What if the colors of the parties to this incident were reversed?
I would have done exactly the same thing. Angry mob coming after my son? They’re damn lucky they’re not ALL dead...
Someone would have started up a defense fund for Mr. White
If the colors had been reversed, the shooter would have been charged with a hate crime in addition to manslaughter, and there would have been calls for him to be charged with murder.
Having said that, I sympathize with Mr. White. He seems like a decent fellow who panicked and made a terrible mistake under trying circumstances. This is just a sad, sad situation all around.
The drunken gang were idiots for showing up at Mr. White’s home and hoodlums for behaving the way they did. They were probably punks who wouldn’t have done anything more than stand out there and yell, but really you never know.
White should have warned them from inside his house and let the cops take care of it. If they tried to break in, he would’ve been justified in taking tougher action in my opinion, though the laws in liberal New York probably say otherwise.
His two big mistakes were going out there with the gun and later trying the race card defense, which may have backfired. I’m not a lawyer and know nothing about New York law but my guess is that he’s technically the guilty party here for going out there with a firearm to confront them. But he has my sympathy and I wouldn’t object to a sentence reduced to fines or community service.
I guess it really comes down to how threatening the punks were.
Jesse and Al would have showed up. The NAACP and the Black Panthers would have staged a march, singing We Shall Overcome. The high school would have held a candlelight vigil.
A white Mr. White would have been charged and convicted of first degree murder. Then he would go to federal court to be convicted of a hate crime. He would be successfully sued for millions in civil court, along with the city, the police department, the high school, the parents who hosted the party, and the MySpace website.
THAT'S what would have happened.