Following an absurd court case, the Texas governor pardoned a deserving man.
12 comments:
Gringo
said...
From Governor Abbot's pardon: WHEREAS, Texas Penal Code § 9.32 (c) provides that a person who is otherwise lawfully present at the location where deadly force is used " is not required to retire before using deadly force" ; and WHEREAS , on July 25 , 2020 , Daniel Scott Perry, while driving on a public road in Austin, slowed his vehicle as he rounded a corner onto Congress Avenue and encountered a group of protestors obstructing traffic; and
WHEREAS , Daniel Scott Perry's car was immediately surrounded by aggressive protestors who rushed to obstruct, strike, pound , smash, and kick his vehicle; and
WHEREAS , Garrett Foster then approached within 18 inches of Daniel Scott Perry's car, confronted him, and brandished a Kalashnikov-style rifle in the low-ready firing position; and
WHEREAS, Daniel Scott Perry fired his handgun at Garrett Foster to eliminate a perceived threat to his safety and called law enforcement less than one minute later to inform them of the incident; and…
WHEREAS , District Attorney Garza directed the lead detective investigating Daniel Scott Perry to withhold exculpatory evidence from the Grand Jury considering whether to report an indictment;
As the deceased Garret Foster, brandishing a rifle, was part of a mob that surrounded Perry's car and pounded on it, my conclusion is that the deceased wasn't acting in a peaceful fashion. Looks like a pardon was in order.
There is a long-standing conflict between yellow dog Democrat Travis County and the State of Texas, which has tended Republican. Former Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle had prosecuted a number of Republican politicians, though in his defense it should be mentioned he also prosecuted Democrat politicians. But it would appear that Earle's prosecution of Republicans was less successful, which suggests that Earle stretched interpretation of the law to go after Republicans.
My husband is down with a back injury. I'm actually taking care of the house, even to the point of serving 3 meals a day, a new one for me. Hectic, also tending to the 11 animals, but I'm getting the hang of the routine.
The important part, it seems to me, is whether he knows he'd met a snake and that whatever he does about the next one is from deliberation informed by that experience.
T99, I trust your husband makes a speedy, and full, recovery.
Eric, thanks so much. He's 69, and suddenly suffered a severe AFib attack last week for the first time, though his entire family has struggled with it forever. That sure complicated things--put him in the hospital over the weekend, and they kept needing to do images requiring very uncomfortable positions for his back. But we got everything stabilized and all the images they need. Now just waiting on appointments with the cardio and neurosurgical consults. Good concierge doc in Corpus expediting all that, like old-fashioned care, and keeping in constant touch by text or videophone. Putting in an outside elevator finally! People have been urging us to do it for years.
In-house hospital doctors were outstandingly uncommunicative, but the endovascular neurosurgeon consult was terrific and filled in the gaps, while the nursing staff were uniformly attentive and kind. A friend delivered enough pads to enable me to sleep reasonably well on the couch in the room, so I never had to leave him for a minute. Now I'm learing to be a domestic goddess.
T99, I have some experience with Afib; I had an event a number of years ago, never repeated. Hopefully your husband will be as fortunate. My father had heart disease all his life, and when I was in high school, had a heart attack (not Afib, an "ordinary" heart attack) on a golf course and another one that killed him while he was in the hospital from the golf course event. Apparently, though, he got to the call button before fading to black, and the responding nurse wouldn't let him stay dead, bringing him back with CPR. He lived another 40 years, healthily, after that. He changed his diet, started getting regular exercise via daily walks, and changed from a high stress job as a grade school principal to a low stress job teaching jr high science.
In my case, I resolved my Afib with a slow, deep breathing exercise I remembered from the Lamaze training my wife and I did preparing for our daughter's birth (and which turns out to be similar to a sniper's calming breathing exercise). My cardiologist made me stop drinking two pots of coffee per day and have only three cups (mugs) per day (she wanted zero; I compromised. I was, and am, too stubborn to let my body disobey me for long). She laid my Afib off to long-term accumulated dehydration and resulting low blood pressure from all that coffee. She also had me start drinking 3 liters of water daily. She coordinated with my GP to put me on a minimum dose of simvastatin for my cholesterol, which my GP already was concerned about, and because the simvastatin is correlated with reduced risk of blood clot-caused stroke. Added to that was was her prescription for 325mg aspirin (a regular pill's worth) daily, also against the clot threat. Throwing a blood clot is the primary risk of Afib, the cardiologist said.
