“I’ve read the articles on Legal Insurrection. Haven’t seen anything on the media. They had very little justification for believing he had stolen anything, and I have NO USE FOR BUTTHEADS who decide to chase down and threaten to kill someone - “Stop...I’ll blow your fucking head off” - if they don’t have first hand knowledge of a violent crime like rape or murder.”
I don’t know if I agree about the believing he had stolen anything. I believe they thought he did. I also believe that there was a lot of theft going on in this neighborhood that had previously not had a problem, and people were pushed over the edge by the police not doing anything about it. Put yourself in that situation; what would you do? Hide and hope for the best, or confront who you truly believe to be the thief?
I would not confront and threaten to kill someone if I did not have first hand, my own eyes KNOWLEDGE that he had committed a crime that carries a death penalty.
I wouldn’t shoot and kill someone I saw stealing my car. Why? BECAUSE IT IS ILLEGAL TO DO SO IN ARIZONA. So why would I pursue and threaten to kill someone for possibly stealing a hammer?
And if you believe something that is false, and then use your belief to threaten to kill someone, then that someone has the right to defend themselves. You may be making an innocent mistake, but that mistake has resulted in your being the aggressor, and thus you lose the right to claim self-defense.
If you grab a gun and start chasing someone down and making threats, you DARN well better be right!