On Tue, May 4, 2010 at 3:58 PM, Jordan Hayes <jmhayes at j-o-r-d-a-n.com> wrote:
> Alan Rudy, falling for the bait, asks:
>
> Are you saying that the woman should have had a gun ...?
>>
>
> Of course not.
>
> But unless you clicked-through and read the rest of the elided article, you
> would have missed this:
>
> Authorities credited Deputy Clay Grant Jr., who was off duty,
> with preventing additional casualties. Grant was at the Target
> shopping for paper towels on his day off when he heard screams.
>
> Customers began racing past him toward the exit. "Somebody has
> a knife," he heard someone in the crowd say.
>
> Out of the cosmetics aisle he saw a young woman wearing a halter
> top and flowery pants, with a steak knife in one hand and a
> butcher knife in the other.
>
> Grant, 26, drew his Beretta service weapon and identified himself
> to the woman as a sheriff's deputy. He demanded she drop the knives.
> The woman, he said, ran down the aisle, turned and dashed past
> four other aisles.
>
> "Drop your knife" he ordered again.
>
> She turned, her expression blank and confused, clutching the knives.
> He said he recalled his training, decided that from her distance
> of about 20 feet she was no danger to him, and chose not to pull
> the trigger.
>
> The woman saw his gun and dropped both knives on the floor.
>
> Grant and Target security officials restrained the woman, then
> handcuffed her.
>
> Some situations end differently depending on whether victims can defend
> themselves. Is there a big difference between a masked robber with a
> shotgun, who is a clear threat to everyone in the room, and a crazed woman
> with knives? You bet there is. And yet in both cases, someone with a
> weapon, some training, and a little common sense stopped the action from
> going further. The other big difference between the Omaha story and the
> West Hollywood story is that an off-duty police officer was the only one in
> the LA story who *could* have helped: they are, naturally, exempt from
> concealed weapon restrictions in California.
>
> California prefers their violent crime victims to be unable to defend
> themselves. Cops think that's a joke, so they were able to exempt
> themselves.
>
>
> McNamara said she watched helplessly as the woman plunged a
> knife into the upper back and shoulder of a male shopper. He
> had crouched down and covered up to fend off the blows, she said.
>
> It's a West Coast thing, doncha know.
>
> /jordan
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>
-- ********************************************************* Alan P. Rudy Dept. Sociology, Anthropology and Social Work Central Michigan University 124 Anspach Hall Mt Pleasant, MI 48858 517-881-6319