"Neighbor" Vigilantes Who Arrested Moving-in Couple Are Arrested

[Johnfromokc]

OK Zimmerbots - What do y'all think about this? I know what the rational members will think.

A Newton County man and his son who authorities said held a gun on the new owners of a neighboring home were arrested Monday night and charged with aggravated assault, false imprisonment and criminal trespass.

Porterdale resident Robert Canoles said he has no second thoughts about interrupting what he thought was a robbery in progress Thursday night at his neighbor's house -- though he is now facing criminal charges just days after deputies lauded his armed response.

Canoles said he and his teenage son, Branden, heard noises from the once-foreclosed home next door, vacant for seven months. They grabbed their AR-15s and snuck up behind a man and woman fiddling with the front door lock.

Jean-Joseph Kalonji, 61, and his 57-year-old wife, Angelica, following their real estate agent's advice, had driven to Porterdale to change the locks on the home their son Bruno Kalonji had just purchased. They found themselves prisoners of two men they didn't know clutching semi-automatic rifles


"Shut up or I'll shoot," Canoles allegedly told the couple after they tried to explain that their son now owned the modest home sitting on 11 acres. Canoles asked to see the closing paperwork, which the Kalonjis didn't have.

For roughly 10 minutes, the Kalonjis -- who moved to the U.S. from Zaire in the late 1990s to escape persecution from the brutal Mobutu regime -- stood nervously, arms lifted over their heads, backs turned to the gunmen.

"I didn't know who they were," Jean-Joseph Kalonji told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Monday. "Were they there to rob us?"

Their fears were lifted when deputies from the Newton County Sheriff's Department, contacted by Canoles, arrived. But their relief was short-lived. The deputies, demanding proof the home was theirs, handcuffed the Kalonjis.

"I told them, ‘Call my son, he'll tell you,' " said Jean-Joseph Kalonji, a teacher in Zaire who found work as an electrician after moving to America. "I begged them to call him, but they wouldn't do it."

The couple were booked into jail, charged with loitering and prowling.

Canoles, meanwhile, said he was praised by the responding officers.

"The police told me I did a good job," said Canoles, 45, who was never questioned that night. He spoke again with deputies on Friday and said he was cleared of any wrongdoing.

Now, four days later, Canoles finds himself facing charges after the Newton County Sheriff's Office and District Attorney met Monday with the Kalonjis and their attorney, Don Samuel.

Samuel typically handles a higher-profile clientele, including NFL star Ray Lewis, former Atlanta Thrashers star Dany Heatley and rapper T.I.

The lawyer said he took the case as a favor to Bruno Kalonji, who had taught his kids soccer. Charges against the elder Kalonjis were dropped while the sheriff promised an internal investigation into the deputies' actions.

The Kalonjis said they were also given assurances that their new neighbor will face charges for what Samuel called his "vigilante justice."

"If police had just made the one phone call to Bruno, this all could've been avoided," Samuel said.

On Monday, Canoles and his son were summoned for another interview with Newton County officials, who told them to bring in their guns.

They turned themselves in about 10 p.m. Monday and were booked into the Newton County Jail just before midnight, according to sheriff's spokesman Mark Mitchell. They were being held without bond Tuesday, online jail records show.

"I don't know what they can charge me with," Canoles said late Monday afternoon, before the interview with authorities. "This is my Second Amendment right. Look, this is the country out here, and we protect our own."

Meanwhile, his neighbors are having second thoughts about moving into their new home, purchased, along with the 11 acres, for $55,000 -- a dream come true, said Bruno Kalonji. He plans to build a soccer field on his land while his agrarian parents, who will share the home with their daughter-in-law and grandson, look forward to raising chickens on the bucolic spread.

"We're waiting to move," Bruno Kalonji said. "We're still afraid of what the guy next door might do."

 

[All Else Failed]

Your continual use of "Zimmerbot" only means you're not interested in any sort of conversation.

At all.


There is no more reason to engage in any sort of debate with you since you're already not going to want to approach it from any other angle besides "I am right and everyone else is a fuckhead".

 

[Kakapo Dundee]

America......no closer to civilisation since the days of the Wild West.

 

[All Else Failed]

America......no closer to civilisation since the days of the Wild West.

You have no idea what "civilisation" even means.


It seems like all of your opinions are based off of inaccurate stereotypes that have been fed to you through the mass media.

 

[Kakapo Dundee]

really? a man buys a house and the first interaction he has with his neighbours is a gun in his face?

That kind of bullshit will get you arrested in pretty much any country other than the States.

 

[All Else Failed]

really? a man buys a house and the first interaction he has with his neighbours is a gun in his face?

one incident = a condemnation of the entire united states


nice to see how your mind works

 

[Kakapo Dundee]

You're not experienced or intelligent enough yet to imagine how my mind works.

You just presumed that I base my opinion of your country on one newspaper article.

Shows your lack of judgement.

 

[Joe the meek]

It seems like all of your opinions are based off of inaccurate stereotypes that have been fed to you through the mass media.

It seems more than naught that many US citizens give the mass media much to right about with their stupidity and firearms.

What's really sad IMO is that a bunch of "gun nuts" usually defend the stupidity.

Personally, every person should not have the right to own a gun just because they can breathe and they haven't been thrown in jail.

 

[All Else Failed]

You're not experienced or intelligent enough yet to imagine how my mind works.

