There was an episode last Friday on Mississippi River Parkway. Four youths – in masks, one of them waving a gun – jumped a couple of people out for a walk along the river.
One of the citizens – a carry permit holder, and by all visible signs a good guy with a gun – returned fire, mortally wounding one of the attackers. Then, according to the story, he did exactly what permit holders are told to do if they, heaven forbid, have to defend themselves; called the cops when he determined he and his companion were safe; then, he administered first aid until the cops arrived.
We don’t, of course, know all the details; if it turns out the shooting was so justified that the Ramco Attorney never tries to bring charges, it’s entirely likely we really won’t. As of today, the police haven’t referred the shooter to the Ramco Attorney, which is a good sign.
But the interesitng part is the coverage the two local dailies gave it.
In the Pioneer Press? Pretty much just the facts.
In the Strib – whose coverage of the last notable self-defense shooting, behind a Cub on East Lake in Minneapolis in 2010, was maudlin and disgraceful – there was a brief nod toward social-justice-warriorism in the early edition, focusing on the deceased robber’s mother’s reaction, as if some editor was hoping to latch onto another Trayvon Martin publicity bonanza. However, by the beginning of this week the narrative had settled down to a sober look at teen gangs in Saint Paul – which may be one of the more unreported issues in the city.
The takeaway? Some shooters are doing the end-zone happy dance. I’m not; a family lost a son. A self-defense shooting is the second worst possible outcome.
But never forget that the worst possible outcome is the intended victim dying. The intended victim is alive today. And the only useful outcome from this would be for every criminal – whether a wannabee gang thug or a creep looking for some unearned cash – to realize that there are 199,999 more of us as of last Thursday who can do exactly the same thing.
And especially for every kid playing at being a gangster, waving a gun around to intimidate people, to know that this state is crawling with people with the motivation and the ability to end them. Cold.
And the odds are getting worse every day. Criminals are mostly rarely bright people – but they have the same sense of self-preservation the rest of us do.
Let’s hope the message gets out.
The dead kid’s brother was quoted as saying “Why didn’t (the shooter) give him a second chance?” As if the intended robbery victim might have received a second chance from the kid with a gun, I suppose. And the mother claimed the kid would have put his gun down if someone had pulled a gun on him, because he didn’t “have the heart” to shoot someone. Apparently he just had the heart to threaten people. Next we’ll be asked why the intended victim had to shoot to kill, rather than just wounding the youngster,
Meanwhile, a tale of three TV stations: it appears that KARE and Fox coverage was pretty much “just the facts” with enough sensationalism to draw ratings; WCCO, however, ran photos of the dead robber, but showing him as a pre-teen and not the ones of him holding guns and flashing gang signs.
As usual, the father was not available for comment. Sorry, but I get a wee bit ticked when a guy with quite the history is portrayed as an “angel” by his half brother and mother. Sorry, Mom, if you didn’t want your son to end up this way, maybe…..just maybe…..you should have considered that kids born out of wedlock are about ten times as likely to commit a felony as those who are not?
Maybe, just maybe, a father worth marrying would have taught his son that if you pull a gun on someone, you are instantly “in season”? (maybe the schools ought to teach this?)
I’m dying to find out who trained the shooter. He did what Liberals confidently assure us cannot be done by ordinary mortals — he drew and fired, striking his assailant and nobody else, while in grave danger and outnumbered, and yet 70% of his shots did Not strike innocent bystanders. I want to meet that trainer and shake his hand.
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Amazing isn’t it Joe.
I have been advised to encourage others to perform first aid, but not to do so yourself, because of the possibility of your efforts being misconstrued by witnesses or prosecution, and the possibility of the injured playing possum.
There are links out there to a video made by St Paul gang members. I did watch it and it is rather scary. A lot of guns in the video. Some people are saying the shooter is either in the video or this is the gang he is associating with. No confirmation.
I was one of those who rejoiced when first heard the story. But then it sunk in how this affects the life of the victim. He is not happy he had to shoot a criminal. Now he has to deal with worrying about retaliation, or the mother coming after him.
