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A Long Island man raged at the sentence given to his son's killer, John White, saying, "Let's see what happens when Aaron White gets shot! Let's see what the laws are then!" Daniel Cicciaro Sr.'s implied threat prompted police to protect White's house in Miller Place.
White was convicted for fatally shooting teenager Daniel Cicciaro Jr., in the summer of 2006. White, who is black, claimed he felt threatened when he saw Cicciaro and other white teenagers surround his house trying to seek revenge on White's son Aaron over a perceived insult. The teens also allegedly used racial epithets, leading his defense lawyers to describe the scene as a lynch mob. Prosecutors, however, said White could have stayed inside, locked the door, and called the police.
Judge Barbara Kahn said she thought White was a "decent man" when handing down the sentence (White could have faced up to 15 years). She also mentioned Cicciaro Jr.'s friends and the mother of the person who held a party where the kids got drunk, calling them "moral accessories" to the killing, but said ultimately White should not have taken used his gun. Kahn added the sentence is "not intended as a measure of the value of the life of Daniel Cicciaro...Vengeance is not a proper basis for a penal sanction."
White expressed his regret, "I've always remained remorseful about this incident," but the Cicciaros were not satisfied. Daniel Sr. said, "Does this mean as long as you are black and there is a problem at the end of your driveway you can shoot my son in the face?" and allegedly cursed at White and his wife. Joanne Cicciaro said, "I believe John White is a time bomb that went off when he killed my son, This man was waiting ... ready to kill anyone who came to the edge of his property."
White's lawyers called Kahn's sentence brave and plan to appeal - two jurors have expressed unhappiness with the conviction and suggest the judge pressured them for a verdict before the holidays. They are also working on White's $200,000 bail. Earlier this month, Calvin Trillin wrote about his time observing the trial for The New Yorker.
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Was ciccaro killed?
"Let's see what happens when Aaron White gets shot! Let's see what the laws are then!"
Is has a point, but he should stfu
Crude as it may have been, Daniel Cicciaro Sr.'s assessment of the racial double standard in society is essentially correct. He shot an unarmed man point blank in the face and got a slap on the wrist. "Fat Nick" in Queens beat a man who mugged his friend and will serve two to three times as long in prison because he used "the N word." Sad times we are living in.
wait, didnt read the entire article. Disregard
Had Cicciaro been raised properly, none of this would have ever happened.
I thought it was White who said that, but then that wouldn't make sense...
The whole situation is sad. He really shouldn't have even opened the door. He should have gone and called the police. But sometimes you don't think clearly under these types of circumstances. The sentence is fair because he shouldn't have even had the gun to begin with.
the man was in fear for his life and his family.
he got a raw deal. interesting NY'er article.
we still haven't learned anything.
thankfully Pb is still cheap. God bless you Mr. White.
since white has been in jail for almost a year, he'll serve one more and be out on parole.
"A Long Island man raged at the sentence given to his son's killer, John White, saying, "Let's see what happens when Aaron White gets shot! Let's see what the laws are then!".. "This man was waiting ... ready to kill anyone who came to the edge of his property.""
Gee, I wonder where Daniel got it from.
"He shot an unarmed man point blank in the face and got a slap on the wrist"
But the relatively short sentence is not (directly) because Mr. White is black, as Mr. Cicciaro claims. It's because the judge understood and took into account the mitigating circumstances.
if a bunch of trouble making teenagers showed up at my house to hurt my son & i was armed, i would probably shoot more than 1 little punk.
& Cicciaro, with his classy gold chain over his tie, would have done the same thing.
"The whole situation is sad. He really shouldn't have even opened the door. He should have gone and called the police."
His kid was out there, and you're saying he should have stayed inside and watched? That's ludicrous.
BLOW OUT. NUFF SAID.
Not to make light of the situation, but I love seeing the Cicciaros on TV. The kids (boys) all have that rediculous spiked hair, including a number of cousins who have the most insane faux-hawks I've ever seen. And don't get me started on the gold chains...
