Thirdpower has a picture of the Vietnam Veteran who was beat within an inch of his life in Philly (Warning, the picture is graphic). The question for those in the City is whether you want to end up like this, or end up flushing your life savings down the toilet fighting the attempted murder charge that’s sure to come from City prosecutors if you use deadly force on a gang of feral teenagers. I should also note some recent news that Gerald Ung is now facing a civil suit from his attacker. Castle Doctrine should prevent this, but since this attack happened before that law went into effect, I’m not sure that can be grounds for dismissing the suit. Ung’s attacker is also suing some of the bars that served them alcohol, including Eulogy Belgian Tavern, one of my favorite haunts in the City.
The real solution is to avoid Philadelphia. You get your life ruined either way; the only question is whether or not you want to walk away with all your brain cells intact, and without the need to seek major surgery. Unfortunately, we live in a society where no one is responsible for their own actions anymore, and we can hardly tolerate consequences for thuggish behavior if it involves good people defending themselves.
UPDATE: From the article at “Above the Law”:
Good luck getting punitive damages — or any damages at all, for that matter — out of Gerald Ung. As noted above by one of our sources, Ung is presumably judgment proof. His criminal defense lawyer at trial, renowned defense attorney Jack McMahon, won a nice acquittal for him — but it probably cost Ung a pretty penny. As we wrote at the time of the acquittal, “the services of Jack McMahon don’t come cheap. The Ungs easily owe McMahon six figures.â€
Ung’s prize for his successful self-defense will be debt up to his eyeballs to Jack McMahon for, quite likely, the rest of his life. I do hope Ung is good at law and becomes a successful attorney. He may have a chance at paying off his debt quickly. For some poor Joe Sixpack who drives a truck for a living, what do you think his options are?
I long ago wrote off ever visiting vast sections of the USA due to the idiocy of the politicians in charge. It is a sad thing when the majority of places that gave birth to our country’s freedom are no longer safe or free.
So, the “solution” is to avoid locations within the United States where criminals have rights and victims don’t?
I think “shoot, shovel and shutup” may be the order of the day.
Dumpsters abound.
A neighbor of mine has the right answer, when asked what kind of problems shooting an intruder in his home would be he answered “I’ve got 40 acres and a backhoe, so no problem”.
Wise man…….
The moral of this story is that one should never, ever, under any circumstances, call the police for “help”. Always attempt to flee if you are unfortunate enough to wind up in Ung’s situation.
Actually, mobo, in places like D.C. where using a weapon to defend yourself would open you up to charges (since it’s virtually impossible to get a gun legally), I think there’s a good chance some unsolved “murders” were actually cases of self-defense, followed by the 3-S rule stated above.
It seems like you’ll be open to criminal charges even in places where self-defense is perfectly legal as well! Face it, the police and prosecutors should never be thought of as the “good guys”.