I've done some searching on the web to refresh my memory about what the circumstances were during this incident. Unfortunately, most everything I can find is from Left wing organizations (NYT, Huffington Post, etc.). One article I came across stated that "an African American individual" used a baseball bat to hit the bumper on Fields' car. That act, combined with being surrounded by an angry mob seems to me to be the catalyst, and justification, for trying to get the hell out of Dodge - which led to the crash and injuries.

With that information it sounds to me that the wounding and killing that transpired was not intentional, and that the driver was trying to leave the scene without being injured or killed himself so the sentence seems to be unusually harsh. Am I missing something? Most every article paints James Fields as a bipolar computer-playing neo-nazi, with a minimum-wage job. Even if all that is true, I think I would have had the same reaction he did if I'm surrounded by an angry mob that starts beating on my vehicle with bats and such.

Am I off base here? Does anyone have a clearer understanding of the events and why the sentence might be justified?

links:

https://www.ktlo.com/2019/07/1...s-for-state-charges/

https://www.factcheck.org/2017...acting-self-defense/

http://www.departmentofmemes.c...rs-car-baseball-bat/

Dude wasn't surrounded until he drove into the crowd.

Pretty fucking cut and dried to me. Of course they mobbed him after he drove into about 20 people.

I remember seeing the video.

They surrounded the car and were bashing the windows in. Yes he got the hell out of there and killed a lady...

He is a shit head White supremest...

Local news report this evening: (link).

More from last January.

From just watching the video, I don't see the cut-and-dried aspect. I see a driver trying to ease his way through a crowd; somebody beats on the back of the car - which would likely cause someone to panic if they are focused on what is in front of them; and that beating on the car causes the driver to accelerate away from the threat, but into the crowd.

Shit-head white-supremacist or not, the reaction of the driver, although regrettable, doesn't look to be malicious. If he had intent to do harm, I would think he would driven down the alley at speed to begin with.

I searched for any thread on this to see if it has been discussed earlier, but didn't come up with a result. If there is another thread about this topic and somebody can point me there, that would be helpful.

Found a previous thread with this incident;

https://sigforum.com/eve/forums...935/m/7630097824/p/5

I've got 20 pages of it to read yet.

quote:

Originally posted by PR64:
I remember seeing the video.

They surrounded the car and were bashing the windows in. Yes he got the hell out of there and killed a lady...

He is a shit head White supremest...

Perhaps, but did his actions (I would contend manslaughter at the most) warrant essentially a 500 year sentence? This is nothing but another symptom of the current times in this country and bears no reality to actual punishment for the crime committed. Short and sweet, this guy was made an example of.

quote:

Originally posted by bigdeal:

quote:

Originally posted by PR64:
I remember seeing the video.

They surrounded the car and were bashing the windows in. Yes he got the hell out of there and killed a lady...

He is a shit head White supremest...

Perhaps, but did his actions (I would contend manslaughter at the most) warrant essentially a 500 year sentence? This is nothing but another symptom of the current times in this country and bears no reality to actual punishment for the crime committed. Short and sweet, this guy was made an example of.

I originally wrote at the end: 496 yrs

but I deleted it...

He's the poster child.

I obviously cannot condone what happened and while not a lawyer believe he should not have been there-but he was. We will likely never know if this was intentional or a result of panic. I have no love for either group that was there but I would like to bring up the following for discussion: In the LA Riots Reginald Denny stopped at an intersection and was dragged out of his truck and beaten severely with a number of heavy items; one rioter who had hit him gave a double thumbs up. If YOU or I had found themselves in such a situation and were unable to back away from the scene when your vehicle was attacked would you A-put your vehicle in park and hope you survived the ordeal or B-put the car in drive, honk the horn, and hit the gas trying to escape?

Obviously if you can avoid driving into riots OR participating in violent protests that have degenerated into combat you should.

Having stated the above, I cannot help but wonder if the shoe had been on the other foot and James Alex Fields had been run over by someone from the other side, what would the sentence have been?

When assholes collide....

He won’t last through the first year of that sentence.

quote:

Obviously if you can avoid driving into riots OR participating in violent protests that have degenerated into combat you should.

My recollection is he purposefully went to the demonstration and drove into the crowd. He didn't just happen to be there and not know how to avoid the crowd.

He had already been sentenced to life on federal charges. Why then does the state have to spend time and money to try him again? Sentencing someone to life plus 419 years makes the court seem foolish.

quote:

Originally posted by NK402:
He had already been sentenced to life on federal charges. Why then does the state have to spend time and money to try him again? Sentencing someone to life plus 419 years makes the court seem foolish.

As was previously stated I agree that politics had a lot to do with it.

I consider myself a staunch American, but there is no way in hell I’d be driving (even slowly) through a crowd of whom I consider to be the enemy, and undoubtedly feel the same way about me. Short of taking a severely injured family member to the hospital, driving through that environment was beyond foolish. It was tantamount to begging for a confrontation. Unfortunately for him, he got his wish.

And yes, his extreme sentencing was most certainly political.

i predict he will do less than one year in prison, the remaining time will be 6' under...

quote:

Originally posted by trapper189:

quote:

Obviously if you can avoid driving into riots OR participating in violent protests that have degenerated into combat you should.

My recollection is he purposefully went to the demonstration and drove into the crowd. He didn't just happen to be there and not know how to avoid the crowd.

This.

And I am positive that in order for him to get a life sentence, they were required to prove that he was in the area with the intent on causing trouble or getting into a confrontation. Maybe not intending on driving into the crowd exactly but he was there with bad intentions and bad things happened.

quote:

Originally posted by Scurvy:

And I am positive that in order for him to get a life sentence, they were required to prove that he was in the area with the intent on causing trouble or getting into a confrontation. Maybe not intending on driving into the crowd exactly but he was there with bad intentions and bad things happened.

I'm not so sure. From reading all 29 pages of the other thread about the Charlottesville demonstrations, it appears that town/area is very Left-leaning with lots of woke-ness. It makes me wonder if the jury didn't already have the verdict in mind before the first day of trial.

Change the circumstances a bit and rather than a bunch protesters it's the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and rather than a neo-Nazi from Ohio he's just a tourist. Mr. Ohio tourist is driving around trying to find a place to watch the parade. He winds up driving down a street and see's the parade coming. Option 1 is certainly not continue driving forward through the marching band and see how it goes.

Suppose Mr. Ohio tourist isn't there to see the parade, is oblivious that a parade is happening until he turns down a street and sees it coming. Option 1 is still not continue driving forward through the marching band and see how it goes.

What he did is cut and dried to me. He pleaded guilty to 29 of 30 hate crime charges, so I suspect it was cut and dried to him as well.

If a BLM or Antifa person had driven through the neo-Nazis would the sentencing have been different? I'd like to think the charges and sentencing would be the same, justice being blind, but my gut says the sentencing would be lighter.

quote:

Originally posted by marksman41:

quote:

Originally posted by Scurvy:

And I am positive that in order for him to get a life sentence, they were required to prove that he was in the area with the intent on causing trouble or getting into a confrontation. Maybe not intending on driving into the crowd exactly but he was there with bad intentions and bad things happened.

I'm not so sure. From reading all 29 pages of the other thread about the Charlottesville demonstrations, it appears that town/area is very Left-leaning with lots of woke-ness. It makes me wonder if the jury didn't already have the verdict in mind before the first day of trial.

it is a very liberal college town, and woke,



I recall reading he hit a parked vehicle, that hit the woman that died, but she died of a heart attack, not injuries from the vehicle,,