If it bleeds, it leads…
They descended on Floyd like locusts in a Biblical feeding frenzy, the TV trucks, the talking heads and the rest of the pack that follow blood and guts stories. They are the vampires of the journalism trade, the sensationalists driven by a TV news culture that calls car chases "breaking news" and feeds on the blood of of victims.
Floyd tops Virginia news tonight as Steven Dale Branscome continues to elude capture. Not a surprise. Branscome is the grandson of former Floyd County Sheriff George Branscome and he is at home in the woods and it will probably take more than armor-clad SWAT teams waving M-16s and time-consuming roadblocks to trap a country boy on his home turf.
But Branscome is sought for shooting a State Trooper and he has sworn he will not be taken alive. This is the kind of bloodlust story that sends TV anchors into on-screen orgasms.
They call these exercises "location stand ups" and it is designed to show viewers that their local TV crews are on the job, even though they could tell the same story from their studios in Christiansburg, Roanoke and Lynchburg and the average viewer could care less.
Eventually, the law will get Branscome — dead or alive — but probably long after the satellite trucks have moved on. The story is already going stale and there is always something else to sensationalize.
The rest of the story…
Last week, I wrote about a Floyd County Sheriff’s Deputy who emerged from the county dispatch center at the Court House while my Jeep’s car alarm was blasting away because of a short circuit. He looked over at the Jeep with its flashing lights and wailing siren, then got into his patrol car and drove away.
Steve Graham, an investigator with the Sheriff’s Department, told me today that the Deputy was en route to a domestic disturbance call.
Too many people are injured or killed because of domestic fights that go bad. The Deputy was right to put the domestic all above a car alarm that might or might not have been triggered by a thief.
I stand corrected. My apologies to the Deputy and the Sheriff’s Department.
On the lam
UPDATE: Police Monday afternoon suspended the manhunt for Steven Dale Branscome after failing to locate him in the Indian Valley area of Floyd County. The search is now being coordinated out of the Floyd County sheriff’s office and the roadblocks have been taken town.
A massive police manhunt was underway earlier in Indian Valley as well as other parts of Virginia and West Virginia for Branscome (right), a Floyd County man accused of shooting a Virginia State Trooper along with collection of other crimes.
If you see this man or know where he is, contact the Floyd County Sheriff’s Department at (540) 745-9334. Do not approach him or attempt to detain him yourself. He is armed, desperate and extremely dangerous. He has told people that he will not go back to jail and that usually means he will not be taken down without a fight.
Reports Shawna Morrison of The Roanoke Times:
A man who police suspect of shooting a Virginia State Police trooper, stealing guns and a string of vehicles, and threatening to kill at least one person, was spotted in Floyd County on Sunday morning but continued to elude police into the night.
The search for Steven Dale Branscome, 32, was concentrated Sunday on a stretch of farmland around Indian Valley Elementary School, where police from at least 16 agencies had set up a command center and many planned on spending the night.
Shortly before 10:30 a.m. Sunday, an investigator with the Floyd County Sheriff’s Office spotted the pickup truck that Branscome was suspected of stealing Saturday in Kellysville, W.Va., state police Sgt. Bob Carpentieri said.
The investigator contacted a state trooper who was in the area, and the pair followed the truck — which still bore the West Virginia license plates that police had told drivers to be on the lookout for Sunday — onto Indian Creek Road.
The truck pulled into a driveway and the driver jumped out and ran into a wooded area, Carpentieri said. He said the Floyd County investigator was familiar with Branscome and recognized him.
Seems like too many Floyd Countians lately are getting into trouble with the law, from the man who stole a Jeep Wrangler from a car dealership in Montgomery County and killed a motorcyclist in a Christiansburg hit-and-run to another who used his car to run down an employee of Slaughter’s grocery in the store parking lot and who is also a prime suspect in a hit-and-run death of a lawyer in Roanoke County. And let’s not forget a Floyd woman facing charges in Patrick County for allegedly feeding her 10-year-old son Viagra before having sex with him.
