Didn’t Trump or someone else use exactly that same defense? They essentially offered up a bunch of women they didn’t assault as proof that they hadn’t assaulted anyone ever? Basically “Ask any of my staffers, I’ve never raped any of them”.
The day the music 
died
The marching band refused to yield .
John Phillips Taza
There’s a thread on this topic.
A “Youtube star” f’d a, f o.
This should never have resulted in charges.
Why not? I was ready to say the same thing, but after reading the article, I can’t say I agree. He used lethal force against someone who played an audio clip too loudly/closely.
Had the youtuber lunged at him with a plastic knife to get a reaction, I’d could see an argument for using a gun, but he played an audio clip.
Unless there’s more to the story that I’m missing, I think the stupid motherfucker is the guy with the gun. He also apparently told him to stop multiple times and threatened to call the police. I have to assume that gave him more than enough time to understand that the guy was being obnoxious, but wasn’t going to physically harm him and self-defense wasn’t necessary.
WAG, the gunman is hot tempered to begin with.
Charge them both, why not? I’m sure that Cook was guilty of something.
Some large stranger, possibly insane, possibly violent, pushing themselves into your face and playing gibberish loudly in your ear out of the blue and refusing to stop? Thinking you were under the possible threat of violence and proactively defending yourself is a perfectly rational and justifiable response.
I am also surprised at this reaction. I think self-defense usually has a ‘reasonable person’ standard. Would a reasonable person have perceived this as a bodily threat?
That sounds like a big lift for the defense and charges seem very appropriate.
I think calling the police would be a reasonable and justifiable response. Shooting someone seems like an unnecessary escalation.
Absolutely.
I may think shooting is an over reaction, but them I’m almost as large as the punk ass dude that FAFO’d. The threat doesn’t seem as imminent to me. (of course, he’d probably never try to punk me, so there’s that)
Given that, if George Zimmerman can be acquitted then maybe this case was a “reasonable escalation”, legally.
Completely different circumstances. The victim is white.
Zimmerman testified that he was attacked and his head smashed on the ground before he used his weapon. Many people straight up didn’t believe him, but legally that didn’t matter because there wasn’t actually any evidence to show him a liar.
This guy, there is evidence. The video shows exactly what happened, and he was not touched or threatened. There really doesn’t seem to be any dispute over the facts here. The trial will turn on whether his fear was reasonable. I will be shocked if it is found to be so.
Is repeatedly shoving a cell phone in Someone face and playing gibberish assault? I believe it is. A reasonable response would be to assume the person doing this is imbalanced, and it could escalate.
IMHO, a reasonable response would be to leave immediately.
Best way to de-escalate is to leave.
To be fair, apparently he tried. From the article:
The interaction, which only lasted about 10 seconds, included Cook playing the phrase four times as Colie backed away.
We don’t seem to have the original video from Cook, so it’s hard to say, but it sounds like Colie pursued him.
“Why didn’t you stop?” asked the defense.
“Because there was no reaction,” answered Cook.
“You mean there was no reaction funny enough to be in your video?”
“Yes.”
Without the video we don’t know whether Cook was chasing him at a run, backing him into a corner, or anything else that might support Colie’s claim he felt threatened. But given the description we do have it sounds like tried to get away, then decided he was still under threat.
Exactly. Pulling out the gun was overkill. The prankster’s obnoxious behavior did not justify a potentially lethal response.
Now, if some YouTuber dressed up like a doctor, snuck into Cook’s hospital room, told him the wound had turned septic, they’d have to remove part of his colon and he’d probably wear a colostomy bag for the rest of his life, then uploaded the resulting video to YouTube; now that would be satisfyingly appropriate.
This requires that he was aware this was a “prank” and not a raving lunatic.
Pull out the gun and show it to him? Maybe appropriate. Shoot him? No.
Plenty enough wrongness to go around in that story.