Well, I can tell I'm in the minority on this one but I think you haven't really considered the situation fully to understand if by cancelling little league and summer school they had panicked or were afraid. Arguing by analogy doesn't work in this situation - how do the eyes of 70 students or a few dozen little leaguers improve the odds of finding a murder suspect? My point was, the 8 murders that occurred were done on unsuspecting people, out and about like any other day. In a community of ~25,000, that makes just about anyone the next likely suspect (albeit 4 of the dead were subsequently found to be known to the alleged killer, and apparently that gave the cops the suspect and description that eventually nailed the guy). Eight murders strung out along I-70 headed west would give you one indication that the killer is moving away, but these were recent kills in a fairly small locale. You don't gain anything by staying indoors and cowering, the killer might pick your house and attack you as you open the door - but you certainly don't gain anything by sending your kids off to play baseball or school, business as usual, and possibly put them in a public situation that the killer would exploit. I can't say either way, but maybe the little league ball games would be cancelled anyway for lack of players, held home by parents until the killer was caught?

I don't know where you all live, but eight dead by one hand within a couple zip codes in a week is alot of dead folks. 'Doing business as usual' is what got about 50 prostitutes killed by the Green River Killer a few years back. Brave whores, not to cower in the safety of their homes... I digress.

Everyone want to argue by analogy, let me try, change the scenario just a bit - bird flu has crossed over to humans and the first 16 victims are found dead in their beds within a week about 15 miles outside of St Louis. CDC can't say if they've localized the outbreak, probably not. Are all us brave Equipped folks going to be secluding ourselves in our homes with our stockpiles of Tamiflu and MREs, trying to avoid the coming plague, or will we be be out doing business as usual, congretating in public places? Would we be more fearful, would we be panicking, or are we just trying to cut the odds of dying?

This brings to mind a road trip from my youth, we were RV'ing our way through California in the early 70s and tracking in the papers the latest attacks of someone dubbed The Sickle Killer, who attacked unsuspecting campers with a sickle at nearby camps (slashing through tents, very graphic stuff). He took a while to catch, and hurt a bunch of people. We were near enough and in approximate camping mode to pay careful attention to his path - was that panic, or fear? I don't recall my Dad changed our itinerary at all. As kids we ate up the stories and kept our eyes open for a guy walking around with farm implements.