{"id":26633,"date":"2012-03-05T12:05:08","date_gmt":"2012-03-05T18:05:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=26633"},"modified":"2014-05-21T16:27:30","modified_gmt":"2014-05-21T21:27:30","slug":"chanting-points-memo-i-killed-him-because-i-didnt-like-the-way-he-snored","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=26633","title":{"rendered":"Chanting Points Memo: &#8220;I Shot Him Because I Didn&#8217;t Like The Way He Snored&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Rep. Tony Cornish&#8217;s &#8220;Stand Your Ground&#8221; bill &#8211; which must be either signed or vetoed by midnight tonight (as this is written, neither has happened, although that may change; I write these posts between 5:30 and 7AM, because, well, I work during the day and can&#8217;t always follow the news in real time like some puling Sorosblogger), has come in for the most amazing avalanche of slander over its four years of consideration at various levels.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?attachment_id=26332\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-26332\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-26332\" title=\"4575208799_e7c6e34c94\" src=\"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/4575208799_e7c6e34c94.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"252\" height=\"192\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;ve pointed out that most of the bill&#8217;s detractors &#8211; whether <a href=\"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=26196\">politicians<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=26448\">cops<\/a> or the \u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=26609\">DFL-promoting media <\/a>&#8211; are lying when they say (and say, and say) that the bill would &#8220;legalize murder&#8221;, and that the bill merely changes the presumption of guilt to a \u00a0presumption of innocence when one is attempting self-defense on ones own property &#8211; in the home, yard, garage, or in the car or at a business one owns.<\/p>\n<p>That&#8217;s it.<\/p>\n<p>But some people learn better from seeing\u00a0examples.<\/p>\n<p>So let&#8217;s go through some compare and contrast exercises to look at the differences between current law and the Cornish bill.<\/p>\n<p><strong>A <a href=\"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=26448\">really stupid 10 year old boy<\/a> enters a homeowner&#8217;s property to steal apples<\/strong>. \u00a0The boy is unarmed, by the way, and that&#8217;s above and beyond the fact that <em>he&#8217;s a ten year old boy<\/em>. \u00a0The homeowner comes out of his house with a handgun and shoots the boy, who dies on the scene. \u00a0The homeowner claims self-defense.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Current Law<\/strong>: The homeowner can not prove that the boy was a reasonable threat of death or great bodily harm. \u00a0She&#8217;s convicted of manslaughter or 2nd degree murder.<\/li>\n<li><strong>With &#8220;Stand Your Ground&#8221;<\/strong>: \u00a0The police investigation shows no evidence the boy was a threat to anyone. \u00a0The county attorney charges the homeowner with manslaughter or 2nd degree murder, and proves it to a jury beyond a reasonable doubt. \u00a0The jury convicts her.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div><strong>A homeowner feels a passerby has given him the &#8220;stink eye&#8221;<\/strong>. \u00a0The homeowner &#8211; a lawyer and leftyblogger &#8211; is walking up his front walk when he sees a man walking up the sidewalk towards him. \u00a0The homeowner believes the man has &#8220;given him the stink-eye&#8221; and pulls a Smith and Wesson Model 29 .44 magnum from his camera bag, firing six shots at a range of eight feet, hitting the man once, killing him. \u00a0Claiming to have felt threatened by the &#8220;stink-eye&#8221;, the homeowner claims self-defense.<\/div>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Current Law<\/strong>: The homeowner&#8217;s claim that &#8220;stink-eye&#8221; was a threat of death or great bodily harm, his failure to even attempt to retreat from said &#8220;stink-eye&#8221;, and the unreasonableness of the use of lethal force against an unarmed man (&#8220;stink-eye&#8221; notwithstanding) is rejected by the jury, who convict him of second-degree murder.