Summary
At a Lafayette, Indiana anti-Trump rally Saturday, a man pulled an assault-style rifle after clashing with protesters who blocked his truck at a Third Street intersection.
Video shows the man in a MAGA hat yelling at protesters, prompting another man—angered by the confrontation with women—to intervene.
The two exchanged shouts before the protester headbutted the man. He returned to his truck, retrieved a rifle, and reentered the crowd.
Police detained but released him, citing self-defense. The “Hands Off!” rally drew nearly 1,000 people and ended early amid safety concerns.
If you can leave the situation safely - like being able to go back to your truck - it’s not self defense.
yup. as soon as he grabbed the gun and went back to threaten people with it… he committed the felony.
Tell that to the police…
They are too busy
fabricating…planting… finding the evidence they need to arrest some protestors.Louder. For the people in the back.
Fat fuck wants to be another Rittenhouse
Self-defense isn’t going back to your vehicle to get a weapon to come back and terrorize people. That’s assault.
If he had returned with his weapon, and someone killed him, THAT would be self-defense.
Doesn’t matter. They even determined that planning to get yourself in an unsafe situation with the purpose of shooting protesters, travelling across states with a gun to again very intentionally get yourself in a situation where you’d need to use it, is still self defense. Even when you shoot someone without actually being in danger, it becomes self defense when other people are trying to stop you. All of this, as long as your victims are protesting against right-wing policies, has been determined in court to be self defense.
Only if you’re white and conservative.
I wonder if I could legally defend myself in this manner at one of the neo nazi rallies in Springfield or Charlottesville? Somehow I doubt the police would characterize it the same way.
Exactly. It’s obvious who the cops were siding with here.
But what about pre-emptive self defense? That’s a thing, right?
You don’t understand, your honor, I know I was gonna say something that would make them threaten my life! I had to start shooting.
It’ll get you on a talk show circuit