Alan: When push comes to shove, Americans value property over people.
15 years ago, in the town of Efland, North Carolina -- five miles west of where I live -- a guy with no intention of hurting the cashier, tried to rob the local A&P.
An off-duty police officer who was grocery shopping pulled his gun and shot him dead.
The next day, the local "buzz" hummed with triumphalism: "Good guy kills bad guy."
No mention was made of the implicit assumption that Americans consider property more valuable than human life.
15 years ago, in the town of Efland, North Carolina -- five miles west of where I live -- a guy with no intention of hurting the cashier, tried to rob the local A&P.
An off-duty police officer who was grocery shopping pulled his gun and shot him dead.
The next day, the local "buzz" hummed with triumphalism: "Good guy kills bad guy."
No mention was made of the implicit assumption that Americans consider property more valuable than human life.
We gringos are so convinced that property should be given precedence over people that we are blind to our conditioning and how our acculturation makes us philosophical accomplices to murder and manslaughter.
Here's what Jesus of Nazareth recommends to his followers:
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke%206:28-30&version=VOICE
Here's what Jesus of Nazareth recommends to his followers:
Luke 6:28-30
28 Keep speaking blessings on those who curse you. Keep praying for those who mistreat you. 29 If someone strikes you on one cheek, offer the other cheek too. If someone steals your coat, offer him your shirt too. 30 If someone begs from you, give to him. If someone robs you of your valuables, don’t demand them back.https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke%206:28-30&version=VOICE
Where are biblical literalists when they might do some good?
Make no mistake.
Most American "Christians" would be happier in ancient Israel, following The Old Testament than The New.
Hey Christian! How Many Of Jesus' Moral Stands Do You Approve? Take The Test!
In these United States it is widely believed that if a property crime is "in progress" it is appropriate -- in fact it is laudably "righteous" -- to use lethal force to "take out" the malefactor.
This diabolical inversion of values has always impressed me as barbaric, the behavior of a soul-sick people with a spiritual screw loose.
As a suspected shoplifter fled an Auburn Hills store with his getaway driver, police say Tatiana Duva-Rodriguez fired at the vehicle, flattening one of its tires.
Now the 46-year-old Clarkston woman is charged with a crime.
She was arraigned on a misdemeanor count of reckless use, handling or discharge of a firearm in 52-3 District Court in Rochester Hills this afternoon, and a not guilty plea was entered on her behalf, officials said.
Duva-Rodriguez, a concealed pistol license holder, was in the parking lot of the Home Depot on Joslyn Road around 2 p.m. on Oct. 6 when a store employee attempted to stop a man pushing a cart of stolen merchandise out of the store, police said. The suspect got into a Kia Rondo driven by another man.
Duva-Rodriguez is accused of shooting at the tires of the vehicle as it took off in the “misguided attempt to disable the vehicle to stop two reported shoplifters,” a news release issued by the Oakland County Prosecutor’s Office and the Auburn Hills Police Department said.
“If this is proven, I find it very disturbing that someone would take out their gun in a busy parking lot and shoot at the tires of a passing car,” Oakland County Prosecutor Jessica Cooper said in a statement. “Once fired, the bullet could have easily ricocheted or fragmented and injured or killed someone else. It would have been much more helpful for her to take out her cellphone and shoot pictures of the shoplifter’s license plate.”
Nobody was injured in the shooting.
Duva-Rodriguez’s attorney, Steven L. Schwartz, said his client made “a spilt-second decision to take action, trying to help.”
He described Duva-Rodriguez as a “warm-hearted, family-oriented” person and said she had good intentions.
“Never, ever did she intend to harm anybody,” Schwartz said.
Auburn Hills Police Chief Doreen Olko said in the news release: “We do not encourage bystanders to insert themselves into incidents because of the potential for deadly consequences."
Duva-Rodriguez received a $5,000 personal bond and is due back in court Oct. 26. The charge she faces is punishable by 90 days in jail and/or a fine, police said.
Police have arrested two men from Flint, ages 46 and 52, suspected of being involved in the shoplifting incident.
Contact Elisha Anderson: eanderson@freepress.com or 313-222-5144
Staff writers Christina Hall, Daniel Bethencourt and Robert Allen contributed.
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