Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site crystal.UUCP Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!cmcl2!seismo!uwvax!crystal!pal From: pal@crystal.UUCP Newsgroups: net.legal,net.politics Subject: Re: NYC subway hero Message-ID: <387@crystal.UUCP> Date: Mon, 31-Dec-84 13:30:23 EST Article-I.D.: crystal.387 Posted: Mon Dec 31 13:30:23 1984 Date-Received: Tue, 1-Jan-85 06:08:07 EST References: <121@cadre.UUCP> Organization: U of Wisconsin CS Dept Lines: 24 > The manhunt is on! > Some poor bastard had the gall to shoot four punks > in NYC who attacked him with sharpened screwdrivers, > demanding money. Now the police artist's drawing > of him is on nationwide television. Public enemy number Difficult to comment without knowing details, but it seems to me that a person with a gun should be able to dissuade someone with a screwdriver from robbing him/her without killing four people, unless the four were real idiots and persisted in their attack even after the gun was produced and perhaps even after one or more them were shot. If such disregard for their own life was indeed displayed, then of course the man was justified in responding as he did, but I doubt if the police would be after him if such were the case. If not, sorry, he deserves to be considered a criminal. Of course you may feel that muggers deserve to die, but I don't think the law agrees, at least not without due process. Sorry, unless there is evidence that the killer's response was reasonable in the circumstances, he *is* a criminal, and a dangerous one. Would you applaud a driver who deliberately rammed a car that cut in front of his own, even though s/he could avoid it? Taking the law into one's own hands is *not* commendable. Anil Pal U. of Wisconsin - Madison