The Sporting News has an article out on the Harrison case. It's mostly a giant retread, but it makes one key mistake that I've heard several times. The article continually refers to what happens to Harrison if he was or wasn't the shooter. It basically presupposes that Harrison is guilty of a crime if in fact he shot the gun. There is another scenario which is extremely plausible, however. Harrison or an associate could have shot the gun in self defense. Most commentators and media types are ignoring this possibility.
I assume that is because if Harrison had acted in self-defense why wouldn't he just tell the cops? I think there are reasons for that.
1. He feels it's easier to keep quiet the situation given the 'victim's' reticence to talk. He hasn't been accused of anything, so why talk? He is a private dude who wants to stay out of the limelight so why would he tell his story to the press?
2. He, like a great many members of his community, may well distrust the police department
3. There's no point in admitting to shooting the gun and THEN constructing a defense for it when the smart thing is to admit nothing until charged, and then construct a defense based on the charges. Why give the prosecution a head start on knowing what you will argue?
It may well be that if Harrison did act in self-defense, or at least can plausibly argue the point, that the DA is having a hard time moving forward with the case. They have to ask themselves what the odds of gaining a conviction are against a man with a well paid defense team, when the victim won't ID Harrison, fired a shot himself, and is a felon. The mysterious 'third victim' may or may not be reliable either as he would obviously have extreme monetary interest in naming Harrison.
Again, I'm not saying he didn't do it. I'm not saying he was justified if he did do it. I am saying that the media coverage of this has been very odd and utterly irrational. This particular article is a great case in point. It sees only two possible scenarios when it's clear there are at least three. (Thanks to profootballtalk.com for the link)
In other news: Dom is back! Good job to the Big Blue Shoe on catching that one early. This signing was a no brainer. You have to give him a look for no risk and a bargain contract.
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
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6 comments:
When considering whether Marvin had anything at all to do with the crime, consider that all reports about the casings matching the gun that Marvin supposedly handed over are all based on "unnamed" sources that have conflicted themselves more than once already. They also seem to contradict statements released from the police that say that Harrison is not involved as a suspect in this case, which he would be under Pennsylvania law if the bullets matched a gun owned by him. In fact, he would already be arrested, and charged with a crime. So I say take all of this with a grain of salt until PPD says something more substantive.
He would only have been arrested if it was his gun if the police had determined that his gun was used in a crime. It sounds like they are still trying to decide that. This is just my point. It might have been his gun. It might have been him pulling the trigger. Neither of those things means that there was a crime committed.
Matt Walsh has 8 stolen tapes of stuff we already got penalized for.
Yawn.
And in baseball - why do the Reds blow?
I'm lookin at the talent on that team.....wtf is goin on DZ??
Yeah, the Matt Walsh items, according to the league, are already known offenses. Wow. Earth-shattering.
I never spent much mental capital on Spygate aside from wondering about how the NFL handled things (destroying evidence), so I approach this with a blank slate... but it seems like there was a whle lot of hub-bub over... nothing? And Walsh spent many expensive hours with legal counsel to protect him from counter-suits because he had... videos the league already knew about six months ago? Monstrously stupid? Pathetic attention-seeker? Pawn? Something's not quite right here.
In other news, Dom signd for $605,000? Isn't that UNDER league minimum for a vet? I assumed he'd want a couple million, so I'm pretty happy with that size contract--he's not worth $2M to us, but surely is worth $600k. He can certainly handle the 12 touches a game needed.
Mike Hart has an uphill battle to surpass him due to Rhodes's experience in the system and what might be described as his late-game pummeling ability (ask Ray Lewis). Hart might spend a bunch of time on special teams in 08, but I really do want to see him in the backfield from time to time.
The Reds blow because they can't hit. They can't hit because they have too many of the same kind of hitter and Dusty has no idea how to run that lineup. They lack a real leadoff hitter and that has the rest of the order messed up. Griffey and Dunn are struggling big time. All that being said, it's a tad inexplicable.
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