US man threatens TV repairman with shotgun

Vista.

Insert predictable Microsoft Vista comment here.

WTF?

OK, forgetting the asshattery of someone waving a shotgun around, there are three claims against him:

Suspected assault with a deadly weapon. How? Has someone *maybe* been assaulted with a shotgun??? They *may* be dead but we'll have to check with them first???

making criminal threats and displaying a firearm in a threatening manner

Uh, aren't these the same thing? If you're displaying a firearm in a threatening manner, that IS making criminal threats. Or else how can you be displaying it in a threatening manner WITHOUT saying something like "I'm gunna shoot yuh with m' squirly rifle"?

I suppose if the "defendant" were smart enough to go "WTF?" themselves, they'll be done for "resisting arrest" too...

Effing police...

unfortunate place

I guess he didn't appreciate the joke of 'not supporting Vista'.

US man threatens TV repairman with shotgun’

Presumably the location.

I'd be quick to reach for a gun too

Considering he has to *live* in that horrible place we associate with MS's latest fiasco of an OS.

I think this is Gates' fault.

No more jokes...

Californian says Hasta la Vista to shoddy support...

Sounds about right

Yeah that's normal, something like this is always going to come around every few months...

Average American with little intelligence + guns which are exceptionally easy to get hold of = chaos.

Whether it's hold up's with morons like this or the recent news of another idiot on a killing spree it's going to happen when you allow guns on the street & I'm getting tired of reading about these stories...

Because Vista has been mentioned and someone has to say it....

If he had been using Linux or a Mac he would not have had the problem in the first place.......

@AC

Unstableness?

Surely that should be Stablelessness.

Taxi for one. Mine's the welder's apron...

RE: Not just in America

Yeah - it was liverpool... case closed!!

I can't really talk though - I live in Manchester, gun capital of the UK... what's strange though is that against what the BBC and newspapers claim is happenning up here, I've never even heard a gun, never mind seen one.

The area I live in is so safe my father in law decided to leave his brand new Audi running to defrost it while he went inside to finish his tea and toast.... which then a group of guys took off his hands for no charge... the car, not the toast...

The paris icon, because my guess is this guy was actually stressed because he couldn't download his latest paris pics.... which to be fair, would upset any shotgun owner.

Effing police!

Yeah, stick to The Man, Mark! Effing police won't let me threaten people with my shotgun.

Where's the effing freedom? True freedom! Freedom to take my video camera into the theater! Freedom to hit my wife when my carrots are too salty! Freedom to enjoy naked pictures of children! Freedom to shit in a cop's hat! Not this sham capitalist freedom.

Goddamn Americans. Everyone knows that violence only happens in America. Americans are so stupid. Just look at this election nonsense. If only it was more like Kenya. I hear they're sane there.

Oh yeah

I'm a field tech in an even more rural American locale than this fellow. I have a concealed weapon permit and pack my own heat into jobs.

Really, why wouldn't I? People in this country are fucking deranged.

@Joe Cooper

"Freedom to shit in a cop's hat" made me laugh. And, of course, now all I can think about is the Police Academy movies...

More common than you might think....

My uncle was a telephone company lineman in the midwest USA. One disgruntled old lady let her German shepherd out into the yard while my uncle was up the pole and wouldn't tie the dog up until my uncle agreed to take some unnecessary charges off of her most recent phone bill. After waiting for an hour my uncle killed the dog with a well-thrown hand ax. When the old woman called the cops they told her if SHE ever did anytyhing like that again they'd make sure she went with them, not the repairman.

Assault with a deadly..... beast? canine? mammal?

Yeah, that's it, assault with a deadly mammal. I like the sound of that.

@Joe Cooper

it isn't about letting the asshats of the world threaten people with shotguns (READ the frigging message, not just the bits you want), it's about how the police in trying to get conviction rates up add reduntant claims.

One incident: threatening someone with a shotgun.

Three crimes ? ?? ?? ?

Just so

a) plea bargain: we'll do you for all three if you don't cop to one of them

b) three crimes solved with one conviction

geddit?

reply to anonymous coward: oh yeah

I'm right there with ya dude.....Kentucky CDW permit in the wallet and a Smith & Wesson 642 J with Crimson Trace laser grip in the pocket.

Some idiot would have ended up with a red laser dot on his forehead, ready to be traded out with something more substantial if he refused to put the shotty down.

