I maintain my offices in a two story building. When I first started leasing there, it was a decent area. It is less so now, but it is convenient and damn it, get off my lawn.
My dad also maintains his offices there. He has a permit to carry, but, until a month ago, didn't carry most of the time.
About a month ago, he was in his office around 8:00 pm. He heard four "very sharp knocks. Then, it was like my door exploded." Four thugs saw him, dropped things they had stolen from other offices, and took off running. They went down the stairs and out the lobby. Surveillance footage showed that they
The perps have since been arrested. They were getting in buildings via air vents over mechanical rooms. They terrorized the dozen businesses in our building.
Here is the question that this background information has been leading up to. According to a cousin who is a leading defense attorney in the Memphis area, if my dad had been carrying and had shot the perps, he would have "found out what it's like to be on the wrong side of the bars in Memphis. Race politics would've kicked in hard."
While I agree that race politics would have kicked in, I believe that Tennessee has excellent law favoring business owner who have to defend themselves. The perps broke in three hours after business hours after forcing their way into the building, kicked down the door from the mechanical room into a common area, and then kicked down a locked door into a private office.
Our cousin has probably defended in court zero innocent defendants.
My feeling is that in the end, TN law would have prevailed and that my dad wouldn't have ever seen the inside of a court room if he had fired in self-defense. This is assuming he didn't do anything stupid like firing after they fled.
What are your thoughts? I ask because while we have made massive physical security improvements, we have three businesses in this building.
My dad also maintains his offices there. He has a permit to carry, but, until a month ago, didn't carry most of the time.
About a month ago, he was in his office around 8:00 pm. He heard four "very sharp knocks. Then, it was like my door exploded." Four thugs saw him, dropped things they had stolen from other offices, and took off running. They went down the stairs and out the lobby. Surveillance footage showed that they
turned around and tried to get back in, but were locked out. When the police came, they were gone.immediately
The perps have since been arrested. They were getting in buildings via air vents over mechanical rooms. They terrorized the dozen businesses in our building.
Here is the question that this background information has been leading up to. According to a cousin who is a leading defense attorney in the Memphis area, if my dad had been carrying and had shot the perps, he would have "found out what it's like to be on the wrong side of the bars in Memphis. Race politics would've kicked in hard."
While I agree that race politics would have kicked in, I believe that Tennessee has excellent law favoring business owner who have to defend themselves. The perps broke in three hours after business hours after forcing their way into the building, kicked down the door from the mechanical room into a common area, and then kicked down a locked door into a private office.
Our cousin has probably defended in court zero innocent defendants.
My feeling is that in the end, TN law would have prevailed and that my dad wouldn't have ever seen the inside of a court room if he had fired in self-defense. This is assuming he didn't do anything stupid like firing after they fled.
What are your thoughts? I ask because while we have made massive physical security improvements, we have three businesses in this building.