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It's honestly impressive how far you're willing to go on occasion to avoid having a thought.
Did the Republican Florida state attorney also not have a thought? The Florida jury members? The Florida appeals court?
Seems more likely you're upset they disagreed with you.
Drejka cannot be the aggressor, because McGlockton initiated their altercation with a brutal physical assault that caught Drejka completely unawares and laid him prone on the ground. This does not mean that Drejka was subsequently justified in shooting him in response; it was a very iffy shoot, and as I argued at considerable length at the time, Drejka's conviction was an acceptable outcome. It's actually a fairly interesting case, and I reference it often to provide illumination on the subject of personal defense with firearms.
Drejka's subsequent conviction and its justification are irrelevant to the point at hand, though, which is that Drejka was not the aggressor, which is one of the criteria you were looking for when selecting this example.
So this is exactly what was wanted.
White guy shoots (basically equivalent, argubly worse if anything to a stabbing) a black guy illegally.
Police are on the scene and they take his self defense claim as legally legitimate and do not arrest or charge him.
Republican state attorney handling the investigation believes the evidence is enough to convict and prosecutors take it to trial.
At trial he is found guilty by a jury of his peers.
At appeal, the conviction is upheld. His claim was not legally legitimate.
A guy who was legally guilty of manslaughter was not arrested on the scene originally.
If the Wiki article is correct, no. They arrested him "Drejka cooperated with deputies on the scene, and was transported to the North District Station in nearby Dunedin, Florida, for further questioning by detectives", then released him the day after, citing the surveillance video. Meanwhile, the black guy wasn't arrested, but rushed to the hospital. So it's not at all what was wanted.
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We actually discussed that case pretty thoroughly here back in the day. My understanding of the legal argument was that while McGlockton absolutely escalated to violence and plausibly threatened Drejka's life, Drejka's actions initiated the altercation, thereby limiting or losing his presumptive right to self-defense. There is a reason CCers are advised to act like the most peaceful man alive. I don't particularly disagree with the conviction, though 20 years for manslaughter seems a bit excessive. Much less understandable shootings in my state tend to go around 15.
Worth noting that McGlockton's family asked for the max of 30, and neither of his parents offered grace or mercy or forgiveness. I guess those government agencies that threaten families into "lowering tension and division" only apply to white people.
And I know all that because I followed the case and came to my own decision instead of just posting the first authoritative-looking thing I found on google to score a deflection point in an argument.
If you disagree then you disagree, but the state attorney, jury and appeals court all said otherwise that under Florida law he was guilty. Those are not "authoritative looking things", they are the authority. He is as a matter of fact undeniably been legally found as guilty.
The US is a free nation with strong legal rights for the accused, we aren't China or Russia. Our legal system is so generally reliable that many (including many users here!) even feel safe relying on the heuristic that just an indictment is enough to assume guilt in a casual conversation. Something I disagree with, I think conviction is the stage that happens but it is a sign that our legal system is reliable.
I don't think you even read my post.
Fine.
Do you think there is a difference between "found guilty in court" and "I personally looked at the facts and concluded he was guilty"?
If you disagree. I saw you personally didn't, but many others do and the context of the argument is people disagreeing with me on his guilt.
He was guilty.
He was initially not arrested, and then later charged and convicted of manslaughter.
Yes there is.
That's also what is to be expected with anyone approaching in even slightly good faith, that any random conviction was done to a truly guilty person since the US legal system is generally reliable.
It's not perfect, every system will have flaws. But the US is good enough that generally "well I don't agree with the conviction" is a sign of bias or misunderstanding rather than a wrong conviction. When you actually look at the legal facts seriously, like you've done here, you should generally come to a conclusion like you have. He was guilty of what he was convicted for.
Yes, it looked at first like a fairly reasonable self-defense. A man attacked him and got shot for it. McGlockton was guilty of a serious offense against a person as well. He was just too dead to convict over it.
I eagerly await you full-throatedly repeating this argument to the African American community.
Yes, police brutality against blacks is also rare and basically everyone who gets a conviction against them for serious crime they fought in court is guilty of what they are accused of.
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