One of the good things about having cable and nothing to do after 5 pm is that I get to watch lots of CNN. I think of it is as research for this blog, since CNN never fails to provide plenty of material to blog about (most of it in some sort of fury).
Yesterday, they broke the news about this guy in Houston, TX who shot and killed two men who he saw leaving his neighbours house after a break in. He was cleared of all criminal charges. That is after he called 911, and the operator explicitly told him NOT to go outside with his gun.
"Don't go outside the house," the 911 operator pleaded. "You're going to get yourself shot if you go outside that house with a gun. I don't care what you think."
"You want to make a bet?" Horn answered. "I'm going to kill them."
Now I am thinking: the men were shot in the back, there are no reports of either of them being armed, and does it count as self-defense if you voluntarily leave the safety of your house after being told not to by law enforcement? Isn't saying "I'm going to kill them" an expression of pre-mediation? The guys were burgalars, they probably woul'dnt have gotten more than 10 years for unarmed robbery.
It just was'nt making any sense. How could a court come up with this decision. Then the anchor guy asks the question, "can't the family of the murdered file a civil suit?" and the other anchor guy (can't rem their names) says "well ... not really ... I mean if they were illegal immigrants they don't have any rights to do that." And the first guy goes " so they were illegals" and the second guy says "im not sure, its highly possible though. They were from mexico ... or maybe puerto rico, dpesnt matter its the same thing. But I think they probably were illegal." And the picture of two brown men pops up on the screen. Fade to white anchor guys shrugging, and moving on to the next story.*
Just for the record, the CNN print version of the story says that the murdered men were Colombian, and would be classified as illegal immigrants.
*This dialogue might not have happened word to word as written, but it's pretty close.
5 comments:
If you feel better, you can cower in and wait for the “authorities” in New York, or California. In Texas, if you want to commit crime, look out… BTW the recidivism rate for these two dropped to zero.
A Texan
If you feel better, you can cower in and wait for the “authorities” in New York, or California. In Texas, if you want to commit crime, look out… BTW the recidivism rate for these two dropped to zero.
A Texan
Or how about you call the cops (which he did) and wait inside your house to defend your own property, with deadly force if necessary. The idea that some right wing kooks would not indict a man who announced his intention to kill two burglars threatening a neighbor's home and then subsequently shot them in their backs just boggles the mind.
They were doing a crime- they were illegal and they deserve what they got. If you don't want to get killed doing something illegal, then don't do an illegal act. What do you expect? These 2 had alrwady been arrested and deported- the girl friend of one was rightly upset about them being shot- but she is no innocent bystander either- she knew they were illegal and probably would of benefited by the crime in some way or another-
This is one good reason our borders need to be closed-
Dear anonymous Texan,
Seriously? There's no value placed on human life? And so if you get a traffic ticket you should expect to be executed for it? Or if you stole a candy bar as an 8 year old? If that's how we (as a society) viewed these issues, wouldn't those crimes be punishable by the death penalty?
And while the two murder victims may have been undocumented immigrants, I'm not sure how the gunman would have known that beforehand. So then two questions are raised. First, what assumptions was he operating under regarding their race and immigration status that drove him to kill? and Second, how callous and uncaring are we (as a society), how messed up are we that we can deem (through court ruling) that these lives are expendable because the men were not US citizens.
And I say "we" through all of this because it's not the south or southwest or rural or middle America that holds the problem. Too often we let these places act as stand-ins for the shit we do as a nation and as The West.
Texan,
To people who want to act like these two men deserved "what they got" need get out with that nonsense. Theft of property does not equal death. I dont care how you want to frame it economics can and never will measure human life accordingly. We can all agree walking onto someones property with the intent to steal is wrong but say fuck Pasadena,Texas. The spaital racism that has push my family into sub-prime housing developments is ubsurd and you should slap yourself into the face for hte amount of ignoreance that is coming out of your mouth.
I grew up in Texas and if this was a case of a person of color defending him or her self you know you would be crying for justice. Joe Horn was wrong and he is not a measure of whether property theft is pushable by death. You make it seem like these individuals were crimes with the intent on harming people. One was married to an American, so I doubt we can say what his "alien status" was.
So from a Texan to another Texan get out of my State son!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Pretty soon you will have to leave when all the brown people take over.
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