The white couple seem like ignorant assholes and probably voted for Trump. But I’m not sure they’re in the wrong, when the black people are the ones threatening to beat them up–and then one of them tries to block the car and starts smacking the back window as she continues to scream at them. I could see how that could be scary (and if they continue to back up, they could then accuse the white couple of trying to run them over, which seemed to be the idea).
In addition to the criminal charges, the white husband has already been fired from his university job.
Didn’t the couple just hit, or almost hit, that black woman’s niece? And, then, didn’t they also back the car up towards the black woman or something like that?
I haven’t followed it that closely, but I think your summary left out some important context.
I’ll say this the same as I say for all the protest-ramming videos: if you get out of the safety of your vehicle, you can’t excuse your behavior by saying you felt unsafe. Especially if you have a phone and a gun. Stay in your damn car, roll up the tinted windows, call the police.
I see no reason in this clip for whitelady to exit her vehicle and brandish a firearm. Nobody else was making threats, getting physical, or showing a weapon. I don’t see them blocking her car, but if they were blocking her car from leaving, why did she not call the police. She always had the option to escalate to gunplay if someone else pulled a weapon or threw a punch, but nobody did that. They just throwing around words that made whitelady sad and not in control, and we can’t have that, can we?
I really don’t like how the black women acted out, but all they were doing is being disagreeable, bluffing with a camera, and faking distress. That’s pretty disgusting, but it’s not a crime and doesn’t excuse anything that whitelady did.
You think continued threats of physical violence, following people and yelling those threats, and blocking someone’s way of leaving is just making someone “sad and not in control” as this lady was pining for JIm Crow or slavery control over this ignorant woman and her mouthy daughter?
You notice how she doesn’t miss a beat and never stops filming even with a gun pointed in her face? She got exactly what she wanted and goaded her into pulling a gun and probably will write books now about her lifetime of racial oppression.
It’s absolutely disgusting. The implication is that blacks can commit any act of aggression they like because it is payback time. This woman will be walk, no problem. Completely justified.
But, as far as assholes go, elevating to pulling a gun on someone who is just yelling at you in your car and taking video and maybe, god forbid, standing behind you, is beyond assholish. It’s the kind of thing that can get someone (namely the gun owner) shot on the grounds of self-defense. Because the only way to tell the difference between someone pointing a gun at you to scare you away and someone pointing a gun at you with lethal intent, is to stand around and wait to (maybe) get shot.
This is exactly why random civilians shouldn’t have guns. Imagine how this encounter would have gone with no guns involved? No one needed to die here. But in this country, its apparently acceptable for people to escalate verbal arguments into killings – as long as the people doing the escalation are white.
None of us know what started it. As these things go, somebody says or does something stupid, whether intentionally or by accident and things begin to spiral out of control because most people are not very good at de-escalation.
What I’m going to say next is going to sound like pulling a gun was justified and it absolutely wasn’t.
BUT -
The couple got in their car and without further threat or attempt to escalate were trying to calmly leave the scene. The mother and daughter (or niece? w/e) continued to instigate by blocking their exit.
What followed should have been further attempts to de-escalate or a 911 call. Instead, things got out of hand.
Therefore, everybody ends up getting the Asshole Trophy.
I agree – but I’m also a hudbred times more concerned about the asshole with a gun than the one without one. Asshole with a gun tends to lead to murder.
Absolutely agree. Unfortunately, the idea of unnecessary escalation appears too nuanced for some pro-gun/anti-control advocates to allow. The idea that people get into arguments and even physical altercations all the time—sometimes with some level of assholish behavior on both sides—and that introducing a gun into such a situation would, in fact, be a bad thing as it might tend to make such arguments more deadly, is, alas, something that tends to get discounted out of hand. It’s black and white (metaphorically speaking) to them. The idea that they or another gun owner might end up in a gray situation that never would have turned deadly but for one party or more having a gun on them in the heat of the moment is too much to grasp.
ETA:
Quite possibly. But asshole trophies are outside the purview of police. Pulling a gun on someone during a verbal altercation, though? That wins the silver bracelets award.
I completely agree. In situations like this, a gun makes things worse when the person carrying thinks it’s a problems solver rather than a problem escalator.
Majority of people, regardless of how much gun handling practice they have, are not emotionally competent enough to carry a gun in public. Having a gun tends to give you balls when you have no fucking brains. Always a dangerous combo.
When I took my CCW class that was drilled into us. Don’t do anything because you have a gun that you wouldn’t have done without it. The two examples he gave us were that if it’s 10 at night and you decide you want some potato chips, go to the walgreens across the street, not to the gas station 10 miles away in the bad part of town. Similarly, if you’re walking into a convenience store and you see it’s getting held up, just keep walking. Go around the corner and call 911, yes, but don’t run in there with your gun drawn.
TL;DR, having a gun has a bad habit of making people want to go looking for a reason to use it or to otherwise be overly bold. Don’t do that.
It’s really hard to tell what’s going on here. There really ARE people who jump behind moving vehicles in parking lots and claim to be injured. It’s a fairly common scam. And just because you didn’t actually hit them doesn’t necessarily protect you from civil consequences, if they get a good camera angle where it looks like you might have hit them, or even if there’s no video and they lie convincingly.
I mean, that’s not a good reason to pull a gun on anyone. But it’s a legitimate reason to be upset.
But there was some weird fight about who’s a racist at the start of the video. Something must have led up to that. And we can’t tell what from the video.
I have no doubt people are taught this. Still doesn’t change the fact that many people don’t have the emotional skills or the mental skills to control their impulses. And nobody tells them that because there is no test that will weed them out.
I’ll stop there because I don’t want to turn this into yet another pointless 2A clusterfuck.
Agreed. And not just that, there’s a peer pressure element as well. If your friends know you have a gun, they’re more likely to do something stupid (like pick a fight) on the assumption that you’ll have their back if (when) it goes south.
There was no threat of physical violence. If she really thought she was in danger she would have stayed in her car, rolled up her windows, and called for help. If she was blocked in and felt deadly force was justified, she could have just backed into anyone standing behind her and driven away.
Driving away is a pretty good sign that someone feels threatened. Jumping out of your car and standing your ground is not. Get it?
She didn’t do any of those things. She kept squabbling and backbiting through the window, and then got out of the car and drew down. She didn’t feel threatened.
What point of law do you think this brings into play?