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Murphy Martin Commentary
July 27, 2006

 "Reality Television Rolls on Sunday"

Israel and Hezbollah step up fighting in Lebanon! More roadside bombings in Iraq! Heat straining California power grid! Congress still grappling with
immigrant bills! Secretary Rice on the move seeking peace! Syria and Iran flexing muscle through others!

Sex predators still on the prowl! Katrina recovery gaining steam in Mississippi! Thousands still powerless in New York City! Saddam's brother argues with judge while Saddam remains hospitalized!

None of these stories got as much attention as one loose cannon from the Dallas suburb of Duncanville did for more than three hours Sunday afternoon and evening.

Samuel Scott Jones, 32, allegedly started it all Saturday evening about eight PM when he car-jacked a white Ford pick-up truck at a service station in Duncanville. Then on Sunday at a Lowe's in Carrollton, where the white pickup was later found, Smith car-jacked a Lexus at gun-point and drove to Denton County where he crashed the car.

A Plano doctor offered to help Smith at the accident scene and Smith then car-jacked the good Samaritan's Infiniti. Little did we know this loose cannon was about to stage his own "reality" television show for all the world to see. Driving his third car-jacked vehicle--that we know of--Smith, who has a history of drug problems, drove into a truck stop in the central Collin County town of Fairview.

Christie Kay Bundren, 51, of Allen had just completed a trip with her 18-wheel rig and her daughter and son-in-law were at the truck stop to pick her up. As her son-in-law approached , he saw Smith's pistol and heard him order Ms. Bundren back into her rig with orders to " start driving!"

Forget about the War in Iraq! The Israeli-Hezbollah-Lebanon fighting! Forget all the dozens of important happenings going on in the world that affected hundreds of thousands of people. We have a guy with a gun at the head of a 51-year old woman and he is on the move. Police cars build a convey traveling behind the rig--other police units blocked sections of streets and thoroughfares--state turnpikes--make way for the Samuel Scott Jones show.

It didn't take long for all television stations in the metroplex to get their 'choppers airborne with "live" pictures of the mis-directed man, without a shirt, pointing the gun at Ms. Bundren's head. After the front tires were flattened while the long haul truck rolled south back into Dallas county, the Toll Road, residential areas, Interstate 20 into Arlington and Tarrant County. Dallas police cars and tactical units always near but Texas DPS finally took over when the big red rig hit the interstate in Tarrant County.

Cancel all other television programming! 60-minutes--canceled! NBC--canceled! ABC--cancelled to make way for this Sunday "reality" special. Mr. Smith, while talking with police negotiators on the phone, said he wanted to talk with a channel eight reporter. That reporter said Smith complained of the way black men are treated in America. Smith's sister later told a channel eight reporter that Smith had called her and said :"I am going to die tonight!"

By now the truck is down to 20-to-30 miles an hour and running on steel rims on the front. But the drama grew more intense after DPS officers showered the engine with several rounds of gun-fire. The truck slowed to a stop about 8PM and some thirty-minutes later Ms. Brundren bolted out the drivers side of the truck followed by her little black dog. She ran into the arms of the nearest DPS officer probably thinking she was the luckiest woman in the world to be alive at that moment. And she was--thanks to the patient great work of many police officers!

With Ms. Bundren safely outside, officers fired tear-gas cannisters into the huge cab of the transport truck.

Minutes later --Samuel Scott Jones staggered out of the vehicle and bent over with the dry heaves from the tear-gas. Officers quickly handcuffed him and the Sunday Reality Special was over--at least phase one. Who knows how many more charges will be lodged against this man.

The television stations brought their 'choppers home and regular programming resumed on radio and television stations throughout the Metroplex..

Of course the usual jail-house interviews would follow on Monday with Smith claiming his mistreatment by White America led him to reach for the "spotlight"to right the wrongs that plagued his life. He said he "hoped police would kill me" and said Ms. Bundren talked him into giving himself up Sunday.

On Wednesday's Good Morning America on ABC-TV, Ms. Bundren, during her first interview since her harrowing ride on Sunday, disputed Smith's claim that she talked him into giving up. She also said she spent time on a cell-phone telling her four children "goodbye" thinking she would never see them again.

How long will it be before someone else tries to copy-cat Smith's crime spree----looking for their fifteen minutes of fame! One warped mind with gun-in-hand brings on "reality TV" in a hurry. It did Sunday...sadly...it will again!

Those who think entertainment has not taken over the news? Take another look! Anything to get rating points! Anything to add viewers...and water-cooler talk!

Murphy Martin

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