Love Thy Neighbor As Thyself
The second greatest commandment meets Castle Doctrine in Houston:
In a case legal experts say may “stretch the limits” of the state’s self-defense laws, a Pasadena man shot and killed two suspected burglars during a confrontation as they attempted to flee his neighbor’s property Wednesday afternoon.
In the minutes before the fatal shootings, Pasadena police said the man called 911 and reported that he had heard glass breaking next door and saw two men entering the home through a window. Still on the phone with police, the man, believed to be in his 70s, saw the suspects leaving from the back of the home.
“I’m getting my gun and going to stop them,” the neighbor told the dispatcher during the 2 p.m. call, according to Vance Mitchell, a spokesman for Pasadena police. “The dispatcher said, ‘No, stay inside the house; officers are on the way.’
“Then you hear him rack the shotgun. The next sound the dispatcher heard was a boom. Then there was silence for a couple of seconds and then another boom.”
After the shotgun blasts, the telephone line went dead. But the neighbor called police again and told a dispatcher what he had done.
My favorite part: the 911 dispatcher tells the man that “property isn’t worth killing anybody over” and “if you go out there, you’re gonna get shot”. To which the man says “the hell I will.”
These were the wrong things to say to a Texan with a gun. The Scots-Irish moved to the state to get rich, even though doing so put their lives at risk with some of the nastiest most aggressive Indian tribes of the frontier. And to tell a Texan that if he engages in a gunfight, he’s going to get shot…well, even if he were inclined to not fight, by saying that you force him to prove you wrong.
What’s the old saying? You can tell a Texan, but you can’t tell him much?
This brave man loved his neighbor as he loves himself. Go and do likewise.
November 16th, 2007 at 6:25 pm
Good for him!
BTW… do you think there’s any Texan sensitivity training in that dispatcher’s future?
November 17th, 2007 at 11:31 am
The entire event is on You Tube. I’ve listened to it. In my sincere, gun toting opinion, no property is worth killing over. I agree with everything the dispatcher said to the man. Especially since plain clothes officers had been dispatched to the scene.
Howevere, the Texas Penal Code provides a defense in this situation:http://www.bakers-legal-pages.com/pc/0942.htm
In law school my criminal law professor’s joke on this topic was: “In Texas, a homeowner that uses deadly force doesn’t need a throw down weapon, all he needs is a throw down clock radio”.
Based on my review of the 911 tape, the homeowner was well within his rights. I know others in Harris county have killed in defense of property so I don’t really expect an indictment. It will be interesting to watch.
November 17th, 2007 at 11:02 pm
At the risk of sounding like a complete nut (trust me, I’m only a little nutty), I’m going to disagree with this statement as a general rule, although not necessarily as it regards this case:
“In my sincere, gun toting opinion, no property is worth killing over.”
Our country was founded on three basic principles: Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. The pursuit of happiness being widely understood as the pursuit of personal property at the time that was written. Not only was property worth defending, it played a large role in why we went to war with Britain in the first place. If you separate a man from his property, you separate him from the product of his labor and his liberty.
To be guaranteed life alone, we may as well live in a socialist nations such as China.
In a system such as ours which does generally support property rights and with a penal system generally does capture and punish those who steal our property, it really isn’t necessary to go gunning down people who are breaking the law.
But as a general rule, I am not so sure that we can say that “property” isn’t worth it. Property as a concept is very much worth fighting for.
November 21st, 2007 at 11:27 pm
During the Korean War, there was a problem with teens climbing the fences and stealing U.S. Government suplies to sale on the black market, that were intended for our troops……….Being a U.N. operation, it was suggested that the troops from Turkey take responsability for gaurding the cargo at the naval base…………….Shortly afterwards, day shift arrived to find a considerable number of dead teens shot and hanging all over the fence from the night before……………..The theft stopped………The desire to live is normally greater than the desire to steal. This same aplied policy is why MANY nations don’t have 20 million uninvited illegal alliens in their country’s!