Legality Or Respect for Human Life?

It was about Thursday, November 15, 2007, we were faced with the news that a Texas man shot and killed two apparent burglars who were attempting to break into a neighbors house, after a 911 dispatcher severally told him in no unclear terms not to shoot or kill those buglers. I watched as news media tried to downplay the story or make it a matter of legality.

Sad, two men were murdered in cold blood and we talk of legality - whether the books covered it or not. I did not hear most of the news media cover this as human tragedy, or even as a moral issue. From all intents and purposes, the dispatcher's immortal words, 'Property is not worth killing someone over,' was not heeded by the this murderer, and certainly was never noted by the news media who covered the story. What a moral and social dilemma. Two men are callously killed, yet all we talk about was whether Texas law included using deadly force to protect neighbor's property. Click here now to listen to the 911 dispatcher telling this deliberate killer not to shoot.


As I read and watched this news, I felt pain and sadness that our society has degenerated so far. It is politically correct to shout in defence of dogs and animals, and jail some of our finest citizens ( and justifiably so) who mistreat animals, but we look the other way when a man takes the law in his own hands, and kills two men for attempted burglary. Don't get me wrong, burglary is evil, and those who carry it out should be punished by the state. And if a man's life is threatened by burglars, he has a right to defend himself, even if that means the use of deadly force. But for a man to willfully, premeditatively and calculatedly murder two men in a neighbors property after being warned by police not to do it? That ought to raise overwhelming outcry against such blatant waste of human life. But I did not see such outcry. In fact, I imagined, very sadly, if this blood-hungry Texan had killed two dogs attempting to deface or destroy his neighbors property, what outcry we would have witnessed; what holy fervor with which the animal rights movement would have pursued this case; how differently the news media would have reported this case.

That is how far we have steeped ourselves in hypocrisy. The animal rights movement will rather have a human being killed than to have a dog or a cat to be hurt. And before you label me an enemy ( because that is how easy it has become these days to make enemies), I believe that animals should be treated humanely, but I also believe that no Texan law gives a man the right to take away human lives in preference for a neighbors property. The truth which most news media failed to tell us in that story, is the same truth which the 911 dispatcher stated so clearly: 'Property is not worth killing someone over'. This is the principal issue, not legality. It is this moral and philosophical dilemma that so mirrors our failure as a society. We should defend life, all live - whether they are unborn babies, helpless pets,but especially full grown human lives.

Ironically, the same man who failed to allow the agents of government and the law to take care of the burglary will now allow the same legal system to determine if he acted according to law or not. This is the danger we must seek to avert - the subtle message in this act that it is OK to hijack the law of the land, to kill and take human lives in the pretence of defending my neighbors property. Today, it may be two black men we associate with burglary, and in our unspoken thoughts, we may be saying, 'serves them right'. But tomorrow, it may not be two black men that may be involved. It may be a close white friend who is mistaken for a burglar in your neighbor's compound. Next tomorrow, other people will invent other good reasons to circumvent state apparatus for maintaining law and order, and for punishing offenders. We are heading effectively towards anarchy if we fail to say no to people like this blood-thirsty Texan.

No matter what the jury decides in this case, everyone who believes in the collective existence of a nation-state and in the law-enforcement agencies of the nation-state ought to unequivocally condemn this Texan. And I pray that this murderer's heart may condemn him, if by chance he may find repentance, forgiveness and peace which only God, the giver of life, can bestow.