You just presumed that I base my opinion of your country on one newspaper article.

Shows your lack of judgement.

haha oh man, the air of superiority you have is baffling

Personally, every person should not have the right to own a gun just because they can breathe and they haven't been thrown in jail.

Personally, I'm pretty thankful that law abiding citizens can own. Compared to how many firearms that are legally owned in the US, gun crime is incredibly low.

 

[Kakapo Dundee]

The problem with laws is that they are written on the assumption that the citizens are at least as smart as the lawmakers.
No doubt the idiot who pointed a gun at this elderly couple and continued to harass them even after they had given a reasonable explanation for their presence, and demonstrated authority by being in posession of keys, thought that he was doing the right thing.

Unfortunately, he seems to be a moron. What earthly risk is an elderly couple going to be if they enter a foreclosed house without authority?Is the threat of lethal force justified? I can't see it.

 

[Kakapo Dundee]

haha oh man, the air of superiority you have is baffling

I'm sure you find a lot of things baffling.:24:

What I find baffling is that the police dispatched to the scene appeared to be devoid of commonsense as well.

 

[Johnfromokc]

What's really sad IMO is that a bunch of "gun nuts" usually defend the stupidity.

The Zimmerbigot threads are irrefutable evidence of that. Case in point:

Personally, I'm pretty thankful that law abiding citizens can own. Compared to how many firearms that are legally owned in the US, gun crime is incredibly low.

I went Zimmerbot fishing and caught a Largemouth Zimmerbass on the first cast.

 

[Alien Allen]

Unfortunately, he seems to be a moron. What earthly risk is an elderly couple going to be if they enter a foreclosed house without authority?Is the threat of lethal force justified? I can't see it.

The same could be said about what some people go thru at security at the airports.

There is no age limit on the ability to commit crimes as far as I know.

 

[Johnfromokc]

The same could be said about what some people go thru at security at the airports.

There is no age limit on the ability to commit crimes as far as I know.

Are you actually defending these redneck fucktards Allen? Seriously???

 

[Kakapo Dundee]

The same could be said about what some people go thru at security at the airports.

There is no age limit on the ability to commit crimes as far as I know.

Perhaps you should travel more. The abuse of privacy excesses are largely restricted to departures from American airports.

As to the age limit for crime? there's no age limit for commonsense either. If you're that much of a busybody that you feel it's your responsibility to come out like Rambo whenever someone approaches an empty house in your neighborhood, you should be smart and polite enough to back off when given a plausible explanation for their presence.

 

[Tim]

The same could be said about what some people go thru at security at the airports.

There is no age limit on the ability to commit crimes as far as I know.

You are absolutely correct...

But, and this is a huge but... These idiots with the guns AND the deputies seemed to be completely void of common sense and/or intelligence.

1. It was an elderly couple
2. They had keys
3. They had new locks with them
4. They had a very plausible story

Any if there were ANY doubts to their story, it could have been cleared up with a call to their son or the bank...

I absolutely could NOT see holding an elderly couple at gun point. At the absolute worst case, I may walk over with my weapon on me if crime was really bad, but I would have a conversation, not just point a weapon at them...

And I would really like to know if you could ever make the case to do what these yahoos did...

Just these facts alone would have lead the average person

 

[Mercury]

You are absolutely correct...

But, and this is a huge but... These idiots with the guns AND the deputies seemed to be completely void of common sense and/or intelligence.

1. It was an elderly couple
2. They had keys
3. They had new locks with them
4. They had a very plausible story

Any if there were ANY doubts to their story, it could have been cleared up with a call to their son or the bank...

I absolutely could NOT see holding an elderly couple at gun point. At the absolute worst case, I may walk over with my weapon on me if crime was really bad, but I would have a conversation, not just point a weapon at them...

And I would really like to know if you could ever make the case to do what these yahoos did...

Just these facts alone would have lead the average person

3. They had new locks with them

This is what I don't get ... one would think with their explanation and these new locks on them, it would have been pretty obvious.

 

[Kakapo Dundee]

The vigilantes



The householders that they held at gunpoint.

I'm still mystified that the local deputies didn't tell the two hillbillies to put away their semi-automatic rifles and stop acting like a pair of jackasses.I'd hate to think that there are still staff in the police department who think that part of their duties is to protect the good ole boys from the insidious evil of mixed marriage.

 

[Joe the meek]

I may walk over with my weapon on me if crime was really bad, but I would have a conversation, not just point a weapon at them...

Leaving your property and taking a gun for the sole intent to "talk to people to see what they're up to" is a VERY bad idea.

Fact is, when in doubt, call the police and you've done your part.

I don't expect my neighbors to come to my house with guns to investigate something they aren't sure of, I'd expect them to call the police to come and have them check it out. Even though I live in a rural area, when I called the sheriff's department to help with a neighbors loose cow, they were there in less than 10 minutes.

 

[Joe the meek]

Personally, I'm pretty thankful that law abiding citizens can own. Compared to how many firearms that are legally owned in the US, gun crime is incredibly low.

Just because someone isn't stupid enough to be thrown in jail doesn't mean their intelligent enough to own guns IMO.

I use to think that some of the indoor gun ranges we're nuts for some of the rules and regulations they strictly enforced, but then after thinking about some of the numb nuts at the outdoor ranges I came across, can understand why you need to try to regulate stupidity.

Ted Nugent is a prime example of why I gave up my NRA membership LOL