Criminal law, International

The True Heart and True Hero: Col. Arnaud Beltrame
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Photo released by French Ministry

The world lost a hero this week whose sacrifice should be an inspiration to everyone fighting extremism and terrorism.  Col. Arnaud Beltrame put his gun down and traded himself as a hostage to allow a female witness to walk free from Islamic terrorist Redouane Lakdim, 26.  Lakdim then proceeded to shoot him and Beltrame later died from his wounds.  He gave his life for a perfect stranger in an attack that ultimately took four lives.

What is striking is the level of hate controlling people like Lakdim who was unmoved by a man putting his own life at risk for a stranger. For most human beings, such an act would reignite whatever dormant humanity remained within them.  For Lakdim he was just another person to kill to attain glory with the Islamic State and ultimately rewards in paradise.

 

We need to focus on the actions of people like Beltrame who remind us of what humanity is still capable of being in following what Abraham Lincoln referred to the “better angels of our nature.”

47 thoughts on “The True Heart and True Hero: Col. Arnaud Beltrame”

  1. Pingback: Thought For the Week: On the Prowl w/A Tribute to a True Hero | Welcome to My Corner Here on Word Press

  2. “A coward dies a thousand times before his death, but the valiant taste of death but once. It seems to me most strange that men should fear, seeing that death, a necessary end, will come when it will come.”
    J. Caesar (Shakespeare)

  3. There are Many, many more heroes in this world whom never have had the opportunity to exercise their heroism. All the Veterans of all the wars we fought in that did not return are a perfect example. Pray for their souls, and give them the thanks they deserve.

  4. From the linked article:”Lakdim lived in an apartment in Carcassonne with his parents and several sisters. ”
    Go to the aprtment and bulldoze the building they live in.
    It’s nothing short of what the Israelis do.

  7. Sometimes there is a pure act, a simplicity of humanity. This man exemplified this. It’s one thing to sidle into another subject when that subject is part and parcel of the overall issues. This is not the case here. This man did not predicate his actions on Islamic extremism or whatever. He simply made a decision to get closer to the problem and try and solve it. Reflecting on his past, that was in him.

    There is, in this situation, in my opinion, no justification for leaving the heroic act of this brave man, to wade through the other sh*t. There are ample opportunities to digress and leap upon the other stuff. My criticism stands; get help.

    1. No. I want to do just like the Democrats and the Left and not let a good crisis go to waste! Did those guys wait until the Parkland Kids’ bodies were even lifted from the chalk outlines to begin blaming guns for the deaths? Heck no. Even though massive government mismanagement was obviously more responsible.

      So why should I wait on this guy to be buried before getting to the cause of his death? You’re not being fair. This poor Colonel had to married on his frigging death bed, because France is too chicken and too PC to throw the damn Muslims out! Or to even vote for people like Le Pen who would put France’s needs above those of the rabble Muslims.

      Plus, you didn’t answer my questions. Again.

      Squeeky Fromm
      Girl Reporter

  8. Pingback: The True Heart and True Hero: Col. Arnaud Beltrame — JONATHAN TURLEY – CGFCF Peace and conflict resolution education

  9. There’s a fatal flaw in Jon Turley’s analysis below. Can you spot it?

    “What is striking is the level of hate controlling people like Lakdim who was unmoved by a man putting his own life at risk for a stranger. For most human beings, such an act would reignite whatever dormant humanity remained within them. For Lakdim he was just another person to kill to attain glory with the Islamic State and ultimately rewards in paradise.”

    That’s right, JT assumes that Lakdim qualified as a “human being,” when such inherent criminals are an entirely different species. But, go ahead, keep assuming that they’re “human beings” . . . at your own risk and everyone else’s.

    1. It’s a slippery slope to a hellish world when we start labeling some human beings as not human beings. We are all human beings, and many of us at certain times “act” inhuman to another’s life.

      1. Nope, Smythre, there’s no “slippery slope to a hellish world” when referring to a degenerate species that does not qualify to be considered part of the human species.

        That’s why the word “inhuman” has long existed. “Inhuman” means the individuals are “not human in nature or character.”

        Consider another non-human being named Jeffrey Dahmer. This was before your time, but this was creature also known as the Milwaukee Cannibal. Dahmer was a serial killer and sex offender, who committed the rape, murder, and dismemberment of 17 human beings. Many of his murders involved necrophilia, cannibalism, and the permanent preservation of body parts—typically all or part of the skeleton.

