Interesting new law

In South Carolina, there's a bill in the House aimed at stopping home invasions:

The bill provides for punishments of 20 years or more for a home invasion and would open the door to a death penalty case if someone dies during the invasion.

The bill distinguishes between a burglary where there's nobody home at the time, and home invasions where people are home. It also covers a drive-by shooting under the notion that bullets and projectiles are an invasion. This is in response to invasions where scumbags rape and murder the homeowners, and is understandable to a degree. I don't disagree with making the perpetrator in home invasions and drive-bys serve longer sentences, but I don't have a good feeling about applying the death penalty for such things. For one, the powers-that-be have a tendency to throw the book and the kitchen sink at criminals for non-violent crimes, and the idea that a burglar who breaks into a home thinking nobody is there when they in fact are, and statutorily gets the death penalty is beyond extreme. Second, it can't be said with certainty that state governments always send the guilty scumbag to their death; it generally can't be proven, but I don't know anyone who, in their heart, isn't convinced that innocent people at times are executed. Adding another reason to give someone the death penalty doesn't sit well with me.

For the violent scumbags who do rape and murder, there's already the death penalty available for that as far as I know. Maybe though the risk of being killed by the state if you're caught breaking into occupied homes will be enough to convince criminals to take up panhandling or something. Who knows. It's unknown whether the law takes grey areas into consideration like squatters and drunks. You may shake your head, but drunk people do some weird things, and just because they find their way into your home doesn't mean that they should automatically be killed for their stupidity, though getting shot in the dark by a scared homeowner is a different matter.

My Creator has a sense of humor

At times he shows it just to amuse us, like in this video from an ARFCOM thread where an opportunistic thug is robbing what looks like a drug store, and hasn't noticed the cop standing in line behind him. Awesomeness!

I mean, there you are on a boring night shift with nothing to look forward to but endless domestic violence calls when you swing in to CVS for a Redbull, and no shit, this little scumbag standing three feet from you starts robbing the clerk at the register. There's no investigative work needed, no looking at cameras, no interviewing witnesses - you get to pull your gun and stuff it in that shit's face, right before repeatedly slamming his resisting ass into the floor and into the parking lot. I'm OK with this. This is how my idea of law enforcement plays out in my head.

I could only imagine the conversation the cop had with his peers at the station later on.

Armed churchgoing citizen thwarts armed robbery in Maryland!!

Actually, the churchgoing citizen is a cop. Mere citizens are too incompetent to be trusted to carry a gun to church.

"They saw the officer, he saw them, pulled out their weapon...fired, he fired back...as he tried to find cover, they ran off,” said Cpl. Clinton Copeland, Prince George’s Co. Police Dept.

Oh, by the way, the reason the Alexandria Police Department is supporting this shooting without an investigation is because the cop is one of theirs. Understandable that they would stand up for their brother officer, but the difference is that they give no such consideration for other people. We're not one of them.

If some regular Joe like me were on my way to church and shot it out with scumbags, do you think I would be given the same support? Me neither.

Justice with a dose of stupidity

A 16 year old (at the time) wannabe thug who shot five classmates on a bus killing one of them was sentenced to 100 years in prison.

Good.

The victim's dad, a former Chicago cop, commented that Michael Pace should serve every day of the sentence.

Good.

The dad has also become a gun control advocate since Pace went on his shooting spree.

Wait, what?

To give you an idea of what happened, this all went down in Chicago in 2007 when a 15 year old (at the time) boy illegally sold Pace an illegally owned handgun, and Pace illegally took possession of it and set out to illegally kill another gang member, but instead illegally shot up a bus and five people, murdering one (illegally). All of this in a city that has banned handgun ownership, and in a state that has made it illegal to carry a handgun, as well as the whole minor in possession thing.

So rightfully aggrieved dad wants to make handgun ownership more illegal. Awesome. Like throwing a bucket of water on a ship fire.

I don't understand people sometimes.

Good riddance

A teenager who committed two armed robberies in Stafford County in a week was ordered this week to spend 231/2 years in prison.

In Stafford Circuit Court, Naser Mihailovic, 18, received a total of 691/2 years with 46 years suspended.

Mihailovic robbed a man at gunpoint in England Run on Jan. 24 of last year, then held up two people a week later after following them home from a Spotsylvania restaurant.

