Glad to hear it chief!

Second choice for police chief withdraws

EASTON | The city’s second choice for the vacant police chief’s position has withdrawn his name from consideration.

Richard Garipoli Jr., chief of the Warwick Township police department in Lancaster County, notified city officials earlier this week that he no longer wants to be considered a candidate. Garipoli said in a phone message that for several reasons he would not leave his men.

“I’ve told my men here I’m staying right where I’m at,” Garipoli said. “This is where I belong.”

Mac-a-ro-nies

People who want everyone in their environment to look like them would probably find a town like Lititz reassuring. Philadelphia is only 60 miles away, but it might as well be on Mars for families who have opted out of the diversity of urban America. If you read between the lines, the data on gender and income is also telling. Women who work in Lititz earn only two-thirds of the income men do.
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Of course, the details emerging contradict the claim that all is well among the Christian homeschooling community there. At least one young teen who apparently stayed out all night with a man. A cache of 54 weapons in the Ludwig home. Video of another planned home invasion. Rumors that Kara Borden is at least the second girl that Ludwig has run off with. A conspiracy among homeschooled teens to keep information about the relationship between Kara Borden and Ludwig secret from adults.

The Bordens achieved their goal of living in a place where most people looked like them and thought like them. A large minority joined them in eschewing public and private education for their children, considering homeschooling superior because of its insular nature. But, they were not saved by sameness. Victims of violent crime usually know the offender — a family member, friend or acquaintance. However, for some reason, perhaps cognitive dissonance, many people believe that trouble usually comes from outsiders. Cleave to sameness and shut out the Other, and you will be safe, they think. In Lititz, trouble has come from deep within.

ADDITIONALLY, FROM THE LAND OF IDIOT TOYS…

RUN YENTAS RUN!!! Take your cargo pants, go to the Amberblow me and Snatch and hide. Pleasantville is under siege. THE END IS NIGH REPENT REPENT!!!

Look Who’s Tattling Now: I don’t think this site actually has any scorn in it, but is definitely obsessed w/ the Borden Murders.

Apologia @ Light Seeking Light :: Murder in Lititz — Putting the Commentary in Context

It seems that the kid who did the shooting was extremely disturbed. He apparently fantasized about and planned out murders like the one he committed, and he seems to have abducted a girl before. His bizarre nature was apparently noted in Lititz and local residents tried to deal with it informally. Part of that accommodation may well have been forbidding their daughters to have anything to do with him. It’s not clear whether or not bringing him to the attention of authorities would have forestalled the tragedy that ensued.

There seems to be severe cognitive dissociation involved in MSM coverage of the murders. I watched a CNN anchor attempt to interview neighbors of the murdered couple after their funeral. The neighbors expressed the common Christian faith that righteous people such as the Bordens had. upon their death, gone to a better place and that the funeral, rather than being an occasion for recrimination and regret, should celebrate that belief. The anchor was completely baffled by and obviously uncomfortable with their responses and kept probing for expression of anger and distress. Finding none, she quickly terminated the interview and moved on to an on-site reporter who could give an account of things more to her liking.

Sigh!

And then we have:
House Of The Dog: What the Hell Is Going on in Lititz?

By the way, if you go, Sturgis’ is a tourist trap. Don’t say I didn’t warn you. And watch out for stray bullets, apparently.

(This post is only funny if you know how cute, quaint and sleepy Lititz is. I’m really shocked by both of these incidents! Somebody dropped some acid in the Lititz Spring or something. It’s like a Stephen King novel!)

Chief Garipoli has been great to work with, I’d hate to see him leave our area… but if he does take another position somewhere else I wish him good luck. Thanks for a job well done.

Allentown chief may go to Easton : The Morning Call Online

Allentown Police Chief Joseph Blackburn is the leading candidate for the vacant police chief position in Easton.

But Mayor Phil Mitman might have to go with his second choice, a Lancaster area police chief, if City Council balks at paying Blackburn $95,000 a year even though he wouldn’t be getting a benefits package. The amount is 46 percent more than the $65,000 budgeted for the job.

Some City Council members expressed concern Friday about the cost of hiring Blackburn, after receiving a packet of information from the mayor about Blackburn and Warwick Township Police Chief Richard F. Garipoli Jr.