<\/li>\n<li><strong>With &#8220;Stand Your Ground&#8221;<\/strong>:\u00a0The police investigation shows that the homeowner was not under threat of death or great bodily harm from the alleged perception of &#8220;stink-eye&#8221;. \u00a0The County Attorney, noting that there is no reasonable doubt that a jury will find &#8220;stink eye&#8221; <em>not\u00a0<\/em>to be a lethal threat, and that using lethal force is not a reasonable response to &#8220;stink-eye&#8221;, takes the case to trial. \u00a0Based on the lack of lethal threat and the unreasonableness of lethal force, the jury finds him guilty of second degree murder;\u00a0&#8220;duty to retreat&#8221; is no longer an issue, obviously.\u00a0The homeowner, breaking into a curious German accent as his lawyer buries his face in his hands during the verdict, yells &#8220;But ze law zayz I don&#8217;t have to retreat to ze house, and zat I can kill for ze ztink-eye!&#8221; as the judge pounds the bench, and then the defendant, with his gavel.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div><strong>A man &#8211; Man A &#8211; becomes irritated when another man, &#8220;B&#8221;, cuts him off on Cedar Avenue in Eagan during rush hour. \u00a0<\/strong>A flips B off. \u00a0B flips A off harder. \u00a0A accelerates around B, narrowly missing several other drivers. \u00a0B accelerates to keep pace. \u00a0A swerves to cut B off. \u00a0B bumps A&#8217;s bumper. \u00a0A races up the Cliff Road exit followed by B. \u00a0They pull into the parking lot at Doolittle&#8217;s at Cliff and Nichols. \u00a0B slams into A&#8217;s trunk. \u00a0A pulls away, turns sharply, and slams into the right-front corner of B&#8217;s car. \u00a0B backs away and accelerates, ramming into the front of A&#8217;s car. \u00a0Their cars both disabled, the men climb out and commence a vigorous fist-fight. \u00a0They pummel each other for three minutes before A pulls a can of mace and squirts it at B, catching him in the pants &#8211; which is useless for purposes of blinding him. \u00a0B responds by drawing a revolver, firing twice to knock A down, and four more times as he lies bleeding on the pavement. \u00a0He claims self-defense in the court with jurisdiction, Dakota County.<\/div>\n<div>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Current Law<\/strong>: \u00a0Are you kidding? \u00a0Dozens of witnesses testified that B was a willing participant (you can&#8217;t jump into a fistfight and then claim &#8220;self-defense&#8221; when it goes out of control), so the jury didn&#8217;t buy that. \u00a0They also rejected the claim that he legitimately feared death or great bodily harm from the mace, or that shooting was a reasonable use of lethal force (even if you leave out the four shots to finish him off, which, naturally, the county attorney did not). \u00a0Finally, B did not retreat, although that was the least of his legal problems.<\/li>\n<li><strong>With &#8220;Stand Your Ground&#8221;<\/strong>\u00a0&#8211; While Dakota County Attorney Jim Backstrom had claimed that this was the sort of case that would have allowed &#8220;B&#8221; to walk free &#8211; apparently lacking confidence that the cops or his staff could successfully prove wrongdoing &#8211; the cops successfully interview the dozens of witnesses who noted that both parties were flailing away with aplomb, not to mention having been involved in a miles-long road rage incident &#8211; thus making &#8220;B&#8221; a willing participant. \u00a0The cops also noted that B was faced with mace, not a knife or gun. \u00a0They noted from the spatter and four bullets embedded in the pavement below &#8220;A&#8221;&#8216;s body that at least four of the shots were against an unarmed, incapacitated and probably dying man, meaning lethal force was, at least for those four shots, not justified. \u00a0\u00a0Even though his boss, JIm Backstrom, went on WCCO and &#8220;Almanac&#8221; claiming that &#8220;B&#8221; would likely go free because the &#8220;Stand your Ground&#8221; law meant the incompetent boobs who worked for him probably couldn&#8217;t win the case, his beleaguered assistant easily won a conviction, and a reprimand from Backstrom for making him look like an even bigger idiot than those pesky bloggers had done.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<div><strong>A homeowner, an older black woman, is surprised when \u00a0couple of of young latino men from the neighborhood walk through her open front door<\/strong>\u00a0to ask if she&#8217;s all right; they, being good citizens, were genuinely concerned about their neighbor&#8217;s well-being. \u00a0The woman, afraid after hearing stories of latino-on-black violence in Los Angeles, comes out of her bathroom with a shotgun, and in a brief orgy of gender-and-race-based fear, kills one man and gravely wounds the other. \u00a0She claims self-defense.