16-year-old kills home intruder (imagine if races in story were reversed)

AJC ^ | today | kathy jefcoats

[Rodney King]

16-year-old kills home intruder Police say teen ID'd masked, unarmed man as high school acquaintance

By KATHY JEFCOATS The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Published on: 02/21/07

Clayton County police said a 16-year-old boy was "in fear for his life" Tuesday morning when he shot and killed a masked, unarmed intruder who broke into his Riverdale home.

Interim Chief Jeff Turner said the alleged shooter, identified by neighbors as Wes Stephens, has not been charged in the shooting on Camp Road, off Flat Shoals Road near the Fulton County line.

Stephens told police he heard a window break about 11:30 a.m. in the garage of the house he shares with his parents.

"He got his father's pistol, a semiautomatic, and fired multiple times," Turner said. "The intruder went to some lengths to disguise himself, wearing black clothes and a black bandanna across his face."

After shooting the intruder in the garage, Stephens recognized the man as Marques Karun McGhee, 19, of Riverdale, a former North Clayton High School acquaintance, Turner said.

Wes Stephens' father, Wesley Howard Stephens, had withdrawn his son from North Clayton High School because of danger caused by gangs, Turner said.

Turner said police are looking for a second person who may have dropped McGhee off on Camp Road, a mostly black neighborhood of modest ranch homes on 1- and 2-acre lots, and then fled when shots were fired.

Obscene graffiti with racial overtones directed toward "Wes" is sprayed in white paint on the road in front of the Stephens home and along Camp Road. Stephens is white, McGhee black.

Neighbors Dan and Linda Harris said the graffiti showed up about 45 days ago.

"I don't know if it's gangs, a black and white thing or just stupidity," Dan Harris said. "I know we've known Wes since he was a little boy, he used to swim in our pool and we've never had any trouble out of him."

Turner said police are looking into claims that McGhee was a member of the Hit Squad, a local gang that figured prominently in the July 2004 shooting death of a toddler inside a Riverdale park.

McGhee was not a suspect in that shooting.

Clayton County court records show McGhee had two outstanding criminal cases — one involving misdemeanor possession of marijuana, the other a felony charge of theft by receiving stolen property.

[Rodney King]

It was the way he told me to read the article, I had no idea what 'RTFA' stood for.

If you have never seen it before, I would understand your taking offense. But on most sites (although perhaps not FR,) RTFA is standard jargon and is not meant to be particularly offesnive.

I did not see in the article where it said that the shooter was black and the shootee was white.

RTFA

[Rodney King]

I take two things seriously. (1) The proper use of the English Language.

Fair enough

(2) Snobs who like to look down their noses at other by using code language and trash English.

It's not snobbish at all, although not prevalent on FR, RTFA is standard internet jargon.

[visualops]

I take two things seriously.
(1) The proper use of the English Language.
(2) Snobs who like to look down their noses at other by using code language and trash English.

Acronyms aren't "code language". Maybe if you stopped taking yourself so seriously you wouldn't be so easily offended.

[Dustbunny]

Please copy and paste the portion of the article that specifically says the shooter is black and the dead boy is white, I can't seem to find those words.

RTFA may be standard jargon, after I discovered what each letter stood for I found it offensive and childish.

[Rodney King]

Please copy and paste the portion of the article that specifically says the shooter is black and the dead boy is white, I can't seem to find those words.

No part of the article says that, because that is not the case. The shooter was white, the dead boy black. The whites lived in a mostly black neighborhood. The blacks didnt want them there, and were harassing them. This culminated in a black guy breaking into the white guys house. The white guy shot him. Why I have to tell you this, I don't know, because it is all there.

How many times do I need to tell you to RTFA?

[higgmeister]

Covering vulgarity by abbreviation is just a cowards way of trash talk. You still use vulvarity you just try to disguise but the result is that you still use it.

Being a generally polite person I didn't feel obliged to point that out to anyone.

[Dustbunny]

I did RTFA which is why I posted

I don't understand. Is the boy that shot the intruder black or white? Is the boy that was shot black or white?

