Defenseless in California (Surprise, surprise)


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Waitone
June 16, 2003, 07:36 AM
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=33098

Hey boss, he hit me!

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Posted: June 16, 2003
1:00 a.m. Eastern


© 2003 WorldNetDaily.com

by Barbara Simpson

If you are tee'd off about the disarming of Americans, with laws making it harder to purchase guns and nearly impossible in some states to get a permit to carry ...

If you are steaming about the moves in the United Nations to restrict, and ultimately eliminate individual gun ownership worldwide ...

If you' re astonished about worldwide news reports about storeowners, property-owners and citizens who are attacked by criminals and then are arrested or sued for protecting themselves ...

If you're astounded at the soaring crime statistics in countries that have eliminated private gun ownership and, in some cases, confiscated weapons ...

If you're stupefied at how mainstream media worldwide ignore those statistics and continue their drumbeat to disarm the innocent ...

If you shake your head as the "peace" movement encourages and demands that "war" never be waged so that peace will prevail (what?) ...

If you watch our children being brainwashed with pacifism and taught to turn one cheek, then the other, then the other and then the last ...

If you see children being taught by the system that "hitting back" is always a no-no ...

If you see that old cartoons are now too violent for kids, and so is Dodge Ball, and Tag is an assault on their psyches, and no one should ever win a game, and everyone wins contests, and grades destroy self-esteem ...

Well, get ready, here's another! And this situation is the natural culmination of all of the above, which involve one central theme: Self-defense is out.

Picture this: For 3-years, Hector Escalante worked at an art studio in Southern California. Then, one day for no reason, a co-worker named Ion Stanei, started screaming at him and swung at him with a piece of wood.

Escalante tried to run away but Stanei kept after him, throwing a box of screws, hitting his back. At some point, Escalante turned and saw the man holding a large metal object. Escalante ran to him and grabbed him in a big hug but that didn't stop Stanei from smashing Escalante in the head causing a deep wound and, his lawyer said later, also causing brain damage.

What did the boss do? He fired both men; Escalante, because he tried to defend himself. The boss, Jim Goetsch, said he should have left the scene. He claimed that if Escalante got away with "defending himself," then no employer could fire anyone for workplace disputes.

Escalante took his job loss to court. The jury found the firing violated his right to defend himself and awarded him $450,000. The trial judge reduced it to $335,000.

The case went to the state appellate court and last week their ruling came down.

Hang on!

The three-judge panel threw out the verdict and the damages, saying it was legal to fire Escalante. They said since Escalante had a chance to "retreat," and didn't, it was OK to fire him.

In other words, running away was his only option.

In the San Francisco Chronicle, Judge William Bedsworth was quoted from the decision: "Retreat might not serve the victim's pride, or assuage his anger at being attacked, but it does tend to prevent escalation of the violence, and we cannot see why an employer should not be allowed to opt for that result

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TarpleyG
June 16, 2003, 07:55 AM
AAAHHH!!! go blow it out your a$$ Judge William Bedsworth. Buncha wussies. I am tired of this crap.

GT

GSB
June 16, 2003, 07:55 AM
The Founders would weep.

SIGarmed
June 16, 2003, 11:53 AM
Astounding!

Judge William Bedsworth: Let them eat cake.

ojibweindian
June 16, 2003, 12:01 PM
It's California; rediculoulsy stupid, but hardly surprising.

I will never, ever live in that state; I'd rather starve to death, sleep in the cold, etc, than go there.

CZ-75
June 16, 2003, 12:53 PM
They already have folks with six-figure incomes living in homeless shelters since their incomes aren't sufficient to pay for housing in some areas (at least places that take children), or renting a GARAGE for ~$750/month as a place to live, with rents pushing $2000 a month (and up) in parts of the Bay Area.

Pendragon
June 16, 2003, 02:25 PM
Yep.

We are getting squeezed out of Sacramento by falling wages and skyrocketing housing prices - we were going to retreat an hour North to our little home town. Unfortunately, everyone else has been thinking the same thing - there are no apartments available there (~1% vacancy rate) and rent is going up fast.

We have been agonizing leaving our family here - we had decided to try and make a go at it, but just when we decide that, new data shows its just that much harder. If we move to San Antonio, we can put 30-50% down on a house and have a house payment about the size of our property tax bill here in Sacramento - hows that sound? Sounds absofreakinlutely insane to me.

longeyes
June 16, 2003, 02:57 PM
Retreat might sometimes be prudent but shouldn't be compelled. There's an odd ambivalence in the judicial perspective here: aggression is frowned upon in the victim but seemingly honored, de facto, in the perp, to whose assertiveness the victim is expected to defer.

Standing Wolf
June 16, 2003, 05:46 PM
I miss the People's Republic of California about 2% as much as I'd miss a dose of some wretched venereal disease.

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