She also said if I didn't have any more events after three years, I didn't need to see her any further. I didn't, and I held her to it. Since then, as I've aged, the risk of bleeding strokes has increased, and I got my GP to reduce my aspirin dose to baby aspirin and then to no aspirin at all over the next several years. She wasn't overruling my cardiologist with the reduction since I hadn't seen my cardiologist for some years when I asked for a revaluation of the relative risk of the two causes of stroke for folks my--and our--age range.
Also regular exercise--60 years after Dad's routine, it includes picking pieces of iron up and putting them back down as well as walking--and a healthier diet that minimizes carbs; emphasizes meat, especially red meat; and doesn't worry about fat, of which there are some essential lipids that the body does not make but are readily available via red meat and omega-3 rich fish. Omega-3 is rich in the eggs of range-fed chickens, too (chickens are carnivores, not herbivores, and when they get their proper diet that includes bugs, including crickets, they're that much healthier). Your husband's mileage may vary on those details, metabolism is not a one-size-fits-all matter. Nor are what constitutes a healthy diet below a relatively high level of generality or what diet suboptimalities we can get away with with minimal effect constants across individuals.
Minimize carbs: doesn't mean no carbs; I still have some potatoes, just not nearly as much as I used to, and I still have an occasional gallon of mint chocolate chip ice cream (spread out over several days), which I pay for with exercise. Minimal carbs does, though, mean no out-and-out sweets for me. Quite apart from all the other, I'm addicted to sugar, and I'd happily eat a box of Ding Dongs at one sitting, and a couple dozen chocolate chip and raisin cookies with oatmeal in them. Giving up the sugar was hard, and we have none in the house. Your husband's mileage may vary here, too.
T99, couple more things: since I'd resolved my Afib on the gurney in ER, the cardiologist had me moved up to a hospital room for several hours of observation, which included an extensive (it seemed to me) echocardiogram of my heart. I happened to be positioned so I could see the live readout, too; it was pretty cool. It also said my heart looked normal and undamaged, so I was sent home by that evening from the early morning event. My cardiologist also made me wear a heart monitor--4 leads, since that's all my insurance would pay for; she would have preferred a six-lead set up--24 hours per day. That led to the other thing.
A few days later, I was watching the evening news when I got a very firm call from my cardiologist insisting I come right down to the hospital; she'd set things up to check me right in. It seems that my heart had stopped for four minutes while I was watching the news. It had not; I would have noticed. She was insistent, though, so I complied, and had to stay overnight for observation, this time. There were no problems, and she brought in a colleague for a second opinion, and both agreed with my sub rosa opinion: equipment malfunction. The second opinion cardiologist also talked about installing a pace maker, and we agreed that the risk being handled wasn't big enough to warrant the cost or the risk from installation. I remain happily electrode free.
Hopefully, your husband will get off as lightly while avoiding the Brand X equipment malfunctions.
He's diabetic, so already with the meat/fat program, and carbs de-emphasized. Blood sugar usually well controlled. He was doing very well with walking and pool exercises until he hurt his back and would very much like to get back to them.
His brother fiddled with AFib meds for about a decade before getting substantial relief from an ablation. I gather these days they go to ablation faster. Five or six of his relatives have had ablations. His mom survived nearly untreated long-term AFib to die in her 90s.
Was on baby aspirin for years, now taking Eliquis to address the AFib clot risk, because diabetes already made him high risk. It's always tricky, balancing bleed/clot risk.
