Do me a favor, please spare me the condescension, it really is beneath you, Hungary.
I am not being condescending, Law is really hard for people to understand, otherwise you will not need the service of a Lawyer.
Sorry, but that's a terrible analogy. Even if the state can prove vehicular homicide, it doesn't equate to anything remotely close to deliberately gunning down over 600 people. If a person drove a vehicle through 100's of people with the intent to kill as many as he could, then there is a clear distinction as to the intent of the act. You drive your car and plow it into another or a couple is not the same thing.
It actually is the same case, in most States, law does not require the number of victim to charge a particular crime, I can kill 1 person (or even none) to get a Federal Terrorism indictment, I can get a Federal Terrorism indictment for killing 600. That would have been the same charge, but instead you got charge that 1 time for 1 victim, you got charge 600 times if you kill or wounding 600. If I can be proved beyond reasonable doubt that my intention is to cause havoc and intimate the government or population, I can get charge for a Federal Terrorism indictment even if I have not actually killed anybody with my car.
The problem is, what you refer to as a "Clear intention of the act" is a conjecture at your end, you cannot support it with actual physical evidence, let's say Paddock was not dead and being apprehended and we actually did charge him with terrorism, then his motive would be what we called "Circumstantial" because there are no physical linkage to his motive, unless he told you (or otherwise confess) what is true motive was or there are physical evidence pointing to his actual motive (like an angry letter or manifesto or some sort) otherwise there is ALWAYS a reasonable doubt about why he do what he do.
You can claim he try to terrorise people by killing 58 people, the problem is, you have no physical evidence supporting your claim, other than 58 dead bodies, which in itself Is not an evidence. His lawyer can argue he simply wanted to fire some round outside because the concert if bothering him, and you cannot prove or disprove it, as much as you cannot prove or disprove he intentionally want to terrorise these people by open fire, that is the reasonable doubt on the issue, and that is what lawyer call "Met the burden of Proof"
Take the lowlife in Spain who drove his car through a crowd of people and killed over 20. He had a Middle Eastern name. It was immediately termed a terrorist attack but stop for a minute and consider what most would've labeled it had he been a French or Swedish guy who just got out of jail or even any other circumstance, let alone one who planned the attack. Would they have immediately claimed terrorism?
That lowlifes have an agenda, he wanted to have force the Spanish government to pull troop out of Mali and the attack was directly or indirectly funded by ISIS-related organisation. These people being Muslim have no bearing on whether or not they were terrorist, many Muslim (in US, Australia and UK) was arrested for murder and assault every week, are all these people being labelled Terrorist? So when Hazairin Iskandar killed his wife and son in 2012 in NSW, then he must have been called a Terrorist then? Because he is Muslim? On the other hand, We also label non Muslim terrorist, Anders Breivik was being labelled a Christian Terrorist. And in the US, you may not believe it, but according to DOJ figure, more Non-Muslim was charged/labelled with Terrorism than Muslim. form 2010 to 2017.
The charge of terrorism is related to the nature of the crime, and the nature is related to the motive. You cannot prove motive, then you cannot charge him with certain crime, that's how the law works, that's also why the US have First Degree Murder, Second Degree Murder, (Third Degree Murder), Manslaughter and Involuntary Manslaughter
Another thing the law does not care is your race or religious belief, I don't know why people keep saying US only officially condemn Muslim for terrorism, this may be true in US Media, but the US Government does not differ on the race and religion front. For example.
Non-Muslim terrorist act between 2010-2017 according to FBI Database
- Feb 10, 2010 IRS Office attack in Austin Texas by Andrew Joseph Stack III ( attack on Federal Government, he was anti-IRS)
- March 4, 2010 Pentagon Shooting by John Patrick Bedell (quite straight forward, attack on Federal Government, he was an anarchist)
- May 20, 2010, West Memphis by Jerry and Joe Kane (Anti-Government Group Sovereign Citizen Movement against Police officer)
- September 1, 2010, Discovery Communication Hostage by James J. Lee (Anti-Immigration protest turn hostage taking)
- August 5, 2012, Wisconsin Sikh temple shooting by Wade M. Page ( Anti-Indian/Anti-Immigration, White Supremacist group attack)
- Feb 3, 2013, LA Shooting by Christopher Dorner (Anti-Police, he was fired by LAPD and plot a manifesto on revenge on Facebook)
- April 15, 2013, Senator Roger Wicker attack by Everett Dutschke (Federal Government attack using Weapon of Mass Destruction - ricin.)
