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Richmond TSA screener Michael Luedecke arrested for shooting his father

Richmond TSA screener Michael Luedecke arrested for shooting his father

Old Nov 24, 2013, 6:43 am
  #46  
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I really believe that the TSA is a stain on our nation and a insult to our freedom. That said I fail to see how this story has any bigger meaning other than a tragic event for those involved.

If I were to post a story about a TSA agent saving the lives of a bus full of orphans all holding cute kittens would we all then support TSA?

I don't think so.
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Old Nov 24, 2013, 7:00 am
  #47  
 
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Originally Posted by FliesWay2Much
I know a fair amount about the Richmond area. There are PLENTY of night/graveyard employment opportunities that pay a lot more than a TSA clerk earns. For that matter, there are plenty of full-time day jobs for someone with a HS diploma. I would say that there is something amiss about a kid who graduated from HS with good grades and who couldn't find (or hold) a decent-paying full-time job in a state capital.

In terms of your conclusion about his personality and background, the only thing we have to go on his what the newspaper reported. All of his HS records and any juvenile court records would be sealed. And, of course, his TSA background investigation would have turned up nothing.



I too know a fair amount about the Richmond area, the jobs are not as readily available as you might think. As for the reason he was working where he was, there could be a whole slew of reasons - he could be working late night to help out with the family during the day, he could be working in order to get set for college, it could be that he wanted to get a foot in the federal system in order to move up in the future - we can only speculate. As for the record in HS, if I am not mistaken there are rules regarding Honor Roll and disciplinary records - I may be mistaken, but I seem to recall one of the first articles mentioning the Mother defending him indicated he was an Honor Roll student.

As far as the guy (or the Dad for that matter, remember, we only have the ones living to tell this story) being a hair trigger, that is not necessarily indicated in a domestic case that ends in this result. Many times a domestic that ends in a tragedy with this type of described story line will actually indicate that the person that pulled the trigger was actually someone with a very long fuse (or the anithesis of the description "hair trigger"). Someone that had endured abuse over an extended period of time without intervention or help - again, that is all supposition and reading tea leaves on my part, but I have seen similar situations previously that lead to those generalizations. I could be completely wrong, and this was a plan cooked up by the surviving family members in order to just plain old end this guy - we will have to wait until the case comes up, or some more information is released in order to find more of the actual truth.
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Old Nov 24, 2013, 1:38 pm
  #48  
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Old Nov 24, 2013, 2:23 pm
  #49  
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Are there any hard details, read facts, indicating that employees of TSA gave committed more crimes than other professions?

Serious question.

I can pick any profession and find real dirt bags within so I'm interested if any studies have been done to compare.
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Old Nov 24, 2013, 2:35 pm
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Originally Posted by USAirways
I can pick any profession and find real dirt bags within so I'm interested if any studies have been done to compare.
What "profession" do you propose examining to make a fair comparison to the "workers" in the TSA?
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Old Nov 24, 2013, 3:37 pm
  #51  
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Originally Posted by USAirways
Are there any hard details, read facts, indicating that employees of TSA gave committed more crimes than other professions?

Serious question.

I can pick any profession and find real dirt bags within so I'm interested if any studies have been done to compare.
Well, according to another poster in another thread, 15% of TSA employees have been disciplined or fired over the past 3 years. That's a significant number no matter what.
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Old Nov 24, 2013, 3:56 pm
  #52  
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Originally Posted by halls120
Well, according to another poster in another thread, 15% of TSA employees have been disciplined or fired over the past 3 years. That's a significant number no matter what.
If true, it's outrageous.
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Old Nov 24, 2013, 4:44 pm
  #53  
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Old Nov 24, 2013, 4:44 pm
  #54  
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Originally Posted by gsoltso
I too know a fair amount about the Richmond area, the jobs are not as readily available as you might think. As for the reason he was working where he was, there could be a whole slew of reasons - he could be working late night to help out with the family during the day, he could be working in order to get set for college, it could be that he wanted to get a foot in the federal system in order to move up in the future - we can only speculate. As for the record in HS, if I am not mistaken there are rules regarding Honor Roll and disciplinary records - I may be mistaken, but I seem to recall one of the first articles mentioning the Mother defending him indicated he was an Honor Roll student.

