Thursday, December 20, 2007

Criminals go free


More important than the following story is the one that preceded it On Dec. 31, 2004, David Geppert the owner of a recycling center was shot during a robbery. The gunman was charged and acquitted after a jury trial. Since opening his business in 1992, Geppert said he has been robbed about a dozen times.

Sixth in a series
By de Andréa

Recently a robber was killed in a shootout with employees at a recycling center. After many holdups, Geppert, the Germantown Pennsylvania centers owner said, he allowed his workers to carry guns.

Robberies have made the recycling business so dangerous for David Geppert, shot two years ago during a holdup that he gave his blessing to employees who said they wanted to carry guns to work.

After the recent robbery, Geppert said he felt blessed that none of his employees at his Germantown facility were injured during a gun battle between a robber and two employees. Only the robber was shot and killed

"We're like a little family here," Geppert said of the seven people employed at David Geppert Recycling in the 4500 block of Wayne Avenue, a busy commercial byway.
The drama started shortly after 9 a.m., when a man entered the facility and approached four employees sorting materials in a garage. He posed as a customer and said he had a large number of old radiators he wanted to sell as scrap metal.

Employees noticed he was acting oddly. They also noticed a bulge at his side.
Then, police and Geppert said, the man pulled out a 380-caliber automatic and demanded cash.

Two employees were armed - and all three began firing just like at the O.K. corral. Homicide Lt. Philip Riehl said the robber fired at least three shots at the workers - both of whom declined to comment. Police said that they do not expect to file charges in the case.

The only one that was hit by gunfire in this case was the robber, he ran about 100 yards and collapsed, Lt. Riehl said. One of the employees was shaken up and taken to a nearby hospital for observation.

"Enough is enough," said Carl Cooper, who works at the Mom & Pop Deli at Wayne and Roberts Avenue and heard the morning gunshots. Cooper raised his sweater and displayed the gun he keeps on his hip and the permit he keeps in his wallet. "If we let the criminals do what they want to do, it's no good," Cooper said. "You have to have a gun to protect yourself." Cooper's friend, Ray Young, agreed. "Right now," Young said, "we have to watch each other's backs."

THE BOTTOM LINE: If you will remember in the opening paragraph I said, what was more important than even the story of the employees shooting the criminal, was the owner David Geppert who was shot nearly two years earlier by a thug trying to rob him. The thing that caught my attention was that the gun-toting criminal who attempted to murder Geppert was set free.

Of course, it use to be, that if you even had a gun on your person in the commission of a crime, you would go to jail for possession with intent to kill. Now, even if you try to murder someone it is apparently not a punishable crime any more. I also liked the part where the police said that they would not be filing charges against the two employees for defending their own lives; I thought that was very benevolent of them. I cannot help but wonder though, if the outcome had been reversed and the employees would have been shot or killed instead of the criminal, would he, the criminal have gone free---again…

The gun crime problem appears obvious to me, it isn’t that law abiding citizens possess or carry guns, the problem is, that the law and the courts, as in this case, generally condemn the innocent while the criminals go free. It just seems to me that if we would throw the book at the criminals carrying guns instead of the people just trying to defend themselves, criminals may stop carrying guns. Moreover, because only cops and law-abiding citizens would then be carrying guns, we would all be safer.

What do you think???

de Andréa

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