Be a peacemaker? Or do nothing?

Another reason to drink at home

My condolances to his family...quite a price to pay for a lapse in judgement. I can remember being young and immortal and barely survived that stage of life. He may just not have shifted gears to realize he didn't have body armour, an M-16 and his squad behind him.
 
First off I wasn't there and don't know anyone involved but we had a similar situation here. Off duty LEO sees a guy either rob or shoplift (it has been several years ago so I cannot remember the original offense) and decides to hold him armed with a wine bottle. He strikes the guy on the head and which time the guy shoot and killed him. Where I am going with this the guy in Anchorage was a MP, the guy in Winston was a off duty city cop. I think sometimes younger people who are in emergency services forget that when they are off duty sometimes the best thing to do is observe and call for help. Of course I also agree with Ken in that why wasn't this guy in the pokey?
 
Be a peacemaker? Or do nothing?
Click to expand...

Depends. Seems in this case the victim should have gotten into his car and gone home. If the perpetrator had been pistol-whipping a little old woman, intervening in her defense might have been a better reason to die. But, the feeling of invincibility is a common affliction of young people and it sometimes carries dire consequences as is evident here. I did some pretty dumb things as a lad including taking on armed people with nothing but my bare hands. Sometimes I had noble objectives for my actions… and sometimes not.

What is really amiss here is the fact that the creep was walking the streets. He had already been convicted of assault with a weapon and should have still been in jail, hopefully getting traded for a pack of smokes on a regular basis.
 
Be a peacemaker or do nothing?

If you are an off-duty police officer (military or civilian): It depends on the definition of peacemaker. I would prefer to make peace with my piece in my hand from behind cover and followed by loud commands to get on the ground. I would never walk up on an armed man without being armed and ready. However, I would always act if innocent people's lives were in danger. I firmly believe in the priority of life principle and I am trained and willing to to go into harm's way to protect the innocent.

Obviously, it would have been better for the unarmed soldier to call 911, stay on the line and continue to observe from a concealed position so that police could handle the felony stop.

However, the other side of the story is that Minnear appears that he was approaching Vongthongdy in an intimidating and hostile manner and there were words exchanged.
Click to expand...

Don't turn the brave soldier into the bad guy here. Foolish, yes. But, the drug using, illegally gun toting piece of crap felon who shot an unarmed man is the real villian. He wasn't acting in self defense. He was acting like the scumbag puke POS that he is. One man represented everything that is good about America, the other represented everything that is wrong with America. Unfortunately, the good guy lost. Hopefully, lessons will be learned by everyone who reads the story.
 
Thoughts and prayers go out to the family....

It is really hard to judge this situation based on what the media released. There "may" have been something about this specific situation that made the MP fellow feel that he could approach this guy w/o a problem. We will never know.

This situation aside... If the question is Would I try to talk some sense into a intoxicated disorderly guy? I can say with 99.9% confidence that I wouldnt.

This is a real loss for the good guys.. I hope that the case is handled well by the local authorties.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top