I love my neighborhood, and have great neighbors.
We occasionally have some badness drifting up from a nearby high-crime region, though.
My truck has been broken into something like 3 times in 10 years. The police can always be relied on to say something like "Doh !"
A few nights ago, one of my neighbors heard somebody messing around with his pickup, which was parked out on the street. He looked outside, and yep, somebody was messing with his truck. Mr. Ed, the truck-owner, is a calm, older black gentleman, and one of the best folks I know. Age Morgan Freeman by about 20 more years, shave his head, and you've got Mr. Ed.
Mr. Ed calmly got his pistol, went outside, and took a shot at the son of a bitch.
He missed. Mr. Ed apparently had all the appropriate permits that are required for someone to shoot at truck thieves, and as far as I know he isn't in any trouble with the law.
That happened four or five nights ago. I sleep like a baby, knowing that Mr. Ed is out there, and a restless sleeper.
Barack Obama is going to raise taxes so he can keep spending. No one has been able to plug the hole in the Gulf. Our soldiers are still getting shot in Iraq and Afghanistan. Nancy Pelosi is Speaker Of The House.
But I don't think we have to worry about that guy breaking into any more trucks.
When seconds count, the police are just minutes away !
4 comments:
Good on you, Mr. Ed.
I just hope there was nothing behind where the bullet went that got hurt (always a concern, with anyone).
B Woodman
III-per
Home=Castle laws. It should be true in every state.
I had my home broken into once. All that was stolen (that I know of) was a bunch of frozen steaks. The impact of the crime is far more than the dollar amount of the stolen goods. The victim of a crime never feels safe again and that cannot be restored even if the criminal is caught and punished.
Few courts or governments truly recognize the full impact of crime on victims. Liberals would say that Mr. Ed took the law into his own hands. My retort is that is where the law has always been. A person responding to a crime in progress is not judge, jury, and executioner. They are not weighing evidence. They are victims or defenders of life, liberty, and property taking action based on real threats. The criminals are not under the law's control and they deserve the benefit of no doubt as long as they remain at large and capable of causing harm.
It takes less than two seconds to draw a weapon and launch a bullet to end someone's life. A criminal should never get those two seconds. Criminals should not fear imprisonment. They should fear property owners and free men.
I just got back from Portland - a wonderful city except that there was a beggar on every corner and a temporarily idle G20 rioter at ever resting spot. Being there at night would have been fine if I were allowed to carry a sawed off shotgun. There should be no place in America where anyone should have fear of another. I think it was Montesquieu who said something like that as the definition of liberty.
Justice was done today in the case of a police officer who unintentionally shot an unarmed man. The riots in Oakland are about to begin.
Thank God you and Ed live in Texas. In a similar situation, here's what happened in Colorado.
http://www.barking-moonbat.com/index.php/weblog/colorado_town_takes_style_from_uk/
As someone whose house and various vehicles have been broken into numerous times (most recently the wife's car while visiting her parents' graves) I can certainly sympathize with Ed.
Really, I can.
However, knowing I've got a neighbor who thinks nothing of squeezing off a few rounds into the night would *not* make me feel safer. In fact, in my neighborhood, this would be seen as a much bigger problem than the occasional broken window.
Confirm this with your friendly neighborhood real estate agent, but I'm guessing the sound of gunfire is going to depress property values a lot more than the sound of broken glass.
Of course, if the sound makes you feel safer, you may never want to move anyway.
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