August 8, 2014, - 3:56 pm
A Detroit Jury Did WHAT?!: An Absolute Travesty of Justice
I’m absolutely outraged by a Detroit jury’s verdict, yesterday, in the trial of a man whose only “crime” was defending himself and his home. And you should be, too. The man was found guilty for shooting a drunken, high woman who banged on his home in the middle of the night and tried to come in. The verdict is a complete travesty of justice.
If you’ve been watching the national news, you may have seen coverage of the trial of Theodore Wafer. Many in the media tried to brand him as a racist and compared his shooting of Renisha McBride with the shooting of Trayvon Martin. But it’s not even close, even though that was an instance of self-defense, too.
Renisha McBride was drunk and high on the night she banged on Ted Wafer’s home in the middle of the night. She had been in a car accident with a parked car–and it is just luck that she didn’t hit a car with an actual person in it and kill someone. She walked more than a half-mile and banged on Wafer’s door and on the windows and walls all around his house at 4:40 a.m. Wafer, who lives alone in his Dearbornistan Heights home, was asleep on a chair in his house. He awoke to the sounds of banging all over his house, thinking a mob was about to attack him. Wafer opened the door with his gun ready to go. He accidentally shot Renisha McBride, and she died. He was charged with Second Degree Murder, of which a jury convicted him in Detroit, yesterday.
The jury–made up of residents from throughout Wayne County (the county which includes Detroit and Dearbornistan Heights)–was comprised of Blacks and Whites. And they seemed to blame Wafer for not calling 911 and waiting for the police. But as we always know, when seconds count, the police are only minutes away. What would you do at 4:40 in the morning with banging all over your house that made you think gangs were trying to break in, rather than one drunk, doped up woman? I probably wouldn’t have opened the door (I’d be too afraid), but I’m not in that panicked situation, so I’ll never know what I’d do. If Renisha McBride hadn’t been doing drugs and drinking and driving that night, none of this would have happened.
In Michigan, we have a “Home is Your Castle” law, meaning that if McBride had set even a pinky toe into McBride’s house, he had no duty to retreat and could have killed her without punishment, whether or not it was done in self-defense. And in my view, that should have included the porch, but apparently it does not. In some areas of the country, these “Home is Your Castle” doctrines include the entire “curtilage,” which would include the porch and the land. And that’s the way it should be, since “Home is Your Castle” laws are based on older laws that historically did include the curtilage. If someone comes on your porch and can possibly break down your door–as banging on it in the middle of the night would indicate–they deserve to get what’s comin’ to ’em.
And Renisha McBride certainly did. She was a no-good, lowlife. She was a pothead, a drunk, and drunk driver who, as I noted, might have killed someone. And the jury didn’t get to hear this: she was a drug dealer and seemed to be involved in gangs. She flashed gang signs and held guns in photos on her cell phone. The jury didn’t get to see those photos.
But ask yourself this: while Ted Wafer didn’t mean to kill her, isn’t the world better off without her? Isn’t the world better off before she did more drugs and drank more and killed who knows how many? Wafer was near tears when he testified about his remorse for accidentally shooting her. But he did the world a favor. And it wasn’t about race. It was about defending himself–his life–and his home.
Wafer’s attorney, Cheryl Carpenter, did an excellent job. There is nothing else she could have done or said. I followed the case online and watched the testimony. And I thought only an O.J. jury would have found Wafer guilty. Sadly, he got one of those juries. And he faces up to life in prison, plus an automatic two years in prison for any criminal conviction involving the use of a firearm (that’s Michigan criminal law, and I think it’s a form of double jeopardy, especially if the gun is legally owned, as Wafer’s was).
The police “investigation” in this case was an absolute joke. The Dearbornistan Heights police didn’t dust for fingerprints until nearly a week after the incident. In the meantime, race-pimping media whores held a “vigil” outside Wafer’s home. Countless people may have touched the house and left prints. Therefore, we don’t know if McBride had others with her that night who banged on the walls and windows all around his home.
And the case wasn’t about race. It all happened so fast, he didn’t have time to think about that and didn’t know the race of the person or persons banging on his home or his door until the last second. This was about a lowlife woman who made bad choices in life which brought her to this point–banged up from a one-car accident she caused in the middle of the night, driving from who knows what (a drug deal?). It was about a man who awoke to frightening banging all over his home in the middle of the night, and he tried to defend himself.
I doubt Wafer will get life in prison, but he’ll get some time and at least the two years because of the felony firearm law. And he may win on appeal to the conservative Michigan Court of Appeals. But in the meantime, he’ll lose everything–his money, his home, and his reputation (which he’s already lost to some extent). All for defending himself from a thug-ette lowlife.
Tells me there really isn’t a solid right to self-defense in America anymore. The verdict yesterday was a travesty of justice. The very definition of that phrase.
And it will have a chilling effect on all of us who want to own and use guns to defend ourselves while in our homes. People will be afraid to do so, lest they face life in prison. And that will cost lives.
America is not safer with Ted Wafer behind bars. But it is definitely safer with Renisha McBride off the streets.
Tags: Castle Doctrine, Detroit, Home is Your Castle, Home is Your Castle Doctrine, No Duty to Retreat, Renisha McBride, Renisha McBride drug dealer, Renisha McBride gang symbols, Renisha McBride thug, self-defense, self-defense Michigan, Stand Your Ground, Stand Your Ground law Michigan, Stand Your Ground Laws, Stand Your Ground Michigan, Ted Wafer, Ted Wafer Guilty, Theodore Wafer, Theodore Wafer Guilty, Theodore Wafer Renisha McBride, Theodore Wafer Second Degree Murder
” What would you do at 4:40 in the morning with banging all over your house that made you think gangs were trying to break in, rather than one drunk, doped up woman? I probably wouldn’t have opened the door ”
Definitely a tense situation and one that shows the jury and prosecutor were morons. I was awoken several years ago buy a guy who had pulled up into my driveway at 3AM and kept revving his engine. The way he was parked, he was outside my kitchen window and poised to ram through my garage door, but I couldn’t see the driver from the kitchen window. I grabbed my gun and walked around from the back door to confront him and when the guy saw me, he threw the car in reverse and screeched away. Probably a drunkard and he never came back, but anything could have happened.
DS_ROCKS! on August 8, 2014 at 4:15 pm