Item — HN Reader

“Here, guns were part of the furniture, and my taciturn neighbors used them on one another with heart-breaking regularity. These domestic killers rarely went to jail, since they could usually remind the jury that the deceased, whom most of the jurors knew, needed killing anyway.”

It’s enjoyable reading, but I realized the author wasn’t to be taken seriously at this point.

2 comments

C’mon, isn’t he obviously channeling Mark Twain and the long American tradition of a tall tale? Here’s a British version of the old men reminiscing: “ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VKHFZBUTA4k”

Please explain.

I’ve lived much of my life in the upper Midwest and have close relatives in Wyoming.

Nobody behaves like that. Ever.

The environment is harsh and people unfailingly help each other. Law and order is respected. The culture is one of independence, but rooted strongly in public good.

What the author wrote must surely have been an attempt at humor in the Patrick F. McManus vein.

Can confirm, that kind of thing (murder that the jury decide was OK because they had it coming, or a town collectively deciding and sticking to “we didn’t see nothin’” so a prosecution can’t proceed) happens, but it’s so rare most rural-dwellers never see it anywhere near them in a lifetime. Unless it’s cops covering up for other cops or their pals, but I mean, even that’s not exactly an everyday occurrence (at least at the level of things like murder). Approximately nowhere in the US is this normal among ordinary folks.

I think he is suggesting that this article is heavily exaggerated, or possibly written more as entrainment rather than to express fact. He quotes the misuse of rule of law to prove his point.

Up to you whether you agree. There are lots of examples in American past where mob mentality weighed more than law, so that example doesn't disprove the article for me but I hope it is entertainment instead of fact.