Could The Good Guy Win This Time—Even In Massachusetts?

I wrote about the Anthony McKay defending his home and property in Swampscott when this story first broke a few weeks ago:

Swampscott, MA cops have a message for all citizens: If someone wants to rob you—let them!”

The direct quote: “We don’t urge anybody to (fight back),” [Police spokesman] Cassidy said. “We want them to call us.”...

These charges should be dropped immediately to send a message to punks that if you get your butt kicked by a righteous citizen, you’re going to jail—not him. If we had more McKays in Massachusetts, we’d have fewer crimes.

But no—here in MassBackwards, we’re punishing the good guy to prevent more good guys. Our government is making the price of self-defense so high that you’ll just give up and let your neighbors rob you.

When you lose (your property, security, health)—Martha wins!

The good news is that a local attorney, Richard Chambers, has agreed to take Anthony’s case pro bono.  If the DA refuses to do the right thing and drop the charges, at least Anthony isn’t going to go broke hiring lawyers to defend himself.

In fact, now that he has a lawyer, I predict that the charges will soon be dropped—or pled down to a disappearing misdemeanor—because the prosecutors know there’s no way a jury is going to convict a working man of a crime for protecting his family from a knife-packing, club-wielding drug dealer.

The only reason the charges were brought in the first place was to send a message to the good guys that, in the opinion of MA politicians, it’s your job to let the bad guys win. If McKay wins—that’s good news for everyone.

UPDATE! Here’s my Boston Herald column on the Anthony McKay story, entitled “Jawbreaker Justice.”