@Malboeuf

Of course, had the woman tried to then hit him with the deceased canine, it would have been "assault with a dead mammal".

I'm going, I'm going...

justifiable threats

I have Dish for my TV service and if my experiences are typical, I don't blame him one bit. The servicemen are always late, and then they show up with a service ticket that bears no resemblance to the service requested. He wanted his TV fixed, and the serviceman probably had a ticket for an install of the wrong type of service.

Only in California (and other restricted states).

Take a moment to study the gun laws of the US. The majority of states allow *law abiding* citizens to legally carry concealed weapons. California is not one of those states. The bad guy therefore is relatively safe to assume anyone showing up on his doorsteps is not packing heat. IL & NY are other high crime states which do not allow law abiding citizens to legally protect themselves. See the trend here?

Fortunately, I live in a state where I can legally carry a concealed weapon. This fact gives the bad guy pause. The bad guy simply does not know if I am legally armed and prepared to defend myself. (Whether I am or not is beside the point). And therefore it is a deterrent which provides for my personal safety.

Remember, this is about allowing *law abiding* citizens to *legally* provide for their personal protection. Cops are not there to protect us (as has been held up in numerous court cases). They only arrive after the fact to secure & clean up the mess.

I cannot imagine living in such a place where the government does not allow me to defend myself. It must be really scary to live your life in a constant fear because you cannot provide for your own safety.

I need a sheep icon to represent the herd mentality which brought about these stupid disarmament laws. Paris is the closest icon to a sheep.

RE: Re: More common than you might think....

unneccessary (sic) dog death?

umm... if I was threatened by someone with their dog... and in a tight spot with no way to contact someone from my position, but had a tool that would take out the dog... I'd take out the dog. there's no way I'd let the dog bite/maul/etc me if I had the option to take it out.

so following your point... would you have rather the old lady been brought up on assault charges if the dog did bite the guy? or if the guy did get killed by the dog... brought up on murder charges? One techie down, but the dog's ok?

and I thought El Reg liked techies... I guess I was mistaken. Remind me never to visit... mmmkay?

<initiate flame war now>

blah blah "americans" "guns" and other predictable socialist w@nk

so it would've been all okay if it had been a knife, machete, cricket bat, or anything else, but it's "OMG a GUUUUUNNNNN!!! "

the same @sshats who complain that government is taking over more and more of their rights, are the same ones who want more and more rights taken away.

If it hadn't been a white guy with the gun, you'd not have seen the story-it'd have been just another day in Oakland. Had it been a big knife and threats of beheading by a "swarthy young Asian male" (never Arabic anymore) you'd have been afraid to even mention it. An "undocumented immigrant" with a machete, well it would have been all the repairman's fault and the "undocumented" would have the whole "hispanic community" up in arms, and the ambulance chasing Al Sharptonesque lawyers would be workin' the courts.

Funny, a dozen terrorists from the same religion each day and it's all "you can't judge the rest based on the few". But one gun story a month and it's "ban those EEVIL gunz!!11!!"

Because there's nothing a government likes better than unarmed sheeple. Shame on Europeans for forgetting that. Or is not forgetfulness, but selling out, hoping to be part of the ruling elite by kissing @rse now? Hoping to be at the left hand of the Devil instead of in his path?

What

What a cheap ass cable company to incompetent to equip their drivers with adequate street maps or navigation systems !

Although such incidents of shotgun waving for quickie repairs are so common in Texas , Florida and Louisiana , the local press don't bother any more to report these incidents !

On the other note of hilarity , due to the cheap ass nature of all US Employers they tend to dock your pay for the time taken to either vote on super Tuesday or allow service people to fix and/or install appliances in your home in normal working hours , such is life in the land of the paranoid where even the government does not trust it's own citizens to do the right thing but come to think of it neither does the government either !

Have a nice day you all ! Ha! Ha! Ha!

@Jason Harvey - Flame war initiated

What's the matter with you ?? I love dogs !! Especially when they are well cooked !! Wanton slaying of dogs is a crime. They should only be killed for the pot !! They also need the proper spices and flavouring !!

Philistine !! Big Mac-lover !!

@AC - "Only in California"

"I cannot imagine living in such a place where the government does not allow me to defend myself. It must be really scary to live your life in a constant fear because you cannot provide for your own safety."

