In my campaign, from December the 27th to the 29th, 2018, something like twenty homicides have been committed in Galveston and another six or so are in critical condition after a shooting. Half of those homicides were suspects killed in the commission of a crime, but that still leaves ten people, mostly locals, one EMT ambulance driver and three of them cops, who were murdered in the last few days. And another officer and paramedic might still die.
Galveston proper is something over 50,000 people and Galveston County is almost exactly the population of Iceland, 335,000. When fourteen people died in an avalanche here twenty four years ago, it was a national tragedy that brought more or less everything to a standstill for weeks. I've seen annual balls and celebrations cancelled for much less weighty reasons and while the two avalanches of 1995 in Iceland were in January and October, I imagine that if one of them had occured two days before New Year's Eve, a lot of parties, especially those connected to public servants, would have been cancelled.
And if we consider just the city of Galveston and those of its citizens who were killed in the obscene murders of the 27th December and then the brutal attack on the night of the 29th December, the proportion is very similar to the number of victims on 9/11 in proportion to the population of New York City. Then again, the 17th of May,
2018 Santa Fe shooting occured earlier that year, within Galveston County, and was of equal magnitude.
On the other hand,
Dallas 2016 was an even worse attack (though obviously in a much larger population and larger police department). I wonder if New Year's celebrations in Dallas had proceeded as scheduled if the attack had taken place in late December?
In short, what is New Year's Eve going to look like in Galveston after a tragedy like that?