(snip)
Povero said the court will decide this case, but the law is clear and using vigilante-style justice is dangerous to innocent people.
Obviously, we have a local law dog out of this mold:
Posted on 12/19/2007 3:52:08 AM PST by Revelation 911
For 30 years they've been breaking into John O'Connor's place.
They come in the night, when no one's around, and they steal parts and tools. Over the years, he figures, he's lost about a quarter of a million dollars.
That's a lot of money when you're a mechanic making a living fixing people's cars and fishing usable parts out of a scrap yard.
It's an awful lot of money.
And it's an awful lot of lawlessness.
John lives and does business in the hamlet of Honeoye, in the town of Richmond, in Ontario County, New York. It's a small place, out in the hills, a long way from the sheriff's office in the county seat. And it's a long way from any kind of law enforcement when the bad guys come in the dark of the night.
Which is why all those businesses down that way have a shotgun behind the counter. And it's why at Thanksgiving time when he got a call from the alarm company one midnight he brought a 12-gauge along just in case.
That was a dusey of a night.
A night that may destroy John O'Connor's life.
He got the call from the alarm company when he was sound asleep and quickly dressed and grabbed his gun and drove down to the shop. It's kind of scary, in a way. Darkened garage, creepy junk yard, the uncertainty of who is lurking in the shadows.
And all of a sudden a young man sprinted by him.
John O'Connor had been looking for tracks in the snow and mud and, as he searched, the alarm company called his cell to report that the intruder alert had gone off not once, but twice, since he entered the garage. There had been a crook on the property, and he was still there, and John O'Connor had no idea where.
It would be terrifying, in a way, not knowing who was there, what their intentions were, whether or not they were armed.
Then, without warning, that young man blew past John O'Connor at a dead sprint. Just running for all he was worth.
And John O'Connor told the dispatcher.
He'd been on 9-1-1 from the start, calling for the deputies to come, and he was giving the dispatcher a play-by-play. He told the operator that the blurred man had passed and disappeared.
Then John O'Connor saw the car.
A car, with its lights off, trolling in front of his business. Not 5 m.p.h. It drove in front of the business once, then back again, then it took one more lap and pulled over, silent and dark.
Which John O'Connor reported to the dispather.
Hiding behind some brush, watching for the guy who had almost knocked him down, keeping an eye on the getaway car, relaying it all to the authorities.
But they didn't seem to care much.
The dispatcher was more interested in the gun, the big 12-gauge John had in his hands. The dispatcher wanted the gun put away, that's all John can remember the conversation focusing on. Put the gun away and the deputies will come. But he figured he wasn't putting the gun down until the deputies got there to keep things safe. Until then it was him alone against the night.
That's what he explained as he hunkered behind a bush, watching the getaway car, knowing he had to act soon.
So he stood up.
He stood up and he shouted to whoever was in the car to get out. Right now. Get out of that car. But that's not what happened. Instead, the driver gunned the car and came straight at John O'Connor. It didn't appear that he was trying to run him down, but he was trying to get away. And as the car sped past John, its left front tire passing just over a foot away, he fired the gun.
Not at the guy, not into the windshield, not where it could hit anyone.
But he uncorked that big 12-gauge into the tire. As the bad guy tried to get away, John O'Connor bunged up his tire big time.
And he told the 9-1-1 dispatcher which way he had gone, and on what road to look for a car with a flat tire.
And, lo and behold, responding deputies found an abandoned car with a flat tire.
Eventually they found the two suspected robbers. But that night all it was was three hours of paperwork and a dog sniffing for a trail. When the deputies and investigators finally left, the only thing that had been taken into custody was John O'Connor's gun. But ultimately the bad guys were located and charged with misdemeanors.
And a few days later, summoned to the sheriff's office on a pretense, John O'Connor was arrested. Mug shot, finger prints, booking. The whole enchilada. He was charged with a felony count of using deadly force. He could go to the state prison.
Thirty years in business, paying his taxes, never a problem with the law his entire life, military veteran. John O'Connor is one of the good guys. One of the people who holds a town together. In fact, he's on the town board, elected by his neighbors.
And tonight he'll be a common criminal, in the dock, in one of the first steps of a criminal prosecution.
Because he shot the gun.
