No Charges In The Shooting Death Of Summer Moody

[sargedog]

Well I had my work tools stolen from my truck, made police report never caught the people that did it. If I had caught them in the act I won't say they would have been shot, what I will say is they would have been eating their meals through a straw for a long time. The insurance company is a joke, the $1500 they stole from me I got $212 dollars back due to the fact they were considered USED tools, most had only been used a few times.
When you start messing with my way of feeding my family it gets me bent a lot sideways. I never got to recover from that,due to illness. It isn't right that people think they can just take whatever they want without having to pay. Yes it is horrible that girl lost her life, but she shouldn't have been there. In TN. the other co-defendants would be charged with murder.

[Czechbikr]

Didn't get to the end of the thread yet, but with some of the sentiment I've read so far I get the feeling that we need to make shoplifting a capital crime. Were the kids criminals...yes. I don't think that it rose to the level of execution.

[rodfair]

This is a difficult one. With the info...will not say facts...the teens were armed. Strike 1, they were committing criminal acts, Strike 2. She was hiding in the bushes???? Strike 3?
To be honest, with so many people in this day and age, especially at a fishing camp, armed...the teens were asking for trouble. Did she deserve to die??? I personally do not think so, but I honestly do not think that the shooters should be charged.
Shame we do not have any white race pimps to inflame the situation!

[sgtsandman]

Ok, let's see if this changes the perspective since the situation is similar but the location is different. Picture this happening in your home. Someone has broken in and has a weapon. Do you shoot or don't shoot? To me, the camp is just like home. Since it was dark, I highly doubt the fishermen we outside cooking bacon and eggs over the fire while the teens were breaking in. They were sleeping inside. So, what would you do if this was your house? The fact that one of them fired a warning shot was great restraint in my opinion. It is a shame that someone happend to be in the line of fire since the person discharging the weapon was not aiming at anything in particular.

[jbtty]

One thing that keeps coming up on the new is the support for Summer Moody. Lets see, there is a Facebook account made for her recovery (which has now been turned into a memorial for her, a local hight school is doing a fund raising for her medical bills, and of course the local news doing story after story about her and showing all this pictures of her.

A lot of people here think of Summer as "Mother Theresa". Sure is a lot of fan fair for a criminal. I am sad for her family but she decided her life wasn't that important when she and the other boys decided to take from others.

[rodfair]

I was going to comment...but no...keep your mouth shut Rod...well maybe personal responsibility?

[Branth]

Alright, two things... I heard of two fishermen shooting a 17-yo girl because of a robbery, and I immediately though that yeah, they were out of line. HOWEVER, I read the article, and the robbers were pretty heavily armed. They said they had a pistol (hasn't been recovered), and also had a rifle and a knife. These guys were outnumbered by armed robbers, and it was mighty generous of them to fire a warning shot, something they likely only did because of the age of the perps.

This is akin in many ways to an armed home invasion. The only difference is that they were camping, and the recipient of the gunfire was a 17-yo girl.

[JR]

This isn't about raising anything to the level of an execution. It's about understanding the consequences of one's actions. The people committing the CRIMES were armed. They were invading fishing camps that, evidently, they were concerned might be occupied (hence the guns). They awoke someone, who fired a warning shot (good or bad). That shot hit yet another CRIMINAL hiding in the area. Summer was a criminal, probably a look-out for the others. It wasn't the first time that she'd done this, either.

She is dead as a result of criminal activity. Had this been a 30 something repeat offender, we'd be looking at it in a totally different light.

I object to the characterization of the shooter as somehow wrong, and responsible for the death of an innocent. In many states, the entire group of robbers would be facing murder charges as the death of the girl resulted from their combined criminal activities.

This has nothing to do with what levels of penalty are associated with what crimes. It has everything to do with the fact that when you commit crimes you may lose your life as a result.

I'm also curious why there has been no mention of charging the remainder of the group with the mandatory penalty for the use of a firearm during the commission of a crime (X4)? She died, so all is forgiven?

[Argos]

Through this thread I often see the following: Not very Christian, It is insured so its ok, they are just kids. This is actually no different than what I see in general in society and on other gun boards and non-gun boards. I would like to make a few points for thought based on these common pivot points of this particular type of discussion. So, let us get started.

1. Not Very Christian
Unfortunatly, what most people grow up with as Christianity and what most of the world today considers Christianity, isnt. Christ was interested in what motivates you, what is within, that hidden reason you do things that have other, surface, drives. He only speaks on theft once, and it is arguable on how specific that instance was and what he meant. When it comes to violence we have a few instances of discussion and one instance of exercise of violence by Christ. The usual quote used by non-violence supporters is: those who live by the sword will die by it. I personally, like this one. Like everything written down about what Christ said, this one has deep meaning. It actually means how you live your life will be how you end your life. Which I can expand, those who live by harming others will die by the result of their behavior. He also didn't want his apostles killed that night, as they surely would have. He was going to the cross and meant to do so. So there was more to his comment. He wished them to go on. Another interesting point brought up by the human crowd, as apposed to the non-violent crowd, is Those who do not have a sword should buy one. Christ recognized that the world is violent and one needs to defend one's self and PROPERTY.
Now that I have brought up defense of property, I want to delve deeper into the foundations of Christianity in Hebraic context. If you look at the laws given to the Israelites by God, they seem really harsh. I mean, REALLY HARSH. Why are they so harsh? God has a greater understanding of the outcome of events than we do. So let me try to explain that better. Why should simple crimes carry the death penalty in the Law handed down by God? Crime is like a weed, or rather evil, or misdeeds are. Any society that tolerates them will have an abundance of crime. At every point where there is a field of weeds, was there but one weed. From that one weed came all the weeds on that land, choking out the good things. Those abundant weeds can be removed but that requires great effort, pain, and cost. How much easier then would it be to remove the one weed before it had spread it's seeds the first time? Misguided Mercy given by good meaning men has cost innocent people more than can ever be calculated. I can tell you with great certainty that the blood of those innocents is accounted on the hands of those who gave mercy, not out of a true sense of it but out of a fear of the responsibilities placed on all men when dealing with evil. You see, there is that deeper drive and meaning that is masked by the surface thoughts and drives. People give Mercy to wrong-doers not out of a true Christian sense of Mercy but out of a FEAR OF RESPONSIBILITY. In other words, craven cowardice. The strength of good men to do what must be done is a corner stone of what God wants of men. It may not be pretty, it may haunt you at night, you may be wrong, but all men are responsible for their action, or inaction and the consequences of both.

