Pa. man charged in Amish buggy horse shooting
Source: LANCASTERONLINE
http://lancasteronline.com/news/pennsylvania/charges-in-amish-buggy-drive-by-that-killed-horse/article_2e860dd5-10a5-5eaa-8cf6-2277ceaa2b50.html
RONKS, Pa. (AP) A man from the heart of Pennsylvania's Amish country faces charges in a drive-by shooting that killed a horse pulling a buggy with five people inside.
Timothy Antonio Diggs Jr. lives in Ronks, in Lancaster County. He was charged Wednesday with reckless endangerment, cruelty to animals and a weapons offense.
Diggs has been jailed since Dec. 3 on unrelated burglary charges and can't be reached for comment.
Police say an Amish man reported on Nov. 23 that as a car passed his buggy he heard a firecracker noise but continued to his farm, unaware the noise was a gunshot.
Read more: http://lancasteronline.com/news/pennsylvania/charges-in-amish-buggy-drive-by-that-killed-horse/article_2e860dd5-10a5-5eaa-8cf6-2277ceaa2b50.html
WTH???? These are the a-wholes who carry guns!!!
onehandle
(51,122 posts)valerief
(53,235 posts)msanthrope
(37,549 posts)magical thyme
(14,881 posts)I really didn't have any hope they would.
That poor, poor horse was just doing his job. Even though he was shot, he got his people home safely before he collapsed. Just heartbreaking.
aint_no_life_nowhere
(21,925 posts)I remember a scene from the movie Witness in which Harrison Ford was subject to scorn and abuse from outsiders while living among the Amish. They hold their own bizarre and perhaps unsavory religious outlook that might differ from that of others. Is that it? Or is it that they don't wish to participate in American consumerist society? While I wouldn't like to live in an Amish community and follow their religious practices, I feel kind of a kinship with their rejection of modern society; I would like to get away from TV, cell phones, cars, and the incessant rat race to compete with my fellow citizens for material things. I'd love to go to town using a horse and buggy instead of a car but probably no community would let me ride one down main street unless it was part of my religion.
sked14
(579 posts)and Harrison Ford put those punks in their place.
enough
(13,237 posts)Amish community (it's a lot easier than what they used to do, which was to have the land-line telephone in a little booth, much like an outhouse, away from the house.) Amish work crews travel daily all over the region in big vans driven by non-Amish. They are avid users of fungicides and pesticides in their commercial greenhouses, and don't feel any need to protect themselves or their children from the spray. They graze cows right down to the the edge of their streams (and into the streams) with no concern for buffering or water quality.
I am very happy to live in an area with a lot of Amish, who have always been good neighbors and prevent the land from being sold to developers. But the idea that the Amish are some sort of noble agrarians is mistaken.
(Just to be clear, I think the shooting of a horse is abominable, both for the crime against the horse and the danger to the people in the buggy.)
Spitfire of ATJ
(32,723 posts)enough
(13,237 posts)aint_no_life_nowhere
(21,925 posts)Or are you exposed to a small sampling in the area where you live? I studied the Amish in law school in a course of education law some years ago, including the famous case of Wisconsin v. Yoder. They were described as involved in an environment definitely separate and apart from that of modern America and I dare say that most of the glimpses into their communities I've seen since then have been consistent with that lifestyle.
This wikipedia article suggests that older Amish still prohibit use of electricity from outside sources, the telephone, and automobiles.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amish_life_in_the_modern_world
enough
(13,237 posts)Absolutely my experience is of a particular and limited geographical area. This is Lancaster County, PA, which is a centuries-old historic center of Amish life, but from which many Amish have migrated in order to get away from the pressures of life in the area.
There are real estate pressures (at least there were before the recent crash) and economic pressures, both resulting from the high level of population in surrounding areas.
Many Amish have migrated west to Ohio, upstate New York, the midwest. So what we have here is a deeply entrenched society with profound pressures for change. A very interesting situation.
Response to aint_no_life_nowhere (Reply #4)
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sybylla
(8,464 posts)I live in an Amish neighborhood in Wisconsin. There are several Amish and Mennonite communities in my county. They constantly experience harassment and are the victim of crimes simply because they are Amish. Their businesses get burnt down. Their buggies are run off the road. Their children are assaulted as they walk home.
It's sick. And if the county prosecutor had more than three brain cells to rub together, they'd add on a hate crime charge.
billh58
(6,635 posts)"responsible" gun owners who fill highway signs full of holes just for the hell of it.
Spitfire of ATJ
(32,723 posts)Response to Spitfire of ATJ (Reply #7)
magical thyme This message was self-deleted by its author.
Recursion
(56,582 posts)Spitfire of ATJ
(32,723 posts)There is something I've seen from Conservatives where they treat the Ahmish like they're a bunch of hippies in a cult.
Recursion
(56,582 posts)I just remember from the last time I was in Bucks county that there were a lot of young jackasses from Philly and Trenton who loved to go out joyriding and mess with people.
Recursion
(56,582 posts)So judging by their past accuracy the shooter is probably a 90-year-old woman.
Spitfire of ATJ
(32,723 posts)Historic NY
(37,449 posts)KinMd
(966 posts)that Mr. Diggs will spend a large part of his life as a guest of the Pennsylvania Department of Correction. And the one he should have shot is whoever gave him that haircut
HappyMe
(20,277 posts)valerief
(53,235 posts)Curmudgeoness
(18,219 posts)before they knew it was shot. Valiant horse.
Shooter, not so valiant. Asshole.