In Israel, an attack from Palestinians is met with swift and justified force. In California, an attack from Palestinians gets you charged with a hate crime. A man, minding his own business in Fresno was accosted by pro-Palestine protesters. He responded with pepper spray and now finds himself facing 3 counts of assault with hate crime enhancements.
There was a big “Free Palestine” protest in Fresno, California over the weekend, which is as weird as it sounds. Who knew there were so many Palestinians in Fresno?
As GV Wire reports, 62-year-old Brian Lee Turner was sitting in his car at a stop light when a car full of pro-Palestine protesters flying flags pulled up next to him. The men in the car demanded that Turner pledge his loyalty to Palestine and when he refused, they began cussing him out.
The police report says that one of the pro-Palestinian men got out of the car and approached Turner “in an aggressive manner.” Turner pulled out some pepper spray and hit the aggressor in the face. The protester returned to the car and the men continued to harass Turner, so he hit the entire group with another spurt of pepper spray.
Fresno Police Lt. Rob Beckwith told ABC 30 that the first shot of pepper spray was okay but the second is why they arrested Turner.
“The fact that he continues to spray the pepper spray and douse all of those subjects in the car, that would be an assault at that point,” said Lt. Beckwith.
Turner was initially charged with 3 counts of assault with a caustic chemical/flammable substance and bonded out of jail. However, after pressure from the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) the DA has added 3 hate crime enhancements.
The 3 men who accosted Turner recorded part of the incident with no audio and that is apparently the basis of the hate crime charges. ABC 30 also reports:
The men hit by pepper spray told Action News that Turner yelled crude anti-Palestinian sentiments at them before spraying them.
So the DA is taking the word of the 3 assholes who started the whole thing as proof this was a hate crime?
I guarantee Turner has no idea who or what Palestinians are, nor does he give a flying f*ck about whatever they are bitching about. He was trying to get home when a bunch of weirdoes started f*cking with him. They came at him aggressively and he protected himself with pepper spray. Play stupid games, win stupid prizes. There is no crime here, let alone a hate crime.
Turner didn’t seek out and target these pro-Palestine protesters, they came after him. They initiated the contact and escalated the situation. The only thing Turner is guilty of is defending himself against some radical thugs. In California, that is apparently a big no-no.
In any red state, Turner could have shot and killed all of those aggressors and it would have been a justified act of self-defense. In blue states, only Antifa and Black Lives Matter are allowed to pepper spray people because it’s a “social justice” issue.
If Turner is convicted, he faces 6 years in prison but Islamic activists are pushing for the feds to charge him which could put him away for 10 years.
