Bad Day for Samurai Wannabes

[uki]

ummm... yer late... i posted this yesterday - consequences of breaking and entering.

[David Jamieson]

I think the article said the guy was in the garage. Not in the house.

seriously, whatever happened to "held the suspect til police arrived"?

[uki]

I think the article said the guy was in the garage. Not in the house.

property and possesion is 9ths of the law... obviously the guy picked the wrong garage to ransack... boo hoo...

seriously, whatever happened to "held the suspect til police arrived"?

i am sure he attempted to hold on as long as he could, but you know them damn samurai swords are viscious.

[David Jamieson]

If we advocate summary execution of petty criminals, then we sink to the depths of depravity and savagery.

The bravado of "oh he deserved it" has a weird karma to it.

Why do you abhor when cops taze people who are committing a minor offense but cheer when someone is killed for stealing some meaningless thing from a garage?

This seems more than a little misguided and to be honest, insane to me.

[TaichiMantis]

ummm... yer late... i posted this yesterday - consequences of breaking and entering.

actually, I beat you and posted it under "Samurai wannbes" thread

[Dragonzbane76]

awesome....

[Dragonzbane76]

If we advocate summary execution of petty criminals, then we sink to the depths of depravity and savagery

and you are to say that you know exactly what the intruder was going to do. Opportunity is an excuse for more violent measures. Yeah the guy might have stole a TV, PS3, whatever, but if a woman or child would have been there and no one there with them, at the time, would you take that chance with your loved one? I know I wouldn't. shot first ask questions later, your in my house, and I don't know you, and I do not know your intentions.

I agree with most here, if you break in to a house, then if you get killed doin it then you'll get no pity from me.

[LSWCTN1]

from a UK perspective....

if someone breaks into my home, they're getting it.

I'm going to come downstairs with either my snooker cue case, which is a modified copper pipe, or my BJD (which, although i havent learnt the form/applications, i'm still going to hurt you with)

if you run i'm going to let you go. if you come towards me i'm going to do whatever i need to do to protect my sleeping babies.

US has more freely available firearms, and if i lived there then that is what the burglar would be facing. not some copper pipe or overgrown, blunt, knives. again if he ran then he would be allowed to leave.

think about it. how does a burglar enter your property? with his tools of the trade. a crowbar, a hammer or a screwdriver at the very least (the last of which is by far the most dangerous weapon, outside of a firearm, in the hands of someone intent on doing you harm). i agree with Bawang that a lot of house-breakers are desperate men. therefore i am absolutely sure that they would have no hesitation in using any one of these 'tools of the trade' to make good their escape.

stealing from other people is plain wrong. i genuinly feel for the guy who is going to have to live with taking a life for the rest of his days, however justified he may have been. and and the threat of prosecution for probably the next 2 years or so.

[sanjuro_ronin]

Killing someone over a breaking and entry of a garage...not sure how the courts are gonna like that one....

[Dragonzbane76]

Killing someone over a breaking and entry of a garage...not sure how the courts are gonna like that one....

sketchy... yes....

you say the wrong things... well you might go to prison. Living with it.. I would have no problem with... I was justified in my right, he's on my property, stealing my stuff, and with ill intentions that could turn from bad to worse. I wouldn't know if the guy had a gun. Pretty easy to conseal. Takes a split second and he could have shot me, or my wife, or someone in family. Doesn't matter if he was in garage. Still my property, some houses are connected to garage with live in area.

If it came down to it, look the cop dead in the eye and say. "He said he would kill me, and I believed him."

[xcakid]

what if the guy actually cornered the guy, called the cops and then killed him?

does that make him weird for killing over something as paltry as material goods?

Is a set of tools or some rims worth a life?

Yep. Its the persons choice when he decides to burglarize a home. Its is the right of the resident to protect his/her property to the extent he/she is able to, willing to, up to his/her limit or unlimited force.

If it were me, you come into my home uninvited and steal even a piece of paper, one of us is going to the hospital. I be sad about it. But the less criminals around the better for us all. I HATE anyone that would take ANYTHING from another. If death is the lesson, then so be it.

I believe one of the 10 Commandments is Thou Shalt not Steal.

[David Jamieson]

a) this was not a home invasion

b) this was a petty thief in a garage


having said that, do people really advocate a vigilante summary execution of a petty thief?

really?

death? Seems a bit final for stealing from a garage.

[Dragonzbane76]

yep... you should not be in someones personal space no matter what.

Petty? well could be, I don't know, hell he might have been on a 6 day crack binge and willing to do anything, I don't know, you don't know, and the guy that used the sword sure the hell didn't know. Are you willing to put yourself at risk and your family? Guess that's your perogative.

But to me i'll blow your dam head off, you have about 5 sec. to explain yourself and if you make one move that isn't what it should be i'm shooting. No, i will not feel guilty either.

You probably think the death penalty is stupid as well?

My opinion, they should put an express line in.

