Banty wrote in message ...

The best you can argue is that this isn't murder one. This is a good-old
fashioned case of stupidly killing someone in anger. The man who shoots his
wife caught en-flagrante is still a murderer, the gang member who shoots another
banger because 'he was in my face' is still a murderer. Bernie Getz was a
murderer. There really aren't that many murders which are truly cold and
unprovoked. This is like blaming road rage on traffic.

OK. Point taken. BUT, I did fall into my own personal rut when it
comes to assuming he was provoked. I've had too many people turn the
volume *up* when I asked it to be turned down. But I also said, and
it's true, that we don't know all the details. He could just be some
idiot with anger issues who murdered someone in cold blood, or he
could be someone who had tried many times - using the appropriate
channels - to get the kids to quit drag racing on his street.

As memory serves, Bernard Goetz though those guys were going to mug
him. Likely the situation wasn't as dangerous as he might have
thought (the average mugging doesn't usually result in death), but he
thought he was protecting himself. Calling him a murderer seems a bit
unfair. I am NOT addressing the issue of him possibly being a racist
(don't know if he was or wasn't).

On the other two examples - agreed. Those people are still murderers.

We're responsible for our actions, including reactions - there's little
difference in practice between the two anyway. If it were a problem - he should
have taken it to the authorities.

And we don't know that he didn't. I doubt the police department would
be anxious to share that information.

And it's completely possible that, if you're
anxious to blame things on who has irritated whom, the man had irritated the
teens by previously registering trivial complaints and yelling at them for more
normal car activities. Which doesn't excuse the teens either, but I put
disturbing the peace and murder on whole different planes of evil. I'm
wondering if certain respondants here really find them comparable. Do you??

Of course not. But until the full results of the investigation are
released (if ever) we cannot really understand what happened, or
assign ANY justifiability or lack thereof.

Cathy Weeks
Mommy to Kivi Alexis 12/01