Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Holy gunsmoke, Batman!

As reported by the good people at The Baltimore Sun, a man who attempted to burgle a Park Heights home was shot in the back and died. Margaret Burns of the State's Attorney's office did comment on this matter, indicating that they will wait for the police homicide investigation to conclude before deciding whether or not to pursue criminal charges.

27 comments:

Unknown said...

As long as the resident and the scumbag are either both black or both white Margaret "sleeping baby" Burns and her fat assed boss will let it slide.

Unknown said...

God forbid, if the resident is white and the dead scumbag black, sleeping baby burns et. al. will go for the death penalty, pulling out all the stops, and nolle prossing hundreds of other cases where the scumbags are guilty as sin so as not to offend their election base.

The Baltimore Cynic said...

To the "credit" of the State's Attorney's office, they're pretty unbiased in opting to never pursue the death penalty, regardless of race... Whether or not that is a good thing I will leave to the lot of you ;)

John Galt said...

How about you might get the death penalty if you're found guilty of murder, but you definitely get it if you're found to be an elected official from Baltmore City.

Mr. Mephistopheles said...

Harold,

In case you haven't heard, Margaret Burns is white.

Unknown said...

No way, meph! Uh, actually, how does that have anything to do with what I said? She'll do what's expected to grease the wheels here.

taotechuck said...

I just caught the italicized did. Nice snark, with a subtle bouquet of outrage!

Baltimore_Yeti said...

Does Maryland have a castle law like the state of Texas?

BTW: "castle law" basically says you are king of your castle/home and you can defend it from any intruder.

The Baltimore Cynic said...

I was wondering if anyone would catch that... two points for you, Chuck :)

ppatin said...

"Does Maryland have a castle law like the state of Texas?"

No. We're a very criminal friendly state.

Sean said...

Yeti, Maryland is a "duty-to-retreat" state, where we'll all expected to run screaming into the night in our pajamas if someone breaks into our homes.

ppatin said...

"Yeti, Maryland is a "duty-to-retreat" state, where we'll all expected to run screaming into the night in our pajamas if someone breaks into our homes."

This is yet another symptom of a society that abhors personal responsibility and treats victimhood as some sort of virtue.

ppatin said...

Double shootingnear Clifton Park.

ppatin said...

More editorial stupidity from the Sun. Apparently they feel that jail isn't cushy enough for juveniles.

ppatin said...

I may have been wrong about the duty to retreat bit. If you are in your own home you have pretty strong protection against criminal prosecution if you shoot a burglar. Protection from civil suits is another matter...

ppatin said...

This is what WBAL says:

"According to the city state's attorney's office, the accused must have had reasonable grounds to believe he was in imminent or immediate danger of death or serious bodily harm. The accused must not have been the aggressor or provoked the conflict, and the force must not be more than the exigency demanded.

The city state's attorney's office said that before using deadly force, it is also the duty of the defendant to retreat or avoid danger.

The exception to Maryland law is found in what's called the Castle Doctrine, where there is no duty to retreat if one is attacked in his own home. The doctrine is premised on the common law principle that a person's home is their castle."

burgersub said...

didn't the article say the homeowner shot the burglar in the back while he was running out the door? i know you guys are all bloodthirsty charles bronson-wannabes, but that doesn't strike me as self defense.

Stephen said...

@burgersub:

The article states:

"he walked up to the first floor and saw the burglar running through the rear door of the kitchen and fired once, striking the burglar in the back"

and then:

"The burglar ran out the back door and collapsed near a shed".

Depending on the layout of the home, the burglar could have still been inside the home when shot, at least in terms of how the article is worded. I wish it was a little more clear; a person in your home and a person who just left your home are two very different people.

burgersub said...

yeah and a person in your home actively threatening to harm you and a person in your home trying to get the fuck out of your home before you shoot them are also two very different people.

Anonymous said...

the article should have said the man is believed to have been burglarizing or was alledgely attempting to burglarize the place. this is america, everyone is innocent until proven guilty. this man never got his day in court and didn't have a chance to explain his side. whether he was actually guilty or not had yet to be proven in court. therefore, it shouldn't have been stated in the article as fact.

ppatin said...

"didn't the article say the homeowner shot the burglar in the back while he was running out the door? i know you guys are all bloodthirsty charles bronson-wannabes, but that doesn't strike me as self defense."

Give me a break. If you catch someone breaking into your home you probably only have a split second to decide what to do. If someone breaks into my home I'm not going to waste time and risk my life figuring out his intentions.

Also, shot in the back doesn't necessarily mean that the guy was fleeing. A few years ago there was a case in Baltimore of a crackhead who broke into a business and got shot by the owners. Some of the shots ended up hitting him in the back. What happened though was that the business owners panicked when they were confronted with an armed burglar, so they blasted away and the burglar turned sideways as the first shots hit him. This meant that some of the shots hit him in the back, although he was advancing towards the shooters when they began firing.

ppatin said...

"this man never got his day in court and didn't have a chance to explain his side."

You're joking, right? The guy broke into someone's home. Of course he was a burglar.

burgersub said...

i will not give you a break. the guy took well over a second to figure out what to do. he heard a noise, he went upstairs to get a gun, went to the basement to search for burglars, heard another noise upstairs, went upstairs to investigate that noise, called out his relative's name, then saw a guy running out of his house and blasted him. and i don't see what all this nonsense about "sometimes people getting shot will turn and the bullet will hit their back" has to do with this case when the article clearly states that the guy was running out of the house and was shot in the back. and that must be by the homeowner's own admission, since the burglar is dead and no other eye witnesses are mentioned.

face it, you just love it when people you deem to be beneath you die. i bet if the homeowner's name is ever reported and it turns out that on the online case search he's got any sort of rap sheet you'll be calling for his execution.

ppatin said...

"face it, you just love it when people you deem to be beneath you die. i bet if the homeowner's name is ever reported and it turns out that on the online case search he's got any sort of rap sheet you'll be calling for his execution."

Horseshit. A homeowner who shoots an intruder should never have to fear prosecution unless he does something totally outrageous like catch the guy, make him kneel and then shoots him execution style. It's very easy to criticize the guy's actions from behind a computer, but when you have a potentially armed thug in your home in one of the nastiest neighborhoods in the city at one in the morning things are a little bit different.

You're right though, I do like it when certain people die. Our legal system has proven that it's incapable of protecting society from criminals, so shootings like this one or police involved shootings are pretty much the only way to permanently remove thugs and hoodlums from circulation. Thanks to this shooting there is one less criminal out there who could threaten my safety or steal my property.

Anonymous said...

I find a guy in my home in the middle of the night, he is going to get ventilated.

There is no analysis or determination of motive. He is violating one of the most sacred things in our society, the home.

Sean said...

...and in this case it was ruled a justified ventilation.

Sean said...

Lesbian Bloods stripper fan arrested in Robert E. Lee Park shooting. Sorry, alleged lesbian Bloods stripper fan.