What Did My Home-Invading Kid Ever Do To Deserve Being Shot While Burglarizing a Home?

I guess "deserving" is the theme of the day.

The two dead teenagers were aged 16 and 14.

As regards "deserving:" I don't know if a 14 year old "deserves" to die for a burglary which doesn't seem to include violence, but the homeowner was well within his rights to shoot the bastards.

I think these two ideas get conflated by people who can't, or won't, keep them separate.

Do I think a 14 year old "deserved" to die so young?

No, but that doesn't mean the homeowner was at fault, either. The 14 year old put himself in an extraordinarily dangerous position, and made life hell for his victims. He also, surely, scared the crap out of his victims.

And the reason that burglary (and especially home invasion) is historically a major crime is because a burglar, if happened upon by a homeowner, is likely to respond with violence, even if he had never planned violence as part of his intended crime.

The homeowner had the right to shoot the burglars. (Actually it seems like it was the homeowner's brother who shot, as she'd invited her brother to stay with her after being burglarized just one week ago.)

It's an outcome that isn't optimal, but the homeowner isn't charged with making sure those burlgarizing her home get precisely what they "deserve." She is permitted to exercise a defense of her person and her home, and she did so. She is not a court of law dealing with questions like "deserving" at the safe remove of reading about a crime on paper.

She is a frightened woman, terrified in her own home by invaders, and her first right (and only true duty) is defense of the self.

She did that.

And speaking of "deserving" -- does she deserve years of prosecutorial abuse for merely defending herself and her home?

posted by Ace at 05:34 PM

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