30 June 2008

Joe Horn: Hero or Murderer?

The first time I heard of Joe Horn was a few minutes ago while I was watching the Campbell Brown program on CNN. She reported that a Texas grand jury had refused to indict Horn for the deaths of two burglars he shotgunned as they fled a neighbor's home. Read this story for more details, and to hear Horn's disturbing chat with a 911 dispatcher, but to sum up: Horn shot two fleeing criminals in the back as a self-appointed protector of someone else's property, in defiance of the dispatcher's instructions to stay inside, and with premeditation, as he told the dispatcher that he intended to kill the men -- and the grand jury set him free, and the right-wing media hails him as an American hero.

The CNN program had one of the right-wing media on a panel to discuss the Horn case. Lars Larson is an Idiot of the Week candidate if anyone considers one necessary. He had nothing but praise for Horn and nothing but dismissal for the protests of his fellow panelists. Repeatedly he told them that "we don't have to take instructions from the government" in this country because this isn't a "nanny state." Another panelist tried to correct Larson; we do so have to take instructions, he said -- they happen to be called laws.

One thing I didn't learn from the Houston Chronicle article is whether the burglars were armed. They were, apparently, illegal immigrants, but I hope (in vain, probably) that fact won't prejudice anyone in favor of their deaths. If it does, please bear this in mind: the Supreme Court has recently ruled that to kill someone for any offense less grave than killing another person is a punishment excessive to the point of unconstitutional cruelty. Disagree with that ruling as you might, but it's the settled law of the land. Joe Horn backshot two fleeing men in an obvious fit of rage and killed them without anything resembling due process. Texans may think they still live in the days when you hanged men for stealing cattle, and reactionaries around the country may long for those days to return, but I don't really see how this free state is more secure with people like Joe Horn keeping and bearing arms. The word for his kind of law is anarchy.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

The two guys Joe Horn shot, were they black? It's most likely they were since the negroes cause most of the crimes in our country. And if they were, this man did what any race-respecting, American whiteman should do and he is indeed a hero. Even if they were white, they were probably white trash whites who associated with the blacks. These wannabe blacks like to call themselves "whiggers". Or it could of been a mix of some half-breed, Oreo types. Whatever the case - and the race - the guy did the right thing blowing away a couple of worthless hoods. They wanted to be gangsta's and that the way they went out.

Guns don't kill people. Freaks, radicals, bipolars and blacks do.

Samuel Wilson said...

No hero would shoot men running away in the back. As for the rest of it, I think I'll let Crhymethinc deal with you.

Anonymous said...

Seems to me you must be an utter, clueless moron.
Guns don't kill people. People with guns kill people. Since we can't take people out of the equation, we can take guns out of the equation.

So why don't you go off to church and pray to your worthless god for forgiveness for your utter and contemptible lack of redeeming qualities. And also pray your children (should you be able to find something under a rock to breed with) aren't as worthless as you.

hobbyfan said...

To "evangelicorp": If you'd bothered to read the article linked to this thread, you'd see that the two men shot were of Latino or Hispanic origin. They were classified as "illegal immigrants", after all. Your lack of comprehension on this issue marks you as ignorant and possibly also a bit of a bigot.

Anonymous said...

No it just goes to prove my point.

When you call an exterminator to rid your home of cockroaches, do you care if he shoots them in the back? No. He rids your home and he's the hero. Same with this guy, he shot a couple of la cucarachas -- who cares WHERE he shot them. They're dead and they won't rob again. Why else would they let him off?

You think you're so smart -- yet you never saw that coming. Blame everyone else, right? THEY'RE the idiots for letting the guy go. and YOU'RE right, why? Because you think you're smart??

That's in the eye of the beholder my friend. Oh, "people with guns kill people" -- yeah, that's a good one...

Guns have been around for hundreds of years and it's only in the past 150 that we've had whack-o's killing each other recklessly -- from the old west to Columbine.

It's more to do with modern society's downfall as a whole -- it's a much bigger than "people with guns kill people" that's bumper sticker philosophy, like, "Mean people suck"

There's no denying that ever since the blacks we "freed" gun violence has increased and society's integrity as a whole has diminished.

So put that in your crackpipe and smnoke it meth-man.

Samuel Wilson said...

Evangelicorp may be right to the extent that there was a spike in gun violence immediately following the abolition of slavery. If so, though, it was almost certainly due to the high volume of kukluxers and associated scum killing freedmen, "carpetbaggers," Republicans, etc. Of course, very few of the Old West gunmen and none of the Columbine killers were black, but maybe Evangelicorp's point is that abandoning the idea of racial slavery subverted "society's integrity" to the point that white folks lost all moral sense. That might be a tough one to prove.

Anonymous said...

I think it would be deliciously ironic if the proof of evangelicorp's "theory" (at least to himself), were that he became the victim of such a shooting.

At least that would spare the rest of us his tiresome racist rants, flawed logic and just plain irritating stupidity.

Anonymous said...

I also think it appropriate to remind evvangelicorpse that of all the school shootings, mall shootings, disgruntled ex-employees going postal, presidential assassins, serial killers and cult leaders, the overwhelming majority were white. And only one or two were black.
Original gang violence was among whites, because it was whites who formed the first street gangs. It was whites who formed the first organized crime syndicates. It was whites responsible for all the atrocities and attempted genocide against the indigenous people of the North and South American continents. It was whites who created the slave market here that brought the ancestors of all those people you hate so much.
Maybe the person who should really be hating is yourself.

Anonymous said...

Chrymethanalahoo...

We can only assume that whites have a greater history of autrocities because for most of history, whites, middle easterns and gooks have been the only ones with recorded histories. The black folks in Africa never wrote nothing down. Look what's going on in those countries right now... you think that stuff just started. Those tribes been murdering each other for thousands of years -- only the technology of how they do it has changed over the years. We have no way of knowing what slaughters went on there hundreds of years ago... but I'll tell you this... it's a fact it was going on.

We saved those blackies from their enemy tribes and brought them here to write rap music and get gold teeth and drive fancy sports cars and wear their pants down to their knees. If it weren't for us "enslaving" them, they'd still be THERE... being mistreated by their own people.

It's what our country does... we "help" people like that -- we decide what is right for them -- and we ordain their destiny. Why we can't let them decide for themselves. Look at Iraq. They'd still be living under Sodom. It's our duty to police the world, kick ass, take names, esterminate, encarcerate, enslave, what's the difference.

Ask Bush -- he might tell you slavery was a necessary evil.

It's a fact, black man only knows what white man taught him.