{"id":13841,"date":"2024-06-04T16:38:18","date_gmt":"2024-06-04T16:38:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/?p=13841"},"modified":"2024-06-04T16:38:19","modified_gmt":"2024-06-04T16:38:19","slug":"why-a-gop-governors-pardon-of-a-far-right-murderer-is-so-chilling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/?p=13841","title":{"rendered":"Why a GOP governor\u2019s pardon of a far-right murderer is so chilling"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>&#8220;in Texas, you can commit murder without suffering the legal consequences of that crime, so long as your victim\u2019s politics are loathed by the right and your case is championed by conservative media. Or at least, this is the message sent by Gov. Greg Abbott\u2019s&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/05\/16\/us\/texas-abbott-pardon-daniel-perry.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">pardoning of Daniel Perry<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;In the weeks after George Floyd\u2019s murder in 2020, the proliferation of&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.vox.com\/race\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Black Lives Matter<\/a>&nbsp;protests had filled Perry with apparent bloodlust. Then an active-duty Army officer, Perry&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.texastribune.org\/2023\/04\/14\/daniel-perry-racist-comments-texas-shooting-austin-protester\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">texted and messaged friends<\/a>, among&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.austinchronicle.com\/news\/2023-04-07\/might-have-to-kill-a-few-people\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">other things<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>\u201cI might go to Dallas to shoot looters.\u201d<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>\u201cI might have to kill a few people on my way to work they are rioting outside my apartment complex \u2026 No protesters go near me or my car.\u201d<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>\u201cI wonder if they will let [me] cut the ears off of people who\u2019s decided to commit suicide by me.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>When a friend of Perry asked him if he could \u201ccatch me a negro daddy,\u201d Perry replied, \u201cThat is what I am hoping.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Weeks later, Perry was driving an&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.vox.com\/uber\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Uber<\/a>&nbsp;in Austin, Texas, when he came upon a Black Lives Matter march. According<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2024\/05\/16\/us\/daniel-perry-texas-pardon-recommendation\/index.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">&nbsp;to<\/a>&nbsp;prosecutors, Perry ran a red light and drove his vehicle into the crowd, almost hitting several protesters. Activists gathered angrily around Perry\u2019s car. Garrett Foster, a 28-year-old Air Force veteran who was openly carrying an AK-47 rifle, approached Perry\u2019s window.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Perry then shot Foster dead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At trial, Perry\u2019s defense team alleged that Foster had pointed his rifle at the defendant. But witnesses testified that Foster never brandished his weapon, only carried it, which is legal in Texas. And Perry corroborated that account in his initial statement to the police,<a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox7austin.com\/news\/daniel-perrys-garrett-foster-murder-trial-police-interview\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">&nbsp;saying<\/a>, \u201cI believe he was going to aim at me. I didn\u2019t want to give him a chance to aim at me.\u201d A jury convicted Perry of murder last year.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But..the governor of Texas used his pardoning power to release Perry from prison.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In a<a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/GregAbbott_TX\/status\/1791195038589829230\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">&nbsp;statement<\/a>, Abbott said, \u201cTexas has one of the strongest \u2018stand your ground\u2019 laws of self-defense that cannot be nullified by a jury or a progressive district attorney.\u201d He noted that in the Lone Star State, a person is justified in using deadly force against another if they \u201creasonably believe the deadly force is immediately necessary\u201d for averting one\u2019s own violent death. The Texas governor argued that it was reasonable for Perry to believe his life was at stake since Foster had held his gun in the \u201clow-ready firing position.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Yet this claim is inconsistent with Perry\u2019s own remarks to the police, which indicated that Foster did not aim a rifle at his killer, but merely carried it. Needless to say, seeing a person lawfully carrying a firearm cannot give one a legal right to kill them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But pesky realities like this carry less weight than conservative media\u2019s delusional grievances. Shortly after Perry\u2019s conviction in April 2023, then-<a href=\"https:\/\/www.vox.com\/media\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Fox News<\/a>&nbsp;anchor&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.vox.com\/2023\/4\/25\/23697600\/tucker-carlson-tonight-fox-news-dominion-lawsuit\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Tucker Carlson<\/a>&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.mediamatters.org\/tucker-carlson\/fox-news-defends-texas-man-convicted-murdering-black-lives-matter-protester-and\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">aired<\/a>&nbsp;a segment portraying Perry as a helpless victim of \u201ca mob of rioters\u201d and a \u201cSoros-funded\u201d district attorney. Carlson decried the jury\u2019s verdict as a \u201clegal atrocity\u201d and lambasted Abbott for standing idly by while his state invalidated conservatives\u2019 right to defend themselves. \u201cSo that is Greg Abbott\u2019s position,\u201d he said. \u201cThere is no right of self-defense in Texas.