And on the serious side - you show up with 5 friends to taunt a kid at his house?!? AT HIS PARENT'S HOUSE!?! AND HIS PARENTS ARE HOME!?! Do kids no longer have any respect for adults?
Given that, this probably wasn't a lynch-mob, but it sure as hell LOOKED like it.
I have to withdraw my comment.. the Daily News recap of the events seems incorrect, based on how it's described in the New Yorker article, which states that both father and son were inside and came out to confront the group.
I thought his kid was inside. Whoops.
Alright, why the face? Why not in the balls or legs?
I'd aim for the knees
it was a 20 gauge shotgun according to the NY'er article. I've always thought long arms were legal in Nassau/Suffolk counties.
that kid looks like such a guido...we need less of those...
Clavin Trillin wrote in the New Yorker a very sad and interesting background story about this whole tragedy. Go to the New Yorker site and search for "The Color of Blood."
ignoring the race issue....if the group of kids weren't talking about or flashing any weapons, why was it necessary to throw a loaded gun into the situation? i don't think mr. white is wrong for going out there but the right thing to do would be to call the police and then walk out there telling the kids to get the f*** off your property the police are coming. the gun seems a little much.
In Texas this would be okay
What if you wrote on the first page "The Color of Blood..." and on the second page you wrote "is red"
It would be so much easier to understand.
"If the group of kids weren't talking about or flashing any weapons, why was it necessary to throw a loaded gun into the situation?.. walk out there telling the kids to get the f*** off your property the police are coming. the gun seems a little much."
5 > 2. It's that simple.
Who ever thought you can go to jail for protecting your family and home....Daniel Cicciaro brought his death upon himself by going to John Whites house with two car loads of drunk punks looking for trouble, threatening him and his family. John White NEVER should have been charged with a crime he was faced with an iminent threat and did the right thing.
there was a case similar to this where the guy was found not guilty for shooting a Japanese exchange student. the student thought the guy's home was where a Halloween party would be.
look up Yoshihiro hattori.
5 > 2 especially when the 5 are a bunch of crazed guidos who think they can run amok like a bunch of Sopranos characters.
The judge should have thrown out the verdict once the whole "we want to get home for the holidays" problem started and sentenced White to house arrest. The guy doesn't deserve to spend any time upstate, especially with the elder Cicciaro making threats against him and his family.
"there was a case similar to this.."
Hattori is not at all similar, since he wasn't threatening anyone. That dude was shot for ringing the wrong fucking doorbell.
similar enough for me, you don't skulk around a private home at night. PARTAAY! MF'ER! PEARL HARBOR!
BANZAI!
A person's home is his castle, the castle rule.
If white were actually white and these kids were black he wouldn't have done a day in the system.
This case shines so many stark lights on the system, machine politics on the local level, nascent racism by white ethnic groups in the suburbs..ugh, I could go on.
This is so unjust is friggen insane.
Maybe the appropriate thought experiment is what would have happened if everybody involved was the same race. Bunch of kids show up in your driveway, want to beat up your son. Do you have the right to bring out a firearm? (Um, maybe on LI.) If you "accidentally" shoot one, should you get off? (I'd say no, not entirely.)
Ultimately, I think the sentence seems about right.
in terms of other manslaughter sentences handed down, yeah, seems the norm.
my reference being a motorist hitting a bicyclist getting 2 to 9 years. and, usually race wasn't involved in those cases.
Recently, I did the reverse commute out to a job on Long Island. Before this, I would just ignore the stereotypes of the typical mid-Island denizen. Thinking that my City friends were just being snobby. Well, all the types are true. Talk about a backward, knuckle dragging waste. Every Thursday night or on Mets game night, every Guido family, including the teenage kids were stinking drunk on the LIRR heading into Penn Station. It was a fucking nightmare.
