Forms Of Community Service

     I found this gem at Kenny “Wirecutter” Lane’s site:

     [He] had a video rental store, that kept getting broken into, so he slept there for a couple nights. After about a week, someone broke in, a couple of 17 or 18 year olds. The story he told was that one of them grabbed a shovel he had in the store, and tried to attack him with it. So he shot him with his shotgun, in the chest and killed him DRT. The other one busted the door down in the back and ran out, getting away.
     The DA wanted to file charges against him but he knew that there was no way he could get a jury in our town to vote for him to go to jail, when our area already was tired of punks getting away with all of the crimes even as far back as that. But they did make his life a tough thing, for quite awhile.

     The protagonist should have received a medal and the key to the city. However, “the authorities” are and have always been hostile to persons who act in the community’s interest without the participation of the police. But the truly salient point is this:

     If the government is cruel, the governor’s life is not safe. If you tax too high, the revenue will yield nothing. If you make the criminal code sanguinary, juries will fail to convict. If the law is too mild, private vengeance comes in. – Ralph Waldo Emerson, Compensation

     Keep this in mind. I predict that it will come in handy in the years to come.