        Here’s a funny bit about Dahmer. And yes, it’s okay to laugh at the absurdity of the Grand Guignol. Just like it’s okay to laugh at those who think that creatures like Redouane Lakdim or Jeffrey Dahmer are actually “human.”

  11. “Was Florida Deputy A ‘Coward’?”

    “The armed school resource officer who President Trump called a “coward” is defending his actions during the high school shooting in Parkland, Fla., earlier this month.

    Scot Peterson, 54, resigned last week after experiencing backlash for remaining outside as shots rang out inside Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. His lawyer, Joseph DiRuzzo, says that Peterson followed his training when he believed the gunshots were occurring outside the school.

    Seventeen people were killed and more than a dozen injured in the shooting on Feb. 14. The harsh criticism of Peterson’s actions is raising questions about the role of law enforcement officers in schools and the meaning of cowardice as it relates to their responsibility.”

    – NPR

    1. Peterson was/is a coward. Ask the kids in Great Mills High School how they like their school safety officer and if they would trade him for Scot Peterson
      !

  12. Let me offer a counter view. No doubt, Col. Beltrame was very brave, but was he very smart? He gave his life for his fellow citizens, the majority who, in their ignorance and desire to be seen as good people, keep electing people to office who will not throw the Muslims out of France. People who allow the “no go zones” to exist.

    IMHO, it is one thing to sacrifice your life if your fellow citizens are in the fight with you, and “have your back.” It is quite another thing when those citizens preach about diversity and allow the country to be overrun with these people. What a waste of a good person this was.

    For those who do not get this, let me put it in today’s terms. Literally, “today’s.” There is a march in Washington D.C. by people concerned over gun control. They want to confiscate our guns. If ISIS, or some narco gang started shooting up the march, or setting off pressure cooker bombs, would YOU intervene to save them??? Would you risk your life for theirs? Would you dodge bullets to pull them from the line of fire???

    I wouldn’t. Nope, not this group. Because they have no problem leaving the rest of us defenseless.

    OTOH, if it were a bunch of pro-life marchers, I would feel differently. I would feel like I was risking my life for good and decent people. So, I would help them. I would dodge bullets to pull them from the line of fire.

    Squeeky Fromm
    Girl Reporter

      1. I don’t think you answered the question, Isaac. Would YOU throw yourself in front of Donald Trump if somebody shot at him??? He is the POTUS, after all. Would you sacrifice your life for his??? I suspect not.

        Squeeky Fromm
        Girl Reporter

    2. France, like America, was established as a restricted-vote republic applying criteria to vote.

      In America, the Founders so thoroughly and comprehensively possessed the knowledge and understood that the “poor” and women shall never vote that, as an oversight, they failed to codify and informally set the criteria as: Male, European, Age 21 and 50 Lbs. Sterling or 50 acres.

      America is pervasively incoherent and hysterical having lost control of governance beginning with the vote.

      Severely limited government has given over to tyrannical oppression by a one man, one vote democrazy.

      Freedom of the individual has been repealed.
      ________________

      French Voting Rights

      “It remained that all had the right to contribute towards the making of the laws, but on December 23, 1789, voting rights only extended to property owners. This reflected a belief that only those who had a stake in decisions made for society as a whole and those who had shown they could manage their own affairs should be eligible for political involvement. Three categories were created to divide the citizens of France: Passive Citizens, Active Citizens, and the Electors. The only members of society that could vote were the members that paid a certain amount of taxes.”

      – Wiki

    3. I’m not sure the marching kids want a total prohibition on guns, maybe just better control. And if they don’t have it perfectly figured out, aren’t kids, even smart kid, -suppsed to be stupid. Remember, they’re brains aren’t fully formed.

      1. Heck, Bernie did go armed to the last one! Or at least his bodyguards did! Frankly, I doubt we have much of a terrorist problem in this country if ISIS or Al Qaeda passes up on stuff like this. I mean,could you ask for a more target rich environment than an anti-gun protest??? I am surprised the simple mugging and robbery rate isn’t sky high on events like this. Maybe a Pacifist Convention would be equally unarmed.

        I would not want to be anywhere near something like this as it just screams, “I am unarmed!”

        Squeeky Fromm
        Girl Reporter

        1. Think about it, Squeeky. ISIS doesn’t want the anti-gun marchers to fail. It’s in ISIS’ best interests that our guns are confiscated. If they started shooting them up, it would defeat their purpose.

