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‘Good People Carry Guns and They Will Shoot You, a Lot — Graveyard Dead’

Posted on | December 14, 2020 | 1 Comment

Sheriff Grady Judd of Polk County, Florida, is known for his colorful way of expressing himself at press conferences (see “68 Shots: ‘That’s All the Bullets We Had, or We Would Have Shot Him More’”). Sheriff Judd’s press conference on Aug. 29, 2018, featured the case of Jason Boek.

If you’ve never heard of Jason Boek, that’s because the national news media is so busy indoctrinating you about “Black Lives Matter” that they don’t even notice when a white criminal gets killed in circumstances quite similar to the cases that become nationally famous. Jason Boek’s death highlighted Florida’s “Stand Your Ground” law in a way reminiscent of the Trayvon Martin case. The national media always uses the word “controversial” to describe Stand Your Ground, but this is just another example of how media bias works — “controversial” is just a synonym for liberals don’t like it. In fact, polls show Americans generally favor Stand Your Ground laws, with more supporting (46%) than opposing (34%) such laws, with a majority of Republicans (65%) and independents (54%) in favor; only among Democrats is opposition (57%) a majority opinion.

Jason Boek had an extensive criminal record that included “previous arrests for aggravated battery, battery, burglary, marijuana possession, forgery, larceny, resisting arrest, and [violation of probation].” At the time of the August 2018 incident, Boek was “on felony probation for battery” and his driver’s license was suspended.

What happened was this: Around midnight, Boek was drinking at a bar with his girlfriend, Jessica. Another woman at the bar (Jasmine) was so drunk that the bartender called an Uber to give her a ride home. Boek’s girlfriend helped the bartender get Jasmine in the car. Meanwhile, inside the bar, Boek got the mistaken idea that his girlfriend had left the bar in the Uber, and began blowing up her phone with angry text messages, including a message avowing his intent to “f–k up the Uber driver.”

Boek borrowed a friend’s pickup truck and went tearing down the road in pursuit of the Uber driver, who was in a Hyundai. Boek nearly ran the Uber off the road, cut him off, stopped the truck and emerged shouting threats: “You know I got a pistol? You want me to f–king shoot you?”

Famous last words — caught on the Uber driver’s dashcam:

 

Boek’s history of criminal violence came to a sudden end because the Uber driver, Robert Westlake, had a concealed carry license and had recently completely training at the police academy. It is against Uber’s company policy for drivers to carry weapons, but Westlake had decided his own safety, and that of his passengers, was more important than company policy. When he was confronted by Boek shouting about a having a pistol, Westlake’s training kicked in. He fired one shot that hit Boek “center mass” and only after Boek was bleeding out did Westlake discover that his attacker wasn’t carrying a pistol, only a cellphone.

Sheriff Judd explained how Stand Your Ground applies to this case:

“This is a justifiable homicide all day long. You have the right to protect yourself,” Sheriff Grady Judd said Wednesday. “This was the intent of the law.” . . .
“Here’s a message for the hotheads of the community: Don’t do that stuff,” Judd said. “Good people carry guns and they will shoot you. A lot. Graveyard dead.”

Watch video of Sheriff Judd’s press conference:

 

What’s perhaps most interesting about this case is how closely it parallels similar incidents that get turned into national news, when the unarmed person who gets shot is black. Armed self-defense cases like Westlake’s shooting of Jason Boek, like police shootings, tend to happen so quickly that firing the gun is a split-second decision that’s easy to second-guess when you’re watching it on video in the safety of your home. How was Westlake to know that Boek, who said he had a pistol, was only carrying a cellphone? Obviously, he couldn’t know this, and Westlake told reporters, “All that went through my head was I’m not getting shot.”

And, just like so many “Black Lives Matter” cases, the dead man’s family members tell the media he wasn’t really a bad guy:

Boek’s family spoke to NBC News Wednesday from their home, where they said that they were distraught and that he was a loving father who was beloved by many but made a bad choice. They also insisted the Uber driver had time to leave the scene instead of shooting.
“He’s not a bad person. He needed help,” mother Michele Boek, said.
“How he was portrayed in that press conference is not who he is as a person,” said Jenna Irby, Boek’s sister.

Yeah, I’m sure he was an honor student. But I’m not going to riot about it.




 

Category: Crime, Florida

Comments

One Response to “‘Good People Carry Guns and They Will Shoot You, a Lot — Graveyard Dead’”

  1. News of the Week (December 20th, 2020) | The Political Hat
    December 20th, 2020 @ 5:22 pm

    […] “Good People Carry Guns and They Will Shoot You, a Lot — Graveyard Dead” Sheriff Grady Judd of Polk County, Florida, is known for his colorful way of expressing himself at press conferences (see “68 Shots: ‘That’s All the Bullets We Had, or We Would Have Shot Him More'”). Sheriff Judd’s press conference on Aug. 29, 2018, featured the case of Jason Boek. […]