Something I Don't Normally Do...

I don't normally respond to late comments made on "Dead Goblin" posts. Occasionally there will be a "U DIDN'T NO [goblin X] U CANT JUDGE HIM" type comment that appears sometime after the DGC entry. I tend to leave those alone, letting them speak for themselves.

Comments to this post, particularly the last one, though, do merit a response.

In this case, it certainly does seem like the shooting was, while justified, quite regrettable. With more facts coming out, it seems like the deceased in question was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time, a series of lifetime bad choices all culminating in a scared homeowner taking his life.

Did he deserve to die? That's the million dollar question.

See, it's real easy, from the vantage point here, to second-guess the homeowner. We know (assuming the facts as presented are correct) that the deceased was merely cutting through the property in an attempt to evade the police. It does not appear as though he posed any threat to the homeowner - from this vantage point.

That's the problem. It's real easy to look at things and say, hey, the kid didn't pose a threat, why'd he have to shoot him? It's another thing entirely to have some stranger in your backyard, not responding to your queries, lurking about and trying not to be spotted. The thing is, the homeowner had no idea this was just some drunk guy hiding from the cops. There's no way to know the difference between someone like the deceased and someone like Christopher Gribble, a lunatic with a knife and no qualms about brutally murdering someone just for fun.

From all accounts, looking back with 20/20 hindsight, it certainly appears as though Shane did not deserve to die. He did something stupid - and putting yourself in a position where you have to run from the cops, hiding in a stranger's yard is stupid, let's not kid ourselves here - and he paid the ultimate price for it. Only two people know for certain what happened in that backyard, and one is dead. What is not in dispute, however, is that the deceased was trespassing; he was inebriated; and he was hiding from the police.

It's interesting how the same story can look so radically different depending on perspective. Friends of the deceased see this as a young man, out drinking with his friends, who makes one mistake (hiding in someone's backyard) and getting killed because of it. I'd wager a good number of us have been somewhere we shouldn't have been at one point in our lives or another; it'd be a rare bird indeed who didn't have at least one version of "and then the cops showed up". I won't pretend I don't.

But from the homeowner's perspective, you've got someone in your backyard - in your personal space - with cops prowling the neighborhood looking for *something*. You call out to get the hell out and receive no answer - or maybe the stranger ducks down, trying to avoid your sight. You have no idea that this some drunk kid trying to stay out of jail - all you know is that the cops are looking for someone and someone is hiding in your backyard. You tell them to leave and they don't - do you wait for them to come crashing through the back door before you act?

I hope I never have to make that decision. I pray for that homeowner, because unless he's a ghoul he's going to spend the rest of his life kicking himself for the decision he made. He's going to second-guess every second of that encounter: Should I have waited longer? Should I have gone upstairs? Justified or not, he took someone's life. He took away all Shane's tomorrows, all of Shane's chances for redemption.

But it was Shane who put himself in the position where someone had to make the decision to take his life.

That's the part that gets forgotten, the personal responsibility angle. Shane chose to hide in that homeowner's backyard. Shane chose to hide from the cops. Shane chose to go to a party and drink to excess. Shane chose to get in a fight that would result in the cops being called. He made a series of bad calls, none of which by themselves would merit what happened, but when pulled together resulted in a tragedy. He didn't have to die, that's certain - but only he could have prevented it.

And that homeowner is the one who has to live with himself after Shane's mistake.

That is all.