Rude Pundit-Would a Good Guy with a Gun Have Been Justified in Saving George Floyd?

[Shipwack]

A gut wrenching question.

https://rudepundit.blogspot.com/2021/04/would-good-guy-with-gun-have-been.html

[tblue37]

1. K&R for visibility. nt

[Vinca]

2. The problem the onlookers had who realized they were watching a murder and wanted

to stop it was they knew if they tried to intervene, they'd be dead, too. And they would have. Chauvin would have taken his hands out of his pockets just long enough to shoot them.

[jeffreyi]

3. Good guy/gal with a gun would have been dead guy/gal with a gun.

[Jeebo]

4. That's a thought I've had often about this case.

Hypothetically, if somebody had been watching this happening from a building across the street, watching through a window in that building, and he had decided, "Those cops are murdering that man. I've got to stop this." And then that person had taken his hunting rifle and shot Derek Chauvin just to get him off of George Floyd and save Floyd's life, I very seriously doubt if that person would have been legally justified in taking that action, I am sure there are laws that forbid that action, but I do believe that he would have been morally and ethically justified in doing so. And yes, all hell would have ensued, but it might have saved Floyd's life.

An interesting hypothetical to think about.

This Rude Pundit rant was great, and if it boils down to just one sentence, it is this one:

"The cop is supposed to be the good guy. The tragedy is that they so often aren't."

And that is a point that I hope and expect the prosecutors will make during their summation to the jury. Also that Derek Chauvin's actions are the kinds of things the police are supposed to PROTECT citizens from, in a sane and decent world at least. Instead we live in a world in which police too often are the criminals themselves.

-- Ron

[Dan]

5. This hypothetical is something I have thought about,

But I also think that it is just a matter of time that the hypothetical becomes the reality.