This topic is temporarily closed for 4 hours due to a large number of community flags.
This topic was automatically opened after 4 hours.
This topic is temporarily closed for 4 hours due to a large number of community flags.
As a reminder, our Community guidelines prohibit making unfounded assumptions about topics such as an individual’s mental state.
There are lots of other forums where you are free to do so if you feel there is no other aspect of this topic worth discussing.
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This topic was automatically opened after 4 hours.
No, it just describes decades and hundreds and thousands of other incidents. Given that reality, it makes sense that the guy acted as he did. It’s not on him to act “civil”, it’s on the racist now, as it should be.
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Having been here for over a decade, I have to disagree. Seamus is quite balanced and restrained compared to Cory or Rob, for example. (And Xeni once told a commenter here to “eat a bag of dicks” which was much more amusing than flagging or deleting will ever be.)
Exactly. The United States’ founders all believed free men have a natural right of lethal self-defense (this is probably the most meaningful distinction between a slave and a free man) but even countries with less reputation for bloodthirstiness shouldn’t have a problem with this, because the driver did not escalate the conflict. He struck back as he was struck.
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Hey wait…
…who are you calling old?
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Mental illness is not the same as being irrational, unethical, willfully ignorant or a general asshole. Please stop equating MI with character flaws. This is how illness gets stigmatized, goes untreated and results in epidemics. If it’s too difficult to understand that in terms of mental illness, then see the AIDS epidemic and its cost in lives, families, dollars and time to understand why we want you to stop this false equivalence.
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I’ve known plenty of bigoted assholes who are perfectly sane; they’re just really shitty people.
Many folks struggling with mental illness are decent, regular people, just trying to get by as best they can.
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Thank you!
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Self defense suggests that he was deflecting a potentially injurious situation. This was not a scenerio were poor impulse control led him to lash out causing an unintentional death.
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Oops. Me? Sorry . . .
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Which is possible when your attacker is smaller, weaker, and sick (and maybe drunk). When people talk about how they are able to defend themselves with their hands I congratulate them for good genes, good training, or whatever. Not all victims can be stronger than the asshole (or assholes) who is (are) attacking them. Let that sink in for a moment…
I am glad he was cleared, I wish he didn’t have to deal with the trauma of killing a man and I too hope he finds a way to deal with that. It can’t be easy.
Also, you cannot really “stand your ground” when you stop your vehicle and get out to engage with a pedestrian asshole. Still, I am glad he was cleared.
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He didn’t die because he said something the driver didn’t like. He died because he started to physically batter the driver and the driver defended himself. If the guy had only said something the driver didn’t like - i.e. if he had stopped at the verbal abuse, he wouldn’t be dead.
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Isn’t the meaning of “stand your ground” to choose not to retreat? Warren clearly had a way to retreat from the situation, but chose not to. That’s “standing your ground.” I’m not sure what else it would mean.
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He first put himself in the dangerous position. He was not in mortal danger while he was in his vehicle. Once he chose to stop, step out, and confront the man who attacked him he was a willing participant in the altercation the way I see it. Again, I am glad he didn’t get charged but that’s not how I understand “stand your ground”. For example, in the state I live in if I am attacked in public I have to do everything I can to get away before defending myself. In a stand your ground state you have no obligation to attempt a retreat and respond with in-kind force (which he did, a punch for a punch) or respond reasonably to deadly threat with deadly force. He wasn’t in a situation where he was in danger (of anything but hateful speech) until he stopped and stepped up to the racist. Something doesn’t feel right about that to me. I can be happy he wasn’t charged but still disagree that the law was followed to the letter.
Is the expectation is that when a white man is yelling at a black person is that he will attack them if they yell back?
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