Stupid is …
A Florida white couple allegedly shot at two black men with a child who were merely returning a U-Haul rental van.
The couple (photos below) hid inside another U-Haul with guns, waiting to ambush people they claim have been stealing gas (presumably from U-Haul vehicles, as no gas pumps are seen in the photo of the strip mall.) Read story here.
They approached the black men with drawn guns, attempted to arrest them, and fired at them when they sped away, which seems like a reasonable thing for people being shot at to do. A police officer in the parking lot at the time arrested the couple.
The wife, after being arrested by police and contacted by the press, cited “riots” as their motivation and complained the incident was being “blown out of proportion” in news media. It apparently didn’t occur to her that she might have blown a couple of black guys only returning a U-Haul rental out of proportion. There were protests in Tallahassee in late May that resulted in a few broken windows in a bank building but were otherwise “largely peaceful” (story here).
She denied racially profiling the men, and said race had nothing to do with it, asserting she didn’t even see what color the people she was shooting at were, in which case she probably couldn’t see a barn painted red, or that she was shooting at a child, either.
Update: The couple pleaded guilty to aggravated assault and were sentenced to 33 months in prison (see story here).
… as stupid does.
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