Posted on 09/07/2010 5:02:01 PM PDT by The Magical Mischief Tour
UNIONDALE, N.Y. (CBS 2) — He was arrested for protecting his property and family.
But it’s how the Long Island man did it that police say crossed the line.
He got an AK-47 assault rifle, pulled the trigger and he ended up in jail, reports CBS 2’s Pablo Guzman.
George Grier said he had to use his rifle on Sunday night to stop what he thought was going to be an invasion of his Uniondale home by a gang he thought might have been the vicious “MS-13.” He said the whole deal happened as he was about to drive his cousin home.
“I went around and went into the house, ran upstairs and told my wife to call the police. I get the gun and I go outside and I come into the doorway and now, by this time, they are in the driveway, back here near the house. I tell them, you know, ‘Can you please leave?’ Grier said.
Grier said the five men dared him to use the gun; and that their shouts brought another larger group of gang members in front of his house. “He starts threatening my family, my life. ‘Oh you’re dead. I’m gonna kill your family and your babies. You’re dead.’ So when he says that, 20 others guys come rushing around the corner. And so I fired four warning shots into the grass,” Grier said.
Grier was later arrested. John Lewis is Grier’s attorney. “What he’s initially charged with – A D felony reckless endangerment — requires a depraved indifference to human life, creating a risk that someone’s going to die. Shooting into a lawn doesn’t create a risk of anybody dying,” Lewis said.
Grier said he knew Nassau County Police employ the hi-tech “ShotSpotter” technology in his area and that the shooting would bring police in minutes. Cops told Guzman he was very cooperative.
Grier also said he was afraid the gang outside his house was the dreaded MS-13. And Nassau County Police Lt. Andrew Mulraine, head of the gang unit, said MS-13 has 2,000 members in the county.
“They’re probably the most organized. They almost have a military hierarchy within the gang, so they are the most organized gang we encounter on a daily basis,” Mulraine said.
You may think a person has the right to defend their home. But the law says you can only use physical force to deter physical force. Grier said he never saw anyone pull out a gun, so a court would have to decide on firing the gun.
Police determined Grier had the gun legally. He has no criminal record. And so he was not charged for the weapon. That ShotSpotter technology pinpoints where a gun has been fired within 35 feet. Police said it also detected two other shootings in nearby Roosevelt that night.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with someone wanting to own one, it does not indicate terrorist or criminal tendencies.
An AK47 is full auto and so highly regulated by the feds as to be next to impossible to own.
Great advice and this is exactly what we were taught in our CHL class in TX. I even signed up with an attorney at $15 or so per month so I’ll have someone to call immediately in the unlikely event this ever happens.
No problem! (I never use sarcasm tags.)
and since hes unarmed fer sure, and possibly in lock-up as well, heres hoping that he and the mrs bought his & hers rifles...or that they have some family and friends to pull watch...
Assuming this story is as it is presented in the article then, unfortunately, the smartest thing for his family would be to get out and stay somewhere else for a while. Retreat stinks but who is prepared to take on thugs like that without the man of the house and probably no serious weapons?
Don’t sprain your arm patting yourself on the back. lol
Maybe he cut them off in traffic. I was making a perfectly legal right turn onto an Albuquerque boulevard one day and it conflicted with an illegal u-turn being made by the driver of a car full of gang bangers. I didn't yield to them which cut him off and forced him to hit the brakes and fall in behind my truck.
That really made them mad and they followed me several blocks taunting me to pull over. They even drove up into a parking lot parallel to the street to try and get ahead of me on the right side of me.
Okay.
The house is flammable.
Wait, you meant as the home owner...
If you look too long at any of these thugs, you become a target. They will use any excuse to cause harm to another.
This man will be on Fox news within the hour.
Yeah I hear that. I had to be careful going to high school in Newark, NJ just a few years after the riots of ‘67. I know what a ‘’look’’ is. I carried a knife. Did that when I worked in New York City and The Bronx in the late ‘70’s and all through the ‘80s’. Bernie Goetz was a hero. I remember seeing grafetti on subway wall. “Bernie Goetz; Archie Bunker with a gun’’.
I hear you. See my post to “No Grey Areas’’. Thank God it didn’t work out different for you that day.
Sorry it’s “Zone’’. Frightfully sorry old boy.
One, the parking lot slowed them down when they came to a small building built right adjacent to the street. lol Two, I popped open my glove compartment and pulled a .357 out and put it on the seat between my passenger and myself. Being a couple of feet above street level I think they could see down into my cab pretty easily. One or both of those things ended their pursuit.
It doesn't take much at all to become the target of thugs.
See, where you live you can own a pistol. Here in The Peoples Republic of New Jersey you can’t. Not without a whole lot of hassle if you want to do it legally. Illegally of course it’s another story. Nowadays for the thugs it’s an instrument to facilitate ‘’social justice’’ and ‘’income redistribution’’.
I don’t think I’d have the nerve to live there under those conditions. I’d have to become an outlaw. Restricting the law abiding from owning guns increases the number of thugs possessing guns and their boldness. The situation worsens exponentially.
You could actually do this before the law changed to favor more the self defense aspect of this issue...
It is called a “disparity of force”...
You do not need to see a weapon, all you need is a concern for your welfare and others in your vacinity, due to the threat imposed upon you by multiple suspects mearly displaying or communicating threatening mannerisms or words...
These suspects are extremely lucky to be alive...The Law Enforcement in that area should be exremely ashamed of themselves for doing what they did...
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