So, what am I saying? Mr. White had every right to protect his family from these Guidos with total disregard and respect for a families home. And, what the hell, little girlfriend/sister/cousin, fucking caused it by her lying about the situation which caused the confrontation in the first place. Oh, and by the way, if someone is holding a gun on you, you may not want to bat the gun out of the way. Guns tend to go off that way.
Oh, who pissed in the Long Island Gene Pool?
As terrible as this was, no charges for the girl who put the 'rape threat' rumor, no charges for the party hosts that allowed underage drinking (and driving). Still a tragedy for all concerned.
If the Guido Gang went straight to the police, this would never have happened.
Those LIDS (Long Island Dicks) should never have gone to confront the White kid at his house.
He should have been wearing more gold chains to deflect the bullets. Really, though this is is quite a contrast to the Yoshihiro Hattori case. A single small Japanese kid was shot for ringing someone's doorbell, no prosecution - gang of guido hoodlums shows up - jailtime. However, the two states also have radically different gun laws....
Given my experience with Italian Americans from Long Island, the whole Guido stereotype is sadly true. I have found that they have this odd habit of being a rather insular group who overplay the whole Italian thing, complete with the linguistic tics, to comically stereotypical levels, however they aren't trying to be funny.
The oddest one we met was really into martial arts and had a thing for (and we quote) "Asian chicks, but only Filipinas, cause they are Catholic." (We guess he didn't want to upset his mother even more by bringing home a non-Catholic, since Asians are not Italian.) He tried to give the impression that they were really connected to the Republican party by dropping the name "Tom Suozzi" every five minutes. However, the best part of the tale for last - his family was in "waste management".
Does one here have any sympathy for the Cicciaro family?
White shot and killed this kid. Doesn't anyone care about that?
Even if he was a douchebag, he was 17.
No Mike D, no one really does. Why? Because when someone points a shotgun in your face you say to yourself "shit just got real, time to back the fuck down". You don't bat it away, because you're basically saying that you've come to fight, and you've prepared yourself that someone might get hurt - killed even. When Ciciarro batted the gun away he knew the score.
CR just summed it up nicely.
"Does one here have any sympathy for the Cicciaro family?"
After his Father's outburst in court, its very difficult to have any sympathy, not to mention the kid did instigate things.
[36] - I can see your point. I think this kid was a product of his environment, which is a huge influence on how people tend to act and react. The fact that he didn't have enough time to learn how to handle himself as an adult, that he was influenced at the time by his "friends" and that he was under the influence of alcohol - don't think this justifies being killed either.
I can understand White's fear but he also moved without thinking. When you point a gun at someone, you have to be prepared to pull the trigger. Or else the ramifications will haunt you and others forever.
We had plenty of "guidos" who acted stupid like this growing up. There were lots of confrontations and fights. There were lots of calls to the cops, and lots of "retributions" as well. More shootings just seem to be a sign of the times.
Also - regarding the Hattori case - Louisiana has different laws than the rest of the country. They are based on Napoleonic Code (more civilian-law based) while the rest of the country is based on English Common Law. Maybe this has some relation to the outcome of that particular aquittal.
I've never been more disgusted by Gothamist commenters.
The inconsistent and hypocritical thinking here is unbelievable.
If someone is a police officer, seems privileged or reminds you of people you disliked in high school than their life is meaningless and you celebrate in their murder.
Mr. Cicciaro's reaction is completely understandable. Have any of you judging him ever been a grieving parent?
Please think before you post. Try to have sympathy. For a group of (mostly) self-professed liberals, we seem to lack a sense of compassion for our fellow man.
What an incredible loss. The world will never know how skilled a car detailer young Daniel could have been.
I guess Jesus needed another man-scaped angel.
great posts,
how bout the girl who cried rape?
how bout the servers who provided alcohol to underaged drinkers?
how bout driving under the influence?
What was Mr. White suppose to do? Wait till the Cross on the lawn is lit?
TVB, thanks for that insight, I wondered why an Italian American guy I knew who went to Las Vegas and had sex with Filipina women. Were they easy? I don't know but your post gave a little insight.