Inside an FBI Hostage Crisis

http://graphics.wsj.com/hostage/

by nols • 11 years ago

48 20 11 years ago

graphics.wsj.com

rcurry• 11 years ago

Is it just me, or is this a good example of how not to present content on the web. I could hardly read any of that article - the animated background thing took forever to load, and was incredibly distracting. There's a story in there somewhere, I'm sure, but I just didn't have time - it was quicker to google the bad guy's name and read the story on another site.

jlgaddis• 11 years ago

Yep, although I just clicked the Instapaper "View as Text" button on my toolbar and read it that way. Much more readable and fewer distractions:

https://www.instapaper.com/text?u=http%3A%2F%2Fgraphics.wsj....

markbnj• 11 years ago

Agreed, it was particularly hard to read the text when it was positioned over the dark pencil drawing used as a background on the right.

dwils• 11 years ago

Disable adblocker (and ghostery) and give it another shot. The backgrounds will moves out of the way but you have something blocked which is stopping it from happening.

muddi900• 11 years ago

I was reading on an Android webview, and I didn't find any trouble reading it. I don't know how the experience was on desktop.

at-fates-hands• 11 years ago

This is the issue I have now with being a developer. There's so many things people do because they believe we all have gigabit fiber internet service and just bloat the fuck out of the page for no other reason than to try and show off.

It only took 140 requests, 36MB and 2.4 minutes later, I was able to read the article.

This is completely unacceptable and an epic failure.

jakejake2• 11 years ago

One man's bloat is another man's immersive experience I suppose.

I do sympathize with you - your connection speed must be abysmal. But I'm glad the web is not being held back by that - instead I hope that articles like this might help to bring about better connectivity to your location.

pavornyoh• 11 years ago

I am surprised this came from the Wall Street Journal. What the heck? There is too much going on the page. It takes away from the story thus the videos, animation etc. Can't read it..

striking• 11 years ago

I really enjoyed the presentation of this piece. I understand that may not be a popular sentiment, but the graphics and interactivity worked well in creating a sort of atmosphere as well as helping me get a better understanding of the situation.

It wasn't perfect, but it was interesting and memorable. I could perceive the difficulty the authorities faced in trying to storm the bunker. It was neat.

And of course, the article still looks beautiful when put through the Readability extension. For people complaining about interactivity, you can use extensions to disable it (although I understand the frustration and also wish there was a built in way to disable it).

And more on topic: it was highly unsettling to me that Mr. Dykes could kill Mr. Poland even after the gift of fresh eggs and homemade jelly. The gunshot noises really got to me. The presentation of this article felt more real and visceral than most articles do. I'm glad I bothered to put on the headphones and try it.

blisterpeanuts• 11 years ago

Interesting story that kept my attention to the end, despite the intrusive multimedia elements (I'm reading this very late at night, with people asleep nearby, and one of the videos started auto-playing and wouldn't let me pause it).

I would say all parties involved, from bus driver Poland to the 911 operator, the FBI and the local sheriff, behaved admirably and at times heroically. For those men to jump down that hole and take bullets to rescue the boy, notably the fellow who located the kid in the dark and shielded him with his body, prepared to take bullets from the kidnapper to save the boy--incredible stuff.

This guy Dykes was a tragic kind of figure, the kind of ticking time bomb that we need to identify earlier on to prevent the kinds of mass shootings that occur with all too much regularity in our country.

I'm not sure what you can do with someone who stays just this side of the law but is clearly deranged and unstable, but there's got to be something beyond just ignoring him and letting him fester.

ISL2• 11 years ago

It's not at all clear from the evidence available before the hostage-taking that Dykes was going to harm others.

We must be careful when proposing imposing our own version of 'normal' upon others. When we're in a minority, and all of us are, a majority might chose to do so upon us.

port6667• 11 years ago

I also liked the presentation, that looked pretty slick to me.

tajen• 11 years ago

9 seconds planned for th rescue, 5 actual minutes, that must have felt like a very, very long time.

- Is it possible to invent radio-based, directional weapons able to kill through walls? e.g. X-rays or microwave?

- I'm surprised the federal agent asks for permission to kill the criminal. As long as there is a hostage, isn't the self-defense considered a default?

DanBC• 11 years ago

The FBI is a lot more careful about killing people than the US police, although there are concerns about their internal review processes of agent-involved shootings.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/19/us/in-150-shootings-the-fb...

Vespasian2• 11 years ago

Slightly OT: One small detail that surprised me was that since the daughter of the kidnapper had not enough money to pay for the funeral she had to keep the ashes in her trailer.

Is there no such thing as a legal obligation to bury the dead in the US?

jakejake2• 11 years ago

I don't think it'd be a particularly popular decision to use tax dollars to pay for a murderer to have a funeral celebration and burial. Maybe that's callous but I'd guess that's the way it is in the US.

As far as I know it's up to relatives or loved ones to bury their deceased and its up to them to arrange a funeral, plot of land, headstone, etc which runs in the thousands of dollars. If there is no one willing or able to pay then I'd assume the state essentially disposes of the body by cremation.

Vespasian2• 11 years ago

Yeah I can see that. I was just surprised that you are allowed to keep the urn at home.

In my country if you no one is willing or able to pay for the burial of the ashes or the body the state pays but can get back the money from heirs and relatives. You are not allowed to not bury the ashes.

CapitalistCartr• 11 years ago

I have my sister's ashes in my home. My mother has my father's in her house. She wants their ashes scattered together in the mountains.

mronge• 11 years ago

The FBI Hostage Rescue Team is an amazing group of professionals, the premier hostage rescue team in the US. They are the civilian equivalent of Delta Force as they can't normally operate in the US. Historically Delta and the FBI HRT even do hostage training together.

Pretty amazing how highly trained these people are

Inside an FBI Hostage Crisis

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