Today's Lesson

It’s not often I find an article that nails several concepts at once.

Binh Thai Luc was recently convicted in the 2012 hammer-killing of a family of five after losing money at a casino earlier in the evening.  Dickless has a violent criminal history and spent almost a decade in prison for robbery and assault with a deadly weapon for a 1996 armed robbery of a Chinese restaurant in San Jose.

He was ordered to be deported to his native Vietnam upon his release, but the Vietnamese government didn’t provide the documents needed to process his removal from the U.S.  ICE officials released him into the community in 2006.

His lawyer proposed a TODDI defense, despite finding and identifying the victim’s blood on his pants and the presence of Dickless’s blood on a pack of cigarettes, a receipt and a cabinet drawer.

Here’s my first take away.  Lawyers will present in court a version of reality and it doesn’t have to have any relationship to what we commonly call reality.  It’s up to the jury to decide who has the story that best fits their version of reality.  It could be up to you, the defendant in a self-defense shooting, to help them expand their version of self-defense reality.  You may not be able to hire experts, but you can always testify.  Are you up to it?

TODDI? Oh, that’s the defense which claims “Those Other Dudes Done It.”  In this case the lawyer blamed it on the Chinese Mob or a unnamed boyfriend.

Second take away.  Dickless used a hammer.  No waiting period, no background check, can be bought anywhere and it has multiple purposes other than killing people.  Hopefully it is clear that objects in themselves have no intrinsic good or bad nature.  People do wicked and bad things.

Third take away,  Dickless’s victims were unable or unwilling to defend themselves effectively.  Dickless had a disparity of force the victims were unable to match and exceed.  Of course that is the nature of all attacks.  Few armies would survive by attacking a larger, better armed and prepared enemy in a superior position.  Criminals are the same.  The armed citizen should have both a tool and mental toughness.

Fourth takeaway.  The victims were known to keep a reservoir of cash.  Clearly, your business should remain your business and kept among adults who know how to keep information confidential.

The last take away is political preaching.  Dickless should have been expatriated to Vietnam in 2006 following his incarceration for the 1996 armed robbery of a Chinese restaurant.  It appears Vietnam didn’t want him back either.  Let’s stop focusing on illegal aliens who want to be law-abiding and contributing members of our society and worry about the violent felons, drug dealers, and gangsters who are tearing down our society.

There’s a line in the sand we need to find. I don’t care about an illegal with 3 parking tickets and not paying his income tax.  I care about the illegal or citizen on this third drunk driving conviction in a year, the guy selling dope to your kids and guys driving or yanking the trigger in a drive-by.  Let’s put them on a plane and send them back home and keep the people (from wherever they come and however they arrive) who want to be part of the solution.