I'm really glad they caught those sniper guys.

That was really quite unnerving. I can't imagine what it must have been like to live out in that area.

As if life isn't stressful enough in today's America, you have to worry about being shot dead while gassing up your car?

Of course it's easy to say that the risk of dying from a sniper's bullet is very small. It's true that the odds of that happening are extremely small. Probably smaller than being struck by lightning.

But that really isn't much comfort, is it? It was a long three weeks.

Any time something of this nature is resolved, it's good to look back and use the advantage of hindsight to determine how things could have been handled better.

One area I think could have been handled better is the media/police relationship.

There is always that fine line between what the police consider help and hindrance when it comes to the media.

But I think, in most cases, that the more information the public has, the better off the cops are.

In this case, it was troubling to me to find out that early on, after the second or third shooting, there was a witness account of a dark blue or maroon Chevrolet Caprice leaving the scene.

There also were reports of a white van leaving the scene, matching similar reports at previous shootings.

I remember CNN's Wolf Blitzer interviewing Montgomery County, Md., Police Chief Charles Moose. (I bet that Moose guy was getting about an hour of sleep a day for the past three weeks.)

Anyway, Blitzer asked Moose about the report of a blue or maroon Chevy.

Moose said, yes, there was that report, but police weren't putting that out to the public. He said they were pursuing the white van angle instead because it was consistent with the earlier reports.

OK, why not put both out there for the public to consider?

After all, the public would have loved to help the cops get the snipers off the street.

And the whole white van thing bothered me from the beginning anyway.

White vans are everywhere. It seemed really odd to me that at every shooting, it was a different type of white van. A Chevy, a Plymouth, a box truck.

I thought all along that the snipers weren't in a white van. I thought they probably waited until there was a white van leaving the area to take the shot.

Witnesses hear the shot, look up and see a white van leaving the area.

Or maybe the snipers weren't even that smart. Maybe it was coincidence. Take a moment to look around a parking lot the next time you're in one. You'll be amazed at the number of white vans.

Wait a couple minutes and you will, almost without fail, see a white van leaving the area.

Even the two illegal immigrants that were inadvertently sucked into the investigation because they chose the wrong phone booth were coincidentally driving a white van.

So the whole time the snipers are driving around in a blue Chevy and the whole country is worried about a white van.

The cops should have put out both descriptions.

And I think the cops should have been more forthcoming about the notes.

Apparently there were references to a certain Jamaican band, and some of the band lyrics were quoted in the letter. It turns out one of the snipers was from Jamaica.

The grammar and phrasing of the letters were unusual.

Point is, if you put that information out there, chances are that someone might recognize the handwriting or the grammar.

Remember the Unabomber?

He got busted because his brother recognized his writing style in the manifesto that was published in the Washington Post.

Of course, police shouldn't divulge information that could compromise their investigation, but sometimes I think they can get a little too conservative when it comes to releasing details.

Sometimes those details can help them crack the case.

Now that the snipers are caught, I hope the case moves quickly. I would really hate for the it to drag on a long time.

I hope we don't have legions of defense attorneys painting these guys as poor victims of their socio-economic circumstances or something.

They are nothing more than cold-blooded killers and should be treated as such.

Maybe the snipers will do the honorable thing and just confess, but I'm not holding my breath.

My final hope is that CNN and the rest of the newshounds lay off the victims' families.

Let them heal without the cameras and the microphones shoved in their faces.

One must wonder what would motivate someone to indiscriminately kill other human beings.

Maybe, over time, we will be able to gain insight, but we must never allow anyone to remotely rationalize or justify that type of behavior.

Justice for the snipers must be swift and severe. [[In-content Ad]]