[Lucas]

well, if you re-read the story, the perpetrator lunged at the person weilding the sword......

you do the math....

would you attack a guy with a ****ing katana and expect nothing to happen? please......

oh and btw for those interested in how some view people who bring about their own doom throug stupidity, being poor has nothing to do with it, no ones is forced to break and enter and steal. i lived on the street/road for a few years, never once did i break into a home or steal from another person. i relied upon myself to survive, not the fortune of others and the stealing of it. pathetic.

did the guy deserve it? who knows. did he get what was coming? well, hes the one who lunged at a guy with a sword after breaking into his house.

we all reap what we sow.

[GeneChing]

I merged the two threads off the main forum into this one. There are permanent redirects so it'll stay lively. I love that this thread has done so well. Who would have thought?

I'll be very curious to see the legal implications on this one. It could have happened to any of us who have swords in our homes.

College student with sword kills burglary suspect
By BEN NUCKOLS, Associated Press Writer
(09-15) 16:05 PDT BALTIMORE, (AP) --

A Johns Hopkins University student armed with a samurai sword killed a suspected burglar in a garage behind his off-campus home early Tuesday, hours after someone broke in and stole electronics.

Some shocked neighbors said they heard bloodcurdling screams in an area just blocks from the university. Police held the student, a junior chemistry major who turns 21 on Sunday, for several hours, but he was not charged with any crimes Tuesday, police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said.

Around 1:20 a.m., the student heard noises behind the home and noticed a door to the garage was open, Guglielmi said. He grabbed the sword and confronted the intruder — identified by police as Donald D. Rice, 49, a habitual offender who had just been released from jail.

Rice was crouching beneath a counter, police said. The student asked him what he was doing and threatened to call police.

"When he said that, the suspect lunged at him, kind of forced the kid against the wall, and he struck him with the sword," Guglielmi said.

Rice's left hand was nearly severed — Guglielmi described it as "hanging on by a thread" — and he suffered a severe cut to the upper body. He died at the scene.

On Monday, two laptops and a Sony PlayStation were stolen from the student's home, which he shares with three other students, but police were not sure whether Rice was responsible, Guglielmi said.

There was a pool of blood Tuesday morning in the brick courtyard between the back porch of the home and the garage. The courtyard was strewn with debris, including what looked like broken glass.

Guglielmi did not know why the student kept a sword. He said he may have had some martial arts training, but was not an expert.

Rice's criminal history includes more than two dozen arrests for burglary, breaking and entering and auto theft. According to court records, he was charged in 2007 after he pulled a gun on a police officer, though prosecutors placed those charges on hold because the officer was on military leave.

Rice was convicted in 2008 of unauthorized removal of property and sentenced to 18 months. He was released Saturday from the Baltimore County Detention Center.

Several nearby residents said the community has experienced a rash of petty crimes in recent months, including home, garage and vehicle break-ins. Many homes have bars on windows and stickers advertising alarm systems.

Michael Hughes, 43, said he was getting ready for bed when he heard the screams.

"There was fear in the voice. I could tell someone was scared," Hughes said.

Hughes called 911, and several police cars arrived while he was on the phone. Campus security officers and an off-duty city officer who were in the area responding to a suspicious person report also heard the screams.

The diverse neighborhood includes a mix of students, professors and families, said Hughes, who lives with his wife and young children and works for the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, which is on another campus across town.

"There seems to be a noticeable increase in crime in the neighborhood," Hughes said. "I am concerned for my family's safety."

Kenny Eaton, 20, a junior political science major at Hopkins who lives nearby, said there was some tension between students and lower-income residents of nearby communities. The private Johns Hopkins is known for its health and science research and has about 4,600 undergraduates on its main campus.

"You take kids who are paying $50,000 a year (in tuition) and then put them out in a very dangerous city environment, it's almost like a clash of civilizations," he said.

Three young men, including one in a Hopkins T-shirt, were sitting on the front porch of the home Tuesday morning. A police officer was standing in the doorway, and a single police car was parked nearby. The men refused to talk to an Associated Press reporter.

Susan Boswell, the dean of student life at Hopkins, said in a statement that she was "relieved to report that the student was not harmed," but she also advised other students not to follow the swordsman's example.

"If you ever suspect that there is a prowler in your residence or on your property, call 911 immediately," Boswell said. "Experts advise that you do not attempt to confront the intruder, but rather secure yourself in a locked area until police arrive."

Guglielmi said police would consult with prosecutors about whether to file charges against the student. As in most states, self-defense in Maryland is defined by common law rather than by statute. People who confront intruders inside their homes have a greater degree of latitude to use force, and prosecutors consider whether to file charges in such incidents on a case-by-case basis.

"One can genuinely and reasonably be in fear of one's own safety even if the burglar is unarmed," said Andrew D. Levy, a Baltimore defense attorney and an adjunct professor at the University of Maryland School of Law. "But nonetheless, it would be something that a good prosecutor would consider."