Michael Stone
02/3/2011
7:31 p.m.

Raymond Allen Davis, a U.S. Consular Worker, is charged with murder after allegedly shooting and killing two Pakistanis he thought were trying to rob in after visiting an ATM in Lahore. Davis claims that after visiting the ATM, he came to a busy intersection in his car. That is when the two men approached his car and fired his Bareta at the threat. One victim died on the scene with four bullets found in him and the other victim died on route to the hospital caused by the three gunshot wounds. A third man was killed riding an motorcycle by a man driving a van coming to the distress call from Davis. The police detained Davis for six days after the incident to further interrogate him and to try to get some more information about the situation. The U.S. Embassy wanted Davis release from custody saying he was being "unlawfully detained". Davis claimed to have fired in self-defense even though self-defense is only admissible to aim at non-life threatening parts of the assailant's body, such as arms or legs. Merely being approached by someone wielding a gun is insufficient cause under law for the victim to pull the trigger. The local provincial law minister, Rana Sanaullah, said no US pressure would be allowed to influence Davis’s case, should it come to a criminal court. “We will not accept any pressure in this case. The guilty will be punished and the innocent will get justice,” he told reporters.

I believe this case is just one more problem that the U.S. and Pakistan has with one another. Pakistan is an anti-America place and this tragic event has caused riots and protest everywhere in the city of Lahore. Pakistani officals has made it clear that if this case is taken to criminal court, they will not be pressured from any outside source, especially the U.S. When it comes down to it, this is a simple case of BIG COUNTRY vs. little country. The U.S. believes they can commit a crime but not do the time just because they think they are better than everybody else and we have a bigger and more powerful army. Wrong is wrong regardless of the severity of the crime or who committed it.