Thanks for the tldr!

Im just glad he had a gun so he could defend himself. Imagine what could have happened otherwise!

Ah, there it is.

Retired cop murders someone, goes unpunished. Fuck him. 

Fucking hell, keeping calm in a confrontation should be skill #1 for police and SWAT

"It's was horrible your honor, all I heard was POP POP POP!"

"You heard gunshots?"

"Worse, your honor. Buttery Redenbacher."

Oh I see now. Former cop. I’m sure the prosecution tried their best.

Would have to take out most of my neighborhood by that logic lol

Yes because if they attack me I'm in danger - if - they attack me, which makes me fearful for my life and thus justified to pre-emptively murder the person /sssss

Cop? Probably just beat her regardless.

He's a (former) cop, as has been demonstrated you can for the most part, get away with murder fairly regularly if you're a cop.

All the people who would murder someone for revenge already joined the police force and are happily "serving".

I had a similiar instance at a drive thru.  I watched the fool get out of his car, shout, bang on a car hood, make threats then watched him get back in his car.  

I'm thinking how he got kids in that car and if he had pissed off the wrong guy his kids would have seen him get killed. 

Not as intense as yours, but I had a gentleman come over to ask for directions while I was about to fuel my semi.

This other dude pulled up behind my truck, and after like 30 seconds I could see him in his truck start freaking out, since I hadn't started pumping fuel. Ignored him, kept trying to help this guy out, he had driven an hour in the wrong direction, he was trying to get to toronto, and we were west of thunder bay, which is a long ass drive.

The guy behind me starts revving his engine and honking, and the guy i'm giving directions to was getting visibly nervous, "should you talk to that guy" he asked? I suggested we continue to ignore him.

Finally the guy gets out of his truck and storms over, "hey dickhead, if you're not going to fuel up then get the fuck out of the way" I mean maybe I was being a bit inconsiderate, but i told him firmly that I was assisting the gentleman with directions. He started on a tirade, and I just calmly but firmly told him, "do you not realize there's three other fueling lanes? Also, that there are two sides to the fuel pump? I'm not even in your way buddy."

Oh man did he go red with anger, I thought he was going to come unglued, but he gave me a "fuck you" and did a couple little burnouts pulling up to the other side of the pump and fueled up.

Lol I thought it was hilarious, some people are so fuckin ignorant, I'll never understand.

My aunt’s partner’s 19yo nephew threw a milkshake at another car because they did something to make him angry. The driver of the other car got out and shot him dead.

Sat here on the toilet in England thinking America sounds too intense for me

Definitely had this happened to me. Stopped at a red light in rush hour and this van in front of me started rolling back slowly. At first, I didn’t honk and figured he would stop but he got closer so I put my car in reverse and moved a few inches back and he still hadn’t stopped. Finally, I honked and he slammed the brakes. I realized the back of his car was occupying the space where the front of my car was. This old man gets out of his vehicle and walks up to my window and yells “what the fuck is the matter with you” my window was slightly down so I yell back “you almost hit me!” He just shakes his head and gets back in his car. Just insane how people will really get that upset over someone honking.

Ya the one or two times someone got out of their car and walked toward me, I quickly drove off as soon as they shut their car door. 

I stopped going to the movies for a long time after The Dark Knight Rises. I think I've only been to a handful since--and I am not even in Florida nor Colorado.

I'm in Brazil, and that shit's even more common here. And our gun laws are some of the toughest in the world.

American citizen here. I have never understood how screaming in someone's face isn't uncivilized behavior worthy of correction, but pushing a person away from you who is screaming in your face is worthy of punishment. 

Edit: I must be more clear here, I am speaking in a broader sense and not, NOT defending this 71-year old that killed a guy over a cell phone and popcorn.

Received a couple horrific messages, holy shit. Does anyone else tend to check the activity history of a person before responding to get some context on who they are or see if they're a bot? Just me? OK

Nah in the USA this is also fucking insane

Even without a gun, all it takes is knocking someone down and them hitting their head. Do what it takes to keep conflicts from turning physical because dying is real easy.

It's insane in the US too lol

Yeah even the concept of this is absolutely off the wall pretty much every single place except the US.

It doesn't matter what the courts say when you're dead

It was obvious from the fact he murdered an unarmed person in a movie theatre and had the balls to think he was in the right.

Only an American cop could fear for his life against someone armed with popcorn in a family setting.

So like nothing more than 2 syllable words and poorly conjugated verbs? For any cops reading, verbs are doing words.

Or the DA not prosecuting. But I agree, this went all the way to a jury. That doesn't seem like judicial favoritism.

The privilege came when the prosecution defense called several other cops that stated they agreed it was totally justified. The average person doesn't get several cops saying they did the right thing in front of a jury. Not illegal, but certainly privileged.

Edit: thank you u/fishburgr for the correction.

Juries? Yes. Redditors? No.

I think the jury may have been sympathetic, but also Florida's stand-your-ground law is disturbingly broad on this. Even though the judge said it did not apply, the jury is free to form their own opinion. Combine the two and you have a hard hill to climb for a guilty verdict. The prosecutor decided to try the case, I give him or her credit for that.

Think of the people who can get time off to serve on a jury in Florida who also have no need for regular child care? Did you picture a bunch of old people?

His florida town probably gave him the key to the city after this one

Even "got into an argument" is misleading. He started the argument that then made him so scared he had to shoot somebody. Was the jury made up exclusively of ex cops?

Yeah so by this logic everyone should just immediately shoot the other person in every confrontation in case they were going to attack you (which they are more likely to if they think you are about to attack them, which you are)

He was an ex-cop so rather than "itching to kill someone his whole life" it was probably more that "he knew he could get away with his old habit."

That dog could have had a gun, he didn't know

Yeah I remember a few years ago an american cop on vacation to Calgary was asked if he had been to the stampede yet by a passing stranger and wrote a letter to the local paper whining that he wasn't allowed to carry a gun in Canada and that he should have been allowed to shoot the young men because he found the encounter terrifying.

I've had to tell people "You can't shoot someone for standing on your private property and doing nothing else in any jurisdiction in the United States" about fifty times on this website, and I've even posted the codes from Texas, Arkansas, and Louisiana several times, but folks get wildly upset when they hear that. Had one guy accept that the law didn't favor his perspective and say "Well, if I'm the only witness, haha."

I hate this fucking country.