I was watching some big shot news station and they brought up a good debate that i think will do well here at trap.

The topic or story was.........

There was a guy who stole a car and ran from the cops. while in pursuit two news helicopters collided trying to get this chase on film. the pilots of both helicopters died.

Now they are wanting to pin the deaths on the guy that stole the car.

The main argument they had against the guy was that he started a chain of events that lead to these deaths.

the main argument they had to defend him was that he had no hand in it at all. sure he stole the car but he didn't make the helicopters pursue him. and he wasn't in any control of these helicopters. and couldn't have prevented it at all.

so my question is............

Do you think that this man should get the manslaughter charge they are thinking about pinning on him?
(i already know what i think, i want to know what you think)

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/07/27/helicopter.crash/index.html

This post has been edited by arza1: Aug 1 2007, 05:07 PM

lol You beat me to the topic. This is a really interesting story I think and at first I thought ya maybe he should be charged, but was it really his fault? What are the jobs of those who drive the helicopters? To watch the crime occur or to help spot the chase car, etc; So they were doing their job, what they were supposed to do in a situation like that. Of course the pilots job is to also watch where they are going, how they didn't notice another helicopter I don't know. Personally I don't think the guy should be charged for that because they weren't doing their job correctly. If they weren't skilled they wouldn't have taken the job in the first place but that's the risk they take.

Well the guy shouldn't have stolen the car in the first placed. Frankly if he has decided to break the law; anything that occurs whilst he is comitting the crime should be added to his charges whether he meant it to happen or not. I'd suggest double man slaughter- serves him right.
I agree with Plenoptic, the pilots really should've been skilled enough to avoid each other- maybe the companies they were hired from should be investigated.

This post has been edited by elaks: Aug 1 2007, 05:50 PM

My husband told me about this the other night. I think it's totally bogus to charge him with the deaths of the people in the helicopters. Like Pleno said, they people in the helicopters were doing their job, trying to catch the best angle for the news. It's the pilot's job to make sure that they are safe while doing this. If it had been a news chopper that crashed into a police chopper, I think that the police would feel differently.
Personally, though, I think it's stupid to watch high speed chases. Then again, I don't watch COPS or things like that. I'd much rather watch something informative rather than some idiot trying to run from the police. I gave up on the evening news long ago because it's become more of an entertainment/tabloidish show than real journalism. I'll stick to the AP wire and the BBC News.

Actually the guy is liable for those deaths since he was the indirect cause of that accident; however, for the lawyer to prove that, he/she has to discredit pilot error which most likely was the cause. It is the same scenario if you were in a car accident and your passenger dies, you are held liable for that cause of death. I can't think of the term but it's meaning has to do with the indirect cause of someone's death, just because you didn't actually do it, but were part of it, your held liable for it.

I would say he should be brought up on murder charges since people did die while on a police chase.

No of course not that is just stupid. I mean it is entirely not his fault unless he made the helicopter colide with telekenetic abilities Whoever came up with the idea of charging this guy with that is really stupid.

i am glad that all of you fell the same as i do. it is stupid that they would even try to pin it on him. sure he did commit a crime and an accident indirectly followed. but think if all deaths that happened were blamed on a person that really had nothing to do with it. i wonder if any of us have killed anyone through a chain of events. very likely but hard to tell.

This post has been edited by arza1: Aug 2 2007, 01:05 AM

Well, this is an interesting story. My view would be that he should be charged with their deaths; however, not for manslaughter, but a lesser crime since he couldn't stop it, but I think since he had a part of it eh should be charged for it. Like if a cop was chasing him and ended up crashing and dieing the theif would be charged for the cops death as well. I think in any crime, if the someone is injured or killed, the criminal is at least partially at fault wether he/she could stop it or not.

Probably have to say since he was involved (however i