[Warning: Violence]
I’m sure that US politicians, especially the republicans from Texas and Mississippi, watched this and bit their lips with envy.
That’s congressman Jean Marie Ralph Féthière interacting with his constituents. There was a protest, some people blocked his pickup truck, he got out and fired several shots, grazing a journalist and another bystander. I don’t say “grazing” to minimize what an incredible action this was; I use that term to explain why nobody was more seriously hurt. The congressman appears to have learned how to shoot from LAPD: just yank the trigger and make bang bang until the gun is empty.
Also, check out his tactical bag. Looks like a maxpedition; those are nice bags. Maybe now they can advertise “as seen being used by gun-toting congressmen”
The Guardian [grd]:
Chery Dieu-Nalio, an Associated Press photographer, was wounded in the face and a second man, Leon Leblanc, a security guard and driver, was also injured in the incident in the country’s capital, Port-au-Prince, on Monday.
Although doctors were reported to be removing bullet fragments from Dieu-Nalio’s face, the injuries are said not to be life-threatening.
The reason I infer that American politicians would envy Féthière’s freedom to act is because he trots out an excuse that could have been literally written for him by the NRA:
Féthière later justified his actions, without actually admitting firing his weapons. He told Radio Mega, “I was attacked by groups of violent militants. They tried to get me out of my vehicle. And so I defended myself. Self-defence is a sacred right.”
“Armed individuals threatened me. It was proportional. Equal force, equal response.”
It was not proportional; he suffered no injury requiring bullet fragments to be removed from his body. In the video it does not look like he was being attacked by groups of violent militants. But if he keeps up that kind of shit, the violent militants will come, sure enough. Hasn’t he heard of this thing called a “rifle”?
The video is on youtube, here: [yt]
In Haiti you can apparently own a handgun if you have a license, and concealed carry is allowed, Betcha Senator Bangbang doesn’t actually have a handgun license, but won’t face legal sanction for what happened.
Given how paranoid some American politicians are, including stories of some who have fled in panic to avoid talking to upset constituents, it’s surprising something like this hasn’t happened in the US.
It may not jump out at you if you don’t have any specific knowledge of Haitian political history, but the difference in skin tone between the congressman and the people he’s shooting, um, over, was striking to me.
He’s lucky there was no one else there who felt the need to exercise their “right” to self defense. As is everyone else, this way only two people got shot.
At least this dude is black, usually it’s white dudes posturing about self defense dispite being the least at risk.