What if Ed McMichael had shot his unarmed attackers?
July 15, 2013
By: Dave Workman
Demonstrators marched in New York's Times Square, and in many other places around the country including Seattle, to protest the George Zimmerman verdict.
Credits:
Mario Tama/Getty Images
McMichael was otherwise fondly known as the “Tuba Man.” He was an iconic fixture, setting up shop as a street musician outside of Seattle sports events. He died several days after being beaten by three unarmed teens, William “Billy” Chambers, Ja’Mari Jones and Kenneth D. Kelly. McMichael was white, his killers are not. All three got off pretty light and were relatively soon back on the streets, where they got in trouble again. All three are currently behind bars for unrelated offenses, and it should be noted that all of those offenses involve firearms.
Self-defense against an unarmed attacker is not “cold-blooded murder” as it is being portrayed in the Zimmerman case. This column touched on the Westlake Plaza shooting in 2005, an incident in which an armed victim fatally shot his unarmed attacker during the course of a potentially deadly beating. The intended victim was a black homeless man who was legally armed, and his attacker was white.
Al Sharpton is reportedly using his bully pulpit as an MSNBC anchor to stir up protests in scores of cities. One might ask where he was when the unarmed McMichael died from his injuries, or why there was no protest against gun violence after Westlake Plaza attacker Daniel Culotti was fatally shot.
This column has discussed self-defense law in Washington several times. A person has the right to use lethal force in self-defense if he is in reasonable fear of grave bodily harm or death. Set upon by three teens, McMichael must have feared for his life. The man who shot Culotti was being kicked and beaten and he must have been afraid of death or serious injury.
Perhaps the most famous such case in which an armed intended victim was exonerated for shooting his alleged attackers was when subway gunman Bernhard Goetz shot four black teens on a subway in 1984. He was convicted only of a gun crime, and the other day he told The Daily Beast retrospectively that “the same thing is happening.”
In Sanford, the six-woman jury evidently concluded that Zimmerman feared for his life as he was being punched and his head was banging into the cement.
As this column noted earlier, Zimmerman has been acquitted of second-degree murder in the death of Trayvon Martin, but his legal troubles are far from over. There have been death threats, Zimmerman is reportedly in hiding with his family, the Justice Department is reportedly looking at the case, and in all the excitement, people forget that the jury did its job.
How long will it be before someone asks the people who are stirring the masses whether it is “justice” they seek, or revenge?
Self-defense against an unarmed attacker is not “cold-blooded murder” as it is being portrayed in the Zimmerman case. This column touched on the Westlake Plaza shooting in 2005, an incident in which an armed victim fatally shot his unarmed attacker during the course of a potentially deadly beating. The intended victim was a black homeless man who was legally armed, and his attacker was white.
Al Sharpton is reportedly using his bully pulpit as an MSNBC anchor to stir up protests in scores of cities. One might ask where he was when the unarmed McMichael died from his injuries, or why there was no protest against gun violence after Westlake Plaza attacker Daniel Culotti was fatally shot.
This column has discussed self-defense law in Washington several times. A person has the right to use lethal force in self-defense if he is in reasonable fear of grave bodily harm or death. Set upon by three teens, McMichael must have feared for his life. The man who shot Culotti was being kicked and beaten and he must have been afraid of death or serious injury.
Perhaps the most famous such case in which an armed intended victim was exonerated for shooting his alleged attackers was when subway gunman Bernhard Goetz shot four black teens on a subway in 1984. He was convicted only of a gun crime, and the other day he told The Daily Beast retrospectively that “the same thing is happening.”
In Sanford, the six-woman jury evidently concluded that Zimmerman feared for his life as he was being punched and his head was banging into the cement.
As this column noted earlier, Zimmerman has been acquitted of second-degree murder in the death of Trayvon Martin, but his legal troubles are far from over. There have been death threats, Zimmerman is reportedly in hiding with his family, the Justice Department is reportedly looking at the case, and in all the excitement, people forget that the jury did its job.
How long will it be before someone asks the people who are stirring the masses whether it is “justice” they seek, or revenge?
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