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Friday, July 26, 2013

Insanity!

It's hard to believe that we come to a point where stepping on our neighbors grass, being suspicious looking, or having a disagreement can be a reason to end someone's life.

How did we get here and why?

I remember as a young soldier in South Korea, I was driving my captain to the capital city of Seoul, when he told me to turn around because he had forgotten something. I turned my jeep into a large driveway of what looked like a large warehouse. I was wrong, it was a Republic of Korea (ROK) army base and the next we saw we were two military guards with their rifles pointed at us. I didn’t need an interpreter; I put a jeep in reverse and hightailed it out of there. A lot of the justifications I hear for killing someone, reminds me of the incident I had and South Korea. Are we now becoming paranoid territorial individuals who think strangers are all potential criminals? For example, a local poster came up with hypothetical to justify killing someone.

The basic instincts of survival are in all of us but some like to jump up and down, beat on their chest and brag that they are armed and are willing to snuff out someone’s life with the slightest bit of provocation. They want a “law all the jungle” environment because the 5 minutes that the first responders take to arrive is way too long. That much time might allow a potential burglar to get a five block head start. Hell, they didn’t buy that shiny new gun to keep it holstered. Sure a lot of it is just hot air because none of us can be certain of what will happen when we are confronted with an uncomfortable situation.

Thank goodness, most gun owners are not wannabe vigilantes and those of us who don’t own guns don’t stay up that night worrying about a teenager walking along the sidewalk in front of our home.

9 comments:

born2Bme said...

I've been reading certain comments made elsewhere, and it just makes me shake my head at the stupidity of some people.
What those commenters seem to think is that it's OK to do anything you want to do, instigate whatever turmoil you want to instigate, and then when something happens and someone feels the need to defend themselves against you, you cry about how you felt your life was threatened, so you have the right to kill that person.
That opens up vigilante law to the extreme.
The burden of proof should fall on the shooter, and not the state. Afterall, someone was killed and their life meant something too.
Do they realize what this case is telling everyone out there? Maybe there were many people who didn't understand this law, but they do now. They now understand that they can do whatever they want and just tell the cops they felt their life was in danger, whether it was or not. If there were no witnesses, then they know they will get away with murder.

born2Bme said...

Also, I know what it is like to have a gun drawn on you and ordered to get out of a car because someone thinks you were out rustling cattle. It's the most fightening thing in the world, and yes, the need to try and protect yourself is very strong.
I believe Zimmerman had his gun drawn, or drew it after the altercation started. It's the only explanation of how Trayvon got ahold of it like that. Zimmerman just showed that he was the bully-type and needed to show that he was in control. He was playing cop.

Mike said...

It might be just me, but I think that it’s insane when a state can go way out on a limb to protect life at one end and then pass a law that makes killing justifiable by just by surviving a confrontation.

A lawmaker wanted to make it illegal to ignore the warnings of a 9/11 dispatcher with a punishment attached to it but was told that the dispatcher could be held liable for dispensing wrong information to a potential victim…. I still think it would be possible on a case by case basis after- the- fact.

In the example that I gave, we were both armed, but we used our better judgment…. Some people will only give the correct judgment to the person who’s armed.

Unless I’m completely out of touch, I think most of us think that there is little justification in shooting and killing an unknown person; especially if it’s a teenager..

Mike said...

Why didn't I think of it?
Marsha Clark of O.J. Trial fame just said that it was never proved that Trayvon Martin was the agressor,so how can GZ say it was self defense ?

born2Bme said...

That's what I said before. There are only 2 people that know what happened that night and one of them is dead.
Even the girlfriend said she didn't know who hit who first.

Mike said...

I just saw a TV shot of several RW pundits lined up on the screen ,like the old Hollywood Squares,all saying the same thing,"Zimmerman did not use the "Stand Your Ground Defense" as if we didn't know that.....It's a distraction to steer the conservation away from the flaws in the Stand Your Ground law.

From the LA Times

"It's worth remembering that if Zimmerman had shot Martin before Florida passed its "stand your ground" law in 2005, the jury would have been instructed that the shooter "cannot justify his use of force likely to cause death or great bodily harm if by retreating he could have avoided the need to use that force."

Hence,it has not been proven that Trayvon was the aggressor and the prosecutor should have taken time to explain that to the jurors.

We also need to remember the four remaining silent jurors said they did not agree withe the juror who was interviewed by CNN's Anderson Cooper.

born2Bme said...

I guess some people finally get it.

More Than 40 Radio Stations Might Drop Limbaugh and Hannity

http://www.theatlanticwire.com/entertainment/2013/07/sandra-fluke-might-cost-limbaugh-and-hannity-big-contract/67698/

Mike said...

Thanks for bring that up…I was reading an article about that saying that (1) talk radio has been losing its appeal for the past few years (2) Fox has also seen its rating drop in the (25-50 age group) so Hannity, O’Reilly and Limbaugh can brag about their ratings all they want but when your biggest demographic is 65 years and older white men, there is just so much gold you can sell them….AM radio is not a magnet for huge Fortune 500 advertisers or up and coming tech companies.

Mike said...

Oops bringing that up.