sales tax.

The deceased was transported to the Arkansas State Crime Laboratory, where manner and cause of death will be determined.

That one shouldn't incur further expenditures.



The Jonestown deal was a couple of people getting shot, one permanently and the other less so. I wonder if either target had insurance. I know something about Race Street, having lived there long long time ago, at least on the societal devolution scale. That would be the late 1980s. Nice clean quiet working-class neighborhood. A building contractor had just finished building some apartments there, not the big one that already had a bit of a reputation even then, for those who know Jonestown, but a smaller one just down the street. I lived there for about four or five years and by the time I moved away it was already going downhill. Recently I've found myself on that street and it feels like the last time I was in Memphis.

Part of the problem with Jonestown is its proximity to Memphis. Same with Wynne but Wynne is a small town and doesn't attract as many of the undesirable element. Jonestown ignored the problem when it was just a few locals behaving badly, and it doesn't look like they intend to do anything effective now.

KAIT had the story about the cop in Memphis a couple of days ago. Memphis is what happens when it all goes south and the animals are running the zoo. A lot of Jonestown and Paragould are getting is coming from across the river and they know it. The future doesn't look good.



[1] I had to be ambulanced to hospital one fine day and they fooled with me for a while and decided I needed to go to another hospital so I got ambulanced a second time. Apparently my platinum Blue Cross policy would only pay for one ambulance ride per incident so I got a bill for $2400 for the second ride. That was in 2020.