You cut me in line at the bar when I'm waiting to get a drink. I get in your face and start yelling at you because I'm pissed off at you in this given situation. You shoot me, killing me. I caused my own death? In what world is it OK to shoot someone who is yelling at you?
Perhaps the legal concept of "contributory" is a better term than caused. But let's emotionally personalize this scenario. Your wife, with the kids in the car, accidentally cuts some asshole off. Asshole chases her down, jumps out of his car and opens her passenger door. Your wife is fortunately armed. Do you want a legal system that would permit her to shoot him to defend herself or should she have to wait until he physically attacked her, and possibly overwhelms her, before she can forcefully defend herself rather than risk losing the upper hand and not being able to defend herself at all? As I admit, this is an emotional example but if you believe she should be able to defend herself from such a threat, and opening the door would certainly constitute a viable threat, then the same would apply for this shooter. I don't assume to know if my hypothetical scenario is factual to this scenario, but if it is then McKnight certainly contributed to his death. Does that make you feel better rather than the term "caused." As s society we have become far too eager to excuse aggression. I'm not terribly excited about the idea that our society is devolving back to the gunslinger Wild West days, but maybe a few people getting shot for trying to attack other people, with society agreeing with the defense rather than apologizing for the aggressor, will curb some of the hyper aggression that causes road rage.
I mean it obviously needs to be analyzed in a situation by situation basis. The situation you presented allows for self defense to be reasonable claim. The Joe McKnight scenario does not seem to be one in which Gasser needed to shoot the kid. For some reason we still have virtually no information on what actually transpired. It seems like this entire investigation has been handled terribly, but I guess we'll see what the verdict ends up being. Regardless, I don't think McKnight did anything in this situation to the point where he deserved to die.
if gasser could have done something other than deadly force he is my view is that if you had another option and didnt use it then you are at fault. but thats just my morality.
i saw a small blurb on one of hte news sites that gasser had a road rage incident at the same intersection or somewhere close a number of years ago. past history is not something that should be looked over.
Well, considering the first witness stated that the shooter was out of his car standing over joe and firing into him while talking trash, which was an out right lie and the fact that its now a high profile case, i doubt they will be in a hurry to release any new info to the public until absolutely mandatory now. @alleycat9, those charges were dismissed so they can't use them against him.
I also read that same story about the witness lying but then heard there was another witness who had a similar story. Guess time will tell.
The M.E.completely dismissed that story. all shots were taken from inside the car. casings were only found inside the car. the wounds were not consistent with victim being on the ground with the shooter shooting down at him. That witness lied. i wonder if they are dealing with a lot of that
http://www.nola.com/crime/index.ssf/2016/12/joe_mcknight_gasser_arrest.html Gasser arrested on manslaughter charge
This man about to enjoy his holiday with his family... while Joe's family mourns. Justify what you want for who you want... but you have no heart if that doesn't make you feel bad.
That depends on his ability to post whatever bail is set. and even if he does, can you feel bad for the mcknight family and still appreciate the fact that the legal system allows for this man to be treated as innocent until convicted?
No matter what comes out of this unfortunate event its clear the people of Jefferson Parish, Louisiana need a new sheriff. This guy absolutely sucks balls. Throughout this thread we've talked about the comedy of errors his department has made and today he holds a press conference where he goes on and on lecturing like a raving lunatic for no reason when he announced the manslaughter charges. anyway when he finally got past all his bullshit and announced how they believe it went down this is what he said: Gasser became irritated when McKnight cut Gasser off in traffic. Gasser then pursued McKnight. McKnight eventually parked and went to Gasser’s car. At that point, Gasser fired three shots. (the whole press conference could've been done in 1 minute just by saying the above) Seems like classic road rage violence. One person lost his life and the other will probably lose his freedom
Sorry but what "comedy of errors" did the department make? You may not agree with them releasing him until they could further investigate but "comedy of errors", I must have missed something. One reason for the delayed arrest could have been the first witness who lied 3 times within the first hour. It is funny seeing the different posts trying to slant things though. "Gasser then pursued McKnight. McKnight eventually parked and went to Gasser’s car", the way I read it they were going back and forth cutting each other off but in your version only Gasser pursued. McKnight also did not park, he hopped out at a red light and went up to Gasser, saying only Gasser pursued and McKnight parked tries to make it seem like McKnight was the level headed one in the confrontation when if fact they were both "engaged in unacceptable behavior". In no way do I condone the shooting but let's be real here, the slant you were going for here is so blatantly obvious.
let me first ask if you actually saw this ridiculous press conference today? - the comedy of errors I am referring to is the department releasing a statement that there was 2 shots, only to bring up the coroner an hour later who says McKnight was shot 3 times. that they held one defensive press conference first where they glossed over facts, only to release them in the middle of the night. That they can't hold a press conference without crying about the media and all the attention, that the Sheriff was literally spending a half hour today reading tweets from random people like ‘You punk ass Uncle Tom coon — We saw you sell out to them you rat ass faggot punk.’ as if that is relevant to the case before he could even just announce the charges. It was a fuckin joke. "we dont care what people think we are looking for justice......" but until then I'm going to spend a half hour crying about what people think. but of course we dont care, except this, I wanna cry about this.... .. it was truly absurd
also, my description is actually pretty close to what the sheriff said if you can get through all of his bullshit crying first. I said its a classic road rage incident, meaning its a two person argument. and the Sheriff himself said Gasser pursued Mcknight. I'm not trying to gloss over anything listen to the damn press conference yourself if you want lol its terrible. Thank god that clown is not my sheriff http://media.wwl.com/a/117677780/newell-norman-press-conference.htm
You pointed out 1 error, 3 shots not 2, how much did that effect anything? What did they gloss over? The sheriff works round the clock so they release things at different times of day so complaining about when they released something is ridiculous. Was it the Friday night release about Gasser's 2006 incident? If they waited until morning to release that you know some would complain they held information. The rest is you just not liking that the Sheriff defended their actions and also made known how anonymous people were sending racist, homophobic rants to elected leaders and clergy. It is showing how unhinged people can become without knowing the whole story.
you know what its obvious you aren't really paying attention to this case you just wanna bitch about me. because your facts are off. whatever. but yes, you do got something right, I find it to be pathetic that this janky-ass sheriff is looking for 15 minutes of fame by reading offensive tweets before announcing the charges... aka the job he is supposed to do
Um, your link has him stating the arrest and charges in the first 12 seconds, not a 15 minute "bullshit crying" rant before doing so.... I watched the presser live, and I believe his outburst of disgust against those who ranted against first responders and public officials with their "Uncle Tom" and "Faggot" remarks came towards the end.....I'll have to go back and re-check later.....But that's when CNN cut away so I'm sure I heard everything else first....