<\/div>\n<div>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Current Law<\/strong>: \u00a0The woman is in her home, so she has no &#8220;duty to retreat&#8221; under current law. \u00a0But the jury rejects her self-defense claim, as there is no evidence of a lethal threat (the men were unarmed) and the lethal force was unreasonable. \u00a0 She quickly pleads down to one count of manslaughter and one of aggravated assault.<\/li>\n<li><strong>With &#8220;Stand Your Ground&#8221;<\/strong>: \u00a0The investigating cops find no sign of weapons, no evidence of a threat. \u00a0 The county attorney gets the conviction.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div><strong>A 100 pound Asian woman is tending her Frogtown garden<\/strong>. \u00a0A car with two white men &#8211; &#8220;Mark&#8221;, a 300 pound man with a long history of violent offenses (unbeknownst to the woman), and &#8220;Jeff&#8221;, a wiry man with facial tattoos who was recently released (again, unknown to the Asian woman) from prison after serving time for a sexual assault conviction, drives up. \u00a0&#8220;Mark&#8221; climbs out of the car and says &#8220;Bitch, get in the car! \u00a0We&#8217;re going to a party&#8221;. \u00a0The Asian woman says &#8220;no, and get off my property&#8221;. \u00a0As &#8220;Jeff&#8221; climbs out of the car, &#8220;Mark&#8221; says &#8220;Aw, honey, it&#8217;ll be a fun party!&#8221;, and advances toward her. \u00a0&#8220;Go away!&#8221; she yells. \u00a0&#8220;Mark&#8221; grins a chilling grin, as &#8220;Jeff&#8221; takes up what looks like a lookout position. \u00a0The womam backs away\u00a0from &#8220;Mark&#8221;, draws a .380 pistol from her pocket. \u00a0&#8220;Mark&#8221; chuckles. \u00a0&#8220;Oh, no, don&#8217;t shoot me&#8221;, he says sarcastically, pulling down his zipper as he continues to advance. \u00a0The woman shoots him twice in the chest. \u00a0He falls to the found as &#8220;Jeff&#8221; jumps in his car. \u00a0The woman administers CPR until the police and paramedics arrive, saving his life.<\/div>\n<div>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Current Law<\/strong>: \u00a0Deputy County Attorney Jon Hesch &#8211; an up and comer who wants to be elected County Attorney someday &#8211; sitting in his office surrounded by metal detectors and deputies &#8211; notes that the woman was not in her house, so she had the ability to run away; being in shape, she could <em>certainly <\/em>have outrun a 300 pound man. \u00a0He also notes that the men were unarmed, and so the woman had no fear of death or great bodily harm. \u00a0Furthermore, &#8220;Mark&#8221; states from his hospital bed that he had been drinking, and was pulling down his zipper because he wanted to urinate, and that in fact they really really really <em>did <\/em>actually want to go to a party,\u00a0not to try to rape her (and Hesch notes that there&#8217;s no way she could have known about Mark&#8217;s violent crime convictions), putting a &#8220;rape&#8221; claim in some doubt. \u00a0Hesch decides to prosecute for attempted murder. \u00a0The woman &#8211; and her husband &#8211; are not wealthy. \u00a0They can&#8217;t afford an attorney with the oomph to fight back against Hesch and the entire Ramsey County Attorney&#8217;s office; to avoid putting the family in the poorhouse, the woman pleads guilty to a lesser charge &#8211; felony aggravated assault &#8211; putting a felony on her record and a &#8220;conviction&#8221; and a &#8220;gun off the street&#8221; for ambitious young weasel Hesch, who duly files it away in the &#8220;win&#8221; column in time to make it to a cocktail party with Keri Miller and Alita Messinger.<\/li>\n<li><strong>With &#8220;Stand Your Ground&#8221;<\/strong>: Assistant County Attorney Hesch notes that the police investigation turned up no evidence that&#8217;d give him a shot of even insinuating, much less proving beyond a reasonable doubt, that the woman was a willing participant, or \u00a0that her fear or her use of force was unreasonable. \u00a0Trying to try the case would be a lot of work with almost no chance of a conviction. \u00a0 As an ambitious up-and-comer, he decides to curry favor with the Asian community, declines to press charges, calls her a hero for getting a thug off the street, and makes his 5PM squash date with his supervisor.