People vs. Flores: Turn the Other Cheek?

TTAG scribe WIlliam C. Montgomery recently launched a debate about guns and religion, asking Is Gun Control a Tenet of Christianity? Members of our Armed Intelligentsia wondered about the Christian maxim about turning the other cheek—allowing a certain level of violence to occur before initiating armed self-defense. The best advice: avoid confrontation wherever possible. Our friends at leagle.com provide a perfect example of how not to not do it. While it seems ridiculous, remember: there but for the Grace of God go you:

On May 13, 2008, the victim, Saquan Mensah [above], left his high school campus accompanied by his friends Marquise Murphy and Ronnie Burnett; the three, all African-Americans, walked to the bus stop near the corner of Santa Fe Avenue and Pacific Coast Highway in Long Beach, next to a gas station. A group of people of different races but predominately African-American was congregated at the site, waiting for buses.

As Mensah and his friends arrived at the bus stop, a group of three Hispanic males approached them, addressing them with gang taunts: “Fuck Crabs” (a derogatory reference to the Crips gang) and “fuck Slobs” (a derogatory term for the Bloods gang). Neither taunt produced a reaction. One of the Hispanics then said “fuck niggers.”

Mensah asked one of the Hispanic males if he wanted to fight, and that person agreed. The Hispanics started walking to the back of the gas station, and Mensah, Murphy, Burnett and as many as a dozen other youths followed them. Mensah expected to engage in a one-on-one fist fight with the person who taunted him. Instead, appellant pulled a gun out of his waistband and fired three to six shots. Before running off, appellant yelled “Eastside Longo,” the name of his gang.

Two bullets hit Mensah, one in the chest, and the other in the hip as he was retreating. Mensah spent over three weeks in the hospital recuperating from his wounds.