Blackburn, 55, is a former state trooper who rose to the rank of deputy commissioner during his 26-year career, retiring in 1998. He joined the Allentown Police Department in August 2002 as executive assistant police chief at the same time the city hired Police Chief Stephen L. Kuhn.

Kuhn left after 15 months marked by clashes with the police union. Blackburn replaced Kuhn in January 2004. But Blackburn, who heads a 173-member force, will soon be out of a job. Mayor-elect Ed Pawlowski has said he intends to remove him from the $97,000-a-year position.

Garipoli, 49, is a retired Reading police officer who became Warwick’s police chief in 2001. He fell into the national spotlight three weeks ago after a Lititz area teenager allegedly shot his girlfriend’s parents to death in their Warwick home and fled with their 14-year-old daughter.

Before he joined the 15-member Warwick force, Garipoli served in Berks County as deputy chief for Muhlenberg Township’s 28-officer force. He had previously served as chief of Womelsdorf borough police. Before that, he served more than 21 years with the Reading police.

Lititz Man Found Dead At Bottom Of Md. Elevator Shaft – Yahoo! News

Police in Baltimore are calling the death of a Lancaster County man suspicious.

Autopsy results are pending for David Ross, 55, of Lititz.

Police said Ross’ body was found Nov. 19 at the bottom of an elevator shaft in a building under construction at Lighthouse Point in Baltimore

What is going on inside the Lititz Watch Technicum?

delawareonline ¦ The News Journal ¦ Watchmakers learn old-fashioned discipline

In the United States, the number of watchmaking schools is also growing, although the number of watchmakers they produce is relatively small. There are now 12 schools in the country; two have been opened in the past five years.

Part of the problem is that there is no quick and easy way to train someone in such a complex craft, watchmakers say. At the Lititz Watch Technicum, the tuition-free program lasts two years, the admissions process is highly discriminating, and the yearly graduating class is just 12 students. The unrushed precision of the training process is as crucial in schools as it is in watchmaking itself, said Herman Mayer, principal at Lititz.

In the spare, clean and quiet classrooms at Lititz, there are no shortcuts, Mayer said. Students must learn that the Swiss way — the uncompromising insistence on precision and quality — is the only way. It will be six months before the freshman class even touches a watch, and until then, they will spend their days learning the tedious process of shaping some of the tiny metal parts that make up a watch movement.

Here, the old-fashioned methods are still the best methods. Before they make their first part, they must learn to make the tool to make the part. But before that, they must learn to make the tool they will use to make the part-making tool. Eventually, the pieces will be sent to Switzerland to be graded, and their competence will be judged on their skill at machining to tolerances many times thinner than a human hair.

“You cannot allow yourself to make a mistake at one point and still have a running watch,” Mayer said. “Our only legitimate reason for existing as a profession is to be extremely quality-oriented, because nobody needs us.”

Dexterity and exacting standards are instilled from the first day, but so is an ability to think abstractly, to envision how and why a watch is malfunctioning. Students who are accepted also must prove they have the patience to tolerate working with parts barely bigger than a grain of dust.

At Lititz, the current freshman class is working to master the art of machining the stem that winds the watch. But at first, the process was more about brute force than delicate precision. “For four weeks, we filed,” student Todd Martin said. “Nothing but brass parts and stuff.”

“Before you know it, we’re making something with a hundredth of a millimeter tolerance,” said student Keaton Myrick.

They come from across the country, and while most of them are in their 20s, there are a few older students who came here from other technical professions. In the end, they will likely work for high-end watch retailers, or watch companies themselves, starting at salaries of about $40,000 a year.

Lancaster Online.com: Local Business : Casual Corner, with 3 stores here, to close

A new home decor shop, Home Inspirations, opened last month at 2832 Lititz Pike. Owner Pat Ditzler has previously operated a home decor business, but Home Inspirations is her first retail shop.

The store sells home accessories with a European flair, including candles, soaps, wall art, urns, lamps and chandeliers.

Hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Thursday and Friday, and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday. The shop will also be open noon to 3 p.m. during the first three Sundays in December.