As far as the guy (or the Dad for that matter, remember, we only have the ones living to tell this story) being a hair trigger, that is not necessarily indicated in a domestic case that ends in this result. Many times a domestic that ends in a tragedy with this type of described story line will actually indicate that the person that pulled the trigger was actually someone with a very long fuse (or the anithesis of the description "hair trigger"). Someone that had endured abuse over an extended period of time without intervention or help - again, that is all supposition and reading tea leaves on my part, but I have seen similar situations previously that lead to those generalizations. I could be completely wrong, and this was a plan cooked up by the surviving family members in order to just plain old end this guy - we will have to wait until the case comes up, or some more information is released in order to find more of the actual truth.
Henrico County: 5.4% unemployment in Aug 2013, down .03% from a year ago. If he had a car to get to the airport, he can drive anywhere in the county to work.

Where did you get your psychology degree, owing that you know so much about dysfunctional families?
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Old Nov 24, 2013, 6:36 pm
  #55  
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Originally Posted by MikeMpls
But in keeping the with "high" standards that DHS seems to be maintaining -- the Border Patrol, for example, has logged 2000 misconduct and corruption cases in recent years, so many that the DHS OIG has had to farm out the case load.
That is 10% of the USBP. Less than TSA's 15% misconduct rate.
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Old Nov 24, 2013, 6:49 pm
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Old Nov 25, 2013, 3:02 am
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Originally Posted by FliesWay2Much
Henrico County: 5.4% unemployment in Aug 2013, down .03% from a year ago. If he had a car to get to the airport, he can drive anywhere in the county to work.

Where did you get your psychology degree, owing that you know so much about dysfunctional families?
Again, there could be any number of reasons he was working at the job, you could be right, he could be a dirtbag of epic proportions, he could be a saintly guy that simply found himself in this situation - neither of us know why he was there, and any comments to the contrary are simply supposition on each of our parts.

One does not need a psychology degree to comment on what one has observed or experienced in the past.

* In the interest of full disclosure, my family unit is apparently an anomaly in the current world, my parents are still married after 50 years, and I love them both, despite the fact that they spanked me when I did something wrong!
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Old Nov 25, 2013, 8:12 am
  #58  
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Originally Posted by halls120
That is 10% of the USBP. Less than TSA's 15% misconduct rate.
I would guess that there are a lot more on & off duty conduct standards to which the average USBP employee is held, versus the average TSA clerk. Hence, the 10% versus 15% figure is even more impressive because there is a lot more opportunity for the USBP guy to get in trouble.
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Old Nov 25, 2013, 10:59 am
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Originally Posted by FliesWay2Much
I would guess that there are a lot more on & off duty conduct standards to which the average USBP employee is held, versus the average TSA clerk.
Objection. No such standards in evidence for either category...
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Old Nov 27, 2013, 6:12 pm
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Richmond Times Dispatch: TSA worker released on $500,000 bond in fathers murder

Another update:

Richmond Times Dispatch:
TSA worker released on $500,000 bond in fathers murder

Posted: Tuesday, November 26, 2013 12:00 am
Updated: 12:40 am, Wed Nov 27, 2013.


And a short quote:
Filling a courtroom, friends and family members of the 21-year-old Transportation Security Administration worker charged with murdering his father last Monday helped paint an image of the victim as a controlling, threatening man who angrily vowed to kill his family in the midst of a struggle over a semiautomatic rifle.

This house was an explosion ready to happen, argued defense lawyer Jeffrey Oppleman, describing in his opening argument that Jeffrey L. Luedecke, 51, was so prone to violence that he beat his wife and once threatened to kill his own mother.

A neighbor even kept a log of threatening behavior, Oppleman said, but the conduct largely remained known only within the confines of the home.

Testimony revealed Luedecke, a home repair worker, took some 20 different medications to control anxiety and other behavioral problems and that he was an isolated, paranoid weapons collector who had amassed 33 firearms in the small bungalow-style home in the 8800 block of Midway Road south of Patterson Avenue near Parham Road.
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