Friday, March 23, 2012

Through the Radar: The Rogue Gunmen Three



















We are now confronted with fresh incidents of horrifying violence committed by three rogue gunmen: the killing of Trayvon Martin in Sanford, Florida, USA, by "neighborhood watchman" George Zimmerman; the massacre of seventeen Afghan civilians (including eight children) in Balandi and Alkozai, Kandahar Province, Afghanistan, by US soldier Sgt. Robert Bales; and the slaughter of three children and a rabbi at the Ozar Hatorah school in Toulouse, France, preceeded by the killing of three French paratroopers earlier the same week, by self-proclaimed Islamist militant Mohammed Merah.

Of the three rogue gunmen, Merah was killed by French Recherche Assistance Intervention Dissuasion (RAID) police in a final shootout; Sgt. Bales has been charged with seventeen murder counts and is now in US military confinement; Zimmerman, at the time of this post, remains uncharged but is under close scrutiny.  

Horrible. All three of these perpetrators were "on the radar," yet managed to sneak by the "red flags" anyway without anyone stopping them. 

Zimmerman had been capitalizing on Florida's seemingly ignorant "Stand Your Ground" law, which permits people to freely walk around with guns and shoot anyone who they feel is threatening them; he communicated freely with local police, almost like an insider vigilante. Bales aparently joined the US Army not as a patriot, but as a way to avoid owning up to business scams, and had a volatile history. At the time of his killing  spree, he was on his fourth deployment in a war zone. Merah was another loose cannon who had earlier travelled to Pakistan and Afghanistan and had a criminal record.

Final note. There is a serious contemporary problem with the idea of the "Hero."  To any sane person, killing children does not a hero make; but what does make a hero?  These three men were probably carrying delusional notions of "heroism" in their psyches.

Herein lies a great deal of cultural confusion.  Many in war, law enforcement and society at large who commit acts of violence are labelled heroes in social media, movies, and news programs. I hope that these three recent violent incidents lead to some cognitive dissonance on the subject. Hero is a word that should be used much more sparingly, and with greater care and precision. However, calling these rogue gunmen cowards doesn't help much, either. But more on all this at some point. It's just sad.  

Today's Rune: Signals.            

3 comments:

the walking man said...

24 states have the same type of law

Michigan is one of them.



780.972 Use of deadly force by individual not engaged in commission of crime; conditions.

Sec. 2.

(1) An individual who has not or is not engaged in the commission of a crime at the time he or she uses deadly force may use deadly force against another individual anywhere he or she has the legal right to be with no duty to retreat if either of the following applies:

(a) The individual honestly and reasonably believes that the use of deadly force is necessary to prevent the imminent death of or imminent great bodily harm to himself or herself or to another individual.

(b) The individual honestly and reasonably believes that the use of deadly force is necessary to prevent the imminent sexual assault of himself or herself or of another individual.

(2) An individual who has not or is not engaged in the commission of a crime at the time he or she uses force other than deadly force may use force other than deadly force against another individual anywhere he or she has the legal right to be with no duty to retreat if he or she honestly and reasonably believes that the use of that force is necessary to defend himself or herself or another individual from the imminent unlawful use of force by another individual.


History: 2006, Act 309, Eff. Oct. 1, 2006


From http://www.theatlanticwire.com/national/2012/03/23-other-states-have-stand-your-ground-laws-too/50226/

Charles Gramlich said...

I can't understand why the "guard" is not in jail awaiting trial. It's ridiculous.

Johnny Yen said...

I think that as a nurse, I would probably classify all of them as having a "personality disorder."

The Treyvon Martin case has quickly become politicized. I don't have much to add to it except the fact that the right has demonized him as a "habitual marijuana smoker." In that case, at least one of my kids and many of their friends would be in danger.