On October 10, a Pinkerton hired as a guard by 9News (NBC affiliate) in Denver shot and killed an anti-Black-lives protester. The mainstream media hasn’t been covering it very well because it doesn’t really reflect the preferred narrative of either of the two separate groups of billionaires that control US media. No leftists were involved in this incident.
Pinkerton started out as the Pinkerton National Detective Agency in 1850, and first became famous while working for the Union during the US Civil War. But don’t let that fool you into thinking they were the good guys; they were getting paid, and after the war, the people who could afford to pay were capitalists. Pinkertons became a paramilitary force for big business, and at one time outnumbered the US military. They acted as a private military that was used against unions. They pioneered the use of data collection and infiltration as tools against working people. Though most of their functions were absorbed by government agencies, like the FBI and Secret Service, the company still exists as Pinkerton today, and they’ve been courting wealthy people hoping to make a huge profit by helping them survive the extreme chaos that is coming with climate change.
Given their history and reputation, it was really surprising to see a Pinkerton failing as completely as Matthew Dolloff did on Saturday. Pundits are guessing he will spend a year in prison for the severe escalation of that altercation with the right wing extremist (though I think I might see a way he can lawyer his way out of it; see below).
US law is clear on when you may use deadly force against another person: You must legitimately fear for your life. It’s partially subjective, but a jury is going to have to determine whether you really should have feared for your life if you shoot someone. If you freak out and shoot someone, you may have believed in the moment that you had to shoot, but you also were not being reasonable, and that defense isn’t going to work. And it shouldn’t work — as the person with the gun, you do not have the luxury of irrational panic. It’s hard to say whether the capitalist lackey believed in that moment that the fascist jackass was a threat to his life, but it is clear to everyone else that a punch or a generous dose of pepper spray is rarely a threat to your life.
If you are at a protest and you are armed, you really just have one job. Consider yourself a hammer that will only respond to nails. If you are getting in a fistfight — or even just having a verbal argument with someone — you are making a grave mistake. If someone is behaving aggressively toward you, you need to walk away, and hopefully, you went into the situation with an unarmed person who knows how to deescalate. Any concealed carry trainer worth their salt will tell you this very same thing.
Legal Analysis
I’m not a lawyer and this doesn’t reflect the opinion of the club as a whole.
I do not think deadly force was justified; it’s a mess, though, and I would hate to be on that jury. There is an animation of the still photos that shows most of the event (warning: death) but not the moments preceding it.
Since Dolloff and Pinkerton (edit: also 9News) are likely to both be the subject of a wrongful death suit from the biker’s family, Pinkerton will put its support behind Dolloff. A dismissal or lesser conviction would greatly reduce the amount of the award of the wrongful death suit. Pinkerton also wants to minimize damage to its reputation.
Pinkerton’s lawyers will claim that Dolloff was present near the biker as part of his job guarding a 9News producer; it seems as if Dolloff was trying to get between the biker and the 9News producer when the biker assaulted him (looks like a smack) but I don’t have confirmation on that detail. Pinkerton’s lawyers will portray this as Dolloff defending the producer from a physical attack initiated by the biker. They will claim that as Dolloff was retreating after the smack, he believed that the biker was drawing a firearm, and responded by shooting the biker. (That the biker was also retreating is somewhat irrelevant if Dolloff believed the biker was drawing a gun.) They will attempt to shift responsibility to the biker by claiming that the Pinkerton was disoriented and somewhat blinded (due to his sunglasses having been knocked askew) because the biker assaulted him.
It’s unclear whether that will work. The outcome will probably come down to what happened before the Pinkerton touched the biker (i.e., whether the initial physical attack came from the Pinkerton or the biker), but the above defense coupled with Dolloff’s status as a legitimate agent of capital will likely allow him to get away with only a minor conviction regardless. Pinkerton will push for a plea deal to get out of a public trial and the prosecuting attorney will be happy to oblige; the two sides might agree to a hefty fine.
Finally, Dolloff was not licensed as an armed security guard, which is required in Denver, but this is a relatively small matter.