Heavily Armed New Yorkers Hunker Down as Manhunt for Escaped Killers Nears Second Week — #2A

Heh, leftists just can't stand when regular citizens empower themselves against unpredictable criminal eventualities.

I mean, what's idiot Shannon Watts got to say about this mild-mannered guy, Ken Snyder, with a loaded rifle in the laundry room, lol?

At the Wall Street Journal, "As Manhunt for Escaped Killers Nears Second Week, Upstate N.Y. Residents Adjust to Siege Mentality":

As manhunt nears 2nd week, upstate New Yorkers adjust to ‘siege mentality’ http://t.co/02HK275AE2 pic.twitter.com/6dVgS3G8yf

— WSJ Greater New York (@WSJNY) June 12, 2015

CADYVILLE, N.Y.— Ken Snyder refused to waste a perfect sunny afternoon and spent it reseeding his lawn, despite a manhunt under way behind his home in this rural corner of upstate New York.

It wasn’t a typical day of yardwork for the 70-year-old retiree.

On Thursday, as helicopters buzzed overhead and a small army of heavily armed police lined a nearby country road, Mr. Snyder was ready if the two convicted murderers who escaped from a state prison emerged from the woods backing up to his property.

Inside his garage were two phones should he need to call for help. In his laundry room, on the washer and dryer, was a loaded rifle with extra ammunition. Upstairs in the bedroom: another rifle.

Mr. Snyder, who reckons the escapees are likely far from the prison by now, said he is less anxious than his wife, who suggested using chairs to barricade the doors they never used to lock.

“People just want to be back to normal,” he said.

As an intensive search for Richard Matt, 48 years old, and David Sweat, 34, nears its second week, some residents in the area surrounding the Clinton Correctional Facility expressed increasing weariness with what has seemed at times to be a siege mentality in the bucolic countryside surrounding the prison in Dannemora, N.Y.

“People are on such a heightened alert that if there’s just the simplest thing out of the norm, especially in that area right now, they’re calling it in and we’re following up,” Andrew Wylie, the Clinton County district attorney, said in an interview Friday.

Residents and business owners in Pennsylvania’s Monroe County, in the Poconos resort area, know how it feels to live in the middle of a manhunt.

The rural county was the epicenter of a seven-week search for Eric Frein , a local resident accused of shooting two state troopers—one fatally—before fleeing into the woods last September.

“It was abnormal, but we went along with our day-to-day,” said Barrett Township Supervisor John Seese. “If they had an area that was closed off, you just didn’t go there that day.”

Ray Cawolsky, who owns a deli in nearby Mountainhead, said he best remembers two contrasting sounds from that manhunt: the quiet of a stifled tourist season and the roar of search helicopters.

“It was a lot of helicopters flying over 24 hours a day, armored vehicles running up and down the road,” Mr. Cawolsky said. “We had state police for customers, but we lost all our tourists. Everyone was afraid to come here.”

Fall is a busy season for Poconos business owners, who cater to tourists visiting to hike, leaf peep or hunt. But outdoor activity was severely restricted during the search, and the hunting season was canceled altogether.

In upstate New York, it remains unclear how the efforts to find Mr. Matt and Mr. Sweat will pan out. It may mean a short-term boon for area hotels and restaurants and may boost overtime pay for law-enforcement officers involved, but it also could strain government budgets.

For now, many locals said they are adapting to the immediate threat. They are locking their doors and windows while some, like Mr. Snyder, have been getting their guns ready...

Yep, regular Americans "getting their guns ready." There's nothing the left hates more than proud, independent, self-sufficient citizens looking out for their own.

Keep reading.