[Rhodes22-list] Prosecuted homeowner blasts officials

G & D Barrera dbarrera at comcast.net
Sun Jan 25 20:05:59 EST 2004


Karate saying- It's better to be tried by twelve than buried (or my family)
by one.

Glen


----- Original Message -----
From: "Steve Alm" <salm at mn.rr.com>
To: "Rhodes" <rhodes22-list at rhodes22.org>
Sent: Friday, January 23, 2004 4:21 PM
Subject: Re: [Rhodes22-list] Prosecuted homeowner blasts officials


> I don't remember who said, "There are lies, there are damn lies and then
> there are statistics." but nonetheless, here are some stats compiled in
1999
> put together by a gun owner's group.  Earlier I said I thought about half
of
> US households have firearms.  I may have to stand corrected.  These stats
> indicate about half of Canadian homes have guns.  In the US, it's about
> 12.7%.  (oh yeah, now I remember--it's half of US households have pets.
8-)
> Note:  they indicate that guns were used on intruders about 2.5 million
> times but only 8 % (200,000) actually shot the intruder.  Most of the time
> the weapon was merely brandished or warning shots fired.  I didn't see any
> stats pertaining to self-defense legal outcomes.
>
> Also, here's a link on gun safety that's well worth a look.
>
> Slim
>
>
>
http://search.netscape.com/ns/boomframe.jsp?query=homeowner+and+statistics+a
>
nd+firearms&page=1&offset=1&result_url=redir%3Fsrc%3Dwebsearch%26amp%3Breque
>
stId%3D447d7b0eaad623ee%26amp%3BclickedItemRank%3D1%26amp%3BuserQuery%3Dhome
>
owner%2Band%2Bstatistics%2Band%2Bfirearms%26amp%3BclickedItemURN%3Dhttp%253A
>
%252F%252Fwww.gunowners.org%252Ffs9901.htm%26amp%3BinvocationType%3D-%26amp%
>
3BfromPage%3DAppleTop&remove_url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.gunowners.org%2Ffs9901.htm
>
>
http://search.netscape.com/ns/boomframe.jsp?query=homeowner+and+statistics+a
>
nd+firearms&page=1&offset=1&result_url=redir%3Fsrc%3Dwebsearch%26amp%3Breque
>
stId%3D447d7b0eaad623ee%26amp%3BclickedItemRank%3D6%26amp%3BuserQuery%3Dhome
>
owner%2Band%2Bstatistics%2Band%2Bfirearms%26amp%3BclickedItemURN%3Dhttp%253A
>
%252F%252Fhome.sprynet.com%252F%257Efrfrog%252Fsafety.htm%26amp%3Binvocation
>
Type%3D-%26amp%3BfromPage%3DAppleTop&remove_url=http%3A%2F%2Fhome.sprynet.co
> m%2F%7Efrfrog%2Fsafety.htm
>
> On 1/23/04 3:01 PM, "Paul Grandholm" <paul at grandpower.com> wrote:
>
> >
> > A Chicago-area homeowner prosecuted after shooting an intruder has
> > written a letter urging local
> > officials to stop hindering citizens from protecting their families and
> > "stick to parade schedules and
> > planting our parks."
> > Hale DeMar, 54, of Wilmette, Ill., wounded a burglar who entered his
> > kitchen Dec. 29, shortly after
> > saying good night to his children upstairs. But DeMar was charged with
> > violating a local ordinance
> > banning possession of handguns.
> > Police Chief George Carpenter said the outcome "was very fortunate for
> > the homeowner."
> > "We much prefer, for the safety of the home, that a resident who finds
> > himself in this situation
> > immediately lock the door of the room he's in and dial 911."
> > In a letter to local officials published by the Chicago Sun-Times,
> > however, DeMar said: "Until you are
> > shocked by a piercing alarm in the middle of the night and met in your
> > kitchen by a masked invader as
> > your children shudder in their beds, until you confront that very real
> > nightmare, please don't suggest that
> > some village trustee knows better and he/she can effectively task the
> > police to protect your family from
> > the miscreants that this society has produced."
> > Morio Billings, 31, is accused of entering the DeMar home twice within
24
> > hours. He allegedly crawled
> > through a dog door in the garage then returned the next night with a
> > stolen house key. Prosecutors say
> > Billings crashed through the home's front window after he was shot then
> > drove himself to the hospital in
> > the family's SUV, which he had stolen the night before.
> > Billings previously had been arrested 30 times, according to DeMar.
> > DeMar, a restaurant owner, will appear in court Feb. 6 to face
> > misdemeanor charges for violating the
> > handgun ordinance and failing to update his firearms card.
> > He sent the following letter to the Sun-Times:
> >
> > Village Trustees ... Stick to Parade Schedules & Planting our Parks
> >
> > Many of us have experienced a sense of violation upon returning to our
> > homes, only to find
> > that someone else has been there. Someone else has trespassed in our
> > bedrooms, looting and
> > stealing that which is readily replaced. Many of us, still haunted by
> > that violation, will never
