I’d call it a turning point.
John Nichols and Thom Hartmann are very careful to not say something which isn’t true. I can only wish I had the time to do the same.
So you think if this beautiful young man had been carrying a gun instead of skittles and shot the white guy: he would have been given the same rights to a fair trial.
Come on! Get real!
#1 by Larry Bergan on March 23, 2012 - 11:21 pm
Have you ever read or seen “To Kill a Mocking Bird”?
American culture at it’s very best!
#2 by Richard Warnick on March 24, 2012 - 8:37 pm
I wondered the same thing. If the law in some states (including Utah) makes it perfectly OK to shoot and kill somebody who frightens you, then it ought to be applied equally.
#3 by Researcher on March 24, 2012 - 10:05 pm
Not true.
#4 by Larry Bergan on March 24, 2012 - 11:02 pm
Researcher:
Maybe you could elaborate.
#5 by Larry Bergan on March 24, 2012 - 11:19 pm
I actually don’t think this is as much a racist law, as it is a law designed to protect the freedom of lawmakers that have gone too far in taking away ALL of our freedoms.
And I don’t think ALL is a word that goes too far.
If ALEC were a person, I think I should have the right to kill it in self defense, but I don’t even own a gun. Can I challenge ALEC to a fistfight?
#6 by Researcher on March 25, 2012 - 8:41 am
It is not ok to kill anyone who frightens you.
Under the “reasonable man” test, if you reasonably fear for your life (for example if someone is running at you, someone beaks into your home) not simply whether or not you are afraid, then you can defend yourself and kill them if necessary.
If you overreact and it is not reasonable for you to be in fear for your life, then you fail that test. Then you could be charged with a crime for murder or manslaughter.
#7 by Larry Bergan on March 25, 2012 - 9:13 am
Researcher/Noname:
If somebody beaks into my home, it would probably be a pigeon.
Is there an overreact clause in the “right to kill” bill?
Just seems to be too complex and favorable to some; don’t you think?
#8 by Researcher on March 25, 2012 - 10:20 pm
I don’t own a gun and I don’t want to own a gun. But someone was in my home at 3 o’clock in the morning I probably would kill them.
The overreact clause is this whole concept of the reasonable man standard.
It is pretty reasonable to be pretty damned scared if someone breaks into your home in the middle of the night. It is not reasonable to be scared because a kid is walking down the street in a hoodie.