Originally published at: Charges dropped against road rage shooter | Boing Boing
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“Who… run… Bartertown?”
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Are We Not Florida Men?
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We are Devo
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I mean, even if you decide you aren’t going to charge him with attempted murder or assault with a deadly weapon (which he should have been) because he felt deathly threatened by a…checks notes…water bottle, then you at least have to charge him with reckless endangerment or illegal discharge for the people he could have killed or maimed in other cars/buildings/pedestrians nearby. “Stand Your Ground” doesn’t cover risking the lives of everyone else beside the person you think is attacking you.
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Ah, yes, Stand Your Ground laws, because protecting your fragile ego is MUCH more important than sensibly removing yourself from the situation and allowing the legal system to handle things.
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If I’m remembering the story correctly, he had claimed that he thought the thrown water bottle was some sort of attack - but clearly in the video, he got out his gun the minute the other car was tailgating him and was already ready and primed to fire. This is what “stand your ground” laws do - not help people protect themselves, but normalize and legalize everything from “reckless discharge of a firearm” to “murder” in response to just being annoyed (usually by a situation the shooter has contributed to, if not created).
Yeah, in the US, guns are inseparable elements of these fundamentally sick power fantasies, and “stand your ground” laws are the legal codifications of those fantasies.
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Wow, I did not comprehend by reading the article the level of reckless incompetence on display here.
The video must be watched to see the haphazard and uncontrolled discharge of the weapon. I cannot fathom how, after seeing this video, multiple charges were not upheld against this person.
The disregard for anyone’s safety (including his own, he could have easily lost control of the vehicle while firing) should be enough to get this man behind bars for at least some period of time.
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There is certainly a lot of de-evolution in Florida
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I watched this video when it came out and today I’m shocked. Obviously, all states have laws about attempted murder and aggravated assault. They also have more catch-all laws like disorderly conduct or menacing (I haven’t looked at FL’s specific laws but all states have something like this) with lesser charges to cover misuse of a firearm without even needing to prove intent to harm anyone, which seem like it would have been a slam dunk in this case. What does it take to get prosecuted these days? It appears that Florida is going to remove their permit requirement even so this guy will, assuming that law passes, be able to carry without a permit now.
Yeah this. I can’t fathom it. Even at the most basic level, there are almost always laws against discharge of a firearm in a municipality (if this occurred in city limits). I think there are generally laws specifically about discharge of a firearm from a vehicle. I mean, come on… some kind of charge here… it’s shocking.
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In my town, if he was holding a cell phone and tried to drive, he would get a ticket at least.
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For the last few years, I’ve honestly been expecting some wingnut judge to rule that crimes committed with guns are legal because Second Amendment.
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That’s not what happened here? The DA dropped the charges…
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If “stand your ground” laws are sufficient to let people get away with outright murder, relatively small infractions are covered as well. The whole point of such laws is to effectively decriminalize unwarranted gun violence - so that’s going to include the more minor violations, otherwise what’s the point? Which is to say: of course he risked the lives and safety of everyone else on the road around him, that’s not really at question, but legally speaking, all that takes a backseat to the shooter’s feelings.
The legislators effectively already did that with the “stand your ground” laws, though. (With the added bonus of inbuilt white supremacy, as you get to inconsistently apply the laws.)
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this is such a base question its almost pointless, but I do wonder if this brave stand you own hero had been black or brown would law enforcement have allowed them to live long enough for that pathetic judge to make his joke of a ruling. Is our young gun-happy hero perhaps a relative of his honor, does he known something about the judge? So little of this makes sense.
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I have to wonder who his relatives are.
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Exactly, that’s what’s so bizarre. I get it, juries can sometimes come to weird decisions, but this didn’t even get to a trial. It didn’t even get to a judge. It was just a prosecutor who said, “well, I’ll let this one go”.
IANAL but it seems like… come on, he could have at least given some charge that would result in loss of gun rights. That could be any felony, even if no prison time. I’m pretty sure loss of gun rights could be attached to plea bargains even for a misdemeanor. That’s what’s so baffling. I don’t think stand your ground applies to this situation at all, from what I can see. The recent Supreme Court gun decision also has nothing to do with this. There’s no right to go nuts and start shooting.
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No reason to investigate further. I’m sure the issue is all white, er, right.
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