Armed man in a Florida restaurant yelled "get out of my country ."

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/armed-...rant-yelled-get-out-of-my-country-police-say/

I could not fit in "police say" in the title.
Mohamad Galal and Zayad Said claim that John Jay Smith approached them and asked if they " were American boys". They said that he threatened them with a stun gun and a knife while he yelled "get out of my country". Ok this sounds sort of bad, on the surface. Smith was charged with agrevated asault, trespassing, and burglary.

Smith said in his arrest statement that "they killed my son". He son was killed in Afghanistan. Police smelled alchohol on him.

I may not agree with what he did but I would give this guy a break and throw out these charges and reduce them to the least possible and no jail time and community service or maybe just a judge's lecture.

Reason for a break is that fact that his son was killed so I guess seeing obviously ME people triggered this response. He did not hurt anyone except scare Mo and Zay a little. Anyone agree?

 

Feel sorry for his loss, but no I think he should be charged. Delusional enough that he blames two random men that most likely not even from Afghanistan much less killed his son. Can’t give free passes for things like this. He could go even further next time.

 

No this is exactly the stuff he should not get a break for.

 

I had a personal experience a little like this. According to my wife and daughter after one of my surgeries right after I got up to my room and still under the effects of anesthesia I was visited by a small group of ME looking doctors. According to wife and daughter I demanded to see the immigration papers and demanded to know what medical school they graduated from. My daughter was a nurse at the same hospital so her and my wife asked the staff not to send any Middle Eastern or foreign looking people into my room a day or so.

So I get it , I understand why this guy lost his cool.

 

I understand your position and appreciate your point of view and thank you forvan honest response but I respectfully disagree with you.

 

You really think that criminal charges are warranted?

 

Most people don’t want to destroy someone’s life and remove their freedoms. Sure that is a reason why many times we hear of “red flag” being ignored before a person kills someone or several people.

His state of mind and reasons can be considered during sentencing if convicted. Someone with that fragile of a hold on their sanity needs to be restricted from having or buying firearms at the least.

If the court finds him to be insane then a involuntarily commitment to a mental health facility to receive help might be a option. All that has to be decided by due process not me or you IMO. Which has to begin with charging him for the crimes.

 

He should most certainly be charged and tried. If found guilty there are certainly grounds for a degree of understanding from the judge - the sort of thing people rage about when the don't like the defendant. Perhaps a non-custodial sentence might be in order.

Here is a way to think about it. Lets say that it was 'Mo & Zay' who had been on the turps (Muslims do drink sometimes). And lets say they had lost a family member in a US air strike or something similar and were waving knives about? What if it was DeShawn out on the grog waving a knife after a policeman had shot his son?

Would it be appropriate to expect no charges in either case, or would it all be about 'thugs' and 'terrorists'?

 

I'm pretty sure one or both could have killed Smith on stand your ground, self-defense, without legal consequences.

 

So it is ok by you to assault middle eastern people for no reason at all? Sorry, but despite your sympathy towards his obvious bigotry and hate we cannot allow people to assault each other simply because they do not like what they guess is another's nationality. People have the right not to be assaulted by a jerk. The guy belongs confined in violent prison with other people who assault, kill, and rape. perhaps by the time his sentence is over he will understand why those sorts of things are not acceptable in society. If not we can throw him back in there where he can live out his life with people like him, and away from decent middle eastern people and others.

It is nice you understand his anger and hate, but that does not excuse his actions or yours if you were to act upon your prejudices. Also for being clearly a hate crime it should be taken much more seriously and punished to the maximum penalty of law for the offense. Sorry, but you could not be more wrong. Your solution would only encourage a violent person to act worse the next time.

 

Most certainly, and if the state has a hate crime statute that should also be added. A person's nationality is no reason to assault them. That is against the law, an d quite unamerican. I don't care how many of his kids he lost. He can sit in a cage like the animal he is until he evolves into a human being, or dies. Wild uncontrolled animals do not belong in human society.

 

What fake news CBS failed to report, it was a freaking stun gun but CBS News just reported that it was a gun.

It doesn't say that John Smith pulled a knife, LE said that John Smith had a knife upon him.

"Get out of my country. You do not deserve to eat here."
https://www.news4jax.com/news/knife-stun-gun-pulled-in-dispute-at-st-augustine-mcdonalds

"My America."
Sure wasn't these two Egyptians America. Conflicting stories, one source says four men.
And most lefties would never say "my America." They consider America to be everyone's America.

So who issued these two Arabs from a shithole country student visas ?

 

Nope, sorry... don't agree with you on this one... I doubt he's gonna get, say, Manafort level time here, but I think he's gonna get an aggregated assault conviction on this one, with closer to the minimal time. That probably somewhat depends on if he has anything else on his sheet.

I don't totally understand from the article where trespassing and burglary come in??

And sorry, I can find humor anywhere - An arrest report says Smith yelled that they "don't deserve American food." - If he saved them just just 1 meal at McDonalds, that may get an additional sentence reduction.

 

Seeing how his son is alive and well, I think the book should be thrown at him.

https://www.news4jax.com/news/son-speaks-after-father-arrested-in-attack-at-st-augustine-mcdonalds

 

Does that mean you would give the same consideration to Muslims who did the same to US citizens because Muslims were killed by the US as collateral damage?

 

And the two key words to remember are "jury nullification."

 

Even if we discount the fact that the man own son, whom he claimed was killed in Afghanistan. Called up news station to basically say he was alive and his father wasn’t in his life anymore. You think this man has the money to get a lawyer good enough to seat a sympathetic jury?

 

If there is a lawyer that good, I am getting him on a retainer right now... And i haven't even committed a crime .

 

He does need to be charged with some crime but a crime that fits what he did. I would have thought threatening to do harm or such as that fits better. I can see your point about the mental issues and also that during sentencing the fact that his son was killed in Afghanistan needs to considered. His sons death needs to be considered but no not used as an excuse.

 

You are introducing logic and reality to an emotionally charged situation. I can understand where you are coming from.

 

Ruh Roh.... you need to read post #14.... If it turns out the son killed story is bogus, does that change your mind about mental issues and sentencing?

 

Interesting I did not consider that and it is Florida. They could make a case of fearing for their lives.

 

Yeah, I'm a bad person like that.

 

As far as threatening someone with a weapon, you can't excuse that unless they were a threat to him, and it looks like they weren't.

As for calling someone names, there were at least two instances that I remember where arabs/moslems were protesting against the USA in Times Square and I had no problem telling them what I thought of them and where they could go.

 

Nice work scooby. You win today's 'paying attention' award.

I hereby formally withdraw my suggestion that the judge cut this guy a break & instead put forth the 'treat him like his name is Mohammed or DeShawn' option. That means jail time. You can't just go around waving knives at people just because.

Unless this guy has a serious previously diagnosed mental condition it is the pokey for him.