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div><strong>While at an amusement park<\/strong>\u00a0, a group of \u00a0young ruffians grope a teenage girl. \u00a0The girl&#8217;s father intervenes, getting in the lads&#8217; faces. \u00a0The lads start beating and kicking the man who, outnumbered 6-1, eventually goes down. \u00a0 \u00a0Another man &#8211; a concealed carry permit-holder with a concealed handgun &#8211; assesses the situation and, nervous about how a county attorney would react, opts to yell at the lads that he&#8217;s calling the police. \u00a0One of the lads draws a 9mm handgun from under his Breck School sweatshirt and dares him to do anything about it, and brandishes the gun at the rest of the crowd, sending any would-be intervenors fleeing. \u00a0The man draws his own handgun and fires one shot, hitting Mr. Breck in the head, killing him and sending the rest of the perps fleeing.<\/div>\n<div>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Under Current Law<\/strong>: Good question. \u00a0If the &#8220;amusement park&#8221; is in Clay County, the cops probably shake his hand and offer to buy him coffee if they see him; the county attorney thanks his lucky stars there&#8217;s another scumbag off the street. \u00a0In Henco, of course, the County Attorney must appease the DFL, so the cops arrest the man; he&#8217;s charged with manslaughter. \u00a0He posts bail, cashes in his retirement account, and lawyers up. \u00a0The County Attorney <em>could <\/em>opt to pursue him using any number of approaches; he should have retreated, it wasn&#8217;t\u00a0he <em>who <\/em>was under direct threat, and really, the cops were only 15 minutes away. \u00a0The man&#8217;s fate is in the hands of a Henco jury. \u00a0What would you do?<\/li>\n<li><strong>With &#8220;Stand Your Ground&#8221;<\/strong>: What, do I have to explain everything? \u00a0He&#8217;s not on his property. Nothing really changes. \u00a0More&#8217;s the pity.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<div><strong>A young female law student<\/strong>\u00a0driving home to her apartment after night class is approached in her parking lot by two men. \u00a0They run toward her car. \u00a0She draws her gun &#8211; but ponders for a moment &#8211; &#8220;is my fear of death or great bodily harm legitimate? \u00a0Do I need to try to retreat before I draw and shoot? \u00a0Is this reasonable?&#8221;<\/div>\n<div>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Under Current Law<\/strong>: The crime scene investigator is called to a wooded area in Maplewood to investigate an apparent homicide. \u00a0In addition to ligature marks around the neck and signs of sexual assault, the woman&#8217;s face shows signs of having been hit by mace. \u00a0Back in her apartment parking lot, her car shows signs of that same mace; under the car lies an un-used handgun, traced to the woman, a law student who&#8217;d apparently just left night class.<\/li>\n<li><strong>With &#8220;Stand Your Ground&#8221;<\/strong>: The crime scene investigator is called to the scene of a shooting in an apartment parking lot. \u00a0One man with a long history of sexual assault convictions lies on the pavement, shot twice in the chest. \u00a0His accomplice fled, and is found, pantsless, in a nearby park. \u00a0The young woman&#8217;s inner monologue, not muddled by having to second-guess a county attorney, resolved itself in time to kill the mace-armed rapist. \u00a0His accomplice claimed he removed his pants in self-defense as he was bundled off to jail. \u00a0The <em>Strib&#8217;s <\/em>Matt McKinney writes a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=24056\">touching portrait<\/a> of the dead man&#8217;s family, highlighting his sister&#8217;s claim that the &#8220;victim&#8221; was <em>so close <\/em>to turning his life around, <em>this<\/em> time&#8230;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<div><strong>A man is driving down the road<\/strong>\u00a0with his pregnant wife. \u00a0Their two children are in the back seat. \u00a0He changes lanes, inadvertently cutting off another man speeding up behind him. \u00a0The second driver honks, enraged. \u00a0The first man &#8211; let&#8217;s call him &#8220;Marty&#8221; &#8211; waves, the universal Minnesota driver sign for &#8220;sorry about that&#8217;. \u00a0The second man &#8211; let&#8217;s just call him &#8220;Lyndon&#8221; &#8211; seethes with rage. \u00a0Finally Lyndon sees the chance to avenge his besmirched manhood. \u00a0He pulls up next to Marty&#8217;s car as it&#8217;s stuck between two other cars at a stoplight, rolls down a window, and points a Glock at Marty&#8217;s wife. \u00a0&#8220;It&#8217;d sure be a shame if your wife died because you&#8217;re such a f****ng stupid driver&#8221;, Lyndon yells. \u00a0 \u00a0Seeing his wife and children being threatened by a man with a gun &#8211; by definition, a lethal threat &#8211; and unable to drive away because he&#8217;s boxed in on all sides, Marty draws his own gun and fires three shots, wounding Lyndon. \u00a0He then calls the police &#8211; following the self-defense playbook to a T.