Which started this whole question and answer period. I do not live in an area where there is a black and white problem, or even a neighborhood, so I naturally would not understand how to decide on whether the home defender was black or white, especially since it was a mixed neighborhood.

[Rodney King]

so I naturally would not understand how to decide on whether the home defender was black or white,

You don't need to understand anything. It is stated. You just need to RTFA. If you would just do that, you would know what it says, and not need to ask questions about it.

[higgmeister]

I must confess that all my professional life in telecommunications-electronics I have been immersed in a form of Newspeak or Shortalk that would send you to an early judgment.

[Dustbunny]

LOL.... you are right, after reading the article for the 5th time I discovered I had totally missed that whole white - black mention. Sorry about that.

[Rodney King]

No prob. I hope you understand that RTFA is along the lines of buddies chiding each other, and was not meant to be personally offensive.

[jongaltsr]

Covering vulgarity by abbreviation is just a cowards way of trash talk. You still use vulvarity you just try to disguise but the result is that you still use it. Being a generally polite person I didn't feel obliged to point that out to anyone.

Maybe you should. Without feedback from society, people tend to sink to the lowest level they can. What do you think got us where we are today? - People being "polite". Being accepting instead of holding others to higher standards.

[jongaltsr]

I must confess that all my professional life in telecommunications-electronics I have been immersed in a form of Newspeak or Shortalk that would send you to an early judgment.

My point exactly. Only those who understand the abbreviation understand what is being said. Those who use those abbreviation always thumb their noses at those who (Should) know what they mean if they were ONLY smart enough to have the same knowledge as the speaker.

[jongaltsr]

Acronyms aren't "code language". Maybe if you stopped taking yourself so seriously you wouldn't be so easily offended.

If Acronyms aren't "code language" then tell me how many different meanings are there for the Acronym "TR". I have counted 9 - ranging from "Tonken Ring" to "Transmit/Receive", "Trip Range", "Typical Response, "Transmitter and on and on.

[jongaltsr]

It's not snobbish at all, although not prevalent on FR, RTFA is standard internet jargon.

Correct - and that makes it OK? It still doesn't mean squat to many, if not most people who are not part of your "Internet Insiders". In essence your are excluding outsiders instead of including outsiders and that dear friend is SNOBBERY in any language.

[higgmeister]

Maybe you should.

I don't agree. It is because people have generally stopped being polite that we are where we are today.

My lack of influence should not cause or enable you to sink to your lowest level.

I believe that if I act like a jerk others may respond in kind.

Providing feedback, as you say, would tend to bring out the worst in others.

[higgmeister]

This is fun!

The Acronym Finder has 135 meanings for TR. The oldest perhaps are possibly Theodore Roosevelt and Tip and Ring.

[jongaltsr]

I don't agree. It is because people have generally stopped being polite that we are where we are today.
And you are helping make it better?

My lack of influence should not cause or enable you to sink to your lowest level.
Are you trying to say that YOU are insignificant is the scheme of things? Maybe you need to try harder!

I believe that if I act like a jerk others may respond in kind.
Which way do you want it? Either you can't affect others or you can and you just can't stand your ground in defending decency?

Providing feedback, as you say, would tend to bring out the worst in others.
Contradicting yourself again - If you to provide feedback you are merely afraid of others who might think bad of you. What were you put on earth to accomplish? To live like an animal or stand up and rise above the base nature of animals?

[jongaltsr]

This is fun! The Acronym Finder has 135 meanings for TR. The oldest perhaps are possibly Theodore Roosevelt and Tip and Ring.

Glad to find someone who comprehends.
If we keep using acronyms like we are doing we will again form a country named "Babel".

[higgmeister]

What were you put on earth to accomplish? To live like an animal or stand up and rise above the base nature of animals?

Go back and read Atlas Shrugged again.

I recently read a quote:
"I swear by my life and my love of it that I will never live for the sake of another man nor will I ask another to live for mine." John Galt Oath

I have my own level of decency and I don't feel the need to ask others to bend to it.

I have shunned friends that were to free with their expletives.

It often makes me cringe to hear the f-bomb but I will only speak out against it if children are present to hear it.