Defend your family, go to jail

Long Island resident George Grier feared for the safety of his family when a street gang gathered in his driveway and began yelling threats. In an effort to scare off the intruders he fired his rifle into the ground. (Full story)

Grier knew that the local police department used "ShotSpotter" technology and that the shooting would summon those who are supposed to protect and serve innocent civilians. So, naturally, Grier was later arrested and charged with reckless endangerment in the first degree, a class D felony. According to New York law, "A person is guilty of reckless endangerment in the first degree when, under circumstances evincing a depraved indifference to human life, he recklessly engages in conduct which creates a grave risk of death to another person."

Cops continually get away with reckless endangerment, assault, and even murder, and when they do happen to get in trouble for their actions they have every resource of the state running to their defense. Mundane civilians, on the other hand, are left to fend for themselves -- and even when they try to exercise their right of self-defense they invariably get punished.