I don't think there are many countries that stop you defending yourself, though many draw the line at personal weapons. It is strange but if you do not expect to be attacked with a concealed weapon then you do not fear it happening to you. If guns are illegal then the expectation is that you will not experience one. I know it must sound crazy but I have lived my entire life in countries that do not allow me to carry a gun and have managed to avoid "living in constant fear". Strangely, I feel a little nervy when watching armed police walking round airports. Go figure.

Incidentally, I have witnessed exactly one illigal firearm (9mm handgun) during my life so far, during the decade I spent in Manchester. I guess it is kinda ironic that the proud owner was merkin (and, unconnected, a complete wanker too).

@David Barrett

"...at 3 in the morning you dont want to be cleaning up piss soaked corn flakes..."

And at 8 in the morning, I don't want to be eating those cleaned up corn flakes!

Funny

Funny, I've lived in a multitude of countries and the only ones I've ever felt unsafe in are the ones where people are allowed to have guns. Ban guns and you significantly reduce gun crime! Who would a thunk it!

Take Aus for example, we still hold the record for the most number of people killed in a psychotic gun rampage (outside of the military of course! And depsite America's repeated attempts to take back the title). After the Port Arthur Massacre we introduced much tougher gun laws and we have not had another mass shooting incident since. Its only been 12 years though so i guess its just not soon enough for any actual conclusions to be drawn, eh?

@ Red Bren

8 am you will be fine, it takes at least 6 hours to properly dry the flakes in the bakery oven.

I would say anyone picking up "reduced" cereal from the bargain counter from 10am onwards would be at risk of getting more sodium in their flakes than the ingredients listing might lead them to believe.

I wouldn't blame him,

While I'm not in the US, I do have friends there, and trust me, one particular friend was so fed up with Dish that he eventually dropped the service and went for a competing one. From what he told me, Dish is a difficult entity to deal with- they want things their way or no way. I.e. they lack a lot of channels that he's interested in, and in one instance, one channel went 24 hours, but this Dish still kept to airing the channel up until evening, then swapping it out to another channel and running it 'til next morning. As a result, he was watching a particular movie at one time, and suddenly they swapped out. He got so peeved off that he made a fuss of it to their tech support (which promptly told him to live with it), on TV forums he frequented, and finally, biting the bullet and throwing off Dish altogether upon stumbling on spam sent by the competing company promising him the channels he waned, the fact that they actually followed suit and aired the network channels as separate without swapping out, and at a competitive rate to boot.

*sigh* now if they would only have competing satellite companies in Malaysia.

@ Only in California (and other restricted states).

Reminds me of a letter carrier (postie in the UK) I used to know. He transferred from Los Angeles and was telling me about an incident there when he was fairly new to the job. Another carrier from his station was delivering mail in a somewhat undesirable neighborhood, and one house had a five foot fence around it. The mailbox was outside the fence, and placed in such a way that the carrier had to stand with his back to the fence to place mail in the box or get hit by passing cars. The owner had a rather aggressive dog (shall we say vicious?). When the carrier was placing mail in the box (back to the fence, remember?), the dog tried to come over the fence, but only got its head over... and promptly bit down on the carrier's neck... and kept on chewing until it finally dropped back over into the yard some long period of time later. Carrier goes across the street, blood all over his upper body, asks the construction crew to call the post office for him. Carrier picks up a nice 4-6 foot long piece of steel rebar. Carrier returns to the fence, opens the gate and goes through. When the dog attacks him again, he uses the rebar like a baseball bat, and kept on using it until the dog was dead, and STILL kept on using it until his supervisor, who had arrived by this time, pulled him off. Meanwhile dog's owner is going into hysterics about her dog. Police come out, listen to both sides, and charge the dog's owner with harboring a vicious animal. Carrier goes to hospital for treatment and a couple of months off to recover. Both carrier and dog owner file lawsuits (this is California, after all). Carrier gets large chunk of money from dog owner, aided by medical report and photographs his supervisor had taken. Judge rules carrier's actions temporary insanity and throws dog owner case out of court.

IT angle?... there isn't one, rebar is very low tech

Late Night Larry

@blah blah "americans" "guns" and other predictable socialist w@nk

So.. as a European, what freedoms am I missing out on exactly...?

A society where everyone is entitled to carry round a concealed, long range, deadly weapon, doesn't strike me as the utopian free society that you hint it is.

A neighbourhood arms race. What a relaxing place it must be to live in.

@jim.

exactly!

Do the maths

More guns = more gun crime = more people shot

Less guns = less gun crime = less people shot