This was AFib with RVR, leaving him awfully tachy in the ER. It was some work getting it down and steady. He'd just spent a week on a variety of medications to address the severe back pain. Apparently at least one disk is pretty chewed up. Codeine, muscle relaxers, pred, and then antinausea to combat the codeine: he was a chemical storm with a lot of pain and nausea stress thrown in. Much better now at home, but we're going to have to get at the source of that back pain. I've found a PT who will come to the house, if we can figure out the surgery angle one way or another.
The hospital wanted to discharge him onto a skilled nursing floor. No thank you. But we are moving ahead with plans we'd already made to build out the ground-floor garage space into an apartment with an ADA-compliant bathroom.
I don't think--says the non-doctor--the meds soup is doing his heart any good, and especially the pain from his back is stressing his heart. You're right to get after his back pain source and deal with that.
I'm preaching to the choir, I know. Even so, my hopes and prayers for your husband and for you.
I had a similar experience with a home monitor flagging heart-stopping incidents, but generally in the middle of the night. I admit I was skeptical, but I do have the pacemaker, which rarely kicks in, apparently about 2% of the time. It's been in place about 8 years and will need replacing in about 3 more.
My husband's echo showed no valve or ejection-fraction problems, but I didn't like seeing a sustained 155 heart rate with extremely elevated BP in the ER. It took a lot of Cardizem to bring it down and keep it down. That's what put him in the hospital for the weekend, though I sprung him Monday morning by making a pest of myself. We can check his blood sugar, heart rate, blood pressure, and even sinus rhythm right here at home. Here he can eat real food and sleep the night through, if the back pain will let him. There are specific reasons for hospitals, but I believe in getting the heck out of them the instant the specific reasons no longer apply. They're nightmarish institutions.
Pacemakers are getting less intrusive; hopefully you'll benefit from that.
Hospitals aren't set up for individual cases, only for categories of cases. They're pretty good at the categories, but it is useful to leave as soon as possible. Prompt care facilities ought to be suitable subs for a number of problems and perceived problems that aren't life threatening, although my wife's and my experience with them doesn't seem to support that ought to be.
12 comments:
From Governor Abbot's pardon:
WHEREAS, Texas Penal Code § 9.32 (c) provides that a person who is otherwise lawfully present at the location where deadly force is used " is not required to retire before using deadly force" ; and
WHEREAS , on July 25 , 2020 , Daniel Scott Perry, while driving on a public road in Austin, slowed his vehicle as he rounded a corner onto Congress Avenue and encountered a group of protestors obstructing traffic; and
WHEREAS , Daniel Scott Perry's car was immediately surrounded by aggressive protestors who rushed to obstruct, strike, pound , smash, and kick his vehicle; and
WHEREAS , Garrett Foster then approached within 18 inches of Daniel Scott Perry's car, confronted him, and brandished a Kalashnikov-style rifle in the low-ready firing position; and
WHEREAS, Daniel Scott Perry fired his handgun at Garrett Foster to eliminate a perceived threat to his safety and called law enforcement less than one minute later to inform them of the incident; and…
WHEREAS , District Attorney Garza directed the lead detective investigating Daniel Scott Perry to withhold exculpatory evidence from the Grand Jury considering whether to report an indictment;
As the deceased Garret Foster, brandishing a rifle, was part of a mob that surrounded Perry's car and pounded on it, my conclusion is that the deceased wasn't acting in a peaceful fashion. Looks like a pardon was in order.
There is a long-standing conflict between yellow dog Democrat Travis County and the State of Texas, which has tended Republican. Former Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle had prosecuted a number of Republican politicians, though in his defense it should be mentioned he also prosecuted Democrat politicians. But it would appear that Earle's prosecution of Republicans was less successful, which suggests that Earle stretched interpretation of the law to go after Republicans.
I was glad to see this earlier this week.
How's the pup?
My husband is down with a back injury. I'm actually taking care of the house, even to the point of serving 3 meals a day, a new one for me. Hectic, also tending to the 11 animals, but I'm getting the hang of the routine.
The pup is great, thank you for asking. You'd never know he'd met a snake.
You'd never know he'd met a snake.
The important part, it seems to me, is whether he knows he'd met a snake and that whatever he does about the next one is from deliberation informed by that experience.
