cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/10928093
Grand jury in New Mexico charged the actor for a shooting on Rust set that killed cinematographer Halyna Hutchins
Actor Alec Baldwin is facing a new involuntary manslaughter charge over the 2021 fatal shooting of a cinematographer on the set of the movie Rust.
A Santa Fe, New Mexico, grand jury indicted Baldwin on Friday, months after prosecutors had dismissed the same criminal charge against him.
During an October 2021 rehearsal on the set of Rust, a western drama, Baldwin was pointing a gun at cinematographer Halyna Hutchins when it went off, fatally striking her and wounding Joel Souza, the film’s director.
Baldwin, a co-producer and star of the film, has said he did not pull the trigger, but pulled back the hammer of the gun before it fired.
Last April, special prosecutors dismissed the involuntary manslaughter charge against Baldwin, saying the firearm might have been modified prior to the shooting and malfunctioned and that forensic analysis was warranted. But in August, prosecutors said they were considering re-filing the charges after a new analysis of the weapon was completed.
What does society gain by charging him for this?
Accountability.
Except he did nothing wrong? The person that should be held accountable is the armourer
Doing nothing when it comes to safety regulation is doing everything wrong.
Except he’s the one that hired the armorer.
Alec Baldwin was also the producer, so he has a say in who they hire… which means he should also be held accountable
He was one of the producers, but the others aren’t being procecuted, probably because some ambitious procecutor likes the idea of boosting their ego and career with such a high profile case. I’ve also heard his responsibilities the set didn’t include overseeing hires
More than if we let celebrities get away with stuff us peasants would be charged with.
Just because you like his acting doesn’t mean he should be free of accountability.
If I accidentally shoot and kill someone and my defence is I thought it was unloaded, I’m sure as fuck going to jail for involuntary manslaughter.
That’s an unfair comparison.
If someone hands you a gun that by all accounts should not be able to fire a bullet that can injure or kill, in a highly controlled setting with a professional armorer, and that gun kills someone when you didn’t even pull the trigger you should not go to jail.
The gun was apparently modified and had real bullets, both of which were the fault of the armor (the mod was seemingly done by someone else but the armorer should have caught it). Sure, you can speak about blame over hiring an incompetent armorer on everyone involved on the production and certification side, but that’s a different matter and not what’s being discussed here.
If you follow every procedure you believe you’re supposed to be as part of your job, doing something you’ve probably done before and is standard in your industry, but someone else has done something that they shouldn’t have that made that action deadly, you literally have no accountability.
The armourer illegally left that gun loaded, nobody else is to blame. It’s like arresting the waiter at a restaurant for serving food that was improperly missing a nut allergy when the chef made that mistake.
Revenge for mocking The King in Orange, who reigns in Mara-Cosa.