They don't have much sympathy for scumbags around here, and he didn't even fire a shot. This sentence is straight from the judge; the jury didn't get to recommend a sentence because he was 17 when he committed the crime. If there is a next time, he'll get a longer sentence that won't be suspended. Notice as well that he is still facing more charges elseware.

His mother is pretty pissed. Boo hoo.

Mihailovic's mother was escorted from the courtroom after she screamed out, "You can't do that judge," once the sentence was announced.

Judge John Alderman's sentence Tuesday exceeded the state sentencing guidelines, which called for a maximum penalty of just under 16 years.

Prosecutor Andrea McCauley had argued that Mihailovic deserved a longer sentence. "He earned every day and then some," she said.

As far as I'm concerned, it's only a matter of time before he gets bold enough to kill someone.

Again, good riddance.

A long sentence for the little bastard

A teenager cut a business owner's throat during a robbery after the man gave him the money. "Giving them what they want" didn't work out so well. Anyways, the business owner lived, and the teen was sentenced to 45 years in prison.

Velez was 17 when he and three others robbed the $3 Car Wash. After stealing money, Velez slashed manager Maurice Lavender's throat with a box cutter as he lay face down on the floor.

Allen cited the horrific nature of the crime when sentencing Velez to more than the state guideline of 27 years.

Velez had previously served time for burglary and larceny.

A prior record and he still didn't learn his lesson. Too bad the three life sentences didn't stick, but as it stands he will be about 60 years old when he gets out. That's a hell of a lot better than the pathetic sentence DC dished out yesterday for a jewelry store robber who shot the owner, who also survived.

Notice a pattern here? Virginia's violent crime rate for 2006 was at 281 (latest data found) while DC's violent crime rate for 2006 was at 1,508. That's per 100k people. Coincidence? I doubt it.

Yikes! Read the comments! This kid is lucky he didn't get these guys on the jury!

Update: Meanwhile, this scumbag is facing the death penalty for murdering a local man with a knife. The man worked at a family Chinese food restaurant and was ambushed and killed while out delivering food. The entire town is outraged so the death penalty will likely stick. Too bad his scumbag girlfriend isn't getting charged for murder.

The impact of Heller

Well, if you are watching the news this morning you would think that it's the end of the world. I hear journalists talk about "mixed reactions" and "some feel positive about the decision," yet they don't interview any of those people. It's almost like their biased or something.

Personally, I think that things are pretty much gonna stay the same for awhile. It's very likely that shootings are going to go up some, and the media will be all over it, but an increase in shootings and "gun deaths" does not mean an increase in murder. Some DC residents are going to keep a loaded handgun in their home, and they have a good chance of slaying some goblin who breaks in trying to steal, so it's probable that there are going to be more cases of "justifiable homicide," if DC even has such a thing.

Right now it looks as though DC residents are only going to be allowed revolvers, which is a start. Demonizing semi-auto pistols is kinda dumb, and I don't think that will last very long, but in the meantime, if I lived in crime riddled DC, I would be very comforted sleeping next to this.

The reason I think that the impact will be slight is that the Heller decision doesn't allow for carry. Think of the poor mother living in SE having to run out to the store at 9 o'clock at night to pick up baby formula. She can't carry a little .38 in her purse to protect herself in the parking lot, which is unfortunate. Still, her being able to stand her ground against thugs while in her own house is definitely a plus, regardless of all of the huffing and puffing by us folk of the gun about how the Heller decision wasn't a complete win for gun rights.

Think about it. They have had nothing to lawfully defend themselves with for 32 years! DC residents can't even use pepper spray. Now, in their own home, they can unlock the shotgun and actually load the blasted thing. Not only that, but they can have a handgun too! How cool is that?

Some people are saying stuff along the lines of "now criminals will be able to get guns," as if that hasn't been going on for decades now. How can they say that with a straight face? Criminals will continue to buy guns from their criminal friends, and they will probably steal them from citizens as well, but now they have a much better chance of facing grave danger on their next break-in.

Which thug is gonna be the first?

Armed self defense works

In Phoenix, a homeowner kills an armed intruder with a rifle; the rest of the intruders fled.

No word on why the intruder didn't simply disarm the homeowner.

Blind Justice

In Kalifonia, a man stealing tires off of a car is crushed to death by said car.

Virginia puts "Only One" away

I had commented about this case some time ago. This now former cop got the maximum sentence of 45 years. He plans on appealing.