I live in a safe neighborhood. I do frequent University Ave, East St Paul, near South Mpls on a somewhat regular basis (especially University Ave), but never felt the need to acquire a firearm and take the classes.
After this event…walking on Mississippi Blvd and Summit, on a nice summer evening, and you get a gun pointed at you by a masked thug……maybe it’s time.
“Some shooters are doing the end-zone happy dance. I’m not; a family lost a son.”
These incidents need to be held up for all the world to see. Remember who you are dealing with, here, mberg. These anti-gun, would-be totalitarians need to be mocked incessantly. People need to know that it is okay to mock these people. They don’t give a damn about the individual known as Lavauntai Broadbent. Given the slightest opportunity the SJW’s would make a hero out of him.
If you look at the comment sections of liberal blogs, you will find that many liberals believe that Trayvon Martin was just a happy-go-lucky kid, skipping back to his grandmother’s house with a goodie basket when big bad wolf George Zimmerman assaulted him, and then murdered him in cold blood when he dared to resist. These are the same people who believe that Mike Brown was just walking down the street in Ferguson when he was assaulted and murdered in cold blood by a racist cop.
Don’t let them even begin to think that they are going to get away with their myth-making. One of the wisest things Breitbart said was that politics is downstream from culture. Do not let them control the culture. Do not let them tell you what is and what is not permissible speech.
15 years ago, a young man went out for an evening bike ride along this same street – E. Mississippi River Blvd.- and never returned. The three moral cretins convicted of Tony Basta’s drive-by murder are now doing time in Stillwater, St. Cloud and Faribault.
Where is Al Sharpton when you need him? Another one of Obama’s coulda-been sons has been gunned down…wait; do you think any baby mammas has Obama’s picture on the coffee table, telling they baby’s that Daddy don’t play that??
“are now doing time in Stillwater, St. Cloud and Faribault.”
at considerable cost to the rate-payers.
lets remember that the cost of coddling this miscreant spawn is significant.
Lavauntai gets a Darwin award and the rest of us are spared the necessity of dealing with/paying for him for the next 50 years
Sorry no sympathy here – he lost that when he pointed his gun at someone. And no sympathy for the mother who cared so little for her son that she let him become the criminal he was.
I feel bad for Broadbent. He was young enough not to understand the seriousness of his actions. No one taught him some important lessons. But Broadbent was not failed by the guy who shot him or by 2nd amendment activists.
“There are links out there to a video made by St Paul gang members. I did watch it and it is rather scary. A lot of guns in the video.”
This is obviously an urban group of gun enthusiasts in their armory. There is no evidence the individuals pictured did not have the legal right to purchase and lawfully own a firearm. ;^)
I’m dying to find out who trained the shooter.
Practice, practice, practice. At the range or dry. It is all muscle memory.
Heather Maartens isn’t calling for tightening up the permit to purchase rules? Improving the instant background checks?
Surely some rule change is needed here to keep these 15-16 year old’s from getting guns!
Emery, pistol ownership is limited to those over age 21. Broadbent was 16. Do the math; the YouTube videos clearly show illegal activity on their part.
Blue, young Lavauntai was failed by the same people his mother, his grandmother and his great grandmother were failed by; leftist panderers and black poverty pimps.
The fall of Bill Cosby was a real tragedy. So few black men are willing to stand up and tell their neighbors what they need to hear, there are few to spare.
Every time a black kid gets shot, leftist slobs like Emery put another notch on their smug, self-righteousness.
AlexG’sWankingMitten, I saw the famous interview where Cosby distanced himself from the Black leadership. When was that? The 90s?
Very impressive. Cosby didn’t think a whole lot of good, happy thoughts about white people. He wanted to live someplace where everyone from the mayor to the guy who owned the hardware store was Black. He believed that Black people were best at looking out for Black people, and white people were best at looking out for white people, and there was nothing you could do about it. Hence Cosby’s problem with white liberals — whatever they had going with Black people, it was to make white people like them happy, not Black people.
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