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rdcrags wrote:Always carry a big dog to a gunfight.

You got that. He is huge and he does turn ham bones to powder but I really can't see him hurting anyone. I know, famous last words. He is a Newfoundland, I can see him backing up and demanding his bottom being scratched then he will sit down in their lap and break their legs. His bark sounds like thunder, as a matter of fact he and is brother are pulling the grand kids on a cart in the pet parade for Mardi Gras this weekend on Seawall in Galveston.

jbarn wrote:

TEXASGIANT wrote:WOW!

Just for the sake of discussion. Why does the law require that we have to claim fear? Must we walk around afraid? Is it so difficult as a society to admit that some things that people want to do to others requires a particular response, without fear, remorse or hesitation.
I pray that in the future I can demonstrate better restraint and leave these things to the guys that get paid to thump on knuckleheads for me. Because no matter the outcome he ain't worth the trouble.

"Fear" is a common misunderstanding in the law. Fear is not mentioned in the law. The media loves to use the phrase "in fear of his life" when describing why someone used deadly force. I have even heard LE spokepersons use the phrase. However, being in fear is not a justification, nor a requirment, for a justification of deadly force.

The code is clear when deadly force is justified; to prevent the other person's use or attempted us of unlawful deadly force, or to prevent the imminent commission of murder, aggravated kidnapping, sexual assault, aggravated sexual assault, robbery and aggravated robbery. No mention is made of being afraid or in fear of your life. You might be in fear of your life when one of those things are happening, but the fear is not your justification. A SEAL/Delta tier 1 operator who has seen action might not "feel" fear if someone tried to rob him with a gun, but that lack of fear does not remove his justification for using deadly force to defend himself.

Even in property crimes fear is not required.

A little story to illustrate why being in fear of your life should not be a justification: if you ever ride in a car with my sister......you will be if fear of your life.

Defending a third person has the same requirments.

WOW! Thanks but that's what an Asst. DA said when he told me they weren't going with the Terroristic threat but disorderly instead. It makes me no never mind but he also said that when the "COME AND GET SOME " Goes back and forth, it becomes mutual. I don't want to have to explain why I told him to come on and then did him. It is kind of a contradiction, I guess.

WOW!
Thanks for all of the votes of confidence. I hope I didn't mislead anyone, please don't think me more noble than I am. I just wanted the noise to go away. I guess after so many years of being in charge and stuff and putting myself in the middle of whatever is in front of me. I sometimes forget that there are other ways to handle things than just wade in chest deep and take care of business. I loathe people trying to intimidate me.
Now I wonder if at some point in the (I hope) very far future, I do have to engage someone in the worst case, would all of this that has now been rendered to the WWW which never forgets anything doom me in a grand jury?
Just for the sake of discussion. Why does the law require that we have to claim fear? Must we walk around afraid? Is it so difficult as a society to admit that some things that people want to do to others requires a particular response, without fear, remorse or hesitation.
I pray that in the future I can demonstrate better restraint and leave these things to the guys that get paid to thump on knuckleheads for me. Because no matter the outcome he ain't worth the trouble.

Saturday night I was winding down my day and taking the dogs out for their last lap around the yard. I open the door and from across the street I hear screaming and crying. The park is over there and the dark side of the street but I can see a guy beating up a woman, a barely walking toddler is stumbling around.
In my best authoritarian COP/Drill Sargent voice I boom "IS THERE A PROBLEM!?"
He instantly turned his rage on me. "Go back in the house. . .with a lot of cursing." You get the idea, and it just got worse from there.
He went back to pushing her around and from what I could gather they were looking or some keys that she lost in the area (I think). He could have asked me for a flashlight And I would have helped them look.
When he noticed that I had not gone back in the house he went absolutely nuts! Me being me I already had a pistol in my hand about 2 syllables into his first tirade. So here I am with a 160lbs of dog that turns ham bones into powder in one hand a pistol in the other and my wife just behind me with a .45 and a cell phone full of Po Po. Dis foo still runnin his mouf. The pistols are at the discreet low ready position just behind the thigh not waving around but ready, since he has already started across the street a number of times, like we would run inside but he retreated to keep pushing her around. If he had advanced onto the stairs of my porch, my life would have been irreversibly altered forever. I am to old to take an whoopin and to young to die. This is the problem when we have stupid people roam freely amongst us, his error could change my world in a heart beat.
I don't think he missed a single derogatory term for my genealogy and actually pulled out a couple that I had not heard in a long time.
The couple splits up and I call out to the woman offering her refuge in our home she just keeps going. He cuts across the park, I guess he figured the cops would be there any minute so he better git. All the while he is retreating, he is yelling at me that he will be back in 10 minutes to kill me. All I want to do is go to bed.
The police roll up the far side of the park and have to slow as he crosses their path. I can't believe they didn't park the cruiser on top of him. They come around to where we are standing on the porch and I tell them that was the guy. COP says "your description was incorrect we were advised a black man in a hoody (It was a baggy sweatshirt and baggy shorts). I guess it was prejudice on my part that I just assumed the uniform would be a hoody.
Anyway, they got him and he spent the weekend in the hoosegow probably till arraignment this morning when he will be turned loose on PR. I think they charged him with terroristic threats, how lame. I want to see if they will throw in some federal hate crimes.
I could have just gone back in the house and surrendered the darkness to the evil forces that crawl out from their government subsidized rocks at night and all would have been well. I don't know if I did any good or changed the world that night. The stupid woman will probably testify that the only reason her baby daddy went to jail is because I'm a hater. Now I have to worry and wonder if and when he will come around and try to make good on his threat. My world has already been tipped on end and I haven't even had to pull the trigger. I know people that would say that there is never a justification for lethal force. Maybe they think I could just sit down with him and we can talk, or maybe he learned his lesson in lock up "this time" or what ever. I pray it won't come to the worst case option but I would prefer to go to my grave having had a gun and never needing it than wishing I had one.
Please keep my family in your prayers.
FOLLOW UP:
What I have learned from this is that you can't win.
By engaging in a conversation makes anything that follows pretty much mutual.
By inviting him to "Bring it" pretty much contraindicates any perceived FEAR on my part. I AIN"T SKEERT OF NUTHIN! So they couldn't use the terroristic threat because I wasn't in fear.
The DA didn't say so but I bet having my hand on a gun in my pocket when I step out to take the trash probably makes me the next George Zimmerman. My effort to get him to stop beating up the woman by calling him out was for nothing.
For future reference, shut up, stay inside, call the cops, don't get involved and stay afraid. This is the stuff they don't tell you in CHL class.
BTW; They did say that they were glad to get their hands on him due to many, many outstanding and as yet unanswered felonies. They said that I would probably be way down on his list of things to get in trouble over.