Other cases are less black and white. Police often find traumatized civilians who are unaware that in the eyes of the law, they were justified to kill. So they try to cover their tracks, and in doing so, commit a crime.
via Self-defense killings rise in New Orleans even as murders fall | NOLA.com.
Amazingly you sometimes find a kernel of truth and enlightenment in the news.
This is one front that Gun Control Advocates outside the US have pat down: Making Self-Defense a crime or the closest thing to it. When a government exercises the Monopoly on Killing, it makes sure that not only they control the instruments but also the laws and more important, the mindset of people.
From basically the day you are born you are told that violence is not the answer, that defending yourself is “taking the law in your own hands” and that only criminals do that. So you say, that is nothing new, we have it here also, but there is a big difference between the US and the rest of the uncivilized world: For some reason, Americans decided almost from the very start that such mentality is idiotic and through the years self-defense became what it is: A human right. We have reached a point where politicians and judges are raked through the coals if they send somebody to prison on a clear defensive situation.
If we take South America for example, Self-Defense is almost as bad as a bona-fide murder and it is up to you, a good lawyer and the mercy of the court to live the rest of your life as a free man, Again you say, same here but the devil is literally in the details.
Taking Venezuela as example, if you are ever involved in a defensive situation where by the Grace of God you reacted faster and better than your attacker and managed not only to stop it but came out of it unscathed, get ready: First comes the investigation where the Law needs to gather all evidence and statements including yours. But since they were not present at the scene and they don’t know you, you are about to embark in a paid vacation in the local jail. Wait, you are not arrested but “detained for investigation” as no charges have been imposed yet. And if you ever heard the expression “the slaw wheels of the law turning’ they apply to the process in South America. You could very well spend months or even years in jail waiting for the judge to say “Hey, you seem to be the good guy on this thing. You can go home…but don’t go far.” And God forbids you happened to splatter into some political or influential puddle because that doubles or triples the already glacial speed.
Of course, a system like these breeds an amazing level of corruption. Good people do not want to spend a month, much less a year in jail and probably among the friends of the perp they killed. And while he is in Jail, he is not having an income, his family suddenly finds that the income is gone or reduced by half and the kids suffer without one of the parents plus the stigma that they have a parent in jail and everybody knows. This is breeding grounds for an enterprising judge or defense lawyer to insinuate a way to “accelerate” the process by the proper infusion of a monetary incentive. Depending on the amount you can go from jail to a “detention at home, waiting for a judgement” to “Case? What case, I see no file anywhere” to “Ergo the Government Pardons your sin of Self-Defense. Go forth and thank you.”
And when you get out ahead of what everybody knows is the regular amount of time you should have suffered, you still have to deal with the Mark of Cain (“ZOMG! Jose killed somebody!) and the knowledge that in order to save your family unnecessary suffering and you spending stupid time in jail and maybe even avoiding getting killed, you actually are forced by the system to commit a felony by bribing government officials. If you felt you were not a criminal on the way in, you sure feel like one after the Calvary is done.
So, what is a person to do? Many decide to take the chance and NOT defend themselves to avoid having to deal with the crap mentioned above and put their lives in the hands of the criminal hoping he is in the mood to let you alive after he is done with his business. It is revolting for anybody who exercises (or knows that he can) the right of Self-defense, but that is how most of the world works… and how the Gun Control community wishes it worked in the US.
And that is why I fight. Been there, have no desires to live under that life ever again.
And here we start small, as in, when our kids are small. Our children have no right to defend themselves at school. If they are hit or attacked by another student, and they hit back, both are suspended, and it goes on their permanent file. So if lil Johhny wants to run for office or apply for college, it can come back to haunt them.
Yes, our children have no rights to self defense due to “zero tolerance” and most folks have absolutely no idea this is how it works. (Same way most folks don’t know kids don’t get gym class everyday like we did, one of the reasons the butterballs are obese!)
So, when you train and brainwash an entire generation to avoid self defense, what due you think their adult reactions are gonna be??
Zero Tolerance policies equal Zero Intelligence on the part of school administrators. They cower behind rules set up to protect them! They do not have to figure out Stevie was a jerk and little Johnny was minding his own business.
What a crappy and unjust way to treat the kids and make them victims for their whole life.
Just think if they drew a picture of a firearm for a school assignment or wrote about their Second Amendment rights to include the real purpose of it to resist despotism. The principal usually calls the police! Insane!
Zero Tolerance Policies are the ugly twin sister of Gun Free Zones and both should be locked away in the basement of abandonment.
[…] of the Rio Grande: There is an excellent article on problems in Latin America with self-defense. The Other Gun Control. Other cases are less black and white. Police often find traumatized civilians who are unaware that […]