Originally published at: No charges for Texas man who tracked down and executed man who stole his truck | Boing Boing
…
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…how?!
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Because Texas.
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If they ever fell out of style
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This will be studied as a blueprint for how to murder people.
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Keep in mind that the Texas state flag is a Yelp review.
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Wasn’t it already established that running over somebody who is riding a bicycle is the way to get away with murder? It sure seems that way, sadly.
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By the way, the article is a mess for the way they use “truck” in the title but call it car theft multiple times through the text.
It’s not at all clear, but I suspect it’s neither a car nor a truck but actually a pickup.
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What do you mean, ‘what if’?
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I mean…pickup is short for pickup truck. Not just in Texas. It’s a type of truck. Also…wtf? Why are y’all worrying about the semantics of the type of vehicle. It’s literally not relevant to any fucking part of this story.
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Yes, vigilantism and murder are the only options. Case closed.
I mean, that’s how the US took Texas. The crime was “being Mexico”.
Also: The “hanging horse thieves” thing is a myth.
As is also the “more severe punishments reduce crime” chestnut.
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There is not a single thing I own that’s worth it to me to take another person’s life.
This man took two other men and went looking for his truck, they were not trying to stop the truck from being taken. Then when they found it they decided to be judge, jury and executioner. But they did seem to skip the judge and jury part.
They could have just flattened a tire causing the thief to abandon the vehicle but this wasn’t about getting the vehicle back.
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That’s a popular theory but we have decades upon decades worth of data showing it’s mostly untrue. For example, places that still have capital punishment and allow private citizens to carry handguns have higher murder rates than places that don’t.
Also, in what universe is “summary extrajudicial execution” a lesser crime than auto theft?
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Texas, apparently.
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Blockquote
and anyone could kill anyone else suspected of a crime so long asthe circumstances lent public sympathy to the killer?
…so long as the killer used a gun as opposed to any other object or method, because as we all know, killing someone with a gun is the only murder right that was written into the constitution. I think it’s the 2ndish Amendment?
Also… where is the strikethru button?
Thanks @gatto fren 
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More than decades - it was already completely disproven during the age of the “Bloody Code” in 18th and 19th century England. You’d have pickpockets working the crowd that had come to watch the hangings of people convicted of… pickpocketing. Didn’t phase them at all.
(Turns out, it’s not the severity of punishment, but how likely they are to be caught, convicted and punished - a quite “light” consequence is enough to stop people if consistently applied.)
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~~strike~~ winds up strike
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