Alec Baldwin’s fatal on-set ‘Rust’ shooting charges dropped

One America News ^ | April 20, 2023 | Sophia Flores

[unlearner]

Analogies are a great way to educate but rarely the best way to argue a position because analogies can be easily countered with more analogies, often pitting the original tale against the teller with a cutting barb. I’m not going to attempt to do that with the drunk driving comparison. I’ll just say that not all cases of negligence or recklessness can be easily observed. Often a law enforcement officer would not perceive the danger until it was too late, even if watching something as it happens. For example, if someone were poisoned a police officer might be present but only become aware of the poison after an investigation.

You’ve given me a lot of food for thought. This is why Free Republic is such a great place to learn. Even if I’m not 100% persuaded by everything you’re claiming, I see that there is much more substance to it than I originally supposed. At the very least, you’ve demonstrated that investigating crimes requires paying huge attention to intent and not just the actions and results of those actions.

I still would like to find some confirmation and consensus on your claims about intent from a legal perspective. Some of my post-grad courses were focussed on law for business and education. They were not primarily about crime and punishment. But I’m surprised that nowhere in any of my educational or training experiences have I heard the legal position that there is no crime without intent. I realize, of course, intent is the major lynchpin in the prosecution of most crimes, and a couple of years of doing mock trials taught me a lot about that.

As far as Baldwin goes, I think the totality of the circumstances will come into play before this is fully resolved. But we’ll see.