Floyd is getting a reputation far beyond Bluegrass music, The Friday Night Jamboree and an arts and crafts community. They say there’s no such thing as bad publicity. I’d say recent news out of the county disputes that.
(Photo courtesy of The Roanoke Times)
Kicking off the Spring sports season
The spring sports season is upon us. This shot is from Friday night’s Floyd County High School soccer match against Patrick County.
Sun deck
Lauren Gorsky tries ot the new deck on the side of Winter Sun in Floyd. The deck overlooks what will be a public park when the downtown revitalization project is finished.
You might be a redneck
A ton of email flowing in over the electronic transom, most containing recycled Jeff Foxworthy "you might be a redneck" jokes.
The earlier post about the woman who wanted to know if we had many "hicks" in Floyd County sparked this influx of redneck humor.
Our favories so far…
If you go to family reunions to meet girls…you might be a redneck…
If your daddy walks you to school because you’re both in the same grade…you might be a redneck.
If you get Christmas presents made out of shotgun shells…you might be a redneck.
If you cut the grass in your front yard and find more than one car…you might be a redneck.
If you think a Volvo is part of a woman’s anatomy…you might be a redneck.
If you’ve ever been too drunk to fish…you might be a redneck.
If you’ve ever financed a tattoo…you might be a redneck.
Next week: Who know? Maybe hippie jokes.
Eating late
Too often, I get wrapped up in a project at the studio and suddenly realize it’s close to 10 p.m. and haven’t eaten dinner.
In Floyd, eating late can be a problem. Most restaurants close by 9 p.m., leaving you with a choice of Hardees or a convenience store sandwich.
The folks at El Charro, the new Mexican restaurent in the basement of The Winter Sun, defied conventional wisdom by staying open until at least 10 p.m., seven days a week. I’ve dropped by at 9:45 p.m. on a weeknight to find their kitchen open and several tables filled.
El Charro has proven that, given a choice, local residents will come by for a sit-down meal later in the evening. Other eateries might want to take note.
One fancy outhouse
That fancy timber-frame building going up on South Locust Street is a public restroom. That’s right. Floyd is getting a timber-frame crapper. The new building is taking shape in what will be Lineberry Park, the town’s first public park.
A hick town and damn proud of it
The visitors sauntered into Cafe del Sol, ordered two lattes and spread their maps and real estate brochures out on the table and started talking about where to buy land.
As usually happens, they turned to a stranger at the next table and asked:
"Excuse me, sir, do you live here."
"Yes," I answered, "I do."
"Tell us about the community."
So I went into my well-rehearsed litany about lifestyle, government, schools, cost of living and community attitudes. It’s a lot like a political candidate’s stump speech. I’ve delivered it so often that notes aren’t needed.
The came a question that caught me off guard.
"Are there a lot of hicks around here?"
I took a sip of coffee before answering.
"Absolutely," I answered. "There’s a lot of us hicks around here and we’re damn proud of it."
Hicks. Rednecks. Bubbas. Over the years, the names have changed but the intent is the same. They were afraid they might encounter some dumb country bumpkins out here in the sticks.
They left, probably headed for Asheville where the imported sophisticates outnumber the hicks. I finished my coffee and went back to the studio to work on a new video about the growing artist’s community in our little hick town.
But I did stop to scrape the cow dung off my boots first.
Old? Who you calling old?
Alumni from Floyd County High School’s boys and girls basketball teams gathered Saturday for three games for fun and to raise money for the Joshua Cantrell Memorial Fund.
On the men’s side, players from as far back as 1965 showed they still have what it takes to compete on the court. John Harris (left) was a classmate who competed. John said he started running when he was in his 40s and it has helped him stay in shape.
Hmmm. Thanks to bad knees, a bum hip and too many screws holding both ankles together, I have trouble climbing stairs and here’s a guy from my high school graduating class hustling up and down the basketball court like a kid.
Somebody once said that you’re only as old as your feel. It’s clear the alumni who played Saturday still feel young.
On the other hand, some of the rest of us feel pretty damn old.
To paraphrase H.L. Mencken, if I’d known I was going to live this long, I’d taken a hell of a lot better care of myself.