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Is It Wrong for Parents to Avenge Their Children?
The Christian Diarist ^ | June 21, 2012 | JP

Posted on 06/21/2012 12:42:20 PM PDT by CHRISTIAN DIARIST

Imagine if you caught a man molesting your five-year-old daughter. Or if you discovered that a man was pimping out your 17-year-old daughter. What would you do?

When a 23-year-old Texas father heard his little girl crying behind a barn, when he saw her being sexually violated by Jesus Mora Flores, he beat the deviant to death.

And when San Francisco parents Barry Gilton and Lupe Mercado were unable to rescue their teen daughter from her pimp, Calvin Sneed, by peaceable means, they shot and killed him.

Both the Texas dad and parents Gilton and Mercado were accused of taking the law into their own hands. But their cases have been handled quite differently by the legal system.

In the case of the Texas dad, a grand jury in Lacava County declined this week to indict him, deciding that he was justified in using deadly force to protect his five-year old.

However, in the case of San Francisco couple Gilton and Mercado, they have been charged with murder by the city’s District Attorney and are currently being held on $2 million bail each.

To my mind, the San Francisco parents are no more guilty, no less deserving of mercy, than the Texas dad.

For the parents took the lives of wicked men who preyed upon their beloved daughters. The difference is that the Texas dad acted in the heat of the moment, while the actions of the San Francisco parents were premeditated.

But while neither law enforcement, nor the legal system, can be faulted for Flores’ molestation of the Texas dad’s little girl, both law enforcement and the legal system are to blame for leaving the teen-age daughter of Gilton and Mercado in the clutches of her pimp.

Indeed, the San Francisco couple tried for months and months to get help from the authorities, but to absolutely no avail. As time passed, they could no longer sit idly by knowing their daughter was whoring herself on the streets for Sneed, a reputed member of the Nutty Blocks Crips gang.

So they killed him and freed their daughter.

San Francisco D.A. George Gascon said this week, “I fully understand the frustration the family felt.” But he really doesn’t. Otherwise, he wouldn’t be prosecuting the couple for what he describes as “vigilante murder.”

It will be interesting to see what happens when Gilton and Mercado eventually stand trial. If I was on the jury, I would vote to acquit.


TOPICS: Government; Miscellaneous; Religion; Society
KEYWORDS: childmolestor; crime; pimp; revenge; vengance; vigilanteism; vigilantejustice; vigilantes
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To: An American!

whoops grabbed the Self Defense instead of
Sec. 9.32. DEADLY FORCE IN DEFENSE OF PERSON.
(a) A person is justified in using deadly force against another:

(1) if the actor would be justified in using force against the other under Section 9.31; and

(2) when and to the degree the actor reasonably believes the deadly force is immediately necessary:

(A) to protect the actor against the other’s use or attempted use of unlawful deadly force; or

(B) to prevent the other’s imminent commission of aggravated kidnapping, murder, sexual assault, aggravated sexual assault, robbery, or aggravated robbery.


21 posted on 06/21/2012 1:31:59 PM PDT by An American! (Proud To Be An American!)
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To: CHRISTIAN DIARIST

There’s some subtleties to this in which we all might agree.

To start with, there are cases of pure vengeance, but critically in those cases, the authorities *acted*, and the criminal was likely to get the full force of the law, but only to the extent of the law, which the parents thought was not enough. The karate guy is an example of this.

In the case of the 17 year old, the parents called on the authorities to act, but importantly, *they did not act*. So this is not pure vengeance, but vigilantism, taking the law into your own hands because the authorities either refuse to, or worse, take the side of the criminal.

Arguments are often made, however, in the gun control debate that *if* there are authorities then people don’t need guns, which is bogus, of course. But that also relates to the father of the 4 year old. If someone is committing a violent felony, *any* person is authorized to use up to and including lethal force to stop them.

That is, authorities are *constrained* to try and *arrest* violent criminals *alive*, even while they are in the middle of committing a crime, if they can; but ordinary people are not so limited. If they kill the criminal, they should have relative immunity from prosecution.

However, this does not mean they can just walk away. The medical examiner must determine that the dead criminal was killed, which *automatically* makes the cause of death “homicide”. And since there is no statute of limitations for homicide, it is necessary to convene a grand jury to see if they will indict the person for killing the criminal.

It *used* to be the case that the grand jury almost *had* to indict the person, so that a criminal jury could acquit them, so they would be protected from prosecution in the future because of double jeopardy. Not so much anymore.

Yes, it’s a messy process, even if it is plain as day that the criminal was committing a violent crime when they were killed.


22 posted on 06/21/2012 1:35:49 PM PDT by yefragetuwrabrumuy
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To: CHRISTIAN DIARIST

Well I believe in the law. But if the law fails to protect us and our children—and especially if it PREVENTS us from protecting ourselves and our children—then there is obviously something wrong, and we must protect ourselves.


23 posted on 06/21/2012 1:44:08 PM PDT by Savage Beast (Going into debt is taking the canoe out with the tide and coming back against it.)
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To: Savage Beast

But I must hasten to say that revenge is wrong. I do not believe in revenge.


24 posted on 06/21/2012 1:45:17 PM PDT by Savage Beast (Going into debt is taking the canoe out with the tide and coming back against it.)
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To: Savage Beast

But I must hasten to say that revenge is wrong. I do not believe in revenge.


