Just found this video via the antis.
Story here:
When Raul Rodriguez went to tell his neighbors to turn down the music at a May 2010 party, he took a flashlight, a video camera and a gun. At his murder trial Tuesday, his attorney said the video recording proved Rodriguez acted in self-defense when he shot three men, one fatally….Prosecutors said Rodriguez was not in fear for his life and had ample opportunity to leave the confrontation he started.
I watched the video. It looks to me like a clean shoot. Rodriguez remains calm and tells people to keep his distance, as well as stating that he understands that he’s being threatened with deadly force.
That being said he is also right now on trial for murder. When the drunks started upping the thuggish bravado, I’d rather be in my bed not sleeping because of the noise while the police did or didn’t enforce the law (I’ve seen parties broken up by the cops because of noise, and I’ve seen them not bother doing their jobs), than be rotting in jail awaiting a murder trial.
Of course the antis are coming down on the people who are OBVIOUSLY and OPENLY breaking the law (I assume there are noise ordinances in the city, as well as public intoxication. Also there are very open criminal threats being made by the drunks), and unless the responding officer saw things differently than that grainy video, or Rodriguez threatened with deadly force BEFORE the drunks became violent, it looks like a clean shoot.
But just because you’re in the right to do something doesn’t mean its a great idea. I think Mr. Rodriguez sees this now.
We have the cops for a reason. Unless somebody is about to get killed, leave it to them.
Carry your guns, and be safe out there!
“Standing my ground…. ”
Even Marines believe in a tactical retreat to await supporting forces. The guy was an idiot for waiting for the drunks to take him up on a firefight.
Yep, the video is horrible, but as soon as he felt threatened by such a large number, he should have retreated and waited for backup, or a more serious escalation of force.
Rule number 1 of surviving a gunfight is to NOT be in a gunfight, and I agree, he certainly seems to be waiting for the fight to start.
Doesn’t look like he started the fight, but he CERTAINLY didn’t try to get away when it turned out there was a fight on the menu.
How could he be on trial for murder? The cops don’t even investigate SYG cases. Japete said so.
Shit! I got so wound up in the other points that I forgot to mention that one.
Yep, ALL SYG cases start with a homicide or assault investigation. All SYG does it put a concrete burden on the police on WHEN they can charge the person claiming self-defense.
Hell even before the political explosion and demands for proverbial pounds of flesh, George Zimmerman was arrested and held for 4+ hours by police while they investigated and interrogated.
As we can see from all the evidence presented, his story lined up with the physical evidence collected, as well as the witness statements. So they let him go!
But that doesn’t mean they didn’t take a good hard look at him before doing it!
Good point, and thanks for bringing it up!
Correct me if you have heard otherwise, but I don’t think the Sanford Police Department ever closed the case on Zimmerman- or made any kind of indication that they made a final decision. They can only detain a suspect for so long without pressing charges, so if they need a little more time they have to let him go. A lot of the evidence against Zimmerman was secondary (namely the dispatcher phone recording). Would the SPD even have had access to the tapes that night? I am not familiar with the bureaucracy behind police investigations, but it seems way too efficient if the detectives were able to listen to “are you following him?” mere hours after it happened. That said, I think they were heading towards calling it a good shoot before the media took over, but it was never officially called a justifiable homicide, right?
Not sure about the processes in the police investigation, but you’re probably right that the case wasn’t closed after the release of Zimmerman, just they didn’t feel they had grounds to hold him or charge him with a crime (which is an important first step in a clean shoot), but indeed there were still witness statements as well as autopsy and crime lab tests that take some time that could have changed the story.
On the Zimmerman case, Sanford Police never made final determination. IIRC they said “there is no evidence to contradict Mr. Zimmerman’s claim of self-defense.” They had up to seven years to charge him with Manslaughter or practically forever if the charge was Murder.
As for this case…. rank stupidity mixed with ego = pokey.
Maybe there’s a pattern here…Compare to the Zimmermann case. Also note their position on gun possession by illegal immigrants, who (in the US) are disproportionately Hispanic. Are they trying to say that Hispanics have no right to self defense? Who’s supposed to be the r-word here, anyway?
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Really sounds to me like he wanted the situation to escalate so he could fire in “self defense.”
I would concur. At least he wanted them to either to obey his request and settle down and switch to herbal tea and quiet game of chess…or “fight it out like men”.
But that’s all speculation for the courts.
No matter what I’d rather go home and go to bed, than to shoot somebody and go to jail, then court.
Sure, but we’re not talking about you or I.
If he truly would rather have gone home than shoot somebody, then when his adversary announced he was going to go home and return with a gun, that’d have been a good time to do so, instead of staying there, announcing that you’re going to “stand your ground.”
Dude just hung around waiting for things to escalate. I think rather than bolster his self defense case, the video makes him look bad. From what I can tell, this didn’t have to end this way.
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