My former neighbor's substack below:
Actor Alec Baldwin got away with murder Friday, as wealthy, famous liberals tend to do.
Okay, if you want to be picky, he got away with homicide—the unlawful killing of another human being. Murder is a legal term that sits at the peak of killing-other-people crimes. Baldwin had been charged with unintentional manslaughter. A New Mexico State judge let the trial wander around for a week before doing what she was always going to do—let Baldwin go. The idea was that the prosecution had hidden some bullets from the defense, ergo, Baldwin had to walk.
The main reason he got away with it was the reality that New Mexico spends $120 million a year handing out tax credits for movie production, and jailing one of the country’s best-known actors wouldn’t be great for business. New Mexico doesn’t have a lot of industry—tourism, federal laboratories, and movies.
So the judge in the case seized her first chance to dismiss the charges against Baldwin, with prejudice—meaning the case can’t be brought again.
We live in a world where justice its not always served—I realize that. But Baldwin’s case irks me because he shot the woman who died, the cinematographer of his movie Rust. Baldwin was holding the loaded gun. Baldwin pulled the trigger. The gun fired a hefty .45 caliber slug into Halyna Hutchins, his cinematographer, then went into the movie’s director, who was also standing behind the camera. The director survived; Hutchins didn’t.
At first Baldwin swore he never pulled the trigger of the gun, but a little work with the weapon showed it couldn’t be fired without pulling the trigger.Then Baldwin said making sure the gun was clear wasn’t his responsibility.
And that’s where we part ways. The person holding the gun is always responsible for it. My father had his failings, but he sure as hell drilled into me how guns should be handled. Sometimes he would load a gun without telling me and then see whether I checked it or not. Sometimes he wouldn’t load it to see if I checked. Crossing fences safely, carrying a gun safely—all that was in there. He made it very clear—the person holding the gun is responsible for its safety, no matter what someone else tells them.
Alec Baldwin should have been found guilty of manslaughter. He was holding the gun, he pulled the trigger. Q.E.D. I wouldn’t even care if he’d gotten a suspended sentence.
But Alec Baldwin will now finish his little Western and tell one and all they should shoot their movies in New Mexico. Great climate, forgiving legal system. No doubt, as a good liberal, he will also oppose the Second Amendment while using guns in all his movies and hiring well-armed bodyguards to keep him safe.
And Halyna Hutchins? Well, Alec will say, it was ail just a terrible mistake.