Art imitates life in Law and Order

When television started the "tributes" to the school shootings, I was angry. Why was television glorifying the anguish of students? Technically, I guess these are dramatizations. 

My news feed in YT, due to Google knowing just about everything about us, sent me a Law and Order 10 minute summary of one episode about the trial phase of a school shooter. In the show, a former colleague in the prosecutors' department was defending the shooter as a private attorney.

I googled and found other 10 minute summaries of similar episodes. Included below are two.

How do the scenes measure up to real life?

In the first 10 minute summary, the attack has already occurred? Is it rescue or recovery?

Why was the one character surprised that her suspect was not white? Are school shootings limited to one sex and race? Think before you answer. Was the young female character correct? What pieces was she assembling? Who was the shooter? How did other characters respond?

Does this episode get FERPA or informing police correct after a shooting? Why is the defendent's lawyer wrong?

What was the reason the lawyer gave for the first suspect running?  Would you run if a policeman came up to you? 

Why did the second suspect run?

https://youtu.be/6TiYF1IoF04?is=km8TGBk-BnSvI3EO

In this second link, what phase is portrayed: prevention, intervention, rescue, recover, all or a combination.  The title says Race to Uncover Potential School Attacker. Who is the attacker? Usual suspect? What is a rubber room? Righteous anger versus violence and vengeance? Were the detectives successful in intervention? Who is the red haired, white woman?

https://youtu.be/pNmaNQs6kTY?is=krYVNlagSODaaqFb

How can these episodes help in prevention, if at all? These are hard to watch, but not as hard as the "life imitating art" school shootings.

What is public behavior versus school records? Are threats protected speech? 

Next up, an update on the CK murder. Who is in the line of lawsuits now? Criminal or civil?

Marian R. Carlino

September 16, 2026

Cameras

Cameras held by human hands will flock to a crime scene. Note any crime inverstigation, especially after a school shooting. Do those cameras help solve the crime?

As I was listening to some of the testimony at a Senate hearing of Kash Patel today, I heard part of the discussion on Flock cameras. Flock cameras, a brand name, are controversial. In a free country, the monitoring of our lives should be controversial.

Do you want a Flock camera in your house? How about ouside it? How do they help? How are they intrusive?

Kash Patel did mention a school shooting which occurred at Brown University. He said the university's cameras were not good. What else did he say? How did the Flock cameras get used? Senator Cornyn wanted some answers on Flock, his part of the questionning begins at 1 hour 53 minutes into the testimony during the morning session. There are many links to find.

Kash Patel advised there is no reasonable expectation of privacy in public. He said the Flock cameras got a license plate of the shooter at Brown enabling apprehension and has been successful in chasing down child predators.

The FBI is called in on school shootings, not the CIA. Flock cameras, like the agencies, can be used for good or for evil.  Do you want to ban positive uses? 

School districts are trending on blocking cell phones in schools. Cell phones can be distractions. Cell phone cameras have also aided in getting to facts on some famous crime scenes. Students often record when on lock down. 

In a world in which our cell phones are our individual "flock camera", is it pointless to ask about privacy? There is no right to privacy in the  public and contrary to school district or public university administrations, behavior in a public school is not private. So why do they delay in giving access to school cameras after a crime?

Where are the cameras in schools? Who is monitoring them? Mothers and Fathers actively monitor the cameras in their children's rooms. They can prevent tragedy. What can school campuses learn from that example? Who is monitoring the cameras? Yes, asking again?

If there is a Flock camera outside the Federal Courthouse Building at an intersection in my city, last night it may have caught a near miss for me as I was at a busy intersection. If I had been hit by the car that was forced to swerve and almost hit me, the driver of the car that forced the near  miss would be apprehended. PS, no one flocked to ask if I was ok. I publicly thanked God, though, for my guardian angel. No one was hit ot hurt, just thankful. 

I sit and write at times during Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. Today on the Memorial of Our Lady of Sorrows, I started this post. Many of my editorials for the newspapers in New Jersey were written as I sat in Our Lady of Sorrows Church during Adoration. 

I know God sees the bigger picture, even if cameras do not.

Marian R. Carlino

September 15, 2026