T99, I trust your husband makes a speedy, and full, recovery.
Eric Hines
Eric, thanks so much. He's 69, and suddenly suffered a severe AFib attack last week for the first time, though his entire family has struggled with it forever. That sure complicated things--put him in the hospital over the weekend, and they kept needing to do images requiring very uncomfortable positions for his back. But we got everything stabilized and all the images they need. Now just waiting on appointments with the cardio and neurosurgical consults. Good concierge doc in Corpus expediting all that, like old-fashioned care, and keeping in constant touch by text or videophone. Putting in an outside elevator finally! People have been urging us to do it for years.
In-house hospital doctors were outstandingly uncommunicative, but the endovascular neurosurgeon consult was terrific and filled in the gaps, while the nursing staff were uniformly attentive and kind. A friend delivered enough pads to enable me to sleep reasonably well on the couch in the room, so I never had to leave him for a minute. Now I'm learing to be a domestic goddess.
Pity Cassandra isn't around to give you tips; she seemed to have that part under control.
My best to your husband.
T99, I have some experience with Afib; I had an event a number of years ago, never repeated. Hopefully your husband will be as fortunate. My father had heart disease all his life, and when I was in high school, had a heart attack (not Afib, an "ordinary" heart attack) on a golf course and another one that killed him while he was in the hospital from the golf course event. Apparently, though, he got to the call button before fading to black, and the responding nurse wouldn't let him stay dead, bringing him back with CPR. He lived another 40 years, healthily, after that. He changed his diet, started getting regular exercise via daily walks, and changed from a high stress job as a grade school principal to a low stress job teaching jr high science.
In my case, I resolved my Afib with a slow, deep breathing exercise I remembered from the Lamaze training my wife and I did preparing for our daughter's birth (and which turns out to be similar to a sniper's calming breathing exercise). My cardiologist made me stop drinking two pots of coffee per day and have only three cups (mugs) per day (she wanted zero; I compromised. I was, and am, too stubborn to let my body disobey me for long). She laid my Afib off to long-term accumulated dehydration and resulting low blood pressure from all that coffee. She also had me start drinking 3 liters of water daily. She coordinated with my GP to put me on a minimum dose of simvastatin for my cholesterol, which my GP already was concerned about, and because the simvastatin is correlated with reduced risk of blood clot-caused stroke. Added to that was was her prescription for 325mg aspirin (a regular pill's worth) daily, also against the clot threat. Throwing a blood clot is the primary risk of Afib, the cardiologist said.
She also said if I didn't have any more events after three years, I didn't need to see her any further. I didn't, and I held her to it. Since then, as I've aged, the risk of bleeding strokes has increased, and I got my GP to reduce my aspirin dose to baby aspirin and then to no aspirin at all over the next several years. She wasn't overruling my cardiologist with the reduction since I hadn't seen my cardiologist for some years when I asked for a revaluation of the relative risk of the two causes of stroke for folks my--and our--age range.
Also regular exercise--60 years after Dad's routine, it includes picking pieces of iron up and putting them back down as well as walking--and a healthier diet that minimizes carbs; emphasizes meat, especially red meat; and doesn't worry about fat, of which there are some essential lipids that the body does not make but are readily available via red meat and omega-3 rich fish. Omega-3 is rich in the eggs of range-fed chickens, too (chickens are carnivores, not herbivores, and when they get their proper diet that includes bugs, including crickets, they're that much healthier). Your husband's mileage may vary on those details, metabolism is not a one-size-fits-all matter. Nor are what constitutes a healthy diet below a relatively high level of generality or what diet suboptimalities we can get away with with minimal effect constants across individuals.
Minimize carbs: doesn't mean no carbs; I still have some potatoes, just not nearly as much as I used to, and I still have an occasional gallon of mint chocolate chip ice cream (spread out over several days), which I pay for with exercise. Minimal carbs does, though, mean no out-and-out sweets for me. Quite apart from all the other, I'm addicted to sugar, and I'd happily eat a box of Ding Dongs at one sitting, and a couple dozen chocolate chip and raisin cookies with oatmeal in them. Giving up the sugar was hard, and we have none in the house. Your husband's mileage may vary here, too.
