death in the eav.
the parking lot of the ace hardware in the east atlanta villiage is a plot of land i know very well. i visit the ace hardware in the eav at least once a month or so and either run or walk past it at least four to five times a week. this parking lot is only about 1/2 mile from my house.
it also happened to be the scene of yet another shooting last night, and yet another fatality last night.
at least in this instance the good guys are still alive. the victim of an armed robbery who had left the graveyard tavern pulled his own weapon and shot the robber 5-6 times, leaving him dead in the parking lot.
there was a time when i ate a lot more red meat, listened to a lot more right-wing talk radio and still believed in the death penalty, when i would have stood up cheering for this, as many on the popular east atlanta message eavbuzz are doing this morning. while i can’t join them in celebrating the loss of life, i certainly don’t begrudge them their feelings.
behind it is a sense of overwhelming frustration at what is occurring in these neighborhoods. yes, i realize, as karsh pointed out that this happens in all neighborhoods and we should care, but when it happens consistently within a tight radius of where you live or frequent after a long period of relative quiet, and when the crime begins to seem so senseless and so fatal, the frustration definitely grows to a level that i can grasp why some would actually celebrate the death of this criminal.
i don’t know. i have changed with age and no longer support the death penalty or listen to too much right-wing talk radio (although i still eat a bunch of red meat) and i can’t cheer at the death of this person, but i don’t feel sorry for him either and i am glad this ended with the person committing the crime dead as opposed to the victim (ala john henderson.)
my one hope is maybe it will serve as a deterrent. maybe the next armed robber will think twice before pulling his own weapon.
in closing, i don’t know who this guy was, but to be able to draw on someone that has already drawn on you with all the adrenaline of being in the middle of a violent crime and manage to put 5-6 rounds in them is pretty impressive.
maybe jack bauer paid a visit to the eav last night?
UPDATE: as cap’n ken points out in the comments, when i mention “another shooting and another fatality” above, i am NOT referring to one at that location but rather the shooting at the standard the other week. sorry for any confusion.
You say this was the scene of "yet another shooting last night, and yet another fatality last night." What are the other shootings and fatalities at this scene you’re referring to? Or am I reading that reference wrong?
sorry, you are reading the reference wrong. i was referring to the henderson shooting. i am still kind of in shock over this and probably not writing clear. i am going to add an update to clarify.
there ya go, ken. hope that clarifies. sorry for any confusion.
OK, gotcha. I was trying to think back … the Graveyard area has had several armed robberies and those crimes are a problem, but the only other shooting I remember in that lot was the cop who shot the fleeing suspect.
The event itself is sad and I hate hearing about this happening and even more so in EAV. I hope that this can turn into something positive in any shape or form – ideally to prevent this happening again. Its scary to think how many people are armed and why anyone – even a desperate criminal would risk this.
The event itself is sad and I hate hearing about this happening and even more so in EAV. I hope that this can turn into something positive in any shape or form – ideally to prevent this happening again.
Its scary to think how many people are armed and why anyone – even a desperate criminal would risk this.
@atlnav
I would love to think that this would serve as a deterrent, but my worry is that the message to baddies will be less "stop being bad" and more "shoot first." The only deterrents I can see really working are better police presence (am I the only one who misses seeing Off. Griffin around all the time?), and also addressing the more basic roots of crime (poverty, discrimination, poor education, etc…all of which are harder to address than poor police coverage)
I was thinking the same thing as artiloop. Will this shooting make criminals more brash and brazen or will it make them stop and think? At this point it’s still too early to say this is a crime wave. However I think we should all do whatever we think is necessary to protect ourselves.
What artiloop said.
Although I commend you for not supporting the death penalty, I must admit I don’t follow your logic in this instance. It is unfortunate that someone had to die, but would you have rather the victims been murdered? The criminal made a decision to break the law and threaten another life, and he paid for that decision. Perhaps if other criminals heard this story it would deter them from violent crime in the future, as it wouldn’t be an attractive alternative.
There is evidence to back this up. http://tinyurl.com/6wlwkp In the early 80’s, Kennssaw passed a mandatory gun ordinance and they saw an immediate and consistent drop in crime in the months following. My point being that criminals are smart and if there is a hightened risk in commiting violent crime, they will persue a different option.
well what i said was this:
which is fairly aligned with what you wrote. i happen to agree with you on the deterrent value of a trained and armed citizenry, but as you can see from several of the previous comments that is clearly not a settled idea and there is lots of data on both sides of the argument.
[…] I wanted to write something about the shooting in East Atlanta Village this week, even though James already covered it once. Not long before the shots were fired, I was a few blocks away, standing in the street talking […]