Note the Judge wiping her eye at this time.
Sigh.
In my younger days, I almost pounded a guy once for pulling out directly in front of me with no warning causing me to careen out of control into a snow bank. I was astonished that he pulled out, and as I looked back, he was flipping me the bird...
I actually chased the guy down, jumped out of my car when it was still moving and it ran into the back of his car, and I grabbed him by the lapel of his coat and cocked my fist and the whole time he is jabbering and pointing in the air...I remember yelling at him “WHAT? WHAT? WTF ARE YOU BLABBERING ABOUT?”
I didn’t hit him, and he was pointing to a one-way sign. I was late for work after a snowstorm, and in my distracted state, I had put on my blinker and taken a right turn down a street, one of a dozen streets that look exactly the same, but have alternating one way signs.
I had turned down the wrong street. I had one of those cars where the blinker often did not automatically turn off...poor design. So, my right hand turn was still on. As I proceeded down the street, the guy was stopped at a street to my right, and just pulled out in front of me to go left up the way I had just come the wrong way down that one way street.
I sat there blinking while my brain processed this, I let go of his lapel. We chatted for a minute.
He said people come the wrong way down that street all the time and pull into where he was pulling out...a shortcut so they don’t have to drive all the way around the block. Because my stuck blinker was indicating a right hand turn, he thought I was one of those people, so...he pulled out.
We shook hands and parted, he saw how it went down. I would have probably been fine going into that snow bank and seeing him drive away, but seeing him (who I thought broke every rule of the road by pulling out in front of me with no warning) stopping his car and flipping me the bird just made me see red.
I had never done anything like that before or since.
I often think of how my life could have changed that day. I could have severely injured him or even killed him. I could have gone to jail. I could have lost everything.
And all because I was distracted and took a turn the wrong way down a one way street.
When I saw this story a while back, I could visualize it. A tough day, stressful. You put your key in, open the door, and there is someone you don’t know looking for all the world like they are rifling through your drawers.
That doesn’t in any way excuse her shooting the guy. But I see how that could happen. You’re distracted, get off on the wrong floor, or walk to the wrong door. The doors all look alike as do the insides of the apartment, you walk in and everything, your life, the other person’s life, it all goes south.
I sympathize with the victim and his loved ones. But this racial element, “The shooting drew widespread attention because of the strange circumstances and because it was one in a string of shootings of unarmed black men by white police officers”, “One of the Jean family lawyers hailed the verdict as “a victory for black people in America” and “The jury was largely made up of women and people of color” makes me think this was a racially and emotionally motivated prosecution.
I don’t know. Should she be punished in some way, I think so. She shouldn’t be carrying a gun. It was clearly manslaughter. But murder? But trying her as a murderer and sending her to jail just...it just seems wrong to me. Seemed like a stupid and unfortunate accident.
He was sitting down on the couch eating a bowl of ice cream. Typical burglar behavior.
Not to mention that she didn't take cover and call for backup; didn't point the gun at him and tell him to put his hands up; and, after she shot him, didn't try to give him any first aid.
Note the Judge wiping her eye at this time.