Luis del Pino, Fran Tarrío and the courage to defend what is right when it is unpopular

@ElentirENG ES 4·20·2024 · 7:05 0

For a long time I have been criticizing the lack of rigor of some media when it comes to dealing with information, and today I reaffirm this.

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These days there has been a lot of talk in the media about the conviction of an elderly man from Ciudad Real for the crime of homicide, for having shot dead a thief who entered his property with several shots. As you have seen, it is an issue that I have not addressed until now in Counting Stars. As I recently commented on Twitter, I don't like to talk about events on the blog, because doing so runs a considerable risk, which is trusting the incomplete versions published by many media outlets.

For some time now I have been criticizing the parallel judgments made by some journalists, with incomplete data and often with a staggering lack of knowledge about very basic legal issues. A rigorous treatment of the information could serve to reveal a judicial process that has been incorrect, in which the accused has not enjoyed the procedural guarantees of a democratic country and in which committed an injustice. But journalism without rigor when reporting on these issues runs the risk of discrediting judges who do their job correctly, which is to examine all the evidence and indications about a specific case and make a judgment applying the legislation in force in that specific case.

To do such a complex job, many judges have dedicated years of their lives to studying their careers, and they also dedicate many years of their work to doing a rigorous and professional job. The same can be said about lawyers, or at least those who have honored that profession with admirable work for a long time.

In Galicia we have a great lawyer, Fran Tarrío, who in addition to being a judicious man, has a gift as rare - and at the same time so necessary - in today's society as defending what he considers correct with rational and legal arguments, putting truth above popularity. If I had to face a judicial process, I would fully trust him as a lawyer, because he is an excellent person and a great professional. I can't say the same about many journalists.

This Tuesday, Tarrío published a text on Twitter addressing the trial of that old man from Ciudad Real, and he did so remembering something that we should all be very clear about: "there is no right to impunity for any deadly conduct in defense of your home". That is to say, the fact that someone enters your house to steal does not give you the right to kill them, unless that person threatens your life.

Tarrío wrote something that many should take into account when evaluating his words: "I know that this will not be popular among many people who follow me, but I want to be, as always, honest and faithful to my principles, wrong or not and, of course, subject to criticism from which to learn." As expected, unfortunately, he has not only received criticism, but also many insults, and all for being honest and faithful to his principles as a person and as a lawyer.

This Thursday, another person I admire, the journalist Luis del Pino, published a reflection on Twitter very similar to the one written by Tarrío:

Self-defense is someone entering your house armed and you shooting them to save your life. Going out of your house into the yard and shooting someone unarmed who did not intend to enter your house is NOT self-defense. Nor does it point to a state of fear, but rather anger.

To say this, the reactions have been very similar to the responses received by Tarrío. Convenience encourages me not to get into this mess, about which I had not published anything, and to deal with other current issues, but it would seem cowardly to me to see that two people are being attacked for acting honestly simply because they have decided that between defending what is right and defending what is popular, they prefer to defend what is right. I say the right thing, because reading the proven facts of the sentence, published yesterday by La Tribuna de Ciudad Real, I believe that Fran Tarrío and Luis del Pino are right.

According to the proven facts, the old man not only shot at a thief who was not armed and therefore did not threaten his life (he had a chainsaw turned off, not with the intention of using it, but to steal it) but He also returned to the house to reload his shotgun to finish off the intruder again with a third shot.

That is not self-defense by any means, and I care little how some media outlets want to sell it to us. In Spain there is no death penalty, and no one has the right to apply it on their own to someone for having entered a property to steal. Accepting otherwise would be very dangerous: what if it were a child who had entered the property to retrieve a lost ball? Some would also say that anyone has the right to kill anyone who sneaks onto the property. your property, as if this were an area where the rule of law does not govern?

On social media there is often talk about the lack of rigor of many journalists and their courage when it comes to defending the truth and one's own principles. What Fran Tarrío and Luis del Pino have done is, precisely, to approach that case with rigor and courage, knowing that they were going to receive criticism from many people who have not even taken the trouble to review the proven facts indicated in that court ruling. It outrages me that two admirable people receive an avalanche of criticism and insults for something like this, and I prefer to risk enduring it myself to defend them, than to remain cowardly silent seeing that some people insult and discredit two people honored for acting with rigor and honesty.

For the rest, I think that it is time for some of you to decide what kind of communicators you want. If what you want is to be told what you want to hear, even if it is a lie, surely Luis del Pino, Fran Tarrío and this blog are not what you are looking for. An honest communicator must be able to tell the truth even if it bothers and hurts, and above all, even if to defend it he has to face the incomprehension of many. As history shows, we all want to be the brave loner who defends his principles in front of the entire crowd once he has been proven right, but the difficult thing is to put yourself in the role of that person at that precise moment. moment. Personally, I prefer to risk losing readers rather than betray my conscience and my principles. A hug and all my support for Fran and Luis.

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Photo: Anthony Tori.