25 posted on 06/21/2012 1:45:17 PM PDT by Savage Beast (Going into debt is taking the canoe out with the tide and coming back against it.)
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To: CHRISTIAN DIARIST

At some point we have to abandon “Uncle Sugar” and protect our kids! 9 mil, shot gun or bear hands. No “never mind!” they are family!


26 posted on 06/21/2012 1:45:43 PM PDT by cpa4you (CPA4YOU)
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To: CHRISTIAN DIARIST

You had better make DAMN SURE someone is guilty first (like catching them in the act), because children lie like dogs nowadays, and will fabricate BS out of whole cloth just to stir trouble.


27 posted on 06/21/2012 1:47:06 PM PDT by who knows what evil? (G-d saved more animals than people on the ark...www.siameserescue.org.)
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To: Savage Beast
Not only is revenge wrong, but it's stupid and self-destructive.

Anybody see Hatfields & McCoys?

28 posted on 06/21/2012 1:47:33 PM PDT by Savage Beast (Going into debt is taking the canoe out with the tide and coming back against it.)
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To: Jonty30

I have no problem taking a perp out, if he’s in the midst of the activity. However, it is imperative that it be the justice system carry out the actual justice.

We no longer have a justice system. We have a legal system. If we had a justice system there would be weekly executions in almost every state in the union.


29 posted on 06/21/2012 1:48:42 PM PDT by freedomfiter2 (Brutal acts of commission and yawning acts of omission both strengthen the hand of the devil.)
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To: CHRISTIAN DIARIST

You can also bet your bottom dollar that every last kid on that school bus is DENYING that they had ANYTHING to do with abusing that poor bus monitor.


30 posted on 06/21/2012 1:49:40 PM PDT by who knows what evil? (G-d saved more animals than people on the ark...www.siameserescue.org.)
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To: CHRISTIAN DIARIST

Oh wait, this is a father asking his child to avenge him. The original post was the other way around. My bad.

31 posted on 06/21/2012 1:51:39 PM PDT by Pappy Smear (Support the presidency, end the policies.)
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To: CHRISTIAN DIARIST

It’s one thing to kill someone in self-defense or in defense of another while the victim is being raped, beaten, or what have you, as in the case of the little girl. It’s something else entirely to plan to kill the person who victimized your child and carry out that plan. That’s cold-blooded murder as far as I’m concerned and those who do that should go to jail. What would happen to society if every parent went around getting vengeance? I thought vengeance belonged to God.


32 posted on 06/21/2012 2:08:26 PM PDT by Luna (Evil will not triumph. God is at the helm.)
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To: CHRISTIAN DIARIST

The problem for the Mercado family is that the daughter didn’t “want” to be “rescued”.

well...that and the fact they weren’t too clever about it...

Shooting at him in the car, with the daughter inside...


33 posted on 06/21/2012 2:09:54 PM PDT by G Larry (There's no hope of a safe landing when you hire a suicidal pilot!)
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To: freedumb2003

“... I would kill an adult I caught molesting a 5 year old girl even if she was no kin of mine”.

You are the reason that I still have hope in this world!


34 posted on 06/21/2012 2:10:03 PM PDT by momtothree
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To: Savage Beast

It is NOT “revenge”.

It is a CURE!


35 posted on 06/21/2012 2:15:15 PM PDT by G Larry (There's no hope of a safe landing when you hire a suicidal pilot!)
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To: CHRISTIAN DIARIST
Those who like murder mysteries might enjoy my novel THE JUSTICE COOPERATIVE, about a couple who cannot get justice through the legal system, and decide to get justice for themselves. In the novel I attempt to explore the rights and wrongs of committing what the law would call murder, in the pursuit of justice. Buy from Amazon.
36 posted on 06/21/2012 2:17:54 PM PDT by JoeFromSidney ( New book: RESISTANCE TO TYRANNY. Buy from Amazon.)
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To: CHRISTIAN DIARIST

Sex without moral contraints does become aggressive and has no qualms with targeting children. Libs want to legalize adult sex with children calling it a ‘child’s right’ and children are easily manipulated by adults who would harm them without thinking twice to please themselves.

So, in the future, a lot of parents are going to be faced with abandoning the sense of responsibility for the well being of their children or killing sexual aggressors who take advantage of their children. It’s going to make Sodom look like a picnic.

If you look at what liberals have done with normal men in their homo brain washing - they made it illegal and shameful to take out homo predators and sexual harassers of normal men. They will do the same thing to parents when they move on to other people’s children.


37 posted on 06/21/2012 2:35:52 PM PDT by SaraJohnson
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To: Hodar

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oi3Hyxuf5AE


38 posted on 06/21/2012 2:37:37 PM PDT by lowbridge (Joe Biden: "Look, the Taliban per se is not our enemy.")
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To: Savage Beast

Retribution, do you believe in retribution?


39 posted on 06/21/2012 2:42:13 PM PDT by Balding_Eagle (Liberals, at their core, are aggressive & dangerous to everyone around them,)
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To: freedumb2003

Finally. My kind of man. I have said all along that the college kid at Penn State should have cold-cocked the coach when he found him in the shower with a kid. I know I would have.

People say “Well, he DID report it.” BIG DEAL. He should have introduced the coach’s head to the shower tile.

Thanks for posting.


40 posted on 06/21/2012 2:58:01 PM PDT by HeadOn (With my last breath, I will pull the lever against the liberals. NEVER GIVE UP.)
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