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AJC.com > Metro > View from the cop > Archives > 2006 > July > 11 > Entry
Mensa won’t be interested in these crooks
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
We had a good first week on the streets, mostly because we have good hand-picked police officers on the department. Calls were handled very efficiently and with great success, given what we inherited.
We caught a bank robber and three carjackers in the first week. To be honest, though, the bank robber was so bad at her trade that we gave her an assist on the arrest. The only thing she didn’t do was write the arrest report.
Let’s face it. When you put two bags on the counter, one white and one black, order the teller to fill the black bag, and then leave with the white one, coupled with trying to use a hairbrush as a holdup gun, wrapped in clear plastic to boot, it doesn’t really present much of a challenge.
We could barely talk the FBI into showing up on that one.
Then there were the three stooges who tried, we think twice, to carjack a woman over on Northside Drive. They got out, pulled a gun, scared the poor woman half to death, and then sat there trying to get her Lexus started. They sat and sat.
The victim ran into a drug store and came back with the manager, who got a good look at the car tag and Moe, Larry, and Curly as they drove off.
By then the cops were well on the way and located the car. The police followed them over off of Delk Road. They pulled into an apartment complex. After the car stopped, the officers rushed the car.
Moe and Larry, occupying the front seat, never got a chance to get out. Curly ran straight into a creek which, by the way, will hamper a clean getaway. A second officer fished him out as he tried to climb the hill on the other side of the creek. The only casualties were a pair of muddy boot and pants of the second officer.
Detectives think it’s the same three who tried to carjack a motorist at the Northridge Kroger the previous day.
You guessed it.
They couldn’t get the car started.
Comments
Commenting is now closed for this entry.
By Political Foreskin
July 11, 2006 8:24 AM | Link to this
Great stuff! If only all crooks were this crazy!!
Question, sir: If someone tries to carjack you, can you shoot them? If you see someone in a bank, holding it up, can you shoot them too? I dont have a gun, but I always argue this point with my dad.
Can a citizen shoot a criminal caught in the act of robbing?
By Capt
July 11, 2006 8:40 AM | Link to this
Good question political…I think you should be able to shoot someone for a parking violation…but then again thats just me. I think you must be in fear of you life or the lives of bystanders before you can use deadly force. Remember the old saying that it is better to be judged by 12 than carried by 6. That saying came from someone that never had shot someone…each case is different but in my opinion deadly force should be an action of last resort…but availible to law abiding citizens under the right circumstance.
By palepadre
July 11, 2006 8:48 AM | Link to this
Presuming that you fear for your life and have fire arms training. I wouldn’t just shoot someone in a Bank. People have seen to many movies and shows where the person just falls down dead. Also, the wrong ammunition and someone on the opposite side of the bad guy will get hit. Either through a miss or a bullet that enters and exits. Remebr, you may be found inncocent of killing the bad guy, but a Civil lawsuit is possible from a family filing for loss of income because of the person you shot and killed. I am serious about that. They can have my car, although I don’t approach my car directly. I change my approach from the direction I left it. And I don’t go to out of the way places at night.I would and do make a short appraisal of the business I am entering everytime. That comes with military training and reading books on surveillance.
By James
July 11, 2006 9:45 AM | Link to this
In general (and it’s a good idea to take a class specializing in self-defense law), you are justified in using lethal force (which includes not just firearms but any force which might cause permanent injury) to defend yourself or others from unprovoked attacks that are likely to cause permanent or serious harm. Carjackers are fair game, as are bank robbers. But the tactical situation may suggest that waiting on assistance is a better choice (particularly in the bank robbery situation - if they aren’t about to start shooting people, using lethal force may be the wrong answer. But, then again, bank robbers HAVE been known to kill the people in the bank before leaving, so if they start herding everybody out of sight of the doors or otherwise act like that’s a possibility, engage as you bear). As for lawsuits, there are some legal protections against lawsuits for lawful self-defense, and it’s better to be sued than to be dead.
By Jeff
July 11, 2006 10:19 AM | Link to this
“Stand Your Ground” laws, sometimes called shoot-first laws by their critics, are statutes that allow the use of deadly force to defend against forcible unlawful entry or attack. These bills significantly expand the boundaries of legal self-defense by eliminating a person’s duty to retreat from an invader or assailant in certain cases before resorting to the use of “defensive force that is intended or likely to cause death or great bodily harm to another.”
By Jeff
July 11, 2006 10:38 AM | Link to this
Stand Your Ground laws, sometimes called shoot-first laws by their critics, are statutes that allow the use of deadly force to defend against forcible unlawful entry or attack. These bills significantly expand the boundaries of legal self-defense by eliminating a person’s duty to retreat from an invader or assailant in certain cases before resorting to the use of defensive force that is intended or likely to cause death or great bodily harm to another.
forcible felonies include treason; murder; manslaughter; sexual battery; carjacking; home-invasion robbery; robbery; burglary; arson; kidnapping; aggravated assault; aggravated battery; aggravated stalking; aircraft piracy; unlawful throwing, placing, or discharging of a destructive device or bomb; and any other felony which involves the use or threat of physical force or violence against any individual
By Grandma "Gah"
July 11, 2006 4:21 PM | Link to this
I LOVE your column, and have been a faithful reader for a LONNNG time. You never cease to give me my laughs for the day. Yours is the first column I read (after the headlines) when I “open” my AJC online.
As for defending oneself and/or one’s family, property, etc., I think there should be NO laws regarding self preservation. The laws I DO think should be changed are the guidelines judges are forced to follow when sentencing these thugs. Personally, if you enter my “space” without my permission, I think you should get life in prison. After all, you are giving me that same sentence, because from then on out, I will be fearful of living in what I thought was a safe place.