> > again have a sense of security in our own homes. Few, however, have
> > awakened to realize
> > that they had been violated as they slept in their beds, doors locked,
as
> > family dogs patrolled
> > their homes. For me, the seconds until I found my children still safely
> > tucked in their beds
> > were horrifying. The thought that a young child may have been hurt or
> > abducted was
> > incomprehensible.
> > The police were called and in routine fashion they came, took the report
> > and with little
> > concern left, promising to increase surveillance. Little comfort, since
> > the invader now had
> > keys to our home and our automobiles. The police informed me that this
> > was not an
> > uncommon event in east Wilmette and offered their condolences.
> > What is one to do when a criminal proceeds, undeterred by a 90-pound
> > German shepherd,
> > an alarm system and a property ... lit up like an outdoor stadium? And
> > now, he had my
> > house keys and an inventory of things he'd like to call his own. Would
> > the police patrol my
> > dead-end street as effectively the second time as they had the first?
> > Would my small
> > children be unharmed the next time? Would the career criminal be
> > satisfied with another
> > automobile, another television or would he feel the need, once again, to
> > climb the staircase
> > up to the bedrooms, perhaps for a watch or a ring or a wallet, again
> > risking little?
> > Would my children wake to find a masked figure, clad in black, in their
> > bedroom doorway,
> > a vision that might haunt them for years? Would the police come again
and
> > fill out yet
> > another report, and at what point should I feel comfortable that the
'bad
> > guy' got everything
> > he wanted and wouldn't return again, a third time?
> > I went to the safe where my licensed and registered gun was kept, loaded
> > it for the very first
> > time and tucked it under the mattress of my bed. I assured my frightened
> > children ''that
> > daddy would deal with the bad guy ... if he ever returned.'' Little did
I
> > imagine that this
> > brazen animal was waiting in the backyard bushes as I tucked my children
> > into bed.
> > Fifteen minutes after bedtime, the alarm went off. Three minutes after
> > the alarm was
> > triggered, the alarm company alerted the police to the situation and 10
> > minutes later the first
> > police car pulled up to my home, but only after another call was made to
> > 911, by a
> > trembling, half-naked father. I suppose some would have grabbed their
> > children and
> > cowered in their bedroom for 13 minutes, praying that the police would
> > get there in time to
> > stop the criminal from climbing the stairs and confronting the family in
> > their bedroom,
> > dreading the sound of a bedroom door being kicked in. That's not the
fear
> > I wanted my
> > children to experience, nor is it the cowardly act that I want my
> > children to remember me
> > by.
> > Until you are shocked by a piercing alarm in the middle of the night and
> > met in your kitchen
> > by a masked invader as your children shudder in their beds, until you
> > confront that very real
> > nightmare, please don't suggest that some village trustee knows better
> > and he/she can
> > effectively task the police to protect your family from the miscreants
> > that this society has
> > produced.
> > This career criminal had been arrested 30 times. He was wanted in
Georgia
> > and for parole
> > violations in Minnesota. How many family homes had he violated, how many
> > innocent lives
> > were affected, how many police reports went into some back office file
> > cabinet, only to
> > become some abstract statistic? How is it that rabid animals like this
> > are free to roam the
> > streets, violating our homes and threatening the safety of our children?
> > If my actions have spared only one family from the distress and trauma
> > that this habitual
> > criminal has caused hundreds of others, then I have served my civic duty
> > and taken one evil
> > creature off of our streets, something that our impotent criminal
justice
> > system had failed to
> > do, despite some thirty odd arrests, plea bargains and suspended
> > sentences.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > ========================
> > Paul Grandholm
> > GrandPower Components Div.
> > C&H Technology
> > ISO9001 Certified
> > ========================
> > __________________________________________________
> > Use Rhodes22-list at rhodes22.org, Help? www.rhodes22.org/list
>
> __________________________________________________
> Use Rhodes22-list at rhodes22.org, Help? www.rhodes22.org/list
>




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