Eric Hines
T99, couple more things: since I'd resolved my Afib on the gurney in ER, the cardiologist had me moved up to a hospital room for several hours of observation, which included an extensive (it seemed to me) echocardiogram of my heart. I happened to be positioned so I could see the live readout, too; it was pretty cool. It also said my heart looked normal and undamaged, so I was sent home by that evening from the early morning event. My cardiologist also made me wear a heart monitor--4 leads, since that's all my insurance would pay for; she would have preferred a six-lead set up--24 hours per day. That led to the other thing.
A few days later, I was watching the evening news when I got a very firm call from my cardiologist insisting I come right down to the hospital; she'd set things up to check me right in. It seems that my heart had stopped for four minutes while I was watching the news. It had not; I would have noticed. She was insistent, though, so I complied, and had to stay overnight for observation, this time. There were no problems, and she brought in a colleague for a second opinion, and both agreed with my sub rosa opinion: equipment malfunction. The second opinion cardiologist also talked about installing a pace maker, and we agreed that the risk being handled wasn't big enough to warrant the cost or the risk from installation. I remain happily electrode free.
Hopefully, your husband will get off as lightly while avoiding the Brand X equipment malfunctions.
Eric Hines
He's diabetic, so already with the meat/fat program, and carbs de-emphasized. Blood sugar usually well controlled. He was doing very well with walking and pool exercises until he hurt his back and would very much like to get back to them.
His brother fiddled with AFib meds for about a decade before getting substantial relief from an ablation. I gather these days they go to ablation faster. Five or six of his relatives have had ablations. His mom survived nearly untreated long-term AFib to die in her 90s.
Was on baby aspirin for years, now taking Eliquis to address the AFib clot risk, because diabetes already made him high risk. It's always tricky, balancing bleed/clot risk.
This was AFib with RVR, leaving him awfully tachy in the ER. It was some work getting it down and steady. He'd just spent a week on a variety of medications to address the severe back pain. Apparently at least one disk is pretty chewed up. Codeine, muscle relaxers, pred, and then antinausea to combat the codeine: he was a chemical storm with a lot of pain and nausea stress thrown in. Much better now at home, but we're going to have to get at the source of that back pain. I've found a PT who will come to the house, if we can figure out the surgery angle one way or another.
The hospital wanted to discharge him onto a skilled nursing floor. No thank you. But we are moving ahead with plans we'd already made to build out the ground-floor garage space into an apartment with an ADA-compliant bathroom.
I don't think--says the non-doctor--the meds soup is doing his heart any good, and especially the pain from his back is stressing his heart. You're right to get after his back pain source and deal with that.
I'm preaching to the choir, I know. Even so, my hopes and prayers for your husband and for you.
Eric Hines
I had a similar experience with a home monitor flagging heart-stopping incidents, but generally in the middle of the night. I admit I was skeptical, but I do have the pacemaker, which rarely kicks in, apparently about 2% of the time. It's been in place about 8 years and will need replacing in about 3 more.
My husband's echo showed no valve or ejection-fraction problems, but I didn't like seeing a sustained 155 heart rate with extremely elevated BP in the ER. It took a lot of Cardizem to bring it down and keep it down. That's what put him in the hospital for the weekend, though I sprung him Monday morning by making a pest of myself. We can check his blood sugar, heart rate, blood pressure, and even sinus rhythm right here at home. Here he can eat real food and sleep the night through, if the back pain will let him. There are specific reasons for hospitals, but I believe in getting the heck out of them the instant the specific reasons no longer apply. They're nightmarish institutions.
Pacemakers are getting less intrusive; hopefully you'll benefit from that.
Hospitals aren't set up for individual cases, only for categories of cases. They're pretty good at the categories, but it is useful to leave as soon as possible. Prompt care facilities ought to be suitable subs for a number of problems and perceived problems that aren't life threatening, although my wife's and my experience with them doesn't seem to support that ought to be.
Eric Hines
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