A Real American Hero
By Mitch Berg
AKA “The Pansification Of America”
Joseph Lord of Vienna, Maine was tired of having scumbags working over his machine shop for scrap metal, and being told the police could do nothing.
The good news: like any real American, he did the right thing:
The owner of a machine shop where thieves stole $3,000 worth of scrap steel, iron and aluminum wasn’t going to let it happen again. After Saturday night’s theft, Joseph Lord loaded his shotgun and laid low, expecting the thieves to return. They came back on Tuesday, in broad daylight.
When Lord saw their 2008 F-250 pickup truck, he shot out its tires and windshield and blasted its radiator, Kennebec County Sheriff Randall Liberty said.
I salute you, Mr. Lord.
The startled thieves took off on foot, but investigators quickly tracked down the truck’s operator, who will be charged with theft, Liberty said. Charges are pending against an accomplice, the sheriff said.
Now, as to the bad news? Well, OK – you expect the county sheriff to tut-tut and urge citizens not to “take the law into their own hands”…
Liberty said he discourages the use of guns to protect property. In this case, Lord told investigators he wanted to disable the vehicle so the criminals couldn’t escape.
“I can understand the frustration that Mr. Lord must have been experiencing,” Liberty said. But, he added, “We don’t want to see anyone get hurt over property.”
(Although the odds of someone innocent being hurt had the scumbags decided to burgle Mr. Lord’s home, and someone was in the house, would have been vastly higher).
No, the main symptom of pansification was the Yahoo News headline that came with the story: “‘Vigilante’ gets revenge on metal shop thieves“.
“Vigilante”. Sheesh.
Since the partisan press holds that word over everyone who doesn’t act like a mute sheep in the face of criminal aggression is a “vigilante”, “gun nut” or “paranaoiac”, perhaps we – the Real Americans – need to take those words back. After all, “Vigilante” in the original Latin was Vigiles – basically “neighborhood block club”.
And congrats, Mr. Lord. You are a great living American.
(NOTE: I’m in a less-than-charitable mood today. Any comments criticizing Mr. Lord will be edited for my amusement. This is true only for this post – but it is the case. There is no appeal).
June 5th, 2008 at 7:25 am
In words that angryclown will appreciate and totally agree with:
“America! F*** Yeah!”
And now we need a montage…
June 5th, 2008 at 1:00 pm
Ah yes-the “vigilante” epithet.
The time I heard my soon to be former Prez GWB call those of us who wanted a closed border “vigilantes”, I decided to research the word.
The root word is “vigil” which means “to watch”. That word comes from the Latin “vigilant”.
“Vigilante” comes from the Spanish word for “watchman”.
The American use of the word comes from the Vigilance Committees or Citizens Vigilance Committees of the Far West , though there were vigilance committees as early as the Revolutionary War period. The vigilance committees were formed when the local police and court systems were failing in their duties either because of bribery, corruption, ineffectiveness or, in the case of San Francisco, were non-existent.
And so, judging by the police telling Mr.Lord “We can’t protect your property” Mr. Lord needed to protect his own property.
Protecting property is protecting your life-the life, time , talent you spent to acquire that property. When someone steals that property they are stealing that part of your life you expended to get it. Bastiat puts it much better than I can ( http://www.constitution.org/law/bastiat.htm and read “Life Is a Gift from God” and ” What Is the Law?”).
“The Law” is a great read and shows how the present form of the U.S. Government is corrupt and illegal.
Anyhow, read the entire piece.
June 5th, 2008 at 1:49 pm
Silly vigilante – wrecking a perfectly good pick up truck when if he had better aim, he might have been able to save the taxpayers the cost of a trial and prevent the next citizen from getting robbed when these thieves are put back out on the streets.
(Waiting for Mitch’s editing)
June 5th, 2008 at 1:55 pm
Well, Thorley, technically the thieves weren’t a “threat of death or great bodily harm”, so shooting the driver and passenger might have gotten him in trouble; I’m not sure what Maine’s law is, but since I’ve heard nothing about prosecution, I have to assume that Maine has a “make my day” law, and/or it’s a small town with a sympathetic prosecutor.
By any means necessary.
America. F*** Yeah.