By: David Rice
To: Fredric Rice
Re: Only $10 to Join

FORT WORTH, Texas (ITN) * A group calling itself Dead Serious
is offering $5,000 to anyone who legally kills to protect
family, home or personal property.

Most anyone willing to fork over $10 a year can join. Members
get two Dead Serious stickers meant to warn off the criminal
element. And any member who kills in self defense gets a
$5,000 reward. Of course, that's only if authorities find the
use of deadly force was appropriate. "People say you
shouldn't have to pay $5,000 to do the right thing," said
William Mitchell, 23, the group's Dallas-area representative.
"That is incentive, that is insurance," said Mitchell, who
spends his days fixing broken city water mains. "If someone
breaks into your house and you kill them, this buys you the
insurance that he will not break into another house. This
person will never hurt you again, will never hurt anybody
again."

The group apparently isn't breaking any laws but authorities
advise members, estimated at about 800 in 13 states, to be
cautious.

"It's going to be difficult to convince a jury you killed in
self-defense if you're claiming a reward for killing," said
Assistant Tarrant County District Attorney Marvin Collins,
who is a former federal prosecutor.

Furthermore, the use of lethal force has tough consequences,
Dallas police spokesman Ed Spencer said.

"We just don't think that many citizens can really fully
understand those legal, moral and ethical issues associated
with taking someone's life," Spencer said.

Founder Darrell Frank, 35, says the group is an outgrowth of
a failed system -- one with which he is closely acquainted.

Frank has done time in Texas and Minnesota for burglary,
aggravated assault and larceny. Out of prison for more than a
decade, he considers his criminal past long behind him.

He calls the group a crime deterrent, saying prisons, jails
and courts are losing impact and taxpayers are tired of
paying the freight.

Although no one has yet made a claim for the $5,000, Mitchell
said he'd like the first application to come from a woman.

"That would make a statement," Mitchell said. "It would say,
'No, this is not just a bunch of 'bubbas' out here doing
this; this is women and other people also, and we're going to
stand up for ourselves too."'


... Creationism--the belief that common sense is wrong.