Retired cop guns down man for texting at Florida movie

The light from cell phones in theaters is annoying. However, it doesn't matter what he did, he didn't deserve to die, and nothing he did made him responsible for his own death.

The only person responsible for his death was the nutcase that brought a gun to a cinema and then used it to kill a guy over an argument with a cell phone and some popcorn.

The guy who shot him was clearly a nut case.

 

Absolutely. At the Alamo Drafthouse theaters in Austin, they specifically forbid texting, as well as having your phone on. You get one warning. After that, management tosses you. Sounds like a good policy to me. I don't suppose this murderer thought to complain to the management about the texting dude, did he?

 

Didn't read the article didya?

 

he did and management did nothing.

Disclaimer: I am not condoning murder with this comment so all you douchebags who want to preach your moral superiority wait for another post.

 

Jeez, and I thought people were jackasses for yelling at me when I pull my camcorder out and record the whole movie.

 

Well put and I agree. I take most people at their word that they aren't condoning but as I said earlier I find it unsettling that so many are justifying his actions in terms of that getting shot is a logical and even expected consequence of being a jerk.

At the same time I don't think anyone is saying the guy isn't an ass for texting and throwing popcorn. The consequence of being an ass though shouldn't be getting shot.

 

Absolutely not trolling. It was either 2002 or 2003. And the only thing that could have provoked the guy was the back of my head. I didn't have a cell phone. I wasn't talking. The only time I even looked at the guy was after the second or third handful of popcorn fell on me.

I'm not a fighter. The only fights I've ever been in were scuffles with my brother. But I was ready for a fight that day. I had no idea how he was going to react to me throwing a sour patch kid at him, full force, from two feet away, but I was ready for the consequences. Even if they would never have been the same. I was ready, man.


And if I ever find out it was j*zz shot from you, the consequences will definitely never be the same!

 

Not me, breh. I'm very clean and no one ever notices.

 

They are jackasses. Don't you hate when you're recording a movie and a mothafugga gets up in the middle of your session.

 

I should really stop, but I'm similarly confused. There are people, like yourself, who extrapolate another poster's lack of lock-step thinking with what other posters consider necessary moral thinking to mean things that a poster never typed, like: "justifying" or "logical and even expected consequence."

You are manufacturing those terms and meanings where I don't see anyone posting that. Some people, like me, were brought up to not antagonize strangers because you never know how crazy someone is -- I can remember my Dad drilling this into me. In NO WAY does that mean anyone thinks crazy people are "justified" to shoot people, or that shooting is a "logical" or "even expected" consequence. It is a rare but possible consequence for a human being living on Earth, and especially living in the US of A. I for one do what I can with my vote to change that reality, but it is still a reality. He is innocent. He in no way deserved to die or "asked for it." Also, none of us were there, so we don't have enough data for all this pontificating.

But I've posted my thoughts on it several times already. The biggest outrage is that we have another innocent dead person, via gun violence, and another fatherless kid in America, for no good reason whatsoever.

 

There is a very good reason. We as a country have tacitly agreed that we're okay with the status quo where special interests overpower national consensus. Even common sense solutions like universal background checks are squashed because these lobbies are well organized and funded.

America deserves the government in Washington because her citizens are too indifferent, ignorant, and/or cynical regarding her political system. We either don't show up to polls, don't run for public office, don't vote with our dollars to support socially-conscious businesses whose products cost more, don't protest or engage in civil disobedience (we instead mock those who do), etc.

I naively thought that after 27 people including children were shot last Christmas that something in this country would snap awake on gun reform. A year later, I had to remind a colleague what happened. She shrugged her shoulders with a "what can ya do". Nearly two decades ago, I was in Scotland where 5 miles from my hotel a man shot 17 people including children to death. The difference from our tragedy? That country passed sweeping gun reform laws a year later (though I don't agree with some of them). We put men on the Moon yet we crumble in the face of the NRA and like-minded organizations.

[Sorry for the rant. I'm off to bed.]

 

Oh, so now we find out that he had another texting-rage incident and that he never even bothered to get the manager. Still want to focus on the texter's wrongdoing as opposed to the shooters'? SMMFH.

 

jesus christ dan; pointing out the texter's poor choices does not mean the poster condones shooting the texter.

Better yet; everyone just post about how the shooter is a bad person. Failure to do so means you condone the murder and are a bad person.

The following people have yet to condemn murder and therefor condone murder:

Clutch
Carl Herrera
tinman
.....

 

I'm telling you guys this is the new Treyvon case.

 

Well who's gonna turn down a junior mint? It's chocolate, it's peppermint, it's delicious!

 

You're rewriting the story and everyone else's opinions so that it matches what you want to think.

The old man did leave the theater to flag a manager down, but the manager was busy. Everyone thinks the old man was wrong to shoot the victim dead. A lot of people think the victim was wrong to start an altercation.

 

Well, basically, when that's the main focus of one's argument- don't text or this might happen- yes, that's warning someone like me not to be rude or else this might happen. Sorry, but that's not the lesson I got out of this entire incident. You are welcome to your opinion; IMO, this was a terrible incident made even worse by the alarming number of people who chose to focus primarily on rude behavior than a senseless, tragic death. Agree to disagree.

 

Again, rewriting everyone's opinions. The argument is "don't pick a fight, or you might get shot".

I think EVERYONE agrees on that one.

 

Not rewriting a story- I didn't create it in the first place. Just stating the facts.

 

What happens when an ******* meets a crazy person? Clearly, the ******* gets shot if the crazy person is allowed to have a gun.

Should the guy have been using his cell phone in a theater, even during previews? Probably not. Should he have said "sorry!" and turned it off when asked to do so? Yeah, probably. Should the shooter have complained about it to theater employees even during previews? Probably not, though he certainly should if during the movie itself. Does throwing popcorn at someone warrant getting shot? Nope.

This is basically two stupid people clashing and someone dying or getting shot. This whole "Team *******" versus "Team Shooter" thing going on at the beginning of the thread is ridiculous. Both people suck.