- Nov 1, 2013, LAX attack by Paul Anthony Ciancia (Killing a TSA Agent (Federal Employee), Ciancia belong to an anti-government group called NEW WORLD ORDER)
- Dec 13, 2013, Wichita Mid-Continental Airport bomb plot, by Terry Lane (Use of weapon of Mass destruction- Bomb on an airport, although he is not Muslim (From his wife) his motive is Islamic extremism, authority believe he had converted)
- April 13, 2014, Overland Park Jewish centre shooting by Frazier G. Miller Jr (White Supremacist group attack on Jewish Centre)
- June 8, 2014, Las Vegas Police Shooting by Jerad and Amanda Miller (Anti-Government, Anti-Police group associated/attributed to Bundy Standoff, which involve BLM (form Department of Interior) vacating Clive Bundy)
- Sept 12, 2014, Pennsylvania State Police shooting by Eric M. Frein (Attacking on State Police and he mailed a letter to his parent stating that he wanted to start a revolution)
- June 17, 2015, Charleston Church Shooting, by Dylan Roof (Need I say more??)
- Nov 27, 2015, Colorado Planned Parenthood shooting by Robert Lewis Dear, Jr. (Christian Extremist attack)
- July 7, 2016, Dallas Police Officer Shooting by Micah Xavier Johnson (Black Power, racially motivated attack against white Police officer, in reaction to the recent police shooting.)
- March 20, 2017, New York Stabbing by James Harris Jackson (Attack on black people to prevent interracial marriage, White Supremacist)
- August 12, 2017 Ramming in Charleston by James Alex Fields Jr (Senate review the attack and labelled it of domestic terrorism, Field is a White Supremacist)
On the other hand, Muslim Extremist contribute to
- May 1, 2010 Time Square Bomb Plot
- Oct 29, 2010 East Midland Airport Bomb Plot (target is US Cities)
- Nov 26, 2010 Portland Car Bomb Plot
- April 11, 2011 Arlington, Virginia Bomb plot
- April 15, 2013 Boston Marathon Bombing
- April-June 2014, Washington-New Jersey Spree Shooting.
- September 24, 2014, Oklahoma Beheading
- Oct 23, 2014, New York Hatchet Attack (This is by a convert the dude is black)
- May 3, 2015 Curtis Culwell Center attack
- July 16, 2015, Chattanooga Shooting
- Dec 2, 2015 San Bernadino, CA Attack
- June 12, 2016, Orlando Night Club Shooting
- Sep 17, 2016, Minnesota Cross Road Center Attack
- Sep 17-19, 2016 NYC and New Jersey Bomb Attack
- Nov 28, 2016 Ohio State University Attack
So, there are 17 attack carried out by non-Muslim was labelled by FBI as terrorist attack (even if you claim the mid-continental bomb plot is not, it still 16) and 15 was labelled by FBI who are Muslim, well, the ratio to population is alarming (given only about 3% of US citizens are Muslim) but to claim the US call tend to call Muslim terrorist if the people who pull the trigger was brown, then I don't think that's correct.
Congratulations to her and you. Yeah, we have lawyers in our family and all around us here and for many years.
Well, just saying we had been talking about this, at home and at my work, my current employment is with NSW Police Force.
Because you're basing everything on either "intent" but specifically a "motive." Intent is unquestionably clear and I'm astounded that you even bring that up. Even motive is quite clear it's just there isn't a written or verbal statement from the scumbag
but particularly his background is not conforming to a perceived notion and that's the problem.
I've showed how his actions not only fall under the criteria outlined in the US federal code (which you brought up and what prompted me to respond), but specifically the Nevada state code which you choose to ignore. This could be effectively argued in a federal court which is really the basis of your entire argument but before even going there, here's a fantastic article that really describes the travesty that is happening to this situation and besides the "constitutional implications of officially terming such acts as terrorism", (which is another HUGE part of this unfortunate saga but a whole other debate), this article perfectly outlines the travesty that is preventing the labeling of this and other similar acts committed by non-Muslims as terrorism and specifically using the Nevada statute:
The president and others can skirt the word, but Nevada may very well know that what happened last night was terrorism. Even before the shooting, its state law defined terrorism as “any act that involves the use or attempted use of sabotage, coercion, or violence which is intended to cause great bodily harm or death to the general population.” Survivors have already begun to share their stories of shielding each other’s bodies and carrying each other to ambulances on makeshift stretchers, in some cases only to see the stranger they tried to save die before their eyes. It sounded like all of them had lived through terror—but we haven’t heard anyone say they wondered, as they ran for their lives, whether or not the shooter was politically motivated.
