Posted: 5/19/2008 6:51:07 PM EDT
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Exchange Student Shot On Kalorama Road NW Police: Victim Chased Gunman For Stolen Backpack WASHINGTON -- Police are searching for the man who shot a 22-year-old male foreign exchange student multiple times in the District on Sunday night. The shooting happened just before 10 p.m. in the 2000 block of Kalorama Road in Northwest. Police said the gunman grabbed the student's backpack at the intersection of Kalorama Road and Connecticut Avenue and ran. The student chased the gunman. After chasing the gunman for about a block, the victim was shot in the chest and stomach. The victim was breathing and alert when emergency crews arrived. "I think there's a message here for everyone which is you really ought not to give chase," said D.C. council member Jim Graham. "A backpack may be very important to someone, but it's not as important as one's life. So one of the cardinal rules is to let the stuff go. Let it go." VIDEO Some cultures believe that what belongs to them, is worth fighting for. 
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I wish it were more like that here. |
In Texas, he would have been allowed to shoot the fleeing criminal in the back in order to safely retrieve his stolen property without risking serious injury or death attempting to retrieve it by other means. |
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But this is the BS spewed by the Police/City Council/Judges, everyone of these so called authorities want YOU, the Tax Payer/Property Owner, to just give it up They put the blame on the victim. It's the victims fault for defending himself and his property, not the people commiting the crime. What's the underlying message? We can't enforce the law on anyone other than those who try to obey it. |
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So in everyone's eyes, he's right? Well... that may be so... but he's dead right. There is such a thing as discretion... you know... the "better part of valor?" If you're unarmed, and planning on chasing an armed man to retrieve your backpack, have you given any thought as to what you're going to do if you actually catch him? If unarmed, I'd let him go... or tail him from a safe distance so I could advise the police. The backpack is simply "stuff"... and I can replace "stuff." If that makes me a pussy, so be it. |
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Having had my backpack stolen my soph. year in college, I can tell you I would have gladly risked a bullet to retrieve my handwritten class notes, assignments, and project work. I never got to see the POS that ripped me off, he picked up my pack while I was in the restroom in the library. |
 But alas, they don't seem to want to victimize me.
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When I worked at 400 First Street NW, a friend of mine was stopped a block away from home (Capitol Hill/Eastern Market) . A person held him a gunpoint and demanded his wallet. He gave them his wallet. The robber then shot him in the throat. Fortunately the bullet went right through and never touched a thing. He went to his family reunion the next day. Bad guy was never caught. So how did complying with the robbers demands help? I should be happy with a 50/50 chance that the robber MAY let me live if I do what they ask? My MIL took one of her mental patient charity cases downtown for an appointment. As she is waiting outside, one of DC's citizens stole her purse. My 78 yo MIL ran after her yelling "she stole my purse". So happens that there was a CSOSA drug collection unit nearby that had a lot of Parole/Probation officers there. One of them ran after and caught the little crack head. If a 78 yo woman is not afraid to fight for what is hers, why should I be? |
I'm all for the "live to fight another day" mentality, but the extent its gone to is just sad. Our societies method of survival on a personal level has gone from survival of the fittest to playing dead and hoping the bad man goes away. If you think compliance is the answer, than maybe you should remember 9/11. Alot of those people probably thought everything would be okay till they went into the towers |
Unless you're trained in gun take-aways and so forth, you may just get yourself killed. That said, if you suspect the guy is going to whack you anyway, I'd certainly support dying with your hands wrapped around his stinking throat... As for 9/11, I'm a little more sanguine about those folks. The people on 9/11 weren't sheep... they did what they had been taught/trained to do, based on previous experiences with airline hijackings. This wasn't the first aircraft to ever be taken over by terrorists. What was completely new was the aircraft-as-suicide-bomb, so I don't blame the 9/11 passengers for cooperating. Once they suspected they were going to die (eg. the same situation where you suspect your mugger is going to shoot you anyway), the game changed... and the result was flight 93. Back to the incident we were initially discussing, the thief had already shown that he wasn't interested in killing the young man. He had the goods and was running away. If the unarmed young man hadn't chased him down, unarmed, to get his "stuff" back, he'd still be alive. I don't want to sound like I'm speaking ill of the dead, so I'll simply say that as much as I admire his spirit (and make no mistake, he was ballsy), he could have done that differently. |
If there is nothing worth fighting for, then what is? I am giving up crap. Max |
Maybe the kid didnt know the dude had a gun. It doesnt say he was held at gunpoint and demanded to turn over his bag. It says the dude took it and ran. |
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What I'm getting at here is NOT whether it was a good idea for the victim to fight for his belongings. For anyone, everyone, there are decisions to be made depending on the circumstances. "He who fights and runs away, fights again another day". Yeah, I've heard it. Please find below a few links to the absolute stupidity that is D.C. government. While paying millions in Police Dept. overtime, putting police in neighborhoods that have 1/10 the crime of SE, and NE neighborhoods, the D.C. Police put their efforts on taking guns away from commuters (MD and VA) and searching peoples homes "by request". The hot button is that those people in D.C. Gov, and it seems most Gov's., want us to give up, lay down, and become a helpless slug because Homie the Crack Head needs your shit to buy more crack. God forbid you actually "defend yourself" as it will be you that ends up dead. Dead because you are unarmed, or because you defended yourself and were "shot" by police that "feared for their safety". I really hate that the good people are caught between the Thugs and the Thin Blue Line.  17 Officers Fired for Misconduct Reinstated D.C. Police to Carry Semiautomatic Rifles on Patrols Police Union Says Fenty Unwelcome D.C. Slayings in April, Nerves Spike City Officials Are Criticized At Meeting on Violent Crime Police to Step Up Patrols After Violence 5 Killings Spur More Patrols in Northeast A Post investigation published in 1998, which found that city police officers shot and killed more people per capita than any other large city DC Police Launch 4th Installment Of 'All Hands On Deck' Safety Stops Draw Doubts, D.C. Police Gather Nonviolators' Data |
Heh... you'll never get an argument from me that the DC city government isn't dysfunctional. |