This has nothing to do with “immigration hardliners.” I’m not one and I actually think there should be more legal, permitted Latin American immigration, including short-term labor. And I think the prosecutor overcharged and probably could have gotten manslaughter if he’d focused on it and not brought in homicide - a killing with a ricocheting bullet is not homicide, which requires at least some intentionality or knowledge.
But the real problem is to determine can be done about a city with : (a) a massive failure of the justice system (why was this guy even on the streets, let alone back in the US?); a failure of the immigration system (how did he get back in so many times?); and a failure by the City of San Francisco to enforce any order in that town, where the streets have been taken over by convicted felons (legal or illegal immigrants or native citizens), raving lunatics and drug-addicted bums. San Franciscans should be up in arms. But they won’t be.
Manslaughter was one of the charges the perp was found not guilty of. But, do you think the prosecutor threw the case? In SF, nothing is out of the question.
It's homicide, because homicide just means you caused someone's death--which is only a crime depending on the circumstances. Killing someone who is trying to kill you for no good reason is homicide as well, but it's not a crime, since it's "justifiable homicide." (Sort of like Mr. Steinle taking out Zarate would be.) Deliberately--as opposed to accidentally--killing someone who is posing no threat of grievous harm to you is murder.
Yours is the first rational post on this thread. Yes, to everything you’ve written. These salivating anti-California morons here don’t have the innate intellect to take a bent quarter out of a Coke machine. They are simply mindlessly looking for someone to blame for EVERYTHING that’s wrong with America today, so CA is an inviting target. Many other states have a lot of elements that are far worse than CA’s, but CA is big, and it’s numbers dwarf the others, hence all the mindless vituperation. Do I like what’s going on here politically, decidedly not, but the idea of going to Texas and learning to kick cow $hit around for a living isn’t on my “to do list!” Besides, I’d only be going to a state that’s on the cusp of being California II, even though the idiots who live there can’t even see what is happening to their state right before their very eyes! They dane to call us Mexifornia, but they are about to become Mexas!
Thanks for your thoughtful post. Think manslaughter was appropriate charge also.
It’s time for Calexit.