From: ahk@chinet.com   
      
   Mark Shaw  wrote:   
   >Adam H. Kerman  wrote:   
   >>J.D. Baldwin  wrote:   
      
   >>>It's a little more complicated than "You aren't allowed to drive here,   
   >>>so I can set a trap to kill or maim anyone who tries." That's not   
   >>>actually a thing that's allowed, legally, in the U.S. (or probably   
   >>>anywhere).   
      
   >>Invariably, you make me regret asking a question or attempting to engage   
   >>you in conversation. You are condescending and treating me like a moron.   
      
   >>You just described a crime of intent that could have been charged as   
   >>depraved indifferent homicide, possibly first or second degree murder,   
   >>depending on the state criminal code.   
      
   >>THE HOMEOWNER DID NOT COMMIT A CRIME.   
      
   >Whether the cable was a mantrap or not would be for a court to decide.   
      
   Wow. You're just not listening. In order for it to have been a trap   
   intended to harm a motorist on an e-bike or a bicycle rider, and not   
   just intended to keep trucks and vans from being parked illegally on the   
   grass, there must be actual evidence of intent. There is no such   
   evidence, so there is nothing to present in court, let alone arrest and   
   charge the homeowner.   
      
   >In the absence of surveyor's tape or the like to make the   
   >presence of the cable clear, it sounds like a mantrap to me. And   
   >setting mantraps is very much a crime pretty much anywhere.   
      
   . . . Except when its erection was not intended to injure a motorist on   
   an e-bank.   
      
   My comment that the presence of the cable might have been made more   
   clear was part of what I saw as the homeowner's duty. With regard to the   
   accident, I see no scenario in which something making the presence of   
   the cable more obvious or if another type of fence or barrier not   
   intended to be readily knocked over had been there.   
      
   The mere presence of the fence DID NOT cause the motorist to lose   
   control of his e-bike and wouldn't have prevented the resulting   
   accidental collision. Would a different kind of fencing have prevented   
   the death? Possibly, but the kid still would have been injured, possibly   
   seriously.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)