Speaking of culture wars...

An interesting juxtaposition of stories.

From the Dallas Morning News...

Garland police say they planned no criminal charges against a 25-year-old man who fatally shot a suspected copper thief this morning....

According to Garland police spokesman Joe Harn, Bargain Town manager Jose Hernandez filed two theft reports this month. On July 8, he said $1,500 worth of air-conditioning parts were taken from the store; on July 9, he reported that someone had stolen $6,000 worth of copper out of air-conditioning units.

"Last night, the owner's son decided to sit on the roof and see if someone came, and sure enough he did, and he shot him," Officer Harn said.

From the London Daily Mail...

For more than two years, Sydney Davis's house has been under siege from youths throwing stones.

After two hours of bombardment in the latest attack and no sign of the police, the 65-year-old retired builder decided enough was enough.

As a particularly large missile landed in his kitchen, he grabbed a plank of wood from the garden and ran towards the gang to scare them away.

The police arrived just in time - to arrest Mr Davis for possession of an offensive weapon.

He now faces up to six months in prison.

Which country would you feel safer living in?

Then again there's this from Ohio...

OFCC member Edwin Farbrother took his eighteen-year-old daughter out for ice cream on her birthday in the evening of Saturday, July 5th, 2008 in the City of Northwood. After being there for approximately ten minutes, a police car roared up and skidded to a stop. The officer approached a man later identified as an off duty police officer (department unknown at this time) who pointed Farbrother out to him. Farbrother knew immediately that the officer was there because he was openly carrying a firearm, and he was correct.

Farbrother immediately informed the officer that he had a concealed handgun license, but the officer was not interested in that. Instead, he immediately began berating Farbrother for openly carrying a gun where children were present, and told Farbrother that he was breaking the law by doing so. The off-duty officer and the uniformed officer continued to argue with Farbrother, despite his attempts to explain that open carry is legal. Soon after, a third officer showed up.

The third officer joined in the conversation again asserting that open carry is illegal and told Farbrother that the Ohio Highway Patrol had lied to him when he confirmed with them that open carry is legal in Ohio. During the conversation, they also allegedly threatened arrest for impersonating a police officer. One officer insisted that if they were responding to a burglar alarm and saw Farbrother carrying a firearm that he would be the first one they would "take down," and that he risked getting "popped". They then informed him that they were letting him go, but if he did it again he would be arrested and they would let the judge sort out who was right and who was wrong.

The initial officer responding to the scene had demanded Farbrother's drivers license, which had recently been issued and was kept in a protective cover. During the conversation, the officer was allegedly witnessed by both Farbrother and his daughter bending the license in his hand. At the end of the stop he returned it broken in half. When Farbrother pointed out the license was broken, the officer shrugged and said, "oh, well."

Posted by Danny Carlton at July 11, 2008 9:05 AM