Falkenberg: Property outweighing people in Horn case

The Houston Chronicle ^ | Dec. 12, 2007, 10:58PM | LISA FALKENBERG

[NativeSon]

The law of our land seems to place more value on the property being stolen — even if it belongs to a neighbor — than on the life of the burglar stealing it.

I wonder if this dimwit ever heard the phrase "Crime doesn't Pay" ? Of course more value is placed on someone else's property over a criminal's life.

You wanna' know how I know? See all those prisons, filled with all those convicts, there's a bunch of them in for robbing and stealing. Believe it or not, stealing is a crime. And to hammer that point home, if you rob someone and get caught, your freedom will be taken from you and you will be locked away in a cell.

oh, except if you're an undocumented citizen/guest that wouldn't leave, they get do overs and Mulligans

[G-Bear]

She just doesn’t get it.

My life is worth more to me than my property.

My property is worth more to me than the life of a thief.

Mr. Horn was morally correct in teaching this truth to the burglars, even if they did not live to profit by the lesson.

[chesley]

Human life is worth more than property, yes.

But, burglary, robbery, theft, is also about more than just property. It’s a question of will you stand up for your rights to be secure in your life and property. Letting them get away with it when you can shoot them is an abdication of both your rights to your life and property, and your moral obligation to defend them, both for yourself and others.

Count on liberals to ignore the moral dimensions of any argument.

[untrained skeptic]

It the thieves feel there lives are worth more than the property they were stealing, they could have refrained from robbing the house.

They apparently thought it was worth the risk of losing their lives to steal from others. If they value their lives so little, why should anyone else value them more?

[kkalman]

Lets suppose he let the burglars escape. A few weeks later
they are burglarizing someone else’s house and are surprised
by the unarmed homeowner and they kill him! I think Mr. Horn
just saved that homeowner’s life without knowing it. Think about it.

[RightFighter]

I don’t value the thieves lives very highly at all. What I have a problem with is that Mr. Horn had no intention of stopping them - he had every intention of killing them. He even told the dispatcher “I’m gonna kill ‘em.” Then he walked outside and gave a “warning” but didn’t give the perps sufficient time to comply with his warning before opening fire on them. On another thread a week or two ago, everyone was supporting Mr. Horn because some witness said that the robbers charged him and that’s why he fired. Now the truth comes out - they were both shot in the back. Unless they were running backwards at full speed towards Mr. Horn, I’d say we have a case of a neighbor lying to protect Mr. Horn.

[Mr. Jeeves]

The law of our land seems to place more value on the property being stolen — even if it belongs to a neighbor — than on the life of the burglar stealing it.

The reason for that is simple - property is life, because someone had to expend a part of their life energy to obain it. It is exactly the same as the criminals taking a meat cleaver and trying to whack the property owner's arm off. And had that scenario occurred the author would not be faulting Joe Horn for shooting the criminals.

Liberals have trouble with this concept because many of them don't earn much money nor own much property, and when they do someone else like spouses and parents are usually the ones who paid for it, so they don't get the connection. They think property is something the government creates out of thin air and ought to distribute fairly to everyone. If that were actually true there would in fact be no reason to shoot at thieves.

[sammiches]

I have a strong inkling that her sudden concern for human life fades quickly if the topic were unborn children or the sick and elderly........

[yorkie]

I was going to get a security system installed in my home. Instead, I'm putting this sign out front: (/s)

THIS HOUSE PROTECTED BY JOE HORN

[VOA]

The law of our land seems to place more value on the property being
stolen — even if it belongs to a neighbor — than on the life of the
burglar stealing it.

Thanks Lisa Falkenburg...
You've just dug up maybe THE BEST REASON for law-abiding citizens
to pack their belonging and leave their neighbors staring the
next morning at a common sign on empty cabins in Tennessee (etc.)
in the early 1800s:

GONE TO TEXAS

[steve-b]

And had that scenario occurred the author would not be faulting Joe Horn for shooting the criminals.

Bets?

[Anonymous Rex]

I have no doubt he saved some Americans life. Those two could have pawned all that stuff gotten loaded and killed an American by driving drunk as well.

The guy is a hero plain and simple.

[TigersEye]

I didn't really have a letter in me to write Lisa Falkenberg. Just a short note...

Come to Colorado and test out our "Make My Day" law.

Steal here, die here.

; )

real name (TigersEye)

[an amused spectator]

He even told the dispatcher “I’m gonna kill ‘em.”

I believe that was in response to the dispatcher telling Horn that he was going to get killed.

Correct me if I'm wrong.

[steveab]

“Even if they don’t indict him, it doesn’t mean Horn’s actions were morally right. He chose to kill;”

If he had wounded them , they would have turn around and sued him.

[pandoraou812]

Rofllllllllll

[Redbob]

""Ain't no property worth shooting somebody over," the dispatcher told Horn.

Damn sight easier to say when it's somebody else's property.

If I were to find the guy who stole my truck a few years back, I wouldn't have hesitated to shoot him down, and Texas law would back me up.

[Redbob]

"Now, one might argue that, since the dispatcher told Horn that police were on their way, Horn should have reasonably believed authorities would nab the bad guys."

Remarks like this serve only to show how out of touch Lisa Falkenburg is.

[Redbob]

"My sense is that the reason, not just Texas, but other states have been enacting statutes more and more like this is because politicians are afraid to vote against them," said Steven Goode, a law professor at the University of Texas."

See, democracy DOES work!

[Redbob]

"Human life is worth more than property. It seems like a universal truth."

Falkenburg is just FULL of crap!

Doesn't she realize that property IS human life?
MY life?

I go to work, giving up a part of my life, to earn money to buy stuff.
My stuff therefore has an equivalency to my life; if I have to work a year to pay for a car, that's what it represents - a year of my life.

Someone stealing it is stealing a year of my life, and I'd take pleasure in offing the culprit.