I understand and respect your point. I really do, but only about an hour had passed after the perp had holed up and was surrounded on all sides by some 2000 officers. I don’t see him being able to go anywhere, but that is just my armchair opinion and not worth much.
In other words, he was in the house about an hour. No shots had been fired in that hour from what I heard on the scanner. They had armored vehicles on scene and began tearing down the walls of the cabin in that hour. We all know now,or should, the reported scanner audios of the plan to burn him out, etc.
Reports of shots fired from the house came after the fire was well under way and then were followed by reports of ammo cooking off. How can we be sure the reports of shots fired at that point was not just ammo cooking off? We can’t. Does it matter legally? I don’t know.
just for the record, I come from a long line of private property rights and limited government advocates and so I am admittedly biased in favor of those rights.
just for the record, I come from a long line of private property rights and limited government advocates and so I am admittedly biased in favor of those rights.
I am an advocate for those causes as well. However, I really don't see how that applies here. This was an extraordinary situation - it wasn't like Big Bear was wanting to take the land so they could give it to a developer to build a new casino. The cops were dealing with a deadly threat. And I imagine the owner will be fully compensated for the structure and loss of rental income. If anything, they might be better off in this situation - they won't have a bullet-riddled cabin with the specter of Dorner associated with it. They can build a new one now.
What took them so long?