Plan B Forum

Posted: **Wed Aug 26, 2015 12:27 pm**

(Reuters) - A man arrested for climbing a White House fence earlier this year was shot and killed at a suburban Pennsylvania courthouse on Tuesday after he sliced a sheriff's deputy with a knife, the local district attorney said.

Curtis Smith, 34, is accused of entering the lobby of the Chester County Justice Center at about 11 a.m. and slashing a sheriff's deputy on the arm or hand, Chester County District Attorney Thomas Hogan said in a statement.

A second deputy in the lobby drew his weapon and shot Smith, who was treated at the scene but later died at Paoli Hospital, Hogan said.

"The armed attacker was immediately neutralized by the sheriff's deputies," Hogan said in a statement.

Posted: **Wed Aug 26, 2015 12:48 pm**

was immediately neutralized

Saves the trouble to the legal system.

Posted: **Wed Aug 26, 2015 12:57 pm**

There's a Marley song in this.

I guess it must have been a Capital fence

Posted: **Wed Aug 26, 2015 1:07 pm**

oldr_n_wsr wrote:
was immediately neutralized
Saves the trouble to the legal system.

Certainly you aren't saying he deserved the death penalty for slashing the deputy's arm or hand, are you?

He was a danger and the officer likely responded appropriately, but it would not have been a capital case.

Posted: **Wed Aug 26, 2015 2:18 pm**

I slashed the deputy
It was a Capital 'fence

Posted: **Wed Aug 26, 2015 3:10 pm**

Posted: **Wed Aug 26, 2015 3:28 pm**

Big RR wrote:
oldr_n_wsr wrote:
was immediately neutralized
Saves the trouble to the legal system.

Certainly you aren't saying he deserved the death penalty for slashing the deputy's arm or hand, are you?

He was a danger and the officer likely responded appropriately, but it would not have been a capital case.

Surely, he did say that. And just as surely you admitted that he was right. In the rush of time, in the crushing flow of events in the real world we have to make decisions apart from legal sophistry and bullshit.

yrs,
rubato

Posted: **Wed Aug 26, 2015 4:25 pm**

Perhaps. but killing in self defense or in the defense of others is not the same as executing a man who is no longer a threat (or at least very little threat) to anyone (at least so long as he remains incarcerated). I doubt anyone needs any legal training to understand that.

oldr said "saves the trouble to the legal system", and I certainly did not admit he was right. I did admit that it was likely that the officer responded appropriately under the circumstances, but that is quite different.

So please, refrain from putting words in my mouth, and try to read posts in their entirety. We could do with a lot less bullshit.

Posted: **Thu Aug 27, 2015 5:33 pm**

Certainly you aren't saying he deserved the death penalty for slashing the deputy's arm or hand, are you?

I doubt very much that the slayer aimed for the arm/hand thinking to himself that he would avoid life imprison or the death penalty that he would have gotten by going for the neck/vein/artery.
He got what he deserved for what he tried to do.

Posted: **Thu Aug 27, 2015 9:18 pm**

Agreed.

Posted: **Thu Aug 27, 2015 10:29 pm**

Except it turns out that the deputy's injury was not caused by the knife but by one of the bullets fired by the other officer, that Curtis Smith was known as a devoted father of two young boys and a positive force in his community, that he had been distraught since the killing of his own father in 2012, that he inexplicably quit his job with the gas company four months ago and that his apparent depression or a psychotic break may have caused him to seek "suicide by cop."

So yeah, deserved killing, obvs.

Posted: **Fri Aug 28, 2015 1:04 pm**

So yeah, deserved killing, obvs.

My comments were written based on the OP article.
When new evidence is presented, opinions can change.

Posted: **Fri Aug 28, 2015 4:27 pm**

Then perhaps you shouldn't be so ready to cheer a man's death before all the facts are actually in.

Maybe the shooting was ultimately justified, maybe it wasn't. My question is, why is gunfire the officially approved first response? Especially in the security line at a courthouse, where there are usually a lot of people milling about, it is at least bordering on recklessness. It's a miracle no one else was killed in this incident. Wouldn't a taser have been just as effective? Or a nightstick? Or a couple of deputies jumping the guy? Courthouses tend to attract mentally unstable people all the time. Is there no training or protocol to deal with the potential for trouble without using deadly force first?

Posted: **Fri Aug 28, 2015 5:17 pm**

Then perhaps you shouldn't be so ready to cheer a man's death before all the facts are actually in.

You are correct. I stand here a flawed human being and ask that this character flaw be removed.
Thanks

Posted: **Fri Aug 28, 2015 5:23 pm**

You're not the only one; we are certainly all deeply flawed.

Posted: **Fri Aug 28, 2015 6:02 pm**

Courthouses tend to attract mentally unstable people all the time.

Man, you got that right...

They're full of lawyers....

Posted: **Fri Aug 28, 2015 7:00 pm**

You know, I put that there as bait, but I really expected Meade to be the first to bite.

Posted: **Fri Aug 28, 2015 7:21 pm**

Me? I would never do that. I don't make fun of lawyers. Jokes about lawyers, perhaps

Posted: **Fri Aug 28, 2015 8:38 pm**

Sue U wrote:You know, I put that there as bait, but I really expected Meade to be the first to bite.

So you underestimated my capacity to go for the cheap and obvious joke?

I'm hurt...

Posted: **Fri Aug 28, 2015 10:23 pm**

Sue U wrote:You're not the only one; we are certainly all deeply flawed.

I'm not.

Plan B Forum

First jump a fence, then jump a deputy

First jump a fence, then jump a deputy

Re: First jump a fence, then jump a deputy

Re: First jump a fence, then jump a deputy

Re: First jump a fence, then jump a deputy

Re: First jump a fence, then jump a deputy

Re: First jump a fence, then jump a deputy

Re: First jump a fence, then jump a deputy

Re: First jump a fence, then jump a deputy

Re: First jump a fence, then jump a deputy

Re: First jump a fence, then jump a deputy

Re: First jump a fence, then jump a deputy

Re: First jump a fence, then jump a deputy

Re: First jump a fence, then jump a deputy

Re: First jump a fence, then jump a deputy

Re: First jump a fence, then jump a deputy

Re: First jump a fence, then jump a deputy

Re: First jump a fence, then jump a deputy

Re: First jump a fence, then jump a deputy

Re: First jump a fence, then jump a deputy

Re: First jump a fence, then jump a deputy