Another stupid Friday night fight ends in another stupid death (Attorney says his client feels very sorry for himself)
Another day, another senseless killing:
PDT SAN FRANCISCO — Taylor Buckley, a San Carlos resident and senior at Carlmont High School in Belmont, was jailed Saturday on suspicion of murder in the death of 18-year-old Anthony Giraudo, a first-year student at Cañada College in Redwood City.
Police said Buckley punched Giraudo during an argument Friday night outside the gates in center field, causing Giraudo to fall, hit his head on concrete and suffer a fatal brain injury. Prosecutors are expected to decide today or Wednesday whether to file charges. San Francisco jail officials said Buckley was under psychiatric observation.
All of which is sad enough, of course. Now enter Douglas Horngrad, Buckley’s attorney:
“He’s expressed to me, and his family has expressed to me, that it’s a tragedy. He’s a young man who has plans to attend college in Arizona. He’s devastated by what happened. He comes from a good family with long Bay Area ties.”
So, that’s alright then.
I don’t mean to be flippant but Jesus Christ. We’re all very sorry that young Buckley’s entrance to the university might be slightly delayed. As we are delighted to hear that his mama and papa are on speaking terms with the ghosts of the Mayflower.
Still, there’s this other guy. Admittedly, I have no idea if he came from the right side of the tracks - but that is kind of academic now. ‘Cause he’s dead. Which, in the good attorney’s eye might be unfortunate for the victim but is truly devastating for his own client.
Ah well, maybe the attorney isn’t the callous douchebag this quote seems to make him. Maybe his heart bleeds too for the dead victim, while he will try to persuade the court that nothing should stand between his client and his future plans. Maybe.
Anyway, I’m certainly not saying master Buckley is a stone killer who should be sent to the electric chair for this crime. He should indeed not have his whole future taken away from him because of a stupid quarrel that ended with one man dying a stupid death. Though it should have befitted the attorney to concentrate a bit more on the fact that this whole future was indeed taken away from the victim than on any resulting inconvenience to his client.
I can’t help but feel though that we hear altogether too many stories like this one. Maybe it’s our TV shows and movies that mostly serve up this cartoon type violence - where punches and chairs and God knows what thrown at people during fights never seem to have any real consequences. The hero can be hit in his face time and again and will still stand up and walk away from what in normal life would have resulted in death or at least a severe head trauma.
So, maybe nowadays, people confuse Hollywood with real life more than at any time in the past. We certainly watch more TV than ever before, and watch happy slapping clips on our mobiles, and gang rapes on YouTube. Hell, even our wars are now coming to us live on TV, be it heavily sanitised. Perhaps too many people actually believe that guns don’t kill people and that fists don’t kill people and that hitting someone in the head is just what you do ’cause they do it on TV all the time and it’s just a bit of fun…
Ah well, what do I know? Humans (and especially young males) have always done stupid things - and Cain killed Abel somewhat before the advent of 24 hour TV and violent video games. It’s just so very depressing to read these news articles about people being killed in some stupid fight again and again - and it would be nice to believe that people were able to learn from these kinds of stories: that reporting on this tragedy will stop at least some people from getting into similar fights come the weekend.
You know what though? I don’t believe for a moment that this story will affect anyone’s behaviour one tiny bit - and maybe that’s the saddest thing of all.
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