Charges dropped against Newton County homebuyers

[happyslug]

6. Read the Article, the Neighbors did NOT make the arrest, the local police did.

People can confront people, as long as violence is NOT threatened such confrontation is perfectly legal (Such people can carry guns, as long as no one threatens anyone with the gun not a crime). That seems to appears to what happened here, the neighbors saw someone in a house in the neighborhood, gathered together to ask what they were doing. When the neighbors did NOT receive a reasonable response, they called the police. The police arrived and the Police arrested the new owners.

I have NOT seen anything done illegal by anyone, with the possible exception of the Police and the Police can cite the new owners had no paperwork to show it was their property and arrested them as possible trespassers. When the new owner produced the paperwork showing their were the new owners, they were released.

Compare this is the Zimmerman case. Zimmerman is believed to have confronted his victim and then the confrontation escalated. In this incident an armed neighbor confronted the new owners, and when no satisfactory answer was given, the armed neighbor went to his home and called the Police. Notice the key, the armed neighbor did NOT try to do anything himself, just asked the new owner by what right was he in the house. In the case of Zimmerman, Zimmerman seems to have confronted his victim and when the victim decided to leave, escalated the violence (i.e. appears to have tried to detain the victim). When the victim resisted, Zimmerman pulled his pistol he what he calls "Self-Defense".

The key is what was the neighbor doing? and how far did he do in avoiding having to pull his weapon. As long as the new owners did not threaten the neighbor, the neighbor saw no need to pull his weapon. Instead the neighbor retreated to his house and reported the new owner to the Police. The Police arrived and saw someone with no apparent right to be on the property, and arrested him for that. When paperwork showing the new owner was the new owner the police released him. Thus the "Armed" neighbor did not do anything other then report an possible crime to the Police and the Police upon investigation made an arrest based on the information they had. I do NOT see any liability of anyone in this situation. Everyone acted correctly, with the possible exception of the new owner, he entered his property without any evidence it was his property when who owned the property was unknowable by anyone else.