Luck and God's grace are what you need, because nobody else seems to be willing to pitch in.
I wasn't aware of that statement by Mr. Poor, who is currently the chief deputy of the Galveston County Sheriff's department (he's basically the acting sheriff).
The Supreme Court ruled a while back that the use of deadly force in property crimes by police officers was a civil rights violation. That means that police officers cannot stop looters or other thieves by deadly force. (Tennessee v. Garner is one decision that I can come up with.)
A private citizen is not bound by that rule. Though conceivably a criminal or his survivors could bring suit in federal court, I don't know of it happening.
If you look at the history of grand and petit juries in Galveston County, they seem as no-nonsense as anyone in Texas. I know of no legitimate self-defense incident resulting in an indictment here. Most don't even involve arrest.
You'll find that not much has changed around here.
P.S.: Here is the source of the Deputy Sheriff's statement: http://www.guidrynews.com/story.aspx?id=1000013696" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
- Jim