To recap what this case was about, in July of 2020 Daniel Perry was driving a small car in Austin Texas when he came upon a Black Lives Matter protest. The protestors were walking in the streets making vehicular traffic difficult. As protestors yelled and kicked at Perry’s car, a protestor named Garrett Foster who was armed with an AK-47, approached the passenger side of Perry’s vehicle. Daniel Perry claims that Foster raised the rifle at which time Perry states he fired in self-defense. Perry drove away and turned himself into police within minutes.

Based on the description above many people who understand the laws of self defense would deduce that this was a justifiable use of force, its self-defense. However, a jury in Austin Texas just convicted Daniel Perry of MURDER.

One of the things that stands out is that admitted into evidence were text messages and social media posts in which Perry stated in one of them “I might have to kill a few people on my way to work, they are rioting outside my apartment complex.”  In other texts he alludes to a person being able to justify shooting a protestor blocking a street. So it would appear that the jury viewed the text messages as showing Daniel Perry had malice in his actions. I believe this case will be appealed to higher court so many of these arguments will be examined in finer detail. As a note, those texts may have turned what is a perfectly legitimate use of force into a criminal act.

There is a few lessons to take away from this. First, and I’ve taught this in classes before, saying you’re going to “kill” someone is not wise. It always annoys me when people say they’re going to “shoot to kill.” Personally, I hope to never have to kill anyone. That being said if my life is threatened, I will do what I can to stop that threat as quickly and efficiently as possible. This may mean firing a weapon into the threat. My intent is to STOP THE THREAT. If the person subsequently dies as a result of me stopping the threat, so be it.

Another issue is whether or not Perry could have just kept driving and thus avoided the conflict. If you can avoid getting yourself in a situation where you may have to defend yourself, you will always be better off. Don’t mistake this as me saying that there was a legal requirement to retreat. I’m just saying that it seems like the jury didn’t like the fact that Perry drove into the crowd. Had Perry been able to say he tried to go other routes or attempted to drive away, “maybe” the jury would have seen things in a different light.

Finally, my last point. Austin Texas is a very liberal city. The district attorney Jose Garza was backed by liberal financier, George Soros. I’ve written about this next point in my previous article, You Have To Know, Where To Fight – American Monitor . And the point I made in the article is that if you’re in an area where the enemy controls the courts and other government agencies, you’re likely going to have a shock if you get arrested and put on trial there. What you may have thought would be a reasonable use of force to protect yourself may turn out to be you getting put in prison for murder. My advice is to avoid “Blue Hives” like Austin, or Portland Oregon, like the plague.