<\/div>\n<div>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Current Law<\/strong>: Assistant County Attorney Hedda Blatz-Grehnbehlt notes that while the threat of death or great bodily harm was definitely present, and that the use of lethal force against lethal force meets the letter and spirit of the law, and there was no way to show that Marty was a willing participant, she <em>did <\/em>believe that Marty had the option of telling the kids to climb out the left door and dragging his wife over the transmission hump and out the driver&#8217;s side door, rather than shooting. \u00a0She informs Marty&#8217;s lawyer &#8211; as he charges $250 an hour to listen &#8211; that she&#8217;s going to take the case to court, with a bevy of witnesses to show that there wasn&#8217;t clear convincing evidence that Marty <em>couldn&#8217;t <\/em>have evacuated his kids from the car rather than shooting. \u00a0Marty&#8217;s attorney tells Marty &#8220;We should be able to win this one &#8211; but we&#8217;ll need expert witnesses to rebut the county&#8217;s contention, plus there&#8217;ll likely be a long, nasty trial against a team of county attorneys. \u00a0it&#8217;s gonna cost ya a minimum of $50K, maybe $100K, and that&#8217;s win or lose, and there are no guarantees. \u00a0Wanna roll the dice? \u00a0Or take the deal to plead guilty to aggravated assault, serve a year, maybe suspended, plus ten years probation, and get your life back?&#8221; \u00a0It&#8217;s a tough call for the guy, a working-class stiff who doesn&#8217;t have &#8220;a lawyer&#8221; of his own to call.<\/li>\n<li><strong>With &#8220;Stand Your Ground&#8221;<\/strong>:\u00a0\u00a0Assistant County Attorney Blatz-Grehnbehlt shakes her head, declines to press charges, and leaves work early to go to a &#8220;Take Action Minnesota&#8221; rally.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div><strong>A man walks, uninvited, into a garage in South Minneapolis<\/strong>. \u00a0The homeowner, working on his lawn mower in the garage, turns, alarmed, as a disheveled man walks toward him demanding money. \u00a0The man draws his permitted concealed handgun and orders the intruder to leave. \u00a0&#8220;F**k you, pay me!&#8221; the man yells. \u00a0The homeowner believes he sees a knife; he fires, killing the intruder.<\/div>\n<div>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Current Law<\/strong>: Knife? \u00a0Threat? \u00a0Reasonable? \u00a0Sure &#8211; but <em>could <\/em>the homeowner have tried to run away? \u00a0That&#8217;s up to the county attorney &#8211; and if the county attorney has seen too many kung fu movies, the homeowner will have to spend his life&#8217;s savings and then some to prove he couldn&#8217;t have &#8211; to \u00a0<em>prove his innocence &#8211;<\/em>\u00a0beyond a reasonable doubt. \u00a0\u00a0 It&#8217;s a crap shoot.<\/li>\n<li><strong>With &#8220;Stand Your Ground&#8221;: <\/strong>Did the man do anything wrong? \u00a0The burden of proof is on the prosecutor. \u00a0<em>Where it should be<\/em>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<div>That&#8217;s the dirty little secret behind the DFL\/Media&#8217;s &#8220;Legalizing Murder!!!!!&#8221; invective over this law; it&#8217;s to draw your attention away from the fact that vetoing &#8220;Stand Your Ground&#8221; will be a blow against everyone&#8217;s civil rights &#8211; especially working and poor people.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Rep. Tony Cornish&#8217;s &#8220;Stand Your Ground&#8221; bill &#8211; which must be either signed or vetoed by midnight tonight (as this is written, neither has happened, although that may change; I write these posts between 5:30 and 7AM, because, well, I work during the day and can&#8217;t always follow the news in real time like some [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[108,298,22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26633","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chanting-points-memo","category-favorites-rkba","category-victim-disarmament"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26633","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=26633"}],"version-history":[{"count":30,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26633\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44158,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26633\/revisions\/44158"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=26633"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=26633"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=26633"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}