He’s finally arrested.
Minneapolis police are now facing heavy criticism for not arresting Sawchak before the shooting even though he had multiple complaints.
Members of the Minneapolis City Council, including Mayor Jacob Frey, pointed blame at the Minneapolis police department for not acting on any of the prior complaints against Sawchak and failing to arrest him immediately after the shooting. https://newsone.com/5658819/white-man-shoots-black-neighbor-minneapolis/
Yeah that made me have a thought. John Oliver did an episode on “stand your ground” ages ago, and reading that guy’s message, asking “what he can do”, I’m forced to conclude that for him, in the US, in that situation, it would probably be best to get a gun himself and the next time the guy does something like this, just two to the chest.
Seeing he has a restraining order and whatnot previous things, probably should be somewhat of an easy case to defend as self-defense, right? Unless it’s just even fucking sadder, and it is just because he’s black and he’d just end up imprisoned for murder.
God the world is shit nowadays where shall we congregate a force to have a teensy weensy global revolution?
MN is not a stand your ground state. If you are threatened in public then you have a duty to retreat if able. However, MN is a castle doctrine state so if someone threatens you on your property then you are perfectly clear to use any reasonable means up to and including lethal force to defend yourself and your property. So your initial idea only works in MN if the threat took place on his own property of if he is unable to get away from the threat.
Unfortunately, that would probably just result in him drowning in legal fees. Killing someone, even if it is completely justifiable in self-defense, is extremely expensive. Like, 6 figures expensive. That said, this man is going to fucking kill him so…also I guess even if he doesn’t, now he has medical fees anyway.
Jesus Christ what an all around fucked situation :(
“Imprisoned for murder” might still be on the optimistic side of potential outcomes… He could well be murdered himself, by the police, in reponse to what you and I see as self-defense. (I am guessing from the “in the US” part of your comment and other context that you aren’t from here, and may not be aware of the history of institutionalized racism that would make any interaction with the police potentially dangerous for him. Forgive me if I have erred there.)
Imprisoned for self defense while black.
It’s a similar problem as driving while black, walking while black, etc…
You’re so loud ghe whole (Western) world knows most about your business.
You are right of course, and any interaction with police could be dangerous. But if he just shoots the guy, then calls the authorities while clearly laying his weapon far away from him and being on his knees with his hands on his head, there shouldn’t be an excuse for the cops to murder him.
But an alarming amount of things I’ve thought would never happen with the police have happened. Both in the US and here in Finland. Now I don’t need to be afraid of getting murdered, but the abuse still didn’t feel good.
Doesn’t require stand your ground, unless you could reasonably flee the attacker. If they’ve got a gun it’s not too hard to argue that you couldn’t reasonably flee or they’d shoot you in the back.
Stand your ground just removes the duty to try to get away from an attacker if possible, and is only the law in some states.
Though not required for this situation, stand your ground laws have a big effect. When no such law exists, you’re definitely going to be the subject of a homicide investigation and may get charged and have to get a jury to acquit. When those laws do exist, the police won’t bother investigating and the DA won’t bring charges in many cases. In states like Texas or Florida, pretty much all you have to do is be on your property or say you felt threatened and shot first and you’re free to go.
The episode covered all that in detail, yes.
They give pretty good background and wider context, so…
Agree. It’s even on camera (assuming this goes down in the front yard)