Finally, a Police Spokeswoman Gets It!

I think I am going to have to add the Albuquerque Tribune to my often read newspapers list.

While looking around for this afternoons topic, I found Alphecca had commented on a WorldNetDaily article titled "FIGHTING BACK 3 home intruders shot dead in Albuquerque". This article quoted the Albuquerque spokeswoman making some very interesting comments. These comments are not what I have come to expect to hear from police spokes-folks, so I decided to dig a little deeper and came up with this great article in the Albuquerque paper:

Using deadly force is legal

By Michael Gisick

The car in which Raymond Gabaldon died, according to Albuquerque police, had been reported stolen on Dec. 7, Gabaldon's 40th birthday.

Two weeks later, on Dec. 22, Gabaldon drove the car onto Desert Drive in southwest Albuquerque, where he chose a house in the 600 block and broke in, police say.

He'd done stuff like that before: twice in 1986 and again in 1992, 1996, 2005 and 2006. Burglary, robbery, auto theft, aggravated burglary, weapons, drugs. Jail. Probation.

There was a warrant out for his arrest Dec. 22, for violating his probation on a previous burglary charge, when police say he broke into the house on Desert Drive and got himself shot by the homeowner.

Gabaldon retreated outside, but made it only as far as the stolen car, where police found him dead.

He was the third man in the past month shot and killed after reportedly breaking into an Albuquerque-area home. Authorities say that's more likely a coincidence than a trend.

"Hopefully this is going to send a message to people who are breaking into homes," Albuquerque police spokeswoman Trish Hoffman said Tuesday. "They're engaging in very dangerous behavior, not only to the people they're robbing, but to themselves."

"Hopefully this is going to send a message to people who are breaking into homes..." Now that is what I like to see, a police spokeswoman supporting the right of citizens to protect themselves, and sending notice to the goblins that the police stand with the citizenry on this issue.

I do have to note that this particular incidence would not have taken place if the criminal justice system had done it's job. This goblin had a long history of similar crimes and should have been segregated from society long ago. The criminal justice system failed to do it's job, a homeowners life and well being was jeopardized, and the goblin was killed. I guess we can chalk it up to "all's well that ends well".