2007-05-16 09:18:15 · 6 answers · asked by Anonymous in Politics & Government ➔ Law & Ethics
wow so many different opinions on this.. very interesting
2007-05-16 09:37:27 · update #1
it has nothing to do with the importance of the person but rather the POSITION they hold. for example killing a president is an assassination. ending the life of someone like GWB is equivalent to having your pet put to sleep. it is the office not the individual.
2007-05-16 09:25:51 · answer #1 · answered by Alan S 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
We just had a 4 year old girl killed in an assassination attempt on a 17 or 19 year old youth nearby - he was shot in the leg, she in the head - he was probably in charge of some local drug operation. Assassinations are of people in charge of something - one murders or kills a vagrant but might assassinate the person bringing food to him as part of some program. The little girl was murdered.
I lived on that same block in a house I was attempting to buy back in June 1968 - the day Robert Kennedy was assassinated in Los Angeles was either the day I moved in or moved out - can't remember - couldn't open a single window in the house for them being painted shut - didn't have the experience then to know how to unseal them. It was a VA mortgage purchase that fell through (with my blessing) before the closing.
2007-05-16 16:29:12 · answer #2 · answered by Ben 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Great question. It is not the fame but the position of a person that defines assassination, which is the murder of a person for the purpose of removing him/her from a position of public authority or for other political reasons. Thus if the President of a country was killed by his mistress' jealous husband, it would be murder but not assassination. But if the anonymous head of the secret police was shot by a revolutionary, it would be assassination even though no one knows the name of the victim.
2007-05-16 16:33:26 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Assassination is intentional murder of a politician or government official. An important person can be murdered, but not assassinated. Example: Barak Obama stops at the gas station to fill up the gas tank of his car. He sees a man robbing the station owner. Barak tries to intervene and gets shot to death by the escaping robber. That is felony murder but not assassination.
2007-05-16 16:25:34 · answer #4 · answered by regerugged 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Assassinate: 1. To murder (a prominent person) by surprise attack, as for political reasons.
2. To destroy or injure treacherously
Murder: 1. To kill (another human) unlawfully.
2. To kill brutally or inhumanly.
3. To put an end to; destroy
2007-05-16 16:25:08 · answer #5 · answered by only p 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I don't think it is a matter of importance. Check out the definitions of both and then you will understand the difference.
2007-05-16 16:26:40 · answer #6 · answered by Kailey 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