          1. True. But ISIS already has the Democrats to take care of that task for them, sooo who knows? All I know is, you ain’t going to find me near no anti-gun rally. That’s like wearing a “Shoot Me” sign on your back.

            Squeeky Fromm
            Girl Reporter

    5. We get it. You don’t like people who don’t look like you. You have in fact, dehumanized such people in your mind. In that regard, you are no different than a terrorist. “Beware that, when fighting monsters, you yourself do not become a monster… for when you gaze long into the abyss. The abyss gazes also into you.”
      Time to cut holes in the new pillowcases. Next.

      this is to squeeKKK

      1. Thank you for proving my point! People like you seem to be in the majority in France, and they are more worried about offending “people who don’t look like them”, than they are in electing somebody smart like Le Pen.

        Sooo, why would any sensible person want to risk their own life to save some of those silly people, or you, from the “people who don’t look like them”???

        Maybe, if the “people who don’t look like them” kill enough of them, run over enough of them with big trucks, blow enough of them up at concerts, throw acid in enough of their faces, attack enough of them with knives and machetes, then maybe the silly people will have to start living in the Real World.

        But who knows? There is a pretty stupid group of people in the majority in the Western World at present. It will probably take a couple of Dirty Bombs in Paris, Germany, Sweden and England to wake them up. Which, the Terrorists are probably working on. Maybe that will wake them up. Maybe not.

        Squeeky Fromm
        Girl Reporter

      2. Mark M:
        Quoting Nietzsche without understanding Nietzsche should be a crime. The great philosopher would not countenance today’s insanity of an individual turning over your weapons to an adverse force — be it the government or terrorists. He understood all too well the Thanatos instinct in men who lost their way. To act against one’s instincts for survival can be both noble (like our altruistic colonel) or insidious (like our terrorist). It’s important to know the difference between corrupt Thanatos and self-sacrifice. As usual, Nietzsche nails it: “ I call an animal, a species, an individual corrupt, when it loses its instincts, when it prefers what is injurious to it.” Yesterday’s march against self-defense is neither puzzling nor unusual. It’s the unsteady gait of those so drunk on sanctimony, they’ve forgotten the most fundamental goal of life which is survival. They’ll learn but it will be a stern lesson.

        1. mespo – I understand those marchers were guarded by armed National Guard. 😉

    6. You don’t get to be a short colonel by being a dumb ass! Lt Col Beltrame, now promoted in death to folk colonel, knew the odds but went in to harms way for EVERYONE. He took an oath to serve and protect. As a police officer your not suppose to pick and choose what law or citizens you serve. Don’t judge millions by actions of a few hundred sociopaths.

  13. RIP! GOD BLESS BOTH HEROS WHO WILL BECOME HEROS IN GOD’S HEAVENLY KINGDON AS WELL.

  14. FWIW

    There is another hero being honored today: Ralph H. Johnson who died at the tender age of 19.

    “One of the U.S. Navy’s newest warships will be commissioned in Charleston, hometown of Marine Pfc. Ralph H. Johnson.

    The commissioning will take place 10 a.m. on Saturday, March 24 at Columbus Street Terminal in Charleston.

    He posthumously received the U.S. military’s highest award, Medal of Honor, for his actions during the Vietnam War.

    The 19-year-old used his body to shield two fellow Marines from a grenade, dying instantly in March 1968.”

    https://www.postandcourier.com/news/heroic-and-selfless-navy-to-commission-ship-in-name-of/article_863a68e2-2c60-11e8-b442-bb51cbbbc964.html

    1. Great story in the paper cited. Johnson volunteered for the Corps. His Lieutenant from the last battle still visits his grave. However, because he doesn’t look like her, squeeKKK would deny him his humanity.

      1. Just got back from viewing the destroyer. It struck me how amazed Johnson would be to see that not only was the VA hospital named after him but this ship with his name on it as well! In the Charleston he grew up in this would have been unimaginable.

  16. “Islamic State” is an odd name for a group of terrorists who really do not have a territorial “state”. I prefer to call them Islamic Hate. But maybe those two words are redundant.

    The Frogs (French) need to wipe out the muslim nutcases each each town, village and sewer. This is all about the revenge of the colonial days. The Frogs should never have ruled Algeria and other territories.

    1. Off point but another odd name is suicide bomber. If suicide was goal, wouldn’t take the time and trouble to seek out crowded place. Shouldn’t the name be “homicide bomber”?

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