My property is never worth more than a person's life.

[Igel]

173. Dunno.

I can imagine situations in which I'd kill over property because of its quantity and the level of destruction. I can imagine situations where I wouldn't.

Nuance and uncertainty. I'm okay with them.

Same with this case. I don't know enough to say that the kid was only interested in some "harmless" trespassing and maybe taking a porch ornament. Nobody does, unless there's been a useful update. Yet that's what a lot of people here desperately assume.

That said, I also don't know if it's reasonable to assume that somebody who jumped a fence at 2 a.m. and is by your back door must be only interested in a bit of property theft outside. Esp. since not long back there was in that neighborhood a robbery that happened at night where the burglar(s) broke in, held the occupants at knife point, and shot at them for no apparent reason.

I mean, is that more reasonable than assuming that the trespasser--whose already done one illegal thing and is almost certainly intends to do a second illegal thing--is dangerous and armed? Do you want to wait for him to break into your small, one story house to find out? Do you shout "boo!" and hope that he runs instead of, startled and on edge, shoots you?

Hindsight's wonderful and it's tempting to fall for the fallacy and project what we know back into the guy's mind at 2 a.m. The video might help, but it still wouldn't go to the guy's mental state when he fired the gun. It might even be oddly prejudicial because it's possible for a video to show far more than the naked eye would show.

Lack of knowledge has never stopped beliefs, though.