Caving to pressure from Tucker Carlson, his Twitter followers, and – wait for it – Kyle Rittenhouse, Texas Governor Greg Abbott vows to pardon Daniel Perry who was convicted of murder of a white BLM protester by a Texas jury.
The facts established at trial by testimony and video is that Perry ran a red light at an intersection in downtown Austin and deliberately drove into a Black Lives Matter march before stopping. Garrett Foster, the victim – who was legally carrying an AK-47 – was in a group of people who approached his vehicle and without warning Perry shot his .357 five times killing him. The jury saw evidence that the victim did not point his gun at the killer and they did not buy Perry’s claim of self defense.
The jury also saw Perry’s social media posts where he declared that he might “kill a few people on my way to work. They are rioting outside my apartment complex.”
“Can you do that? he was asked.
His answer was “If they attack me or try to pull me out of my car then yes.”
His state of mind could not be more clear. He was out to provoke an incident that would allow him to kill. He was convicted by a jury. By a Texas jury. But MAGATS demand that he not be punished.
Tidewater News and Opinion Forum 
Again, another example of how having guns can escalate an argument from words to bullets.
A while back we discussed the crippling of a family man by an angry thug over a parking space.
Earlier a teen with an AR-15 killed a man who tossed a sandwich at him. Then a second who tried to disarm him to prevent more bloodshed.
We may be stuck with this fringe cultural worship of guns, but we need not let them run the country.
IMO
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That is a sticky one.
On the one hand, if a mob surrounds a car and menaces the driver who was innocently going about his business, they can expect to be driven over, and if a weapon is displayed, shot, and no problem as far as I am concerned.
But with evidence that he went out looking for a confrontation, that changes things.
Even in castle doctrine states, if you are the aggressor, or even a willing participant, in a confrontation, you have an obligation to disengage and retreat if possible, before using deadly force.
In Texas, the governor is bound by a recommendation from a Board of Pardons before a pardon is issued, so hopefully that board will examine the case objectively.
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You can probably bet that absent his pistol, he would just have driven another route.
Evidence at the trial indicated he was looking to confront.
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That Texas jury did not find the facts “sticky.” I am surprised that you do. Does the sight of someone legally carrying an assault rifle give you the right to start shooting? That – according to the evidence – is exactly what happened.
Of course, the real concern is the message being spread in MAGA world – seeking confrontation and using deadly violence is okay.
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Sticky as in the facts are uncertain.
He wrote about looking for a fight, but we don’t know if his actions matched.
It’s not clear cut, so I defer to the jury. As I pointed out, the Governor can’t give pardon without a recommendation from the Pardon board. They are supposed to defer to the jury absent a clearcut miscarriage of justice, so I will wait on them.
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“He wrote about looking for a fight, but we don’t know if his actions matched.”
Yes we do. Witnesses testified that he deliberately and aggressively accelerated into the crowd. Maybe you try harder to give jurors a little credit?
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I already wrote that we should defer to the jury, but we still don’t know.
I would want to know if he sought out the crowd or became encircled by them unexpectedly. If I found myself encircled by a hostile crowd, I would accelerate toward them too, to allow them as little time to attack as possible.
To me, what matters is how he came to be confronting the crowd.
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“I already wrote that we should defer to the jury”…
Unless, of course, that jury was too URBAN for your liking.
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No, unless the jury was misled, which I don’t consider likely.
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…”which I don’t consider likely.”
Right. That only happens in places like Washington, DC or New York.
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“Sticky as in the facts are uncertain.”
Those appointed to make that decision, the jury, did not see it as sticky OR uncertain.
And unless there is compelling evidence for the governor to pardon the young man, what would his grounds be for the pardon? And if he doesn’t SHARE that information, a big question arises. Is he getting pardoned because of WHO he drove towards?
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RE: “As I pointed out, the Governor can’t give pardon without a recommendation from the Pardon board.”
That’s key. “MAGA world” isn’t even a party to the events this story describes.
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“That’s key. “MAGA world” isn’t even a party to the events this story describes.”
It is all about MAGA world. It was Tucker Carlson who pressured Abbott to take this position. You don’t get much more MAGATTY than Tucker Carlson.
And we now can learn from Fox News that the prosecutor is “Soros-backed” so the MAGATS are now throwing their usual antisemitism into the mix as well.
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RE: “It is all about MAGA world.”
In your fantasies, perhaps. To my mind, it is dubious that something you call “MAGA world” even exists.
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Oh MAGA World exists alright.
It is a nation-wide cult of ignorance and bigotry. It has its own Dear Leader. It has its own media and its own high priest – Tucker Carlson. It has its own “alternative facts.” And it has its own princelings such as DeSantis, Youngkin, and Abbott pandering to their every MAGA prejudice so they can inherit the crown.
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Like I said, “In your fantasies, perhaps.”
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Kind of like ANTIFA? 😇
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There doesn’t appear to be any evidence that Perry deliberately drove into the protest to provoke anything or that the AK-47 was not leveled at him, at least in the link you provided. That is the basis for the pardon since he was surrounded and feared for his life. It is a shocker that you would defend the carry of an assault weapon at a BLM protest of course only because it was pro BLM. Is it now ok to brandish assault weapons at drag shows too? How about bringing one to a penisectomy just for good measure?
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“There doesn’t appear to be any evidence that Perry deliberately drove into the protest to provoke anything”…
Even though he SAID …”“kill a few people on my way to work. They are rioting outside my apartment complex.””?
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Yes, even though. That doesn’t prove squat. Actual evidence like someone in the car with him hearing him say “watch me drive into that mob right now and kill someone” would be sufficient but all that is available is pure speculation.
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“Witnesses testified that he deliberately and aggressively accelerated into the crowd.”
The jury found the evidence and testimony convincing. It wasn’t speculation; it was evidence presented at trial.
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