Stand Your Ground?

Today would have been Trayvon Martin’s 25th birthday. He was killed by the high racist, George Zimmerman, who used Florida’s “Stand Your Ground” law to get away with the murder. This is a reprint from August 2018.

The stand you ground law, also known as the shoot first and ask questions later law, came to the forefront of American consciousness on February 26th 2012. The day Trayvon Martin was gunned down by George Zimmerman, who use the defense successfully, to get away with what this writer and most other African American’s view as murder. As recently as a few weeks ago,  Markeis McGlockton, another African American and father of three small children was gunned downed by Michael Drejka, who claimed he was in fear of his life after Drejka was pushed to the ground. Although there is video this time and it clearly shows McGlockton walking away when he was shot by Drejka, the killer was successfully able to use the defense to evade justice. Now mind you, an armed white man was confronting a mother and her three children over a parking space and when the father intervened, he was shot and killed. The asshole had a gun, what he didn’t have a cell phone to call the police, whose job it is to enforce parking laws? What happened was we had a big shot who wanted to assail someone weaker, like a black woman and three kids, no way he would have approached a car full of black men, especially over a parking violation. He wanted to feel good and feel “safe.” After all, it was just a black woman and three kids, and he had a gun. When McGlockton came out of the store and whipped that ass, Drejka was embarrassed, so he shot him, feel me. That’s the way I see it.

Not all stand your ground laws are the same. The states that have legislatively adopted stand-your-ground laws are Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina,Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, West Virginia , and Wyoming. This means you can shoot to kill anywhere, in a parking lot, at a gas station, and at a someones relative’s house who they were visiting. Then you have states such as California, Colorado, Illinois, New Mexico, Oregon, Virginia, and Washington. In these states, the courts decide if you were threatened enough to feel you had to kill someone. North Dakota, Ohio, and Wisconsin also have a form of stand your ground, but you can only use it if you are in a vehicle. Finally, Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nebraska, New York, New Jersey, and Rhode Island say you can defend yourself to the death only if you are in your home. In public places you must retreat. Even before tragedies like Trayvon Martin, the necessity of these laws and the resultant impact on minorites has long been debated. This excert from an article in Frontline was written in April 2012 a few month’s after Trayvon was killed;

“According to a study by researchers at Texas A&M University, the rates of murder and non-negligent manslaughter increased by 8 percent in states with Stand Your Ground laws. That’s an additional 600 homicides per year in the states that have enacted such laws. The study, which analyzed FBI crime data nationwide from 2000-2009, says it could mean either that more people are using lethal force in self-defense, or that situations are more likely to escalate to the use of violence in states with the laws. “Regardless, the study said, “the results indicate that a primary consequence of strengthening self-defense law is increased homicide. But how do you measure racial bias? John Roman, a senior fellow at the Urban Institute’s Justice Policy Center, recently conducted a study examining racial disparity using FBI data on 43,500 homicides from 2005 to 2009, the most recent years for which data was available. He sifted out only the killings in which there was a single shooter and a single victim, both of whom were strangers to each other — narrowing the pool to about 5,000 homicides. And Roman looked specifically at “justified” homicides, which as defined by the FBI, are when police determine a private citizen has killed someone who is committing a felony, such as attempted murder, rape or armed robbery. Roman found that the killings of black people by whites were more likely to be considered justified than the killings of white people by blacks.” You can read the rest of the article here.

He found that the killings of black people by whites were more likely to be considered justified than the killings of white people by blacks. I guess they needed a study to figure that out. Hell, over 90% of the judges are white. You could have asked any black person and they would have told you that. Might have save yourself a couple hundred thousand dollar, that you could have donated to the families of those killed by these maniacs. Now just to be fair, I know that there are times when justifiable homicide is the only resort. My thing is when you have a defendant that uses this defense, the law should require that his weapon be visible to the so called assailant. No one who has a concealed weapon should be able to use this law!! How many mofo’s you think will run up on someone they see with a gun, and if they do, it’s no doubt it’s a life and death situation. On the other hand, how many people you think get that beat down, then pull out that hammer from under their shirt meaning to get that right. You be the judge.