MI:Is Detroit a Self-Defense Haven?

Many embeded links in the orginal article. Dean Weingarten

Detroit has been getting a lot of attention for its recent shootings. Not the usual criminal stuff, but the step-up in self-defense shootings as people have come to realize that the police only exist to mark the outlines of bodies with chalk.

- Here is the story of a shootout at a tax preparation business in a suburban Detroit residence. A couple attempted to rob the tax preparer in spite of the fact that a security car was sitting out front. What did the security guard use to defend his clients? One of those demonized AR-15s. But of course, no one could possibly ever have a reason to need a high-capacity magazine.

- Another Detroit senior has shot back at apparent criminals. His story is that two teenagers tried to attack and rob him, a 70-year-old girls' basketball coach of a Detroit high school, as he escorted a couple of his players to their cars after a game. One of the criminals intending violence was killed. All I saw on the news that evening is the family members of the two teenagers talking about what great kids they were, and how they would never do such a thing. Yet one of them had already been expelled from school, according to ABC News. Then it was revealed that the coach is also a Detroit Police Dept reserve officer. While the mother of the dead child claimed her son would never do any such thing, the Wayne County's Prosecutor's Office called this a textbook case of self-defense.

- A candy store owner was almost the victim of a thug who intended to rob his wholesale business. The owner pulled a gun and shot the guy dead.

- Another great defensive measure occurred when two kids (brothers) attempted to rob two utility workers as they came down a pole. One of the utility workers was armed, and he shot the attackers, hitting both. Immediately following the incident, the family once again chimed in with the usual response:

"My 16-year-old, he's a smart kid, intelligent kid. He wasn't no ghetto gangster, no robber, never beat up a person or nothing like that," said Mitchell. "I never heard of my sons carrying no guns. I just don't understand."

Really? Smart, "good" kids who have so little respect for human life that they sling around guns as if they were toys. This man who saved two lives may be punished for carrying a gun while on the job.

Now here are some stats from The Daily:

Justifiable homicide in the city shot up 79 percent in 2011 from the previous year, as citizens in the long-suffering city armed themselves and took matters into their own hands. The local rate of self-defense killings now stands 2,200 percent above the national average. Residents, unable to rely on a dwindling police force to keep them safe, are fighting back against the criminal scourge on their own. And they’re offering no apologies.

Now - before you brand Detroit as being unique in this regard (crime), these desperation crimes are occurring all over, whether it is Memphis, St. Louis, Oakland, or, of course, Chicago. Just try defending yourself in Washington, D.C. or the wonderful city of Chicago, America's gun-free killing field. At least here we can defend ourselves, and without - for the most part - overzealous prosecutors incarcerating victims who choose to serve and protect themselves and their family. This is posted from "Detroit: From Rust to Riches," my new Detroit blog.

Source