The complete article:
https://www.vogue.com/article/las-vegas-shooter-stephen-paddock-terrorist
In law, motive and intent is basically EVERYTHING, I am not beating around the bush to say "no man this is not the case or yeah, this is the case) but for a crime to be able to get an indictment, you will need to show the prep have intented to do something and are motivated to do something, at this point, I am not talking about actual trial here, but simple a Grand Jury indictment.
That is the different between how someone is going to get charge a First Degree Murder (which is Life without Parole) or Second Degree Murder (25/30 to life) or Manslaughter (20 to life) - The different is the motive and intent.
Law are quite straight on this point,
You have demonstrate nothing in the court of law beside the fact that 58 people has died you have not prove he has intimated and coerced both the US government and the population. Again, just by killing 58 people is not enough to shown as proof, there are people kill more than 58, Gary Ridgeway have confessed to kill 71 women, should we also put Gary Ridgway in the list of terrorist? As I said before, the number of people Killed in the attack is NOT IMPORTANT at all to the charge itself Paddock could have killed just 1 in the right condition to get into the list, killing 58 in term of law, is the same as killing 1. So, if the number of victim is not important, then what is? The answer is his Motive and his Intent.
About NRS, had he make the case with Nevada State Law too? Because all I can see is the term "General Population" under NRS, so, what is General Population? Is it a person? A group of People? or the whole population?
If this is the first one, then every murderer in the state of Nevada is a terrorist. If this is the second one, then every murderer in the state of Nevada that killed more than 3 people is a terrorist. If it is the third one, then no one in Nevada can ever be called a Terrorist.
You can of course claim whoever you want as terrorist, but there are law and guideline settle this is a court of law, and as I demonstrated above, not just because you are brown and you are Muslim, even in this Islamic Extremists era, the US labelled more Non-Muslim as Terrorist than Muslim, that is because the law does not care who you are and what you are, but rather what you do and why you had done it. You can object to this all you want but I mean, if you do that, you are just burying your head in sand.
I don't mind or care you call Paddock a terrorist, but under US law, he is not, at least at this point, until more detail on his crime surface. This is what I am saying.
Prove that he wanted to do this all along? It's not enough that he had all those weapons and ammunition in the hotel and at this house and he used them to try to kill more than 600 people? It's not enough that he had ammonium nitrate in his car? I guess he had that because he wanted to clean his kitchen tile floor when he got back home after committing his despicable act of terror, and not really to blow anything up. I think a prosecutor would have a tough time litigating that point in court? ~ 'Sacrcasm" FYI. It's not enough that he had cased and reserved a room in Chicago overlooking a park area where there were upcoming venues that would hold large crowds? Or that he rented a hotel room and was casing our MLB team here in Boston in the Red Sox overlooking Fenway Park where there's anywhere between 20,000 to 50,000 people at any given game in the stadium or walking in a jam-packed Yawkey Way? I'm quite sure there are overwhelmingly more lawyers who would rather argue in favor than against.
It is not enough, as I said, there are numerous explanation as to why he kill and why he had that much weapon and ammunition in the hotel room, any two bit lawyer can claim he could be on his way to a gun show somewhere else, and that would met more than enough reasoning as to why he have that much weapon in his hotel room.
You can claim he shoot all these people in cold blood and prepare himself and arm himself with all these weapon, and have a manifesto on killing, but since you have no hard evidence back up these claim a good defence lawyer can claim He is on his way to a gun show, he have brought a truck and don't want to leave his gun on his car, so he rented a hotel room, and bring all the guns with him, then one night the concert is pretty loud, and he decided to fire into the crowd and finish off with what he does and he kill himself at the end. This is also a story which can related to the circumstantial evidence present at the scene, because to be honest, what you know to have actually happened without disputed and without doubt is the following
1.) He had 32 firearms in that hotel room
2.) He fired into the crowd of concert going
3.) He killed himself.
That's it. Anything other than the 3 facts you know is hearsay and conjecture, you cannot proof that, and if you can present a scenario that fit these 3 facts, in a court of law, you had presented a reasonable doubt and by law, you have to acquitted the man of whatever charge you are charging him if the fact does not suit the bill.
I am not talking about a beer talk amongst mate at a bar, but an actual court of law. That is the different. You can of course say whatever you want as protected by 1st Amendment, but I would say we need more evidence to show he either is or is not a terrorist.