Steven Edwards #fundie

Steven Edwards #fundie rawstory.com

Last month, a Detroit man named Steven Edwards posted a shocking video on Twitter that showed him pulling a gun on and threatening to shoot a man whom he believed to be gay.

This week, Edwards showed up in court in a wheelchair after he accidentally shot himself while fighting with another person.

Fox 2 Detroit reports that the prosecutor in Edwards’ case say that he shot himself while arguing with another individual. Apparently, Edwards pulled a gun on this person and tried to shoot them, but he wound up shooting himself instead.

The prosecutor argued that this self-inflicted wound showed why Edwards should not have his $250,000 bond lowered because he would still have access to his gun if he gets released. Despite this, the judge in the case agreed to lower Edwards’s bond to $100,000.

Last month, Edwards posted a video in which he showed himself pulling out a gun at a man who was exiting a convenience store while calling him “gay as hell” and a “d*ck-in-the-booty-ass n***s.” The man being threatened quickly ran away after seeing Edwards draw a gun on him.

29 comments

old comment by Giardano Bruno

In the UK, whether to grant bail (for which you do not normally have to post a bond) is usually decided my magistrates.

Under the Bail Act 19?? (I do Information Law, not criminal) the presumption is that bail shall be granted unless:

1 The person on trial is likely to run away and not turn up for trial

2 They are likely to interfere with the forthcoming trial by nobbling the jury or witnesses

2 They are a current threat to society.

What normally happens is that the police ask for bail to be refused and the magistrates grant it.

In this case,I think that the most bleeding-heart liberal magistrates' bench in the country would take zero time in deciding to refuse bail.

old comment by Passerby

For those of you wondering how this dumbass managed to shoot himself:

As amusing as it is to imagine Edwards forgot which end the bullets come out it is far more likely he drew his gun within an extremely short distance of his intended victim giving them the opportunity to grab and redirect it. I've probably mentioned before that a gun is actually a liability in melee range. This is why and it is one of the reasons I prefer knives for defense. It is also one of the many reasons I want to grab morons by the collar and shake them violently when they smugly suggest a scenario where a mugger/terrorist/minority comes screaming at them waving what is very pointedly any weapon other than a gun from what they must imagine to be a block away instead of a more realistic encounter within 3 meters.

Expanding on the paragraph I mentioned:

The obvious problem is that man caught dead to rights in the middle of an incredibly clear cut attempted murder and further posted evidence of unprovoked attacks with his gun on social media (without getting so much as a talking to from an officer which is a real interesting contrast to every black man who registered to vote in Sparta, Georgia as described in an RSTDT post today) would get his gun back if he makes bail. That bail was even an option shocks me but having it dropped by more than half puts my jaw on the floor, especially considering how over-eager the courts tend to be in throwing the book at a black man and they usually hollow said book out first so they can put a brick in it. When I saw that the prosecution stressed the danger Edwards posed to himself rather than the general public when arguing against lowering the bail amount my eye started twitching. Think about it a little. Everyone in that court basically just admitted they knew for a fact the minute this dictionary-definition menace to society was back on the street he'd try to shove his gun in somebody else's face but rather than the threat he posed to anyone in his field of vision they chose to focus on the liklihood that he would hurt himself during his attempt to hurt somebody else. It's very much like the Prosecution, who represents the People in the court, didn't give a flying fuck about the people Edwards targetted and only lamented how completely inept he was at trying to perform violence upon them. Is it just me? Am I reading too much into the direction their priorities skewed?

Being a danger to yourself and others is typically acceptable grounds for forced commitment to psychiatric care. If the Prosecution really was concerned for Edwards' well being that would be a wise avenue to pursue. I would imagine denying bail on those same grounds would be a cakewalk if the court could have been assed but instead they practically bent over backwards to give what I will again call a public menace a chance to get back on the street for a shot at a homicidal do-over.

old comment by Passerby

@ Skidie

A proper grip can keep your gun out of an assailant's hands and you can certainly pistol whip and rifle butt people - the weight of most guns is nothing to sneeze at - but there's still the risk of accidental discharge which can ricochet and threats only really work when deterrence is still an option and you're dealing with somebody that isn't drunk, high, desperate, in a blind rage, or simply an idiot. A knife you can use blind, in a clinch, and in less time than it takes to line up a shot with less chance of injuring yourself in a fatal or crippling manner and no chance of accidently hurting somebody several meters away you may not have been aware of... on a different elevation... through a window or even a wall... unless you fuck up in a way fit to be recorded in history.

Also I really like knives. I certainly don't think a gun is an inferior weapon but I do have my preferences for certain situations and am aware of exploitable flaws.

In the case of either weapon intelligent use determines how effective they are and the "draw gun, problem solved" mentality I see far too much of tends to have people with a flailing draw, an impractical grip, and no more thought in their head than to keep pulling the trigger.

The kind of thought someone like you might put into using a gun would certainly make you more of a threat to me in knife fighting range than a braindead thug but simply possessing rationality and even the barest trace of a sense of personal responsibility for what you do with that gun - intentional or not - also makes you the kind of person I'm less likely to need to defend myself from. The way these people divorce themselves from responsibility and consequence for the danger the weapon in their hand poses may actually be more dangerous than their cockiness, ineptitude, tempers, and paranoia.