Mr. White had no reason to go to....and I quote...”THE END OF HIS DRIVEWAY”...note these guys were NOT on his property....silly me, I think this is important.
Mr. White could have, silly me, locked his door and CALLED THE POLICE...the sort of thing civilized people do.
This is how the prosecutor argued the case. Mr. White used bad judgement. We all use bad judgement from time to time but when that bad judgement results in a death, we have to look into. Mr. White got found guilty of manslaughter, a fair enough verdict.
White says that Ciccaro lunged for his weapon...who knows if this is true? I’m going out on a limb here and suggesting that an unarmed drunk adolescent isn’t likely to be reaching out for loaded firearms and let’s please not forget that White’s son was also carrying a gun, a rifles....dag, you think this was all a bit much? The story about lunging for the gun was sure a convenient way to provide some logic to shooting an unarmed man on a public sidewalk.
To all you folk on this thread defending this guy, well I think the very fact that you’re smart enough to join Freerepublic this means you’re probably smart enough not to go running out to the end of your driveway shooting up a mob of drunk and unarmed adolescents who show up for some kind of crazy vendetta.
Now maybe you’ll would grab a gun for protection, this is understandable. But I’m thinking most of you would call the police while remaining inside of your home until they could arrive. THIS is what a sane logical person would have done and THIS was the prosecutor’s argument. Which a jury of the defendant’s peers agreed with and an appellite court upheld.
White did a damn dumb thing, probably reacting with anger, maybe even righteous anger you could argue.
But to debate that White was completely within his rights to run out there and shoot a damn dumb drunk unarmed teenager BEFORE even calling the police....well maybe it’s just me, but I think that’s a really dumb argument.
As for the kid who died....hey, he was a real dumbell. All of them were dumbbells, getting drunk and going off on some kind of silly mission to confront another kid who supposedly threaten rape. The bunch of idiot kids didn’t even have any proof of the story. But they were drinking and probably had some testerone flowing through their veins.
Out of that whole gang, there was ONE adult. And that adult grabbed a gun and ran out and shot an unarmed kid.
And folks smart enough to belong to Freerepublic are defending this sort of thing.
Finally, hey, I dunno...maybe pardoning White is the right thing to do. I don’t think he should spend any long amount of time in jail. I don’t believe for a minute he intended to kill anyone. But such as grabbing loaded guns and running out while filled with anger and self-righteousness does tend to lead to stuff like this. The prosecutor had a public need to punish this dangerous turn of events as it’s not how we want civilized people to behave.
I think you got it pretty much exactly right with this post.
“I’m going out on a limb here and suggesting that an unarmed drunk adolescent isn’t likely to be reaching out for loaded firearms”
Yes, such people are known for sound judgement.
“and let’s please not forget that White’s son was also carrying a gun, a rifle”
So he sees this,, and he’s still there running his mouth? He apparently wasn’t leaving. Why defend this little turd? Blowing out his lamp probably saved his son or some other person in the future from being attacked by him.
The fact remains,, you don’t go to a man’s house, in a group, to pick a fight with his kid,,even a foot or two from the propery line. Maybe the other 3 learned a good lesson.
Not so fast.
Be aware that the conditions for responding with justified lethal force vary greatly in locales across the USA. Not everyone lives in Massachusetts or San Francisco as you do, and you're not always required to stay cowering inside the plywood box you call your domicile while a gathering of armed barbarians shout death threats outside your home.
Hell, at least one of you lives in a locale where even if they break into your home intent on bloody murder you're required to place a lampshade on your head, pretend you're a lamp, and hope for the best. Only when they're cutting your guts out with your own kitchen knife are you sort-of allowed to fight back. In some places in the USA, you can engage at range and even give chase if they flee.
In many places, it's perfectly acceptable to take the initiative in such cases. 'Reasonable' for you doesn't fit 'Reasonable' for me, under the law. If you have angry little Vinnie tough-guys for relatives in your area (like the sort that Clemenza suitably describes) who may be prone to acting as the dead boy in this story did, you might want to tell them to avoid any US state west of the Mississippi, in particularly damned sure the state of Texas, and to stay their asses in Boston and Philadelphia and Bensonhurst where they get away with hijinks like this all the time with no fear of getting their heads blown into cat food.
Just acknowledge that much at least. I am aware that this event occurred in Long Island, NY.