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The next day, Abbott pledged to work \u201cas swiftly as Texas law allows regarding the pardon of Sgt. Perry.\u201d&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.vox.com\/politics\/2024\/5\/17\/24159084\/daniel-perry-pardon-greg-abbott-samuel-alito-flag\">https:\/\/www.vox.com\/politics\/2024\/5\/17\/24159084\/daniel-perry-pardon-greg-abbott-samuel-alito-flag<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;in Texas, you can commit murder without suffering the legal consequences of that crime, so long as your victim\u2019s politics are loathed by the right and your case is championed by conservative media. Or at least, this is the message sent by Gov. Greg Abbott\u2019s pardoning of Daniel Perry.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;In the weeks after George Floyd\u2019s murder in 2020, the proliferation of Black Lives Matter protests had filled Perry with apparent bloodlust. Then an active-duty Army officer, Perry texted and messaged friends, among other things:<br \/>\n\u201cI might go to Dallas to shoot looters.\u201d<br \/>\n\u201cI might have to kill a few people on my way to work they are rioting outside my apartment complex \u2026 No protesters go near me or my car.\u201d<br \/>\n\u201cI wonder if they will let [me] cut the ears off of people who\u2019s decided to commit suicide by me.\u201d<br \/>\nWhen a friend of Perry asked him if he could \u201ccatch me a negro daddy,\u201d Perry replied, \u201cThat is what I am hoping.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Weeks later, Perry was driving an Uber in Austin, Texas, when he came upon a Black Lives Matter march. According to prosecutors, Perry ran a red light and drove his vehicle into the crowd, almost hitting several protesters. Activists gathered angrily around Perry\u2019s car. Garrett Foster, a 28-year-old Air Force veteran who was openly carrying an AK-47 rifle, approached Perry\u2019s window.<\/p>\n<p>Perry then shot Foster dead.<\/p>\n<p>At trial, Perry\u2019s defense team alleged that Foster had pointed his rifle at the defendant. But witnesses testified that Foster never brandished his weapon, only carried it, which is legal in Texas. And Perry corroborated that account in his initial statement to the police, saying, \u201cI believe he was going to aim at me. I didn\u2019t want to give him a chance to aim at me.\u201d A jury convicted Perry of murder last year. <\/p>\n<p>But..the governor of Texas used his pardoning power to release Perry from prison. <\/p>\n<p>In a statement, Abbott said, \u201cTexas has one of the strongest \u2018stand your ground\u2019 laws of self-defense that cannot be nullified by a jury or a progressive district attorney.\u201d He noted that in the Lone Star State, a person is justified in using deadly force against another if they \u201creasonably believe the deadly force is immediately necessary\u201d for averting one\u2019s own violent death. The Texas governor argued that it was reasonable for Perry to believe his life was at stake since Foster had held his gun in the \u201clow-ready firing position.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Yet this claim is inconsistent with Perry\u2019s own remarks to the police, which indicated that Foster did not aim a rifle at his killer, but merely carried it. Needless to say, seeing a person lawfully carrying a firearm cannot give one a legal right to kill them.<\/p>\n<p>But pesky realities like this carry less weight than conservative media\u2019s delusional grievances. Shortly after Perry\u2019s conviction in April 2023, then-Fox News anchor Tucker Carlson aired a segment portraying Perry as a helpless victim of \u201ca mob of rioters\u201d and a \u201cSoros-funded\u201d district attorney. Carlson decried the jury\u2019s verdict as a \u201clegal atrocity\u201d and lambasted Abbott for standing idly by while his state invalidated conservatives\u2019 right to defend themselves. \u201cSo that is Greg Abbott\u2019s position,\u201d he said. \u201cThere is no right of self-defense in Texas.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The next day, Abbott pledged to work \u201cas swiftly as Texas law allows regarding the pardon of Sgt. Perry.\u201d&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>https:\/\/www.vox.com\/politics\/2024\/5\/17\/24159084\/daniel-perry-pardon-greg-abbott-samuel-alito-flag<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[1104,869,790,431,660,653,1326,915,972,201,21,661],"class_list":["post-13841","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article-share","tag-authoritarianism","tag-black-lives-matter","tag-courts","tag-democracy","tag-dictatorship","tag-governors","tag-greg-abbott","tag-justice","tag-murder","tag-rule-of-law","tag-texas","tag-tyranny"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13841","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13841"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13841\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13842,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13841\/revisions\/13842"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13841"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13841"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13841"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}