Responding to Crime in DC

The progressive policy regarding rising crime can be summed up as follows: Live in fear.

After his roommate and his girlfriend were robbed by armed men in ski masks, Benjamin Portman of Washington, DC became sufficiently alarmed to attend a community meeting on skyrocketing local violence. There he asked why bureaurats make it all but impossible for law-abiding citizens to defend themselves by exercising the Second Amendment.

Paul Quander, the District’s deputy mayor for public safety and justice, responded that crime victims should give the criminals what they want. Mr. Portman protested, saying, “But how do you know you’re going live and survive? You’re completely at their mercy.”

Mr. Quander thinks victimhood is preferable to self-defense. “The problem is, if you are armed, it escalates the situation,” Mr. Quander told residents. “It is much better, in my opinion, to be scared, to be frightened, and even if you have to be, to be injured, but to walk away and survive. You’ll heal, and you can replace whatever was taken away.”

Or at least, if they choose not to kill you for kicks you’ll survive. The God-given right of self-defense never comes into it from the statist point of view.

Source




IN: No charges from bar shooting death: "Allen County Prosecutor Karen Richards will not file formal charges against the man arrested after allegedly fatally shooting another man outside a north-side bar Saturday. Richards said evidence suggests Michael J. Collier, 43, of the 900 block of Charlotte Avenue, acted in self-defense when he shot James A. Heinze, 52, in the chest with a .38-caliber semiautomatic pistol. According to court documents, a police officer overheard Collier say he was glad he shot Heinze and that Collier asserted the shooting was in self-defense. The two men were involved in multiple fights – verbal and physical – inside and outside the bar because Collier had stared at Heinze's girlfriend, according to court records. Witnesses told police that Collier left the bar and was walking to his truck when Heinze approached him."


La.: Altercation leads to shootout: "After the group arrived at the Maxwell Street home located next to a popular hangout called “the tree,” an altercation broke out and shots were fired. Jones would later tell investigators that 18-year-old Shaquille Bagley, who was not with the four seeking retribution, was the first to fire shots, hitting Smith and Burnett. Jones pulled his gun in self defense and shot Bagley, according to a statement he gave police after the incident. Both Bagley and Burnett died on the scene. Smith was injured by a gunshot, was accidentally run over by Jones as he ran away from the scene and later was taken to Highland Hospital by Jones for treatment of his injuries. Smith was treated and released from the hospital before he could be arrested on the warrant. King and Jones were bound over to a grand jury after a preliminary hearing held early in February before County Court Judge Richelle Lumpkin found probable cause. The grand jury will decide if Jones will be indicted for murder"