What then drives the man who will stand up and kill another, who is a blight on their land and people? Is it hate? Is it power-madness? Is it fear? No, a Man who does what must be done, not because he wants to but because he must is driven by Love and Mercy. What Love do you show when you allow pervasive evil to take root and spread its seeds about your land? When staying your hand against the murder allows him to murder again and worse yet, you weakness gives strength to new murderers who see your staying of hand as a sign of allowance and acceptance of actions they were fearful to take otherwise. From one Surface Good Act comes evil, death, and loss uncounted. If not checked that poison will spread through the people as more and more criminal acts occur because men see that it is not punished. That which is not punished, is accepted. Love then, is taken on yourself the burden and the cost of stopping the wrong, then and now. Mercy is the granting of saving others from rape, murder, and loss. Mercy is also given to the wrong-doer. For you prevent him from sinning further. All that is wrong, ends there. But you must pay the price for that however it comes, but Love drives me to such sacrifice.

So I say this, it is Christ like to Love One Another. It is also Christ like to take on ones self the cost of sin and suffering to bring mercy to others who will themselves not have to bear it. Christ who was innocent of all sin bore YOU Crimes. Yet, we, today, would rather a thousand suffer rape, murder, and loss than expose ourselves to risk or to carry the cost of taking a mans life. How monstrous, wicked, and evil are we therefor.

2. It is Insured so it is ok and It is just stuff, not worth a life
The greatest rationalization ever come up with. The use of hidden-cost to mollify the mind and provide a dark shadowy place of succor where one can hide from reality. If a man, without insurance, has his belongings stolen. How many are harmed by the evil act? In simplistic analysis, just the Man whose things were taken. Enter Insurance, the game of hidden costs and the means by which small evils become great evils by warrant of small evils being given over from one to many. If a man with insurance has his things taken -even if those things be insured such that the man will be restored in full the cost he paid for them, undepreciated- who is harmed by the theft? Everyone who has insurance with that company is harmed. Insurance does not "restore value" it spreads costs. The goal of which is to reduce perceived costs to almost nothing but have those costs inflicted on hundreds or thousands or tens of thousands of others. The cost remains the same, in fact it goes up as there is overhead to cover involved with the redistribution of cost in such a manner. The thought, "The insurance company pays for it," is a bold faced lie. The policy holders pay for it. The company pays nothing at all.

So in the allowance of theft you have taken an event that would have harmed just you and spread its harm to even more people! You think that a good thing, harming others? Really? It is ok, because of the scale of it then? I could go into the natural laws here but that would be a digression so let me just say this, your lack of strength and will to protect what is yours should not be MY problem. That you use mental gymnastics and twisted altruism to excuse it does not pass muster for me. Protect what is yours or it is not yours!

It is just stuff, stuff in and of itself is worthless. I agree with that. However theft of something not worth a life can cause harm that is worth a life. By inaction you cause others to lose livelihood, food, even possibly their lives. Peoples lives have been devastated by such simple things as petty theft and larceny. When you say that it is just stuff what you are saying is that the other persons harm and suffering is less important then that of the one taking the stuff. What great insights you must have to make such an assessment! Part 1 covers pretty much the rest on this sub-point, that allowing small evils to seed out will result in a field of evil and much suffering and pain, yet more even to correct what you have let grow up about you.

3. They are Just Kids
What abortion of mental faculties bore this spawn of the broken mind? I can understand where it comes from. Children are often rude, uncouth, and uneducated and do as their will dictates till we break them of it. They are driven by the natural laws. However, what we call children today and what the past considered such are quite different. Between Society and Biology, Biology wins out every time. In the past, what you call children, ran towns, colonized new lands, fought desperadoes, fought natives, ran ranches and businesses. What we have today are adults who are mentally children because we have failed in our duties in raising them. They are not children, they are aberrant adults. Miscreants born of a strange need to strangle biology into some form that keeps people without Personal Responsibility as long as possible, to keep them children. As a society we have absolved them of personal responsibility and as such they act without any restraint because.. hey we told them they are not responsible. The reality is different. These ADULTS (even that young woman) chose these acts. All men are responsible for their actions, weather the realize it or not. They paid a price for their lack of thinking and restraint.

I do morn over the event, but not because of the loss of life but because of the pain and suffering on multiple families that came about because of this failure to raise people how we should, a failure to do as Part 1 discussed. Our own weakness and cowardice has brought about this generation of misanthropes and great will be the pain and suffering as a result.


Hmm, not one of my best dissertations, kind of tapered off at the end..

[JR]

Works for me.