A man whose property has been repeatedly savaged, whose livelihood has been threatened, who can't get any help from the deputies, that man. Trying to convince a fleeing criminal to desist and to wait for the police, he pulls a trigger and potentially throws away his life.
Which is preposterous. The sheriff's department should be ashamed for charging this man. The district attorney should have thrown it out long ago.
But they are going to claim that he used deadly force without justification.
And, in that, they are going to be completely wrong. There was no use of deadly force here. The intent of John O'Connor was not to take anyone's life, it was to stop a fleeing crook. The discharge of the firearm was in no way dangerous to anyone. It was meant to shoot out a tire, which was safely achieved.
At worst, this is a criminal mischief, an act of destruction against an automobile. Had there been any intent whatsoever to use the gun to injure anyone, the guy behind the wheel would have blown gray matter all over he inside of the car.
The proof that there was no threat to anyone's safety is the fact that no one's safety was endangered. Everyone went home without a scratch.
The disgusting irony, however, is that the bad guys got charged with misdemeanors and the good guy got charged with a felony. A man called the police for help and they got it backwards, they arrested the victim, not the crooks.
And tonight he goes to court. Hopefully the district attorney will drop the charges. If not, hopefully a grand jury will take up the matter and common people with common sense will throw the travesty out of court.
Because John O'Connor is not a bad guy.
And what he did was not wrong.
And it's a pretty sad state of affairs when the cops crucify the people they're supposed to be protecting.
- by Bob Lonsberry © 2007
Please share your kind thoughts with him
Can someone alert the NRA ?
And the question is: Why would anyone in the USA, who believes in the citizen’s right to keep and bear arms, vote for any politician from New York for President?
Politicians and police no longer honor an individual’s right to self defense in this country. All the more reason to be armed.
Can you post a link to the local paper? I’d like to follow this story.
hey same - I guess your signup date makes you a newbie - Ive got you beat by a few weeks LOL
Along the same lines as: "Shoot, Shovel, Shut Up" I think I would happily tell the dispatcher: "I have put the gun away. It's locked in the trunk of my car. Tell the deputies to come, the coast is clear."
Having said those magic words, the rest of the night may have played out exactly the same -- but it would be interesting to see if the cops would have shown up faster.
Dave,
Time to muster the Bang List email troops on this one...
you get the representation you elect....this guy did what the police would not...and now he will be charged with a crime....you get the representation you elect
Only by a few days.
October 2.
September 28.
Regardless, this police department is really screwed up to be charging him with a crime for defending his property against these thieves.
bttt for later
(snip)
Povero said the court will decide this case, but the law is clear and using vigilante-style justice is dangerous to innocent people.
Obviously, we have a local law dog out of this mold:
Move away from New York, leave it to Senator Hillary Clinton, give them enough rope and they’ll hang themselves.
Sometimes the law defends plunder and participates in it. Thus the beneficiaries are spared the shame, danger, and scruple which their acts would otherwise involve. Sometimes the law places the whole apparatus of judges, police, prisons, and gendarmes at the service of the plunderers, and treats the victim — when he defends himself — as a criminal. In short, there is a legal plunder, and it is of this, no doubt, that Mr. de Montalembert speaks.
This legal plunder may be only an isolated stain among the legislative measures of the people. If so, it is best to wipe it out with a minimum of speeches and denunciations — and in spite of the uproar of the vested interests.
from...”The Law Defends Plunder”...more here...
http://bastiat.org/en/the_law.html#SECTION_G1415
Thanks to FReeper raygun for the link.
LONSBERRY POLL
Should this man be prosecuted?
Yes ‘ 6.52%
No ‘ 93.48%
The dispatcher and the cops were only doing what they were told by a fascist leftist anti-freedom and anti-property administration. The left actually favors theft from people who have worked hard and have accumulated something.
A matter of income redistribution. You know, marxist crap.
isn't it deadly only when someone gets air conditioned....the vic didnt raise it to "deadly" and merely disabled the vehicle, saving countless lives as the perps would have raced through town
John O’Connor broke the first rule of firearems discharge in a liberal state.
Shoot, Shovel and Shut Up.
This is a very sad, and very telling about the state of our country — well at least in some parts. I suspect in more places than not...
Bookmarking this so I can send an email to the DA in the morning. Thanks for letting us know about this story... Maybe working together we can turn around this insanity somehow...
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.