James Means.
It was days ago I posted about the brutal and senseless murder of 15 year old James Means, who bumped into a vicious bigot with a gun.
The shooter, William Ronald Pulliam, has been charged with murder. What makes this murder even more agonizing, in this country with way too few gun laws, is that Mr. Pulliam should never have been allowed a gun at all, going by the paltry gun laws which are in effect. Supposedly in effect.
Pulliam and Means argued after the two bumped into each other on the sidewalk in front of the store. When Pulliam left the store a few minutes later the two argued again, police say, before the 62-year-old shot Means with a .380 revolver he should have been barred from owning due to a 2013 domestic violence conviction for battering his then-pregnant daughter.
Not only was Mr. Pulliam wandering about with a gun he should not have had, the police were aware of his vicious bigotry, and that he frightened local residents.
Pulliam, who is white, was a familiar villain to some of Means’ friends. Fourteen-year-old Teonno White had tried to talk to Pulliam after the man picked on White’s younger brother.
“He said, ‘Get the [expletive] off my property.’ He said I need to go on with my nappy Latino self. He’s just a real bad guy,” White told the Gazette Mail. White had called police about Pulliam before, the paper noted, and had been told to stay away from him.
And yet, Mr. Pulliam, who was quoted as saying “The way I look at it, that’s another piece of trash off the street,” about his murdering young James, claims not only self defense, even though James was unarmed, he claims he gets along with all the pieces of trash:
“I don’t care if they’re white or black. Nobody is going to do me like that,” he said. “It doesn’t make any difference if he’s black. My God, everybody I live around over there is black. I get along with all of them, ask them.”
I don’t imagine Mr. Pulliam ever asked all those people he gets along with how they felt about him.
Full story at Think Progress. Here’s hoping this does not go the way it did in too many other cases, with yet another white bigot being excused for outright murder.
If Pulliam was a muslim, it’d be terrorism.
Yes, but he’s not, just another old, white bigot, who is claiming “in fear of my life”, and going by how well that’s worked for other white bigots, may just well get away with it, because upstanding citizens who murder teenagers and beat pregnant women, well, they are just the kind of pillars of the community who are wanted.
*spits*
Caine@#2:
is claiming “in fear of my life”
Oh, well, that works for cops.
Funny thing how such a story is almost always in the past of these guys. Be it a mass shooter or somebody who just spontaneously decides to kill a kid. Maybe if people started to take domestic violence serious and not as simple mistakes good guys make when evil women push them too hard we might save some lives.
Giliell:
Taking domestic violence much more seriously than we do now would go a very long way to making things better for everyone, and so would enforcing the damn gun laws we have.
If judged on the evidence and by law, he would be found guilty. But with that peculiar system of being “judged by your peers” that USA insists on maintaining, the result of any and all lawsuits widely are open to bias and whims of the jurors.
The scanners must be down at news networks nationwide. I’m sure we’ll get those photos of a 17 year old Pulliam smiling happily in his football jersey and shaking hands with the principal while receiving an award as soon as tech support is done with them.
So, why is this old white bigot not being called a ‘thug’ by the news media? Isn’t shooting someone over bumping into you the type of thing that would make you a ‘thug?’ He’s got a history of domestic violence. And what a fragile little status based ego that gets all in a snit that he got bumped into.