The “Play Stupid Games” Admonition Applies to Both Sides
Don’t go to protests where people that don’t have the sense they were born with could put you in a situation you’ll eventually regret.
On April 7, a jury in Travis County, Texas, convicted Army Sgt. Daniel Perry of murder, for fatally shooting a Black Lives Matter protester during an anti-police march on Austin’s main downtown street, Congress Avenue, during the Democrats’ “Summer of Love” riots in 2020.
The protester was shot after he approached Perry’s vehicle while carrying an AK-47—a rifle that, since the 1980s, Democrats have said should be banned as a “weapon of war” that “doesn’t belong on America’s streets” or anywhere else “in civilian hands.” Perry had a handgun.
Anyone familiar with how the narrative changes, depending on the particulars, knows that if a BLM protester armed with a handgun had shot a conservative armed with an AK-47, the spin on the story would be about the rifle and “rightwing extremists.” But the situation in Austin was the reverse, so there was hardly a peep about the rifle and leftwing extremism from civilian disarmament activists, and the media and Democrat politicians with whom they and other counter-American activists collude.
Politics and ideology aside, a rifle is an offensive weapon and a handgun is a defensive weapon, which is why, in a war zone, military personnel who go forward to meet the enemy are issued rifles and those who don’t are issued handguns. It’s also why, in normal times, people who aren’t looking for trouble when they’re out and about, but who want to be able to defend themselves if they’re attacked by one or more criminals, carry handguns and leave their warfighting rifles at home.
In any event, the case was not cut and dried. Days before the confrontation in Austin, Perry reportedly had made multiple statements along the lines of wanting a violent altercation with protesters. One might wonder—perhaps the jury learned—why Perry turned his car onto Congress Avenue southbound with protest marchers walking northbound on both sides of the street. And where his handgun was as he did so, because Texas law in 2020 required that a handgun, if carried in a vehicle, be in a belt- or shoulder-holster.
A video of the encounter shows, so unclearly that it’s not worth linking to it, Perry turning the corner onto Congress Avenue, stopping after a short distance, presumably because protesters were in the way, and his shots at the rifle-wielding protester heard quickly thereafter. People scattered and one or more protesters shot at Perry, perhaps illegally, as he drove away, but, luckily, no one was struck. Perry drove a short distance and called police to report what had happened.
Those of us not on the jury don’t know potentially important details about Perry’s actions during and immediately preceding the shots being fired, but we know a few things about what the protester did. As a photograph in this article shows, the protester was masked and not carrying his rifle in a peaceable manner. It was not slung over his shoulder, as one might when marching in a parade, a recognized activity for decades, hence the sling used for that purpose being called a “parade sling.” And the rifle was not slung across his back, like a backpack, so that he could have both hands free, another common manner of carrying a rifle when there is no immediate intention to use it.
He was instead carrying the rifle in a manner almost identical to what the military, law enforcement, and private defensive firearm training communities refer to as the “low ready” position. “Ready” meaning “for imminent contact with an adversary,” thus with both hands on the rifle, trigger finger near the trigger, the stock already in the shoulder (the protester’s stock was inches from his shoulder) and the barrel pointed downward, so that the rifle can be raised to the aiming position and fired quickly.
The photograph also shows the protester with the AK-47 approaching Perry’s vehicle in what is commonly termed a “fighting stance”—knees bent, upper body leaning forward, weight shifted forward to the front of the feet, to be able to absorb recoil when the rifle is fired and to quickly move in any direction if his target takes defensive action. He was reportedly 18 inches from Perry’s car, on the driver’s side, looking at Perry. The county medical examiner said that the protester’s bullet wounds were downward, which is consistent with him leaning forward in a fighting stance.
Under the law, defensive shootings have to pass the “reasonable person” standard, juries are required to find for the defendant if there is “a reasonable doubt” that he is guilty, and—based on information available to those of us not on the jury, at least—one might conclude that Perry may have had at least some reason to suspect that the protester was preparing to shoot.
However, the trial was in majority-Democrat Austin, and many Democrats there are of the hard left variety. The ideological disposition of the jury’s members is unknown, and we can only hope they performed their duty in the thoughtful manner such things require. I was on a civil jury in Travis County recently and, for what it’s worth, all of the jurors seemed to take their responsibility seriously.
Nevertheless, several examples illustrate the political climate in Austin generally. Almost every city council member in Austin is a leftist. Austin voters elevated one of them, Greg Casar, from the council to the U.S. House of Representatives in 2022. Under leftist then-mayor Steve Adler in 2020, the council didn’t fix Austin’s streets, many of which are so covered in potholes that a mountain goat would have to mind his step, but instead painted “Black Lives Matter” in big yellow letters across four-lane Congress Avenue, which leads to the state capitol.
The council has defunded the city’s police department, which resulted in the Texas Department of Public Safety having to send in troopers to help remaining police officers deal with Austin’s increased crime problem.
The council allows homeless vagrants to camp out in tents and shanties throughout the city, panhandle at intersections, and sleep on sidewalks. The vagrants sometimes attack people violently, but the council doesn’t care. Police say it’s no use arresting the bums, because the city won’t prosecute them.
Austin voters, who are the vast majority in Travis County, elected one of George Soros’ boys, hardcore leftist Jose Garza, as the county’s district attorney. Garza prosecuted Perry, even though Austin police believed Perry acted in self-defense.
And Austin is where you still see vehicle decals, T-shirts, and yard signs saying “Beto for Texas,” Beto being O’Rourke, who ran against Sen. Ted Cruz in 2018 and against Gov. Greg Abbott in 2022. O’Rourke is famous for having fantasized about running over children with his car, for writing a “poem” about cows passing gas, and, before the confrontation in Austin, for advocating that rifles like the one carried by the protester be confiscated.
Governor Abbott has asked the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles to issue a recommendation that Perry be pardoned, and said he would sign such a recommendation swiftly. But however that turns out, the protestor is dead and Perry, even if he doesn’t go to prison, may have a rough road ahead. The episode is a reminder to people on both sides of the political divide, that if you play stupid games you may win stupid prizes.
If the “stupid games” admonition sounds flippant, it can be rephrased: Don’t let agitators in elected office, the media, and activist organizations manipulate you into doing things that advance their agenda, and make them rich and powerful at your and other peoples’ expense. Don’t prove French historian Alain Besancon’s point, that “It is impossible to remain intelligent under the spell of ideology.”
Don’t carry a rifle around in public in a threatening manner, masked, pretending to be a leftwing (or rightwing) tough guy, tempting fate with strangers. Don’t block a vehicle and pound on it to intimidate its driver, because you have seen others do it, and think it will mean you’re powerful and “hip.” And don’t go anywhere near a protest where people that don’